001Maybe you're not a wild Second year started. Yeah. >> Our department We did last night. >> There was we went to Disney. >> Where did we go with? She knows. Charlotte, >> okay, she came down last I never know other people. >> Oh yeah. Mine was hungry. It's good. Come on. Exactly. >> Right. That is my father. It's I had totally Right. >> Right. I was just fascinated by the writing process. >> He's a great That's why I have Hey there. Random question. Uh-huh. almost. >> Good evening, Dr. >> Good evening. How are you? >> Good. How are you? Great. >> How are you? It was started. >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. A >> thank you so much. >> I know you do. Kind of person you are. >> Look kind of steal. Pass me.
002>> Don't do that. >> Oh, you get a better hand. is here. >> We would have done better. Just trying to trying to figure out how to put another man on the putting man on the man. >> We just go. Thank you, whoever this came from. >> Yeah. Who was that? I don't know, but I love it. >> I didn't even see this. Hopefully, I'll forget something. >> I'm not. I got >> This is the only thing I think is worth keeping. Oh, you're sweet. Just a few minutes. Okay, >> Mr. President, whenever you're ready. So we stand for the pledge, please. 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. Well, good evening to everyone
003and on the behalf of our entire board, welcome to our MSD Pike Township Regular School Board meeting January 22nd, 2026. At this time, is there anyone that want to step up and speak for the good of the cause? You have three minutes. You may feel free to do so at this time. State your name and um you may speak. Um hello board. My name is Kane Price. Um and I'm here with um the scouts BSA um troop 227 and um I'm here to talk about my Eagle project. Um I'm a senior at Pike High School and I'm an alumni from Fishbach Creek Public Academy. I recently completed my Eagle project which consisted of rebuilding um planting beds at the outdoor lab at Fishbach. Um uh once I complete my Eagle uh scout requirements, uh I
004will be the first female uh scout eagle scout in Pike Township. So that's exciting. Um, I would like to thank the board, Dr. Young, Dr. Steel, Miss Nordy, and Mr. Grubber, the director of facilities, um, for approving my and assisting me with my Eagle project. I had over 72 man-hour community service to fishback. Um, I would also like to take this time to thank the board and Dr. Young for allowing uh scouts from Scouting America, the Scouting America program to recruit from Pi Township um schools every fall. Scouting America prepares young people to make ethical and moral choices over the lifetime by building character, leadership, and fitness for lives of impact and purpose. Thank you for your time. Good evening, Mr. President, board, superintendent, cabinet. I'm Marty Hoofer, and as you know, I serve as
005the secretary for the Pike Township Education Foundation. I'm here tonight because we are thrilled to see over $11,000 in donations on the agenda tonight. THIS This includes $4,199 in classroom grants and over $7,000 given for specific district needs. Numbers tell one story and our teachers tell another great story. In Christy Gordon's classroom, which you see on your list tonight, these funds are supporting our kindergarten learners as they are quote caught doing good. And at the high school, we are funding Katie Martin's grant to provide glasses for students, removing a very real physical barrier to learning and ensuring that they can clearly see as we continue to have an unprecedented number of grant requests from the staff. We our need for resources continues to grow. Our main fundraising event is treasures for education and that is
006happening on Saturday, March 7th. We need the support of everyone in the room and watching online through attendance and through auction bids both in person and online. The more we raise, the more we can give away to the students of Pike Township, which is my absolute favorite thing to do. So, please visit our website to get involved. The website is pike-f.org. Thank you. Good evening board. >> Good evening. >> My name is Tony Johnson. I am the founder of WardUp um tutoring. It's a platform. It's online. It's for families K through eight. We are offering 30-day free sponsorships. It is academic online step-by-step guided support. I wanted to create this platform to help parents outside of school hours, just give them an additional resource and tool. We're not trying to replace the teachers, but we
007do want to ensure that our kiddos are getting the help that they need outside of school. So, I wanted to share that information. Um, you can log on at www.worduptutoring.com and if you go to student signup and fill out the information, you can get 30 days free access. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. No one else. Then we move on to Spotlight on Pike. Sarah Dorson. >> Good evening. It's wonderful to see you all. As always, we have a lot of wonderful things going on in Pike. So, I'm just going to hit a couple highlights. We're excited to share that three of our Pike High School wrestlers, Idiada, Nathaniel Anderson, and Serene NDI in NDIA, I'm sorry, I wanted to say that right. So, let me slow down. Won the Mick
008Championships for their respective weight classes last weekend. Um, if you're following Pike Wrestling this year, they are doing amazing. So, we want to congratulate them. Um, they've had several individual and team wins. They celebrated uh senior night for the boys last week and we just wish them luck with the rest of the season. In addition, we want to share that Miss Alexis Warren, who teaches science at the Pike Preparatory Academy, was selected to receive a highly competitive Lily Endowment Incorporated teacher creativity grant for her project, which is titled Reef Lections of Renewal: Conservation, Family, and Global Perspectives. and she's going to use her funding, which can be up to $15,000 to explore the Great Barrier Barrier Reef, hike national parks, engage in coral conservation, and learn from Aboriginal traditions while traveling in Australia. And we're
009going to highlight that in tomorrow's Pike Proud Communication, and it also has information about how she plans to utilize that to benefit our students at Pike Preparatory Academy. Last, but never least, we'd like to acknowledge the generous donors listed on this evening's agenda. One Fellowship Church donated 20 boxes of hygiene items valued at $1,800 for families in need at Snack Crossing Elementary School. The Pike Township Educational Foundation, as Mrs. Hooper mentioned, funded six grants totaling $4,199 to support classroom projects at Fishbach Central New Augusta South and Pike High School. They also donated $3,040 to Pike High School's robotics team. Wise Incorporated donated $297.50 to fund field trips and substitute costs for Pike High School. And we're extremely excited to just briefly share the story behind the other donation listed. Last year, we began inviting faith
