001good evening and welcome to the Martinsville metropolitan school district school board meeting on behalf of the school board we thank you for being here in person or virtually I'm Matt henin president of the school board to my left is Heather Stags vice president to her left is Luke Jackson secretary to his left Dan Conway board member and to his left Jackie Decker board member to my right is superintendent Eric Bolan and to his right assistant to the superintendent Mrs Susie lips if everyone please would stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence I pledge aliance 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 man thank you Courtney do we have anybody for
002public comment for the agenda okay I would like to bring up here for recognition uh Mr Kip Stags athletic director at Martinsville High School with some important news he wanted to share with the board and the school Community thank you for being here coach thanks for having me uh we do have some exciting things to share with you regarding artisian Athletics and we're pleased to announce that we will host a minimum of six ihsa tournament events this year this is a tribute to our improving facilities along with our abilities of our staff to create a professional and hospitable able environment recently the ihsaa reached out to our office and asked Martinsville High School to host the semi-state and soccer along with the semi-state and volleyball this is something that we have never done before to
003my knowledge additionally we will host the girls basketball sectional the boys basketball Regional boys golf sectional and football sectional contest hundreds and possibly thousands of visitors will call Martinsville home for a few hours as they exper erience the excitement of High School athletics this is a privilege and opportunity to showcase artisian hospitality and it takes our school community of custodians maintenance ticket takers supervisors clock operators scorers announcers security administrators concession workers and the list goes on and on we are excited to host such such events and we will do our part to represent Martinsville in a first class manner additionally Martinsville business may see an uptick and activity on these days with the number of visitors to our community we feel that this is a privilege and an honor and not something that just every
004school has the opportunity to host so good news for artisian athletics but more importantly to our artisian school Community thanks for allowing me to share speaking uh for the administration I'll let the board speak if they if they wish I think it's a great Testament to everything that has been done by the school by your Administration there also um I commend the board for the investment in our students and our facilities over the last several years so great job there because that's why the ihsa has paid attention uh to what we have done and that's that's good accolades on your behalf the school's behalf and uh thank you board for doing that if anybody else would like to say anything you're more and welcome I thought it was great news that we received this past
005uh week's the confirmation I would like to make a comment by teaching at another school district plus I'm on the school board here but I've heard comments from people that work for the Indiana High School athletic associate and always positive comments when Martinsville High School hosts an event I think that speaks highly for uh Kip Stags our athletic director and all those people because like he mentioned everybody which is what Kip does I mean they work as a team it's not just one individual and I think the Martinsville Community it benefits everybody here by bringing business into the community and I've always heard nothing but Praises from people that we've hosted that come over uh I know Clay City has made several appearance in the regional and uh Jackson Del and some of these tiny
006schools they bring the whole town and they love coming here to Martinsville because of our Hospitality so thank you Kip thank you yes thanks Kip uh next we have the consent agenda uh do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda I'll make a motion Matt to accept the consent agenda I have a motion in a second are there any questions all those in favor of the consent agenda signify by saying I I I all opposed motion carried next up is the field trip can everybody hear me back there okay okay I want to give accolate and uh thanks to Courtney for spearheading the effort um to get that all fixed if you remember the last meeting there were some technical issues and she was able to get with the company get uh an
007update and stuff sent out so Courtney thank you for getting that done and she was here earlier today and did a test Live Test run with us and sent us the links so we can make sure it all works so thank you very very much I'm glad everybody can hear and hopefully out there in Virtual land as well so now field trips we have the Project Lead the Way Summit Sharon Gooden it's going to be October 2nd through the 6 and that's in San Diego and then we have the naeyc conference for Lisa Sona and Ali Miller and that's going to be November 6th through the 9th in California as well recommend approval do I have a motion to approve the field trips or excuse me the conferences for professional development I make a motion
008we approve the conferences and professional travel I'll second it been moved and seconded that we approve the conferences and professional travel all those in favor signify by saying I I all oppos same sign motion carried next is Mrs lips thank you good evening everyone tonight we will highlight one of the district's newest programs the M MSD of Martinsville Police Department I'd like to welcome at this time the MSD of Martinsville police chief Chris Wright and the deputy chief Doug rather also in the audience is one of our officers Brian gabart so thank you for being here this evening and Chris and Doug if you want to make your way over to the podium good evening everybody could you pull that mic up U that way everybody can hear you in Virtual land thank you okay
009is that good um I want to take a minute it's going to take longer than a minute but I want to talk a little bit about what we've accomplished this last literally going to be coming up on a year in September so uh I'll read through these real briefly and then uh if anybody's got any questions about what those are but I think a lot of it self-explanatory um we got the 911 dispatch Center stuff all coordinated for the Radio Systems mou with the city with the county policies and procedures Vehicles equipment cameras um Doug's going to take one minute here to jump in about the radios and all that kind of stuff here in a second uh K9 trainings uh high five Fridays the save Vape program uh State exercise police working with them
010and in The Vape stuff as well uh Raptors versus stop and stuff Alice certifications and trainings um and manage to get the sporting events covered the uh the clips that didn't happen was a was a big time consuming part of our lives so it was planned well it was planned very very well I will say that um and I'm gonna let Doug talk about radios real quick and then I'll come back and talk about some of this other stuff good evening I was hired back in October last year and um the contract for the radio new radio system was kind of already in place when I got here um and then when I got hired on Chris kind of gave it to me to to handle the rest of it um we ended up ordering
