001Mr. President, whenever you're ready. >> Ros, for the pledge of allegiance. >> I 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. Good evening everyone and welcome to our MSD Pike Township School Board meeting August 14th. We will start this off for the good of the cause. If there are any patriots who would like to use this platform, you may do so by coming up to the three minutes coming up to the platform by stating your name. All right, we'll move on to spotlight on Pike from our communications officer. Good evening. It's wonderful to see you all again. Um, on Tuesday, we had our leadership team meeting and I thought one of the most exciting
002things to come out of it was universally how excited our principles were about the turnout at their meet the teacher and schedule pickup events. Um, several of them got very creative this year at STAX Crossing. They actually had a kindergarten orientation and Mrs. Joan shared that it made a huge difference. The parents really appreciated it and she has read to every single kindergarten class and every single kindergartener has been able to sit still and listen to the full story which if you know 5-year-olds and some adults like that can be challenging. So she was extremely pleased. Um and you saw a lot of her colleagues say, "Oh, okay." At Central Elementary School, they're really focusing on attendance because we know every day matters. Um, so they had an attendance celebration for their first couple days
003of school and now it will be by classroom at Eagle Creek Elementary School. They're going to have Friday meetings with the whole school. So they have a whole focus and there are great things like that going on across our schools. So it was just great to hear from our buildings. Pike High School, Pike Preparatory Academy, and our three middle schools hosted their back- tochool nights already this week. They reported that they were extremely pleased with the attendance as well. and our elementary schools all hosted theirs this evening. We're proud to announce that all nine of our elementary schools are three middle schools and Pike High School were named 2025 America's Healthiest School Award winners by the Alliance for Healthier Generation. Eastbrook Elementary School, Fishbach Creek Public Academy, Gyen Creek Elementary School, and Gyen Creek Middle
004School received the highest honor, the All-Star Award, for earning recognition in all nine health related categories. they were among only 168 schools nationwide to receive that distinction. So, that is a very big deal. Um, and as you'll recall, each year we just keep getting better and better at that. It really reflects our focus on wellness and whole child education. Our fall season student athletes are in full swing. In fact, last weekend, our football and volleyball programs even hosted jamberees. And you can find information about our middle and high school team schedules and our youth league opportunities on our district website under athletics. We're also sharing a lot of that information uh directly via our weekly parent square messages. Last but never least, we would like to thank the donors listed on this evening's agenda for
005their incredible generosity. The Pike Township Educational Foundation donated $2,000 to our career and tech center student organizations at Pike High School, $3,600 to our Pike Red Zone Food Pantry, and $600 to support our robotics programs at Fishbag Creek and Lincoln Middle School. That is simply incredible. Um, Dusty Mansfield donated two pairs of football cleat with an estimated value of $140. and Screaming Eagle Soccer Academy donated 26 soccer balls and two bags with an estimated value of $714 to Guy Creek Middle School. We're grateful to the individuals and organizations that made those donations possible. Thank you very much, Sarah. Next, we have our reports to the board. First reading of the board of education bylaws and policies. Dr. Bishop. >> Good evening, Mr. President. >> Good evening, >> members of the board and Dr. Young. This
006evening, we took a pause from our policy. So, I want to remind you that back in April, Niola did a comprehensive review of all of their policies based on updated information we had received from um our current president and his new um legislation that comes across federally. So when they gave us the completed review, we had approximately 59 policies that we needed to review and update. The policy committee met several times for many hours to go through those 59. And then in July, we got an additional update of policies that correspond with laws that took effect July 1st. So, we will be working on prioritizing the updated policies so that we are we remain compliant um and current in our policies. I have for you policies to review. Please do not hesitate to reach out
007to me. There are a couple that we are rescending. There is one technical correction and the rest are revisions based on federal or state guidance. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have additional questions regarding any of these policies as I will gladly provide additional information for you. And a disclaimer that we'll be at this for probably the next couple of months um to work through all of our policies. >> Thank you, Dr. Bishop. >> Thank you. >> Next, we have one of my favorite reports, facilities project. Mr. Groover. >> Thank you, Mr. President. members of the board, Dr. Young. Uh I too enjoy giving this. Um so I get to come before the board a couple different times during the year, uh to give you updates on our blue ribbon plan, on
008things that are going on in the district. And the update tonight is really to just give you an overview of what we've done this summer. Um so the first slide here is just pretty much the basics. So every summer in the school district, we have to hit all of these items. So we do deep cleaning throughout all all of our buildings. We go through and we do painting, wall repairs, and a lot of those come out of our superintendent walkthroughs that we do in the spring. We'll do general carpentry repairs, loose door handles, cabinetry that needs repaired, replacing ceiling tiles, those type of things. And then we also do another landscape cleanup. So, we add mulch to all of our playground beds. Uh we push all the mulch back underneath the swings at the bottom