010leaders with connections to families in Pike to collaborate with us in an effort to identify areas where we can work together to enhance our support um for the community we serve. Uh when we met this November, a portion of our conversation pertained to identifying existing and potential challenges. Um during that time, Dr. Young provided the group with a brief update regarding the state cuts to CCDF voucher funding. Um which as you know has had just a widespread impact on preschools and child care providers across the state. Um, our meeting attendees immediately inquired how the funding cuts would affect Pike families, what the impact would be, and if it would be possible for them to help if they were able. As a result of that conversation, this evening, you'll be asked to approve a generous donation
011of $3,971 from Solidaw Bible Church to cover CCDF funding shortage for families in our loving care program at Guyen Creek Elementary School for this semester. So, we're extremely proud and grateful. um for their support and hope that that is a blessing to our families. Um last but not least, I want to borrow a phrase that I've heard um our president, Pastor Webster use that I really like, and I'm probably going to paraphrase, but I'm going to apologize and ask you to blame my head and not my heart for failing to acknowledge our donors from last week. Uh, I knew what was coming with our above and beyond and I was definitely um a little bit hijacked in my emotions rather than my head. So, we want to acknowledge Chartwell K12's donation of nutritional drinks and
012shakes valued at $81,000 to support our Pike um sports program. Also, um, Carolyn Care Incorporated's donation of $200 to purchase snacks for one of our life skills classrooms at Snacks Crossing, WC Preston's donation of $50 to our Red Zone Food Pantry, and the Pike Township Educational Foundation's don donation of $816 to support a classroom grant at Gyen Creek Middle School. We sincerely appreciate all of the businesses, organ organizations, and individuals who choose to share their time, talent, and treasure with our students and educators. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Garc. Uh, reports to the board, alumni excellence, Dr. Young. >> Thank you, and good evening, Mr. President, members of the board. Uh this month as we recognize our alumni excellence recipient, I'm really excited uh this evening to recognize someone that has a
013very unique story and is also one of our uh more recent graduates. His name is Zach Smith. >> My name is Zach Smith. I graduated from Pike in 2020. After I graduated there, I went to the University of Indianapolis uh to play soccer there and majored in exercise science. I ended up graduating early. Just wasn't enjoying soccer as a player as much as I thought I would. Wanted to get my career started. So, I was able to graduate undergrad a little bit early and I got an offer to be a GA with the team as a kind of dual sports scientist and team manager, you say. So, I was doing all the tests like laundry, film, but then also got to do some cool things that were aligned with my career goals and then got
014to do a an accelerator masters program while I was there. Went out to do my internship at Sporting Kansas City. Uh really enjoyed it. Um but discovered that I loved working with data and kind of like being a little bit more in the background than a performance coach. That's where my my focus kind of shifted uh in this really unique position popped up at the University of Florida. Um my title is data management analyst which it's evolved a lot but essentially I get to sit at the intersection of artificial intelligence in college athletics and our main goal in our project called AI powered athletics is to create this big database so anything from performance data that's collected on the from the weight room to medical data and then also academic data. It's really the first
015time that this has ever been created to look at the holistic view of a student athlete. Sometimes it's really just performancedriven. Uh but we want to make sure that all aspects of the student athlete are um encompassed in our database so that we can empower large scale research that uses all of that data. The ideal day for me involves a lot of interaction with people. I love working with people. So talking with coaches, translating that to researchers or to our back end. So the strength coaches that are in charge of like making them faster, stronger, more explosive. We kind of support the coaches in that sense by providing them easy access to data because they do routine testing so that they can take that information a little more easily and see where the athlete is
016at, whether they need more more training uh more of a specific type of training. We are a little bit more in the back end just kind of providing a service almost like a third party uh to help them organize the data and draw some insights out of it. >> Yeah. So the the exercise science class that Mr. taught. Being able to go through that class and questions that he would ask alongside playing a sport was was really cool for me because he would be asking questions to us that directly related to how we felt in practice. He was really easily able to connect our athletic experience to the class and saying, "How did you feel? Why did you feel that way? Why did your body respond that way?" Um, and I think that just made
017it come to life a lot more for me. That's that's where my interest probably came from the most because they're asking questions about things that directly pertain to my life right then. But one of the many things that Pike offers is a is a great environment to learn and to connect with different people. And it's it's directly played out in my career in the job that I have right now. I work with a lot of different occupations and a lot of people from different backgrounds. people that operate differently, communicate differently, and growing up in Pike, you were just you're just immersed in it's not something that you realize in the moment that you are learning about other cultures, uh, other age groups, you know, it's it's just kind of something that happens. But I haven't
018appreciated it until you get out of high school. But Pike really prepared me for that. Zach is he's out of state, so he could not be here, but I think he's just one more example of what PI graduates and their respective professions are out there doing. So, we're glad to uh highlight him. Thank you. >> All right, Doc, you I think you're up next, so you can stay there. You and uh Mr. Carrie Manders. >> Yeah, come on up. I'd love to report to the board. >> Well, thank you. And I I know that uh here in a second I'll turn over and let Mr. Manders um introduce uh the other presenters that might be here with him. But we had an opportunity to talk a few months ago and they have some really innovative