011400 handheld radios they look similar to these um we also got 120 bus vehicle mobile radios and 12 base station radios and those went in the the elementary schools and all the schools transportation um the great thing about these radios are um is that anywhere in the district on these radios you can talk to somebody else across the district so if you're in Paragon you want to talk to Martinville you can do that you're in Centerton you can do that um when the when the system's up and running 100% there's nowhere in the district this won't work however there are dead spots like anything else they are digital radio so just like a cell phone will have a a weak area radios do the same thing inside block buildings there are some spots that aren't
012going to work in a no matter what equipment have um but they're great um each radio um either on the top of the radio or on the side of the radio is an orange button um and a lot of our teachers have these radios um a lot of our classrooms have these radios but you hold them push that button down it's an emergency button and that emergency will go to the police channel on these radios so anybody that's on a radio that is listening to the police channel is going to that emergency um and it's going to announce that audio an emergency status um and it's going to tell us which radio is an emergency status each radio has a radio ID so like my radio is obviously listed for me my unit number is
013802 um but it might be you know Centerton classroom 101 um if that's her radio that's what's going to come up on the radio when it's an emergency status that gives us an idea of where we're going when we're going to Centerton and now we know we at least look at Room 101 right off the bat um that might change she might be somewhere not in Room 101 but at least we know which teacher now has that radio and or staff member has that radio um that's huge that's huge we came from another department um and they didn't have that capability um this way is another level of way to get a hold of the leas um most radios two clicks over on the top you flip the channel over and you're the police Channel
014anyone that has a radio can talk to the police department um and that goes directly to us um they need a police officer at the intermediate school then all they got to do is two clicks over and ask for an officer and they're going to get either the one that was stationed at the middle school where one of us head that way um there's also an all call Channel um so uh all administrators and police have the access to the all call that can Trans on WR call um the other staff does not have that capability of transmitting a WR call um but they can all hear it and so like if we have um a tornado that's getting ready to go through here we can switch over to the all call and anybody that
015has a radio that's on will'll be able to hear us and say you know we have tornado whatever the emergency is they're going to be a we can broadcast district one which is huge it's a great investment I was happy to see it um in this district and uh we're still working out a little of the bugs but anytime you bring on a new system like that have little things go on we're getting themed out any questions are you able to contact City police or count with those okay great question um these radios um our system is in the 911 Center in Mor County so they have the capab the 911 dispatchers have capability of listening and transmitting on our frequency on our radios uh they can bring them up to monitor them say we
016have a big event say it is a natural disaster and we're going to use our system they can bring the our system up on their computers and the 911 sit and listen um so yes they will be able to hear us and communicate with us we can commun back and forth on our system on our radios however they don't do it on a daily basis they have any other channels they need to listen to so listen to us is probably not going to be higher on their priority list but they have the capability it is in a their system system I have another question because I used to live on John rwood and drive and the kids come in that way and I know you guys would be at the high school but there very
017few times was the city around there and sometimes those kids come flying through there by John you know what I'm talking about to Illinois Street and then to the high school the problem is there's people that Park on John our wooden drive now that's not you guys that's a city issue but I'm I just worry about a student flying through there and having an accident because there's a car park out there and I don't know how we control that but I didn't know if you guys knew if there was City police at those intersections like sunrise and johnwood because I mean I remember when I taught there years ago there was a ton of traffic and when I lived there off of John R wooden in Michigan there's a lot of traffing in the mornings
018with the students it's an um have any more radio questions Doug Doug is Radio he didn't know it but I kind of make this happen so no just to thank you uh Doug and for all of you guys for getting up and going because you know we have made an emphasis for Safety and Security not that that hasn't always been important but we wanted it to be PRI top priority for our staff and students so thank you for getting that going all of you because I know um I don't know what all it took but I can probably just imagine so we appreciate that so thank thank you it is a technological advancement I mean literally that was one of the focuses of the eclipse was our our vehicles our radio system was the was
019the fall back for this system melted down like they thought it was going to and everything else so yeah it is a wave of the things to come especially County so and with that I I would like to include one thing is that we accomplished a lot a lot of manh hours been into this last year uh things have been accomplished that take years to get done and I'm not tuning my own horn but I'm want to put a huge thanks out to these guys both of them every day they come in I put something in their lap hey we got to get this done we got to do this and they they come to work every day they don't complain they've never let me down not one single day and I none of this
020would have been possible without these guys so I I don't tell them thanks enough so I guess I'll do it now so I got anybody got any questions for us as a whole just maybe on the um I know we talked about it briefly at one of the previous meetings but just so maybe for the people who didn't hear like The Vape detectors maybe explain a little bit how that works um yeah Bri speak all right Brian I can tell you but he proba tell you better than me I know you know a lot of the surrounding schools they don't have this technology and and they especially don't have the Vape detectors they don't have the radio technology that we have so um very fortunate blessed that we that we can do that so yeah