009of the slides to make sure we have fall protection. clean out the the the landscape beds right before the kids come back so that everybody's looking everything's looking tiptop. But then in addition to all of that, we usually load the summer with a bunch of capital improvement projects because that's when the kids aren't in the building and we don't want our projects to always be interrupting student learning. So this is these are the projects that we focused on this year. So we had the Deer Run interior renovations, the middle school corridor renovations, and that's all three middle schools. Pike High School main gym, which is still under construction, uh, coming nearing completion. Uh, Pike High School baseball and softball turf that got started this summer. Uh, we got roofing projects that are still underway. Uh,
010Central Elementary School security fence. And then the middle school tracks, we all got those re uh, restored this summer. So, all I want to do tonight is just kind of run you through some of those, show you some pictures, maybe get some oo and a's, and uh, and it'll be a good night. So, Dear Run, this has been a an ongoing project. If you'll recall, we started this all the way back in January, and one by one, we went through all the pods. We started in fifth grade, worked all the way down, did kindergarten over the summer. They're finishing up first grade right now. And I've shared some of those images back when I presented in the spring, but I wanted to share these images that show the corridors. So, we've got this new beautiful
011LVT wood plank in there. We updated the colors of the school to match the actual school colors. So, for years, those block hallways were painted uh some shades of blue and some tan, and it didn't match the Deer Run School colors, and now it does, and it really pops. And those accent walls are are something to behold. They're really, really nice. But what's even more exciting to me is the pods. So, you'll see that on the on the left. Each pod has a unique color. So, we kind of followed the primary colors throughout the building. Um, this particular obviously is a a shady yellow, but we have those acoustical panels hanging from the ceiling, which really uh deadens the space. They were very live before. So, if you had a group of kids in there,
012it was very, very loud. So, with the carpet on the floor, with those hanging up in the ceiling, it makes for a more intimate place to to educate, have little small group meetings. There's a beautiful graphic on the top of the wall there. And then we got a new reception desk. So all of our families that went in to meet with principles and teachers, they got to see this new upgraded front office. We have a few things still left to do there. They're working on the teachers uh workroom, which is just behind that wall behind the reception desk, finishing up first grade, and then the last thing of that building is we're going to renovate the library, and then it'll be all done. So earlier in the spring, I came before you and gave you
013an update of what we were going to do this summer in the middle schools. And if you recall, I shared this graphic with you. So this was a basic floor plan rendering of the designs that we were going to do. And this is what those designs turned into. So we have once again that beautiful LVT throughout the the buildings. Um really makes the hallways pop. They feel much more friendly, I guess, homey almost. um and and less uh institutionalized with that old VCT that you used to see all the time. Uh we got these beautiful color tiles that are in all of the the pod areas. Um and those colors that you see there, we pulled some of those out of the library. So a few years ago, we did the media center refreshes at
014all the middle schools and we wanted to incorporate those colors throughout the uh the educational wings. These are some more images. Once again, that's the main entrance right there. That main hallway between the counseling and the front office on the left. And then down there on the right, this is what we talked about the branding right down around our gymnasiums. We wanted to bring some of the branding colors into the buildings. So, we got the grind creek. I'm going to mess it. Jaguars. Almost said Tigers. That would have been bad. >> The Jaguars. And we brought their colors in down by the gymnasiums there. So, when people come in, they feel like they're in Jaguar country. Lincoln Middle School. Once again, the graphic I shared back in April, this is their cafeteria. Um, it had
015an LVT. It had a rubberized floor in there that had just not held up real well. It was about 10 years old. So, we move forward with putting a new rubberized floor in there. Um, and one thing you can't see in the pictures because we're still waiting on it. Um, one of the concerns we've had in some of these areas where we have the the the waterfall seating is trip hazards. And so in this particular building, what we did is we asked for a luminescent nose. So the nose of the stair is actually going to have a little bit of a glow to it, a little bit of a shine. And there's also a little bit of a glow-in-the-dark feature. So when the lights come down, you'll still be able to see where that step
016is and making it a much safer environment for our families when they come see their kiddos. Uh, but we are still waiting on that product to come in. This is the hallways. That's right outside the cafeteria on the left over by the concession stands on the right. And then these are some of the hallways. Little bit of a darker tone on the LVT, but once again that checkered pattern down in the classrooms. And also notice um brand new LED lighting at Lincoln Middle School. Um we were able to take advantage of an opportunity a few years ago to add LED lighting to Gen Creek Middle School. We had yet to do that at Lincoln Middle School or New Augusta North. So both Lincoln Middle School and New Augusta North got all new LED lighting and
017all new ceiling tiles and ceiling grid. Then New Augusta North once again hallways LVT. We got that splash of color throughout. Uh new wall covering um you know where all the kiddos run their fingers and their pencils. Very cleanable surface. This is down around the gymnasium. that big rotundra. Um, new LED lighting in there, that checkered pattern on the floor that's right there by the auditorium. And it just it just looks fantastic. And you have I as soon as you can get down there, I'd go over there to check it out. Pike High School Gymnasium. So, this picture was taken about a week ago. They were just finishing up sanding the floor. Later that weekend, they went ahead and stained the floor, and they're working on painting it right now. and bleachers arrive on August