019ideas for the Crooked Creek area that we kind of shared between Pike and Washington Township. So much so that I really wanted him to come and present to the board so that you all could hear directly from from him and from his team on what some of those ideas are. I think ultimately they would love to to have support from the district, but I told them, hey, I need you to come and and and share share information with the board and and see what questions they may have and and we'll go from there. So with that, I'm excited to turn it over to Mr. Manners. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you, president of the board and the board for having me tonight. I'm here with a couple of my colleagues,
020Colleen Heater, who's uh our fund our grant writer. Uh Wendy Noble um board member uh Wendy Camp Manders uh my wife and board member and uh Richard Sleepy Floyd um our board chair. Um my mission for the past 30 years has been to improve the quality of life in the Kroo Creek community uh which is the western part of uh Washington Township and the eastern part of Pike Township. Uh my neighborhood actually is split in the middle between Washington and Pike. Um I uh my website kmm foundationindy.org provides an overview of my past work. I began the Crooked Creek Cultural Campus Project with a vision and three overarching goals. one to attract youth to engage in activities that will provide opportunities for fun, creative, and inspirational participation that promotes critical thinking skills, developing productive, engaged
021citizens. Two, to provide opportunities for intergenerational community building, which since co has kind of just disappeared and needs to be really rebuilt. Three, to create an economic engine that will provide needed commercial development services and employment opportunities for this underserved area. Excuse me. Joan Servas donated 3.5 acres of woods um near the corner of 62nd and Michigan Road for this cultural campus project. Um those woods will be maintained uh for tree identification and environmental science to be conducted by Indie Parks. A visioning committee was formed after the purchase of the property or the donation of the property to shape and define my vision over an 18-month period with educators, artists, musicians, area residents, clergy, theater experts, and others. We commissioned a facility feasibility study conducted by IFFF supporting the project. We are now purchasing 4.5
022acres to the west of the woods to develop a 15,000 ft² building with a 200 seat um theater and will also have an outdoor venue. Uh the visioning committee envisioned a facility that would have coffee hours to exchange community concerns and issues. collaborating with the library for family game nights, book clubs, financial and writing literacy classes, intergenerational movie nights, to have kids work with professional comic book artists to create their own art, their own characters, their own story lines. Exposure to puppetry, an educational recording studio so they can learn uh each side of the microphone, both uh the technical part of it as well as the the performance part of it. um theater craft, improv theater, and the traditional arts. All transferable skills providing critical thinking capabilities that kids and adults can engage in and
023learn from. Our goal is to add, not to add to and enhance existing opportunities in our community, not duplicate services that already exist. We've had early discussions with the public library, Indie Parks, IU Heron School of Art and Design, Brownound Studios, Actors Theater of Indiana, Arts with a Purpose Area Private Schools, and Washington Township School District and others seeking collaboration. Now, we're inviting Pike Township uh school district to join in our collaboration with the Crooked Creek Cultural Campus. I'd like to introduce again uh Sleepy, who is going to get proceed with the presentation. Thank you, Carrie. Thank you, board. Good evening. Um, >> good evening. >> Just to uh just elaborate on what uh Carrie was discussing. Um, we hope that that this will comes a truly a community space that's also driving the arts
024in the district and and the surrounding areas. Um, you know, the intention is to unify intergenerationally with um other with across generations uh across art disciplines um and just create a a unifying hub for for the the area, the Crooked Creek area, which as uh Carrie mentioned serves both districts, Washington and Pike Township. And uh me being u uh a Pike Pike Township resident for a better part of 15 years uh is very near and dear to me. I'm also a community organizer myself. I'm a professional musician and I'm also adjunct faculty at the University of Indianapolis where I teach in the school of music. And so I spend the great majority of my days educating youth uh through arts and advocating for uh arts in schools. Um there's approximately uh by my estimation on
025on the short end about 48 schools within the 465 loop that do not have arts and music uh programs. And so for me as a as a professional musician in the in the arts actively uh it's very important to me for many reasons. Uh the main reason is the legacy aspect of the arts and we we all have been a part of studies that have shown how you know how arts benefit you know learning they benefit recidivism outcome just outcomes in general across the board and so I've I've really prioritized that uh and in you know more of my latter years as as I've gotten these grays and and things and I've traveled the world playing music um to bring those ideas back home and to like really prioritize the the future. Um and so
026this is a big part of that of that legacy. And so real briefly, I'll just run through a few slides. Um uh as so we're saying it's designed to serve students, families, educators, and neighbors alike. Um so we'll have a you know a host of programmings uh neighborhood concerts, evening uh interactions, arts, arts and um music workshops during the day, you know, performance guilds, just anything you can conceptualize. Um we hope to attain that through this space. Um then again, the area is the 8 acre site at the corner of Michigan Road and 62nd Street. Um, so it's really kind of that it it'll be that that connector between the two districts. Um, again, and here's the uh kind of the markups of of what we are envisioning where there's, you know, a great use
027of the greenery spaces. Um, and we we tend to use we intend to use all of it for for just, you know, great community activities and events. Um, you know, we we'll have the uh youth workshops and plenty of creative enrichment activities designed to to just stimulate growth. And then um as I've seen as a as an educator, uh career pathways is a is a big prioritization for uh the youth of Indianapolis. Um you know, a lot of them when they get to that age, they're ready to hit the workforce. And um my philosophy behind that is that if we can teach them attainable, sustainable skills at a younger age, the younger we get them, the more likely they are to achieve, you know, great success as they move through life. Um and so this