021Brian so tell me just a little bit how those work or yeah they The Vape detectors have been a big Advantage for the administrative staff Miss Adams is in the back here um I am at the high school all the time I work closely with them we put together or they do they actually put together these Vape braids uh we get Bata messages and alerts M Adams would you say 100 to 150 a day yeah but those Vape alerts go off every time a student walks in and uses one of those devices uh we all get notified via email be a text and try to head to that area is a slight delay but there's some things that we can do to work around some of that stuff um we post it up in different
022rooms and waited for them to come out at lunchtime and go in there U but it's a very good tool that we're using right now still getting to learn how to use it be effective with it um last year I think the staff at MHS collected Just sh of a couple hundred devices at 2025 a pop that's quite a bit sure of monetary loss for those students and their parents that probably bought them for them but uh it's something we're we're attacking just like we attack at the at the high school we attack stuff so we're gonna attack it we're going to continue to try to make some success with it does that help yeah thank you very much anybody any question yeah I I got something I would like to add on to that
023Brian I really appreciate it um there's people out there maybe in Virtual land that are thinking you know okay this is like smoking in the boy room back in the 1970s and 80s right no um people don't understand the chemicals that are being put in the Vapes would you like to touch on that just for because it's astonishing the amount of THC and chemicals that are put in these things yeah the district is also put together a vape program where we're putting these we've got a teacher that comes in and teaches a vape class I attend those every Tuesday and Wednesday when she has them speak to the students kind of let them know hey these things can be made in your backyard um these gas stations are popping up they're putting THC in it
024they're putting battery acid in it they're putting gasoline in it and then adding a strawberry flavor or watermelon flavor they don't know what they're getting just like Mr bowan said the cigarettes and things like that you kind of know what's in a cigarette you know what's in some chew and things you do not know what's in these things anybody can manufacture them anybody can put anything in them it is so dangerous you don't even know what's in it and then they throw in some nicotine they throw in Strawberry FL in and they become very addicting so the district has put on that baap program and that baap class we're seeing some positive things come out of that um if you don't attend the class you're going to get a citation um I'm kind of not
025real stringy with those I pretty much just issue them left and right because you get caught with a vape you're going to get caught with a vape you're going to go to a class or you're going to get a citation those are your two options we set some precedence for that so they they would they're aware Yep they're very aware they understand it's a consequences and our athletes even have a greater consequence if they get with that stuff so but we're working on it we're going to tack a little harder this year see if we can make a bigger D all right asking about our handle program asking about the are are and others so we're doing the best we can do chief right quick question I know you said there's a lot of manh
026hours put into it with all the programs and everything going on definitely so if the opportunity presented itself do you have a desire to have more officers in your department absolutely AB absolutely I I mean if I could wave a wand I'd have an officer at every school U that'd be my my hopes and dreams type thing but then again the realistic side of me kicks in and says okay you know we got to obviously be cognizant of budgetary strengths and things of that nature so yeah it would be fantastic um I think we'll get there I know Mr bll and I we've talked and U we're we're looking at potentially getting started on another hiring process here in the near future and all that kind of fun stuff so we're trying to to get
027it where it needs to be but you know we we're unique here in the county where we cover 192 square miles and my my worst case scenario is I'm in paragan and a call comes out at Green and of course we can rely on County guys and this that and the other but those are our kids and we're going to be there so um we we we take all of our car calls probably a little more personal than than most agencies would but uh if I can get to D to get to it I have to p School somebody's going to get to it so an extra person or two would would not hurt my feelings one bit thank you I have a question I know you said Brian's at the high school is there
028somebody just stationed at at wooden too or how do we rotate the three we kind of split that wooden school is split with uh his time is between wooden and Poston road right now um that gives us as much coverage as we can get on that section of town that those two schools uh We've made it to where they are assigned to those two schools we have it so we have another contract officer who is covering the uh Bell or yeah Bell and the Smith schools so he doesn't have far to go he can make it from point A to point B relatively quick Doug is handling the outside schools I'm handling the outside schools and we're rotating back and forth and covering things for whether it be dismissal or whether it be arrival so
029we're by being mobile and being out and about I don't people don't know how many officers are on duty know they're like oh there's another police officer no there's another police officer no you just pass the same guy he's just going point8 point B so that's that's the reason for the to be mobile that is our objective with that I have another quick question do you guys eat lunch with the students because that's a way to get to know the kids and I didn't know if Brian you went in the cafeteria at the high school and ate and I didn't know if you other two officers would eat some of those schools okay and I just didn't know if you guys had gone to wooden and ate with the kids because I think that's a
030good rapport that's just my opinion yeah and I agree and we try to do that um as often as we can uh I know uh Dennis nail he he makes a habit of doing that regularly and he's he's one spending more time over at wooden than any of us so um I'd say it's happening quite often okay any other questions thank you guys I do want to add with the anti Vape program um there's Vape detectors in every restroom at wooden and at the high school so other districts might try copying your system but they have to go 100% all in like you guys have with that and also we spent quite a bit of time uh networking with not only judge pedet City Court court but also the prosecutor's office and the probation office
031to have this antiv vate program run as smoothly as it does you know it it's a community effort so we want to thank all those Community Partners along with um the school administration teachers staff members and the police department so thank you Susie laid the groundwork for a lot of that you have a any idea how many countless hours you had in meetings with the court no yeah so she laid the ground workor so they she made monro's life very simple because the program's already set up and ready to go on the prosecution side so yeah we appreciate it yeah thank you thank you guys thank you also this evening I want to give some shoutouts a shout outs because Martinville schools had a great start this school year last year was our uh first
032week last week was our first week and uh we want to thank all of our parents especially students teachers and staff all staff of all different departments um every Department was um on his or her best performance or on the performance of the staff from those directors and we want to thank everyone that was involved last week and parents especially if you have any problems as the school year starts or anything that you need to share we're always um we have we have a phone line here at central office all the time during the school day you're always welcome to stop in and we'd love to see you talk to you and help work out any problem that you might have uh this week also was our second well Wednesday of the year we started
033that first week so we had well Wednesday yesterday and just a quick update for our school board and for the community the elementary and art and music teachers met with me this week about curricular programming during well Wednesday the individual teachers K through 12 worked in their schools as professional learning communities to participate in reflection goal setting and review of the state standards that first week individual teachers also worked in their schools this week as plcs to roll out this year's curricular goal of databased literacy intervention and Remediation the title one and pre- teachers met with coordinator Lisa Sona and along with the YMCA early morning Child Care the district offered morning supervision to families the the district attendance rate this Wednesday was 96.2% which is outstanding High ability grant funding this year every school
034year the MSD of Martinsville applies for Indiana Department of Education hi ability Grant and uh Ryan Cox is the district hi ability coordinator and the reason I'm mentioning it he proactively plans at the beginning of every year for our Academic Teams to have the resources materials and competition fees paid for at not only the elementary intermediate and Middle School level but at the high school level too so all those Academic Teams they're just getting fired up doing their academic calisthenics um that is a lot of that funding is because of that idoe high ability grant that we received that we apply for this year or last spring in 2024 late spring and summer our third graders took the IAD state test and those results were just released yesterday third grade students took the read test
035in the spring ret takes were late spring and summer scores were embargoed until yesterday Wednesday a August 14th embargoed means scores are those that cannot be discussed at public meetings or released to the public or the media until they have been publicly finalized and released by the State Board of Education so they were released yesterday you're seeing them on the screen right now so we have just received those and we will be um analyzing synthesizing the results and putting a game plan together to move forward with growth Mastery and achievement I'll share all that information at our September meeting when we dive into that um just some things off the off the top the state average I read score was 82.5 if you can't read that up there on the screen the state average was
03682.5 and our district average of all seven elementary schools third graders was 87.2 so we were above the state average um which is a good thing individually six of the seven Martinsville elementary schools scored a above the state average and three of the elementary schools scored with a 90% or higher more to come on that thank you very much thank you for attending this evening I would like to point out on those scores for the board and the in the community uh two of those schools we piloted reading programs and they both were over the 90% so the Mrs Sona and her effort uh for the science of reading and the efforts that we've made there it I think it's going to pay off as we move forward to replicate what we did at those
037two buildings so great job to the staff thank you thank you Mrs thank you Neola I wanted to give an update under old business as everybody knows we have second read coming up this has been an uous task to get back back on to the NOA platform and uh we are after we're done here tonight I think if Courtney she'll correct me if I'm wrong we will then be caught up to where all that comes out is whatever they put out as updates as the legislature changes things so I want to uh applaud the efforts of our administrative team for for helping coordinate that and for the board to how many policies you have read through over the last six months has been unbelievable so I applaud your efforts on that and thank you very
038much for doing that um the other thing for parents families out there parents square is the new communication platform we've gone with in the district uh School messenger is no longer that's the one we've had for years I think probably about 20 years it seems like uh parent square is the new one and uh we've already gotten good compliments from no longer do you get the phone hanging up on you whenever it starts the message you know so that's one thing um we did have a a glitch with the system from their end where we couldn't record I I could not call in or Courtney couldn't call in or we couldn't call in on a phone to record it and it had the automatic uh thing go out but we do have the capability with
039the automatic voice it translates for any Community or any uh language learner that needs it in their native language it will translate to it and read it to them that's one of the things that that benefits us so when we record it by our own voice it will not translate if we do use the computer it will so there will be sometimes you'll get the computer automated because we want it to be translated for everybody and other times we're going with our voice and the email will be translated okay so we're trying both formats to be able to communicate as well as we can with our families out there and especially families that have other languages in their home so this platform allows us to do that we're very excited about it if you have
040any questions out there get a hold of your building principal of the offices or get a hold of Courtney and uh we'll get it addressed for you but we're excited about that platform and I think it'll be a lot better communication tool for us moving forward and they are constantly making changes corre so they're you know daily weekly so that's a good thing yes yes correct parents you can choose how much you want to receive messages or how little uh often we get people you know they'll say well I'm not getting it well you have to go on to the system and allart check what type of communication you want and you'll get it and uh we Overkill at the first the front end and I've had some people complain I'm getting too many messages
041well just go on there and check the boxes or uncheck them and you won't get as many but we would rather overc communicate then under so thank you for that question and the main point is to make sure that their Skyward Family Access is always up to date make sure that is accurate because that's where the information is coming from so it pulls directly from Skyward absolutely any other question questions or comments on that that's all I have under old business thank you ready ready for action items for Action items Mr second read on items it looks like one through four second read items one through four there was I know uh we made a a correction or an adjustment that you all wanted on extracurricular especially for K through 8 where instead of it