028this this place would serve as a hub for that mindset of of just career advancement and career pathways. Um so just a rough timeline u you know this year spent you know speaking to uh board members and and institutions um and just garnering general support and and and information as it relates to the project we with anticipation of breaking ground next year. Um, and so, uh, we really just wanted to just get in front of the board and and just un, you know, let you all know that we share the same commitment of just making sure that our students have, you know, immense opportunities and creativity and expanded learning opportunities that will just, you know, enhance enhance the quality of life for all the citizens of of the district, but more most importantly, the youth
029of of this of this district and this area. So, thank you so much for your time. I'm here to answer any questions. Um, I can turn it over to Carrie. We can >> have any questions. I'm glad to answer them as well. >> I have a couple questions. Um, Mr. Manders, I I I wondered what happened with this program. I think I >> maybe a year and a half ago, two years ago at St. Monica, >> uh, you spoke about this program. I think uh, Joanne Franklin was there last year. Okay. Last year. And I was there. Uh, and I I thought this idea was a u was a phenomenal idea. Uh, I didn't know uh what had happened to it. Uh, but now that I see that you're still have that that ball rolling.
030>> Oh, yes. >> What what does the relationship with the school district look like? Can you speak a little bit how that between us and you guys will be something that the students >> can utilize in summertime or >> Sure. Well, how what again we're flexible. What we want to do is have a discussion to see what where the collaboration works for us. Uh but I'm envisioning that the um school would have field trips there. We like I mentioned earlier, we'll have indie parks doing tree identification, environmental science in the three and a half acres of woods. Uh so that there'll be opportunity for field trips as well as for artistic ability or artistic opportunity um to come out for field trips. The house that's existing on the property is going to be moved. We're
031going to use that for the dirty arts, ceramics, and those types of arts. And then the new building will be for the fine arts, the clean that have to be have a a clean fine environment. Um, so we're really looking at having a space that can be really uh used and productive use in the community. Um, with a 200 seat venue, we understand there's no 200 seat venues in the city and that there's a niche that needs to be met and so we're here to meet that niche. Um, as far as the relationship with the school, we're your uh community is who we want to serve. So, we need to reach out to them and let them know what's happening. Um, you mentioned that, you know, it's been a slow roll out. Uh, it's been
032a slow roll out because, you know, this is a grassroots project that we've been building over a couple of years, actually about three years now with all the the visioning committee and all. So uh we want a relationship where the uh Pike community will support the project to bring it to fruition but also be among the participants uh and beneficiaries of the project. >> You know I'm impressed uh because the the passion is consistent uh just as uh now that you have other people with you uh it was just you by yourself and now you know I get a better idea of what that looks like. I'm excited for that to see um and hopefully that we can have a collaboration. Uh outside of that, it looked like on your on one of your uh
033pictures here that do you butt up against the I think it's a pumpkin patch or a >> uh the very northern edge touches the blueberry farm. >> Yeah, the blueberry farm. >> The blueberry farm. And we've actually talked to them about possibly having a relationship for catering. Uh we're going to have a cater and we want to have local activity. I mean this one one of the benefits of this is to to generate activity in the community, economic activity. So we want to bring them in as well. >> Okay. That's why I wanted to uh I wanted I like to hear that you said that because uh we also we send our our children there to to collect pumpkins sometimes. So absolutely I'm impressed. Thank you very much. I like >> Well, my pleasure. Thank
034you so much for your interest. And I I do have to say give Colleen credit. She was with me as well uh at St. Monica's. >> Okay. I was going to add in from a programmatic standpoint how we could serve you know going back to your your original question how we serve the how we see envisioning serving the students uh right away there would be after school activities like what I see immediately uh upon opening is an afterchool program that would be that would service kids from those after school hours from the 3 to 7 window. Um so a great deal of our activities uh within any art discipline will be built around that particular uh block of time daily and so uh right away that that's you know one of the first program ideas
035I would love to see um happen right away. So that's a prioritization for us. >> So this would be classified as STEM. Uh it would it would be more steam sir add the a arts arts add a big a in the middle but yes absolutely um and and that's the beauty of where arts are moving I mean uh we we live more in the music tech space now you know so now we have to you know there's a greater prioritization through my organization inspire music collective which is an organization that serves youth through the music technology um shifting from a more classical training and from musical perspective to more of a technical perspective that does two things. It doesn't require you to have studied an instrument for 5 to 10 years. It also breaks down
036economic barriers that says that you cannot afford if you can't afford private instruction. You know, most kids that look like me don't have have access to cellos or violins right away, you know, and so that breaks down those economic barriers, but they may have a laptop or an iPad where I could teach them how in 20 minutes how to make a beat, you know, or instead of saying, "Hey, you want to be a rapper?" Like, that's like going to go to the NBA, but if you want to be a producer, that's very practical and and you can immediately start making money, you know, with a with a year or less of training. And so we're we're going to look to tap into >> the technology piece along with the classical training, but then also infuse