042being a mandatory forbidden we put that it's highly uh discouraged okay so that gives each um coach each building they have the you know you might be at a place where okay we're sitting there and we have a rain delay and the kids are wanting to communicate with their parents Common Sense needs to Prevail instead of forbidding it totally they have discretion so that's why that adjustment was made um but I do recommend approval of items 1 through four on the second read for the policy changes okay for the Neola policies uh one through four do I have a motion could I we discuss something real quick on that one thing I asked Eric earlier today if there's a way when we do these updates we get them where they're green if they're an ad
043or red if they're removing and I think one thing if we can do that moving forward is post this version for the general public so they know because a couple of these are just and or designate I mean there's just some minimal changes but I know when we see them we see the red and green if the general publicans see the red and green I think that would help and then that change on the the policy for the student k through eight I appreciate that because I think sometimes we just we can't over regulate everything especially after school or sport sporting events and everything else I think we got to leave that uh open to our folks so that's all I had any other questions no thank you for making those changes that we requested
044last month we appreciate that so thank you okay I'll second I have a mo I have a second or have a motion and a second to approve the four po Neola policies all in favor signify by saying I I I all oppose same sign motion carried action item number five we're looking for permission to advertise the 2025 budget capital projects plan and the bus replacement plan recommend approval for that okay do I perion do I have a motion to for permission to advertise the 2025 budget capital projects plan and bus replacement plan I'll make that motion Matt to give permission to advertise I'll second it I have a motion and a second for permission to advertise the 2025 budget the capital projects plan and the bus replacement plan all in favor of the motion signify
045by saying I I I all oppos same sign motion carried items 6 through 12 once again as we always do each month we have some healthy donations to our school programs and uh I'll read through each one individually and and for the public out there then the board will vote on them as a block donation from inside scoop to Martinsville chair High School cheer that's $500 donation from the uh Teachers Association to Martinsville High School cheer $500 donation from Keller's office supply to Martinsville Athletics $500 donation from Wells Marvel and Hall to Martinsville Athletics $500 donation from Chapman Ortho to Martin Athletics $1,000 donation from Hobson GMC to Martinsville High School athletics $2,000 and a donation from Neil and Summers to Martinsville Athletics for $4,000 wonderful generous donations from our community recommend approval of each
046of these donations do I have a motion to accept these donations from the Martinsville Community I make a motion we accept the donations a okay I have a motion and a second to approve donations from some of the businesses in the Martinsville Community all in favor signify by saying I I I all oppos same sign motion carried next on our agenda is um public comments do we have anybody for public comments okay so I will read our um what we allow people to speak at the completion of a regular Schoolboard business a visitor that wishes to speak may do so at the discretion of the president of the board the visitor will be required to State his or her full name and be given the opportunity to speak not to exceed three minutes per person
047in an effort to fairly adhere to the three minute guidelines for all speakers will present a timer on the interactive panels board members will listen to the speakers but will not engage in back and forth conversations board feedback or answer to questions will be provided before the next board meeting or at the beginning of the next board meeting at the conclusion of the three minutes speakers will be asked to return to their seats it shall not be permissibly permissible to orderly present or discuss complaints against individual employees of the MSD of Martinsville at any Board of Trustees meeting such charges or complaints shall be presented to the Board of Trustees in writing and shall be signed by the person making the charge or complaint boisterous conduct shall not be permitted at any meeting of the
048Board of Trustees nor will any defamatory or abusive remarks be tolerated we appreciate everyone's civility in maintaining a business order as it has been the practice at school board meetings and thank you Courtney who do we have have to speak thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I want to talk about Martinsville uh High School Middle School history books a couple of years ago I read the e8th grade and 11th grade US history books that are being used in the MSD schools together they contain over 1500 pages Story begins with the migration of native Hunters across the land bridge from Asia 20,000 years ago and ends with the Trump presidency both books are interesting engaging even entertaining they cover all the topics we would expect in the US History curriculum Colonial period the American
049Revolution the Civil War all of America's other Wars including World Wars 1 and biographies of a diverse group of leaders and great thinkers these include among many others George Washington James Madison tumy Frederick Douglas Susan B Anthony Alvin York Thomas Edison elanar Roosevelt Douglas MacArthur Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dr Jonas sulk Ronald Reagan and OA Winfrey students are being introduced to key historical documents ments Declaration of Independence the Constitution and its amendments the Bill of Rights analyses of uh pivotal Supreme Court cases and excerpts from Great American literary works I took on this project because I had heard that critical race theory is being taught in the Martinville schools but assuming that we are still using the books that I read and assuming that our teachers what our teachers are teaching is consider with
050these with with what is in these books I do not believe that CTR is being taught in US history classes they do describe the trials contributions and successes of Native Americans people of color immigrants and women but the impression I came away with is that the history of discrimination and conflict in America is best told within the framework of the struggle to perfect our Union not to destroy it for example in his I Have a Dream speech Martin Luther King Jr quoted from the Declaration of Independence he said I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its Creed we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal let's have confidence that if we tell our children the whole story story
051of America The Good the Bad and the Ugly they will conclude that our American experiment is worth preserving and defending I believe the books that I read do a good job of striking that balance uh a more complete version of my report is on the table back there I would encourage you to pick up a copy and read it and if you'd like to talk about it I'd be glad to so thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight thank you Scott appreciate itel I'm not as tall my name is Rachel crab and I am an MSD of Martinsville teacher and mother of four children one of whom graduated from MHS three of whom still attend Martinville schools as a senior fourth grader and second grader I am also a member of the MSD of
052Martinsville Board of Trustees scoping committee that has been meeting um we began meeting in the fall of last year and when we met last fall we began talking about the need for a new nitorum um as a parent of a swimmer I have been to natatoriums all over Central Indiana and all natatoriums within our conference and my son Jameson has been an artisian swimmer since the sixth grade and there is one thing I have noticed attending swim meets in our conference our Auditorium would rank dead last when I go to decar when I go to Franklin when I go to Greenwood um they have quality um natatoriums places for our swimmers and places we can grow our program we cannot host postseason tournaments and often offering multis School meets are an issue due to our
053Auditorium size our pool is often out of commission and as a School employee I know we spend a great deal of money keeping our pool going we can't grow our program when we are losing students who swim to schools with auditoriums that have greater quality I know my son won't benefit from a new Auditorium but many students and our community will thank you thank you Rachel very muchy and you did a great job too how can I top that if I sound like I've taught the 27 fourth graders for eight days I have so bear with me my name is Ashley Lucas my husband and I are lifelong residents of Morgan County we both graduated from Martinsville High School I have a son whom you've all met in seventh grade at John R wooden Academy
054I have been employed at the MSC of Martinsville for seven years go artisians first I would like to say thank you to the school board and to Mr Bolan for allowing me time to speak tonight also I'd like to thank them for making the school board meeting information available to the public a while back social media Pages related to Martinsville and Morgan County began buzzing about what the school board is planning to do in our community I for one do not use social media for this kind of Gossip so I did not involve myself in these conversations I do support anyone who wants to have a meaningful conversation to better understand exactly what our community is facing but I do not support empty roric that leads to argument hate and bashing as a community we
055need to be supporting the school board and not tearing them down for the decisions they're making to support our students staff and all residents within the MSD of Martinsville I've heard many rumors about what people think will happen um people are already talking about which schools they think will eventually close where new schools will be built uh I for one think that it's time we listen um more and maybe show up at some Schoolboard meetings um be patient to see exactly what the board has planned um what we need more now now more than ever is that true artisian Pride that lives in the heart and soul of all of us um I've grown up in this community and that's what we're about the progress the school board is making is scary because it's not
056what we're used to but as a parent and an educator in this community I want what is best for my son and for my students I ask that the members of the community take time to hear what the school board is sharing and take note of how important this project is for the growth of our community and our school district if you have questions speak up and ask them if you don't like what is being said that's okay but don't turn it into a chance to bash or degrade people people who are trying their hardest to to do better for our students the Educators in this community and our entire Community thank you for your time thank you Ashley very much any more thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight um my name is
057Stacy Ralph and we have two children and the marville swim program um and that's actually the reason I'm here this evening is to talk about the new Natatorium or I guess to advocate for a new edorium um so our two swimmers have been swimming competitively since 2021 um both with Indiana Swim Club otherwise known as ISC um and John R wooden Middle School um witnessing the dedication the sacrifices and the determination of not just the swimmers but of the coaches has been incredibly humbling um the the swim itself requires an incredible amount of endurance strength motivation um in fact just this past Middle School season uh our son Jude was a part of the relay team that broke a 29e School record um that was pretty big but anyway so this is a sport that
058it it improves physical and mental health um I mean how many teenagers would be willing to get up before 5:00 every morning through throughout their summer break just to be in the pool before 6 and they do it without a complaint and and I have to say that because I was complaining and all I did was drive them so over these years um we've gone to many swim meets um and we've had the opportunity to to go to different facilities and in this it's hard not to compare our own facilities to what we see um and unfortunately it's not an exaggeration to say that that our facilities are the worst um and not just in our conference but in every facility we've been to in the state of Indiana um our current facility is outdated
059it is overcrowded it lacks many of the features of modern swimming facilities this is a pool that is over 40 years old it has six swim Lanes um it gets use year round day and night it is shared by the high school swim and dive team the Middle School swim and dive team um as well as the club swimmers um there is no warm-up pool there is no separate dive well so if swim and dive practice together they have to shut down two lanes um the touch pads and the plungers are finicky at best um some of them don't even work uh the pool is so outdated that repairing and replacing Parts is extremely difficult or impossible and it's not uncommon for practices to be cancelled due to a repair or for swim meets to
060even be interrupted because of a malfunction in short our pool is near Extinction and we risk losing our swim and dive programs altogether if we don't have a new facility um a modern facility would offer the opportunity for to host Swim Club meets this is also an opportunity for revenue for the whole Community um in addition to participation fees these meets include local vendors that bring in merchandise and food and things like that um we would also be able to pull clubs from other well from surrounding areas but also as well as other states and those clubs need restaurants and and how and lodging all benefits the community I'm I'm sorry the time fine okay I apologize thank you thank you Stacy I could tell your passion thank you Bethy so I apologize now that