037the real world practicality of where we are as a society where technology is driving almost everything like our alumni spotlight here that he got a job just specifically to work in AI and athletics. That's something that is on the cutting edge and it's the same thing happening on the artistic side. So just wanted to elaborate on that. >> So I got a question. So, well, first of all, you listed all the stuff you do. You have a You are a very busy man for the nickname Sleepy. >> I don't Yes, you got that right. >> You got that right. A stable coffee. >> I I love the merging of of technology with the art, like you said, the idea of so much music now, I don't know if it's good or bad, but it is
038being made with technology. So, >> absolutely. >> One question is the idea you kind of hook them with that and then even go back and have some instrument education also. >> Yes, absolutely. And then also I was thinking we we go occasionally over to like Foot Light and see plays and things. Is that something that you're envisioning coming to Pike? Absolutely. As well >> absolutely having a theater company similar to Foot Light that has a small footprint in that neighborhood primarily. That's a great example. But yes, to your point, absolutely. And yes, the reverse engineering like as you from what I've seen with my teaching and I've worked with kids that have no musical ability and some of them are like, you know, almost superstars in the making as producers. >> Um because the auditory
039element of it, just hearing things, it allows that those that syntax to escape. And and so once you have that, regardless of your musical acumen, you're able to, you know, live your best life, so to speak, because you can you can you're able to get your ideas out, whether they be drawing on a picture, you know, drawing a picture or, you know, making a beat. >> Um, and so yes, so the I've seen like the reverse engineering happen where someone latches on to something significant and then they want to know all the backstory about it. you know, happens to me as a jazz musician when I'm when I'm teaching kids about Miles or West Montgomery, you know, and when I tell them like, "Hey, West Montgomery lived around the corner here, you know, they're like,
040"What?" You know, and so they just go on this deep dive. YouTube is their catalyst, you know, we we run our kids from YouTube a lot from things that they want don't want to see, but if they find something they're really interested in, they'll go and do like deep dive research. And so, I'm seeing that every day. >> I love that. Maybe you guys will have the next Rick Rubin come out of there. Can't play instrument and make the Beatles documentary. There you go. >> Yes, sir. >> Also, to answer your your question um a little different way, we're working with Indiana Actors Theater of Indiana and they're up by Civic Theater and Civic Theater has a very vibrant um educational program and they don't want to compete with them. They want to partner with
041us and bring stage craft to our community. that you can learn not only how to be an actor, but how to be a producer or a stage manager or those uh stage craft positions. Okay. Love that. >> I really love uh your idea. One, this is the neighborhood where I grew up, so I'm super familiar about exactly where you're talking about. >> Have you seen our signs? >> I have not. Well, that's where I grew up. That's not now, but it's okay. >> Keep an eye out for them. >> Definitely. And plus, uh, I'm a teacher from the arts, so I'm I'm totally embracing everything that you're saying, and I'm excited that this resource is going to be available, uh, for our community. >> I really like that. Thank you so much. >> Thank you
042so much for giving us the opportunity, unless there are any more questions. >> No, we're done. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much. We're on to um board finances. Mr. Monae Gray. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, and Dr. Young. Per Indiana Code IC5-13-7-5 through 7, the board of finance is required to reorganize annually in January. Typically, the board president and the board secretary also serve in those same roles for the board of finance. In your packet this evening, you'll find two documents. First, the written report assessing financial condition which uses the distressed unit appeal board or DUAB uh annual financial indicators. Second, the annual investment report. The written report assessing financial condition includes both the required DWAB charts and a narrative explanation to provide you additional context and
043clarity around the district's financial condition. If you have any questions as you review the report, please feel free to reach out to me. Next, the 2025 investment report. All district investments are made in full compliance with Indiana statute IC5-13. In addition, interlocal government cooperatives such as the Hoover Fund are permitted under IC 36-1-7. The district uses a layered investment strategy which each layer is based on liquidity, meaning how quickly the funds can be accessed when needed. The first and most liquid layer that we have is our Huntington operating account, which represents our cash on hand. As of January 1st, the interest rate on this account was 250%. The next level of liquidity is the Hooser fund, which is a statewide investment pool through an interlocal agreement. This is considered a short to medium-term investment while
044still remaining very liquid. This rate can fluctuate throughout the year and it ended 2025 at approx approximately 4% down from 4.8% in 2024. The next level in our liquidity structure are the certificates of deposit. These are time deposits and are considered medium to longerterm investments. We work with Baker Tilly through a competitive bid process with which provides us access to CD rates across roughly 3,000 banks and savings institutions. We evaluate and project our cash needs and then select CD terms such as 3, 6, 9, 12 months or longer based on these projections. This strategy is often referred to as a lattered approach, which investments are set to mature in phases and allows us access to funds as needed without locking them all up. This concludes the board of finance report. Mr. President, I will return
045the meeting over to you. >> Thank you. Is there any question from the board? >> If I may, Mr. President. >> Yes, Dr. >> U. My concern, Mr. Great. >> Mhm. >> Here's the idea of uh last year um with the SB1. >> Mhm. >> Um now we in January SB1 came into foolish >> property tax issue. Um there are three dynamics financially that could affect us. >> Uh the first one is going to be 850,000. Uh the second one will probably be 58,000. The last one will be somewhere around 134,000. My question is in that context um are we in in in have we are we going to be okay >> uh with that particular cut that is being impressed on >> on all educational institutions? Are we going to be all right? We
046don't have any layoffs coming or cutting anybody back or anything of that nature. I just I just think people need to know that >> uh that's might not be interesting to a lot of other people but >> that's going to affect a lot of uh programs in our school possibly. >> Absolutely. A lot of those dollars just to jump in will fall sort of on our operation side and you know every every week um from cabinet we talk about savings and opportunities that won't be felt in the classroom. Yeah. >> And always keeping staff is is a priority. um based on our our current projections, you know, cuts and layoffs aren't things that um you know, we are currently considering. I think if things continue to go the way they are, um you know, we'd
047always look through attrition primarily, right? when people leave there may be opportunities and positions not to not to maybe fill those positions but under the current u projections with the banana that we're in there's there's no intentions on um any sort of cuts and and I think the service we could provide the children will stay at at at the level it is >> that's almost 1.9 million a little bit over that in those three years that are going to affect us and I just was just concerned about u our faculty our staff >> and our programs. >> Um are we going to be able to maintain those particular situations? >> And um and also great question Dr. Moore and also we're going to have um uh Barry Garner with policy analytics and so he'll be
048that is >> uh that's in March >> in March. So in March we'll get an opportunity uh Mr. Garner will come and and kind of really dive pretty deep into the impacts, share specific numbers, um, you know, potential levers and all those things that we that we can >> So, we we're not anticipating any staff cuts or I think it that needs to be openly said no in that. Okay. Good. Because, you know, that's a lot of money >> that is going to be retracted from us. >> It is. And I and I'll give credit to these people right here on the on the front second row. Um without any ask of me, they are constantly constantly looking at programs that are underutilized um or ineffective and where we can keep a high level of
049service to our students and families but yet make cuts and and reduce and in cost so that it's not failed. >> Yeah. >> Uh secondly, if I may, sure. Uh I I saw the referendum piece in here. Has our resources hit our counts yet? >> They come out in December. >> We got them in December. >> Thank you so very much. >> We did. We did. Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? >> I just want to comment. I heard that you said that in March um that we're going to come in and do uh is that going to be a work session or a presentation? >> Be a presentation. Uh board meeting. Presentation. >> Board meeting presentation. >> Yes. in policy analytics. Um they've actually modeled out and just to piggyback on Dr.
050Young said um they've modeled out um until 2030 um just the impact of the bill and how it's going to affect Pike Township. And they actually complimented us on our financial health because we're in a a great position compared to some of the other districts and the impact. But they'll elaborate on that more when they come in March. >> Could I also interject this? Um what I'm hearing uh in Hamilton County >> and other counties that people are going to be going back to referendum ideology >> uh because of this particular situation >> and um is it possible for us uh to know where we're going with referendum uh as it relates to uh doing the course of the year? What are the items? We we know we have those three buckets, those bucket areas
051we work in. Are we going to continue to work in those bucket areas or are we going to move in other areas that are that fall in the ram of the uh referendum? >> And I think we're kind of limited on those areas because of what we um share with the community before they voted. So we'll stay in those areas. One of the big um things that impacts that obviously is the assessed value. Pike Township's assessed value went up. Um, and what was crazy, if you look at a map all over the state of Indiana, there was really, it was touch and go. Some communities assessed value went down, some went up. We benefited from an increase. Uh, but I think one of the things that we're hearing and what we believe is that won't
052be the case moving forward. Okay. >> So, those are some things. >> If your house costs more, you're going to pay more in taxes. Most >> definitely. We collect more. But if if your house costs less, then that's less money we're going to collect through, you know, the the referendum process. So there's a lot of unknown. Um to your point, I think we'll probably get to some of that even in in in March. >> And my question is basically, and I don't excuse you, Mr. President, I don't mean to take a >> No, go ahead. Um my my my concern is I I just want if we uh have to do referendum again that the that that the community will understand it and um uh that we need to do it. And so I'm asking
053that there would be better communication about the referendum during the course of the year. I know you have certain designated uh months that you want to report on that, but I I think if you could reassess that particular um discipline towards referendum because uh if we have to go back or whoever is on the board at that particular time, have to go back for referendum, we want the community to feel good about coming to the to make that happen again for us. um because um they were very nice the first time. >> We had some percentages there, but I'm just hoping that we can communicate much better with the community about referendum because it's their tax dollars and um they need to know in case we have to go that that area again in that
054area again. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Mrs. Gray. We're on the action items. First up is minutes of our board of education reorganization meeting. Motion is ordered to approve. >> I make a motion that we approve the minutes of our board meeting on January 8th, 2026. >> Second. moved and second that we approve our uh previous board meeting January 8th 2026. There any questions? No questions. We're on the vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Next up is uh approval of our academic calendar. Dr. Maggie Bishop. >> Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, and Dr. Young. This evening, I seek your approval of action item B, approval of academic calendars for 2627, 2728, and 28-29 as presented. >> Make a motion that we approve the academic calendar for
0552026 27, 2027-28, 2028 29. >> Second. >> Been moved and second that we approve action item B, our academic calendar. Are there any questions? >> I do have a question. So my understanding is this is approving pending the approval from downtown of the exception that we need. Correct. >> Yes. The uh 1003 flexibility waiver was submitted in December. Um the Indiana Department of Education shared with us that they would not be approving flexibility waiverss at their January meeting. Because they are now meeting every other month. That means those approvals will come at their meeting on March 4th. Um, if worst case scenario, they didn't approve those two, it would just affect October 9th and January 4th. It would not affect the other days, the start date, the breaks, the end date. So, it really just