061I built something that's five minutes I didn't realize it was three minutes so I'm kind of uh worried about how I'm G to get all this in but anyway we'll try do my best hello my name is Bethany leam I have a son still in the district 8th grade at wooden and I would like to speak about my experience uh working with a group of individuals from our district uh recently I've been part of a large group that has been analyzing discussing the status of our district school buildings what do we want the MSD to look like in 5 10 20 years this large bot scoping team consists of parents community leaders Educators administrators and Schoolboard members and architect and Engineers from dlz have also joined us at each meeting to help answer our unknown
062realizations of cost timelines Etc which has helped our conversations progress progress and stay on track over the course of a year or more we have not taken any recommendation suggestion or CR criticism lightly spending a lot of everyone's hard-earned tax dollars is never to be taken lightly dlz has assessed all of the school buildings and their amenities they then scored their site condition which incl includes anything outside so sidewalks asphalt utilities signage growth potential the building envelope which includes doors seals exterior sighting anything that um helps the building resist outdoor elements the interior ceilings Floors doors casework ADA compliance and the Building Systems includes boilers hbac lighting generators Etc every school scored a c or worse in most every category one of the only items to score be or better was the high school's exterior
063which as we know was replaced less than 10 years ago our group also discussed Elementary School grade levels do we move fifth back in should the school specializations continue should we have prek at all elementary schools our entire Community suffers from a lack of adequate Child Care Facilities costing our County millions should the district incorporate child care for zero to four year olds we discuss school building closure School building renovation School building construction and what those costs may look like a huge exciting factor is all of the homes that are getting ready to be built on the Southeast side of the city uh South Elementary our youngest School still has some room for additional students but not to that magnitude new construction expansion renovation combining schools repurposing of facility or redistricting should continue to be
064analyzed and must be considered each option has its merits and challenges these items are expensive but another topic of importance is what are all of our old school buildings costing us to maintain and repair our district is currently forced to take roughly 15% from the education fund to operate buildings that is how expensive they are it is well known that years of Band-Aids have brought us to this point yes everyone's property tax totals have gone up but the tax rate remains one of the lowest in the state which is one reason the can has continue to be kicked so to say no decisions have been made regarding buildings but I would like to see vast improvements our facilities and not rule out in New School building another item High highly or highlighted lately is the
065pool and the potential of an atorium a facility like that has massive potential would provide water safety program classes to students the ability to host competitive swimming and diving competitions provide a training facility for surrounding water rescue teams a site provider for lifeguard and first a classes as well as open swim for the community facility would be a year round of yearr round use just like our Fieldhouse many people spoke um ill of the Fieldhouse but it has been being used year round by District's clubs teams and events as well as Community clubs teams and events has been a fantastic addition to our community in closing the greatest takeaways I want you to receive are that no decisions have been finalized that's why we're all here tonight all discussions have been taking place for quite
066some time and that our community needs to understand the severe drain on resources our aging facilities are causing and lastly that our students deserve buildings that are adequate and size and safety and are conducive to learning in our current day those on the school board and in administration don't want how far am i over all right sorry sorry one more sentence I almost had it thank you you did well with closing and then in finally thank you appreciate your passion as well any other speakers Courtney well we could have given give her another minute now right thank you um I appreciate hearing uh from the community um we get all kinds of input we receive all types of input and we value all types of input um I Heard mentioned kicking the can down the
067road and we've talked about that and this has been a long process several years several years and I I've complimented the board many times about taking this task on uh but they know that this is something that is it's necessary because you can only Kick the Can down the road so far so long before you hit the curb or you hit a ditch and then that's it programs suffer facilities have to close we have to quit offering certain things and that's not what we're wanting to accomplish so um we'll continue this arduous process and and we'll uh take all that input in and we have some more steps to go uh this is it's not done so we appreciate hearing from you and I thank everybody came out here tonight speaking of coming out you
068have an opportunity as a community to come out to the wall that heels at the fairgrounds um we were there some of people here in the audience were there today as well with the opening ceremony this morning at 9: and to hear the mayor kicked it off and then uh Medal of Honor winner Samy or recipient I shouldn't say winner recipient Sammy Davis spoke and to hear him and uh to hear him talk about um Freedom not being free and then to see all those names on the wall behind him when he's doing making those comments and knowing that um his service in Vietnam is the reason he received the Medal of Honor and he knew some of these names some of you with your families might have a connection to some of those names
069I think all of us as Americans should have a connection with those names and this is an opportunity for our community to come out and show uh America what it's like in a small town how patriotic and how uh our country is revered um we might have differences we still value those differences my wife doesn't agree with me all the time uh I don't agree with her all the time but I will not say that in public so do not tell her that this recording is there um but that's part of that's part of life we're in the human endeavor we're not perfect our school district is not perfect we tell you if there's an issue Mrs lip said contact us because we want to try to make it right none of us here are
070get up in the morning to say we want to make it a bad day for our kids we hope you have an awful day we are earmarking trying to make your day terrible no we get up thinking we want you to have a blessed day we want to be a part of that day and we want to help you to enjoy that day because we don't know how many of those days we have those names on the wall signified that so if you get a chance it's open until Sunday 24 hours a day um I think there there might be a time or two where they send out a notice that somebody that was volunteering can't be there fita fry spearheading that effort for volunteers um I could tell you if you want to come