056affects two particular days in the calendar for the next three years. >> So, I know one of the reasons we want to go ahead and vote was for transparency. People have been asking, I've been getting emails from people about it. Um, so will we still go will we now go ahead and post these online so people can see them with that caveat or whatever language we put around it. >> We would post it online. We would make sure that it would be clearly stated online that this is still penny but we want to get it out there so that people can start making plans to approve. Yes, we have um the template ready for the website that will roll first thing in the morning. We'll also share that information with our districtwide with our staff,
057making it very clear that that we still need approval on these two days, but um as you all know, you're receiving questions about that. But in working with Dr. Young, we wanted to make sure we tried to share this information as soon as possible, but also knowing that it really is just two days that are up to play and and we've got plans if in fact something came up that pertaining to those two specific days. Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? >> Nope. >> All right, we're on the vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Thank you, Dr. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we're on to human resource. Dr. Hunter. Action item C. >> Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board. Dr. Young, I request your
058approval HR report as presented. >> I move that we um approve the human resources report as presented. >> Second. So moved and second that we approve our HR report as presented due to the confidentiality of our human resource report. We're on to vote. All in favor say I. >> I oppose. >> Thank you. We are also have action item D supplemental board report. Dr. Justin Hunter. >> Mr. President, members of the board, Dr. Young, I request your approval of the supplemental report as presented. >> So move. >> Second. been moved and second that we approve our action item D supplemental report as presented. Likewise, we are on to vote. All in favor say I. >> I oppose. Thank you, Dr. Hunter. >> Thank you, sir. >> Action item E, request for revised cost. Dr. Alicia
059Gatewood. >> Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, and Dr. Young. I am requesting the approval of action item E, the request for a revised cost for the English language arts grades 6 through 8 textbook adoption. >> I move we approve the request for a revised cost for the ELA grades 6 through8 textbook adoption as presented. >> Second. >> Move and second that we approve action item E as presented by Dr. Alicia Gatewood. Are there any questions? >> How much was the increase? That was one thing I I didn't see or >> $40,83953. >> Okay. >> I don't have a question per se. Thank you. I we there were some of us that did have questions and we were emailing and we got responses very quickly. I appreciate that. Of course, >> even when
060it was after you were supposed to be looking at your computer, but >> I'd also like to state that um if you would to share with the public why the increase because that could be a concern to anyone who doesn't have the information that we have. >> Absolutely. Uh the cause for increase was actually twofold. We actually have an increase in student enrollment. So, we have more students. So, we need to make sure that they have books and then also publishing costs went up in 2026. >> Thank you for sharing. >> Of course. >> All right. Any other questions, statement, comments? >> If not, we're on to vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppos. >> Thank you, Dr. Gabe Wood. >> Thank you. >> And we have next up, Mrs. Monae Gray
061for action items >> FGH and I. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, and Dr. Young. I request your approval of action items F, G, H, and I as presented. >> I move that we approve um action items F, G, H, and I as presented. >> Second. >> Move and second that we accept and approve action items G, F, GH, and I as presented. Are there any questions on FGH or I? No questions. We hear none. All we on to vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppos. Thank you. Now we're on to board member items. Dr. Moore. >> I have nothing tonight. Mr. President. >> Um Mrs. Wilson. Um, nothing other than, um, I noticed there's a bunch of young people here and they stayed through this whole thing. >> I
062take my hat off to you. Thank you. >> You're not going to talk about IU. >> All you all you do fans, >> I I >> knew I knew you had some. >> I was going to wear it, but I thought, nah, I just they had to rip it. >> What a game. But that's all right. >> All right. Uh >> well, don't forget about the girls. >> Can I tell you about those girls? >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Talk about poetry in motion. If you want to see a poetry in motion, come watch the girls basketball team. They have a game tomorrow against Caramel. You will not be disappointed at all. They're very disciplined. They get the highest ratings from the referees because of their discipline and how they are very sportsmanlike. and Miss
063Bishop's daughter. >> Mhm. >> She's a beast on the board. >> Uh, Mr. >> All right. Well, as a Purdue guy, I won't make all the jokes I want to make about the >> Are you a Purdue guy? >> Tell us exact. >> Anyway, all right. So, um it was already mentioned tonight about treasures, but um I just wanted to our table is full for treasures. So, I wanted to challenge the other board members to uh uh also see if you could uh fill up a table at the treasures event and uh because like I said, all the money that they put in towards Pike, it really does um it it helps, it's needed, um it's a must and so we really appreciate everything that they do. Um, I did want to remind everybody, we
064had the good conversation earlier about the impacts of the taxes and and everything with the finances. This is a short session downtown, but they're still trying to do big things. Um, one of the bills, I think it is still out there. I haven't heard of it getting shut down, is a proposal to eliminate property taxes, which would um, >> have clearly a huge impact. I don't see a world where that passes, but I don't see a world where a lot of things that go on today happens. So, um, if you like public schools, I would encourage you to call downtown, talk to your, um, your representatives downtown and let them know how you feel that that you want to continue to support public schools. Um, with that in mind, I'm glad Miss Dorsy um, pointed
065out the name of the uh, church. I wasn't sure if they were remaining an remaining anonymous or not, but I did want to also personally thank Solid Word. They do a ton of things for the Guyian Creek Middle and um elementary school all the time and just having them step in to fill the gap where our representatives downtown are failing our students. I appreciate seeing the faith community do that. I've talked to some other churches. I think there are more folks. We're going to see more of that in that community from that um the faith leaders that have been put together. And so just um I like seeing people actually represent loving their neighbor instead of just talking about it and them doing the opposite. >> Thank you, Mr. Herford. U Mr. Anderson, >> uh
066I would just like to also get another recognization for the Boy Scout Troop for being here. Uh I appreciate you being the the first um the first female to accomplish that your your accomplishment there and your goal. It's good to see Miss Hot back there. Good to see you here as well. also appreciate about the online the afterchool uh tutoring service. My daughter, she's benefited through the years from different services. So, I know other kids will be able to benefit from that as well. And I'm also really excited about um what Mr. Amanda came through about the new uh possible uh the the theater that we're going to have. That is such a huge deal. Um I know a lot of us didn't get a chance to go over to St. Monica when they had
067a big presentation there but it left a lasting impression on me and he still has the same passion uh which Mr. Sleepy I forget the rest of his name but uh he he kind of brought it home for me even more. So uh I I really look forward and I hope that we we can have a collaboration uh with that project. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Hansen. Ms. Barnes. Uh, first I'd like to congratulate Miss uh congratulate Miss Price on your accomplishment being I'm a former scout as well, but to have a female Eagle Scout that I get to live, to meet, and to see is pretty exciting. So, congratulations. Uh, yesterday I represented the board at our district wellness council meeting led by Mr. Jacob. Chartwells uh received the innovative school lunch makeover
068award and the innovation in the preparation of school meals award for their work feeding our pike children. Our school nurses held a successful immunization clinic for our students and they administered flu shots to our staff. Uh I was also able to hear how reach for youth will provide mental health services not only for our students but also for their families. So they offer more of a wraparound service um for our children and that was something we voted on during our last schoolboard meeting. So, I was able to get some kind of in really good details about that program. And also, our assistant principles are currently working on their applications for America's Healthiest Schools Award. And I think we're going to do really well this year, just like we did last year, probably even a little
069better. And lastly, uh, board members, we are invited to greet our community at the 3rd annual mental health fair on Thursday, March the 12th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. It's right before our board meeting the same evening. That's at Pike High School. And earlier that day, Mr. Gary Sales and Daryl Flash Gordon will be speaking uh during the sports mental health summit for our juniors and seniors at Pike High School. And I don't know if you remember last year we were kind of concerned about the attendance. That activity is moved into the school day this time and our juniors and seniors will be participating. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um Ms. is Miss Kelly. >> All right. Good evening. >> Super excited for having an Eagle Scout with us. That is awesome. Many,
070many, many, many scouts do not finish that accomplishment. And so that is awesome. Um, again, our the Pike Foundation, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all you do. The amount of money that has been donated to the classrooms and back to our students is awesome. Um, our other donors, the list the last two weeks has been impressive. We've had so many donations from the community. Again, we've been really kind of emphasizing our getting our um relationship, this district's relationship with the community solid and keeping it to where we are. They know we're a part of this community and the community is a part of us and we want to continue that. Again, I want to echo um treasures again because that's where the money is raised by the foundation. So all of us that
071can support attending treasures, that would be awesome. And um just the good information that we got about things that are going on in our community and um being involved and if you're able to help and be a part of that, even better. So >> thank you, Miss Kelly, Dr. Young. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, January is National School Board Member Appreciation Month and uh, we just want to and I I'm sure I speak on behalf of many people in our community. Just want to thank each and every one of you. I also want to recognize and thank Chartwells for helping us just pull together a small token of our appreciation for for everything that you all do and uh, we're better because of it. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Let it >> that's it.
072>> Again, I I certainly appreciate all the board members and the value that you bring uh to the board and we look forward to a uh a great great year. Um we do have a school board retreat coming up uh 31st, I believe. >> And so we look forward to planning and talking about our path forward. Um I I want to say a shout out to um Mr. Keith Holland. our girls uh coach and uh Jeff Teague and his staff. Um if you if you were not at uh Southport's game last the game last week against Lawrence North um it was a barn burner. We had a really good opportunity here. We lost one of our boys. Is that is that is that student back? I don't know. Is that student back? Anybody know? >>
073I'm not sure. Okay. Is he okay? Dr. Bishop is is not Yes. She believes he is. >> Yes. >> Okay. One of our students got hurt and uh they had to pull pull him out the game and I think that that contributed to a uh uh that that game >> second half coming. >> Yeah. Launching off a little edge. But tomorrow night our boys do play in Caramel and our girls play here. And so we just uh I'm excited because we have a chance. I think if if if if we just get some good grace, we really got a chance to be represented uh both boys and girls basketball uh at the end. We really look like we have a state team. We just hope that we can get there. All right. So, we u
074uh encourage the board to support uh our boys and girls basketball. Stay warm this weekend and it's going to be cold and projected snow. So, let's um all make sure we do our best to stay warm. Nothing else. Uh like to entertain a motion to >> So move, Mr. President. >> Second meeting. >> I need to sign it, too. I've missed one place.