071out Friday night midnight till Saturday morning at 4: my wife and I will be there we got that time slot so if you feel that you want to walk the uh Fairgrounds come and say hi bring her a coffee uh bring me a donut just don't show her uh but take an opportunity to come out and support our community's effort to bring this wall the wall the heels uh to Martinsville I I just I get goosebumps hearing people like uh Mr Davis speak H it's it's an opportunity for us small thing for us to do as a community so it'd be great to hear that we set a record in people visiting and we want to hear people say I saw that I would didn't see it and Washington DC the the main one the
072big one but I saw that one in Martinsville so uh just wanted to give that shout out that committee that put this together and the people who sponsored it thank you for doing that this is a great thing for Martinsville and it it really typifies what we are about in Martinsville um remember before we have our next meeting September 2nd the Labor Day no school even if though you might want to send your children to school that day and uh remember no school that day and then you mentioned that the Departments and everybody the great start last week was was unbelievable and the last thing I'll share for the board I talked to one of our principls today talking about safety just tying it in and he said tell the board thank you for those
073cameras because that's unbelievable and he told me about an incident that he had that the camera was able to help and uh it it helps us to help our kids and provide Safety and Security so thank you for putting that investment radios Vape detectors cameras um Intruder we have our devices for the doors this was a big task big investment and you all made it so thank you for that that's all I have all right do I have any uh thank you Eric by the way any board member comments this evening yeah Matt I just want want to tell everyone uh that spoke this evening thank you thank you for coming to the Schoolboard meeting and speaking up um I like Ashley I am not on social media so I do realize though that there
074are some negative comments about things um I would just encourage anyone who wants to come speak we always encourage that we want to hear your Viewpoint and it's not easy to make these decisions and we do toil and you know I I I'll speak for myself but um you know there's a lot of prayer that goes into these decisions there's a lot of thought that goes into these decisions and um you know it we always strive to make it better though for our staff and our students that is the ultimate goal because I think our staff and our students are top-notch I think they deserve it I hope you all feel that same way and um I don't think there's anything too good for them I want them to have the best and sometimes we
075may not always agree on what that is we may not always agree as a board on what that is and that's okay that's why we live in the United States of America right so we can have those difference of opinions um but we always encourage you to speak those opinions here and we always value that so thank you for the ones who spoke and hopefully some more will make it to next month's meeting and and um I would rather you speak it here or to my face or email me or call me than to put things on social media um because I'm not going to see it out there unless someone sends it to me so thank you anybody else board comments well I have a little bit of Show and Tell tonight which I
076thought was unique since you were talking about the nitorum I found this when I was cleaning stuff out in my garage I'm sure my wife's going to appreciate this but this is from the Martinsville High School dedication it's dated December 12th 1976 our pool is 49 years old and then also I found from 1997 it says students who were listed in two honor Publications have nominated their own favored instructors for who's who among America's teachers Nationwide and we have two MSD of Martinsville represented here tonight one of them is sitting to my right it's head Eric Vincent B bowan Martinsville High and one lady that comes to the meeting is not here tonight Debbie Burton was also listed and also I believe I saw in here Robert K Stags which which is sitting in the
077offence he was also listed as one of the favorite teachers and Rick heacock comes here some and uh it was kind of neat one of my favorite teachers uh she passed away but was one of the best English teachers also an administrator is Jill Jill Keller and Fred Klein I've heard a lot of great things about Fred and James Miller who was another great teacher Susan Parker I mean it goes on and on it's just great I think you ought to also there was another name that you did not read and that happened to be yours as well and that was in at Indian Creek if I'm not mistaken that's okay but I think you need that those accolades as well so congratulations thank you but um you know we have a lot of great
078teachers here this was the past now we're heading to the Future and I think that's what a board is trying to do we definitely hear things about the nitorum and that we want to make it the best for our students for MHS our students deserve the best and that's you know we're you know a community in Indiana and our kids that come here need to have the best of all our facilities so I appreciate the comments yeah and Matt you know you mentioned the age of the pool I can tell you that there's uh more involved but there's at least three individuals in this room t T night that know how much time they put in to maintaining the pool as it is and they put a lot in there so uh kudos to all
079of you um guys who take care of the pool because it does take a lot and like you said there are parts and things that are hard to get because it is so old so that just I think reiterates the fact that it's 40 40 some years old so so yeah that's interesting thank you to I did a little research talk about kicking the can down the road May of 2013 in board minutes it said there were there were families advocating for new pool 2013 and it say the Aged to form a committee to compile information deter what could be accomplished that was 11 years ago so we're working on it none of us were on the board at that time either I wanted to make sure we said that it was needed then so
080I would uh would like to highlight the fact that several of them that spoke that evening left uh left our district went to Franklin won a state championship uh at their pool with their program and uh that's that's not what we're wanting for Martinsville so that's why the board has taken on this unbelievable task so thank you for that thank you for that research I remember that night well all right do I have any other com oh one other comment the scrimmage tomorrow night at Bloomington High School North is that at 7 o'clock football any other fall Sports this weekend Kip socer opens Saturday o00 thank you very much is the uh for soccer is at home or away home on that nice Turf we gonna have a semi State good things lots of good
081things going on here any other board comments do I have a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion we adjourn I have a motion to adjourn do I I'll second that M I have a second I have a motion and second to adjourn all those in favor signify by saying I I I all oppos same sign motion carried four yep youing a donut