01820th. We anticipate a two two and a half week install on the bleachers. So fingers crossed our volleyball team is going to be able to get in there before the end of the season. Pike High School baseball and softball. This project took a little while to get off the ground. Um something that's pretty complicated here in Indianapolis is storm water permits. Um, it takes a long time to get to through the red tape and the bureaucracy that's around that. And it took us a while to get permitting done. And the sad part is you can't even put a shovel in the ground. You can't even put up an erosion fence until those permits are cleared. Once that finally happened, we went straight to work. Here's a picture of the softball field. Already have torn out
019the fence. We started demoing. All of the softball to date or I'm sorry, all of the top soil to date has been removed from both the softball and the baseball field. There's the baseball field. At the time of the picture was a little further along, but we had a mountain of dirt out there in the baseball field that was the size of probably ASC >> and they brought in 65 trucks, triacle trucks, and removed it all. >> And then they were working on uh the softball field earlier this week. roofing project. They're ongoing. Um, actually had to hit pause tonight. Reached out to all the contractors. Please stop working tonight. Uh, we have back to school night. Um, but I want I wanted to make a comment about this. These projects were slated to be
020done already. But, um, as I've been talking to our roofing contractors, this has been, no joke, one of the worst years for roofing in over 20 years. The the weather patterns that we had, we had so much moisture. so frequently that they just couldn't get projects done. If you have over a 40% chance of rain on a roofing project, they can't they can't tear roofs off because you can't leave an exposed roof um and there's a chance of rain and so it just pushed everything back back back, but they're they're going now. They're working after school hours, so we don't let them work while kids are in session. Um just the foot traffic alone is too distracting for the kids. And so we've asked them to come in at 3 or 4:00 depending on when
021the school day ends to do all their work there. Central elementary entry school. This is just this is a small small thing that we did but I think it's going to have huge impact and these are things that we're looking for in the district and I'm actually really glad the car is parked there because it illustrates my point. This used to be all open. Um, so people could come in and they could drive up onto the basketball court and I think when you would leave here at night sometimes on a on a board meeting night, you'd see cars parked out there playing basketball. Well, that does two things. It creates a safety concern, but it also damages that asphalt because that asphalt was not designed to have car traffic on it. It was designed to
022be a playground. So, it doesn't have the same base that a parking lot might have. And there's a lot of cracking in there. And so we wanted to make sure that we have a a safeguard in place so that when we do replace that asphalt, it's going to last for years to come. Then the last thing, and I know this was discussed in this room, um the middle school tracks. Um we were able to get on those in June and July. Got all three of them resurfaced, repainted, and and they're beautiful. There's a little nice sponginess to it so that if you're out there running and our kid falls, it doesn't feel like you're falling on concrete. There's just a little bit of give to it and they turned out really really nice. That's all
023I've got going on. Um I felt like it was a lot, but uh do you have any questions about the projects we were able to get done this summer? >> I I I do, Mr. Gubber. I want to first of all congratulate you for um what we see in the uh in the slides. My main concern is we we kind of ended up last year uh at least three times about sustainability of cleanliness in these buildings after all of these dollars have been spent >> in renovation. What is the plan to keep them? I know we have a contractor, >> but what is the plan to to make sure the contractor understands the sustainability of keeping these facilities clean? >> Yeah. So, I actually have monthly meetings with both companies now. Uh, that's I'll be
024honest with you, that's not something I did in the beginning. They were more quarterly meetings. And I felt like that was just not enough touch points to hold them accountable for what's going on. And so, when we meet on a on a monthly basis, we actually bring real live data. So, there's pictures that are brought, emails that are brought, work orders that are reviewed, and we talk about who's where, what is their cleaning assignment, do they have the equipment that they need, have they been properly trained? Um, and I think it's paid dividends. Uh, I particularly at our our secondary buildings, I would say in the four years that I've been here, our secondary schools have not been as clean as they are today. Um, our high school is just looking fantastic. I mean, obviously,
025there's always room for improvement. But, but really, when I walk the halls of the high school, it's the cleanest it's looked since I've been here. uh our elementary schools, they continue to be a challenge because the soil load is so different than say the high school. In grades K through three, there's a lot of food and crumbs on the floor. So, it requires a lot more time and attention. So, we have to pay more attention to that when we're going over our audits and our reviews and making sure that custodians understand that in an elementary school, you have to vacuum every day. In the custodial industry and and that in that world, it is not common that you vacuum 100% of a room every single day. you typically vacuum hight traffic areas. Uh but in
026an elementary school in grades K through three, you have to vacuum every classroom every day or you end up with pests, things get ground in the carpet, the carpet begins to look dingy, and then it's just a it's a just downhill from there. Uh but the biggest thing has been staffing. So one of the things we talk about at our meeting every time is how are we staffed fully? And the economy, I think, has turned around. the job markets have turned around and we're able to fill all of those those positions very uh rapidly. We have floaters that are waiting in the wings ready to step in and take over if somebody doesn't show up, if somebody decides to quit. We have somebody ready to take their place and that's made a big difference. >>
027Rodent control. >> Yeah, I've got a couple of calls on that. >> Okay. Yeah. So, we um we have an agreement with Orcin Pest Control. They come out and they do monthly checks um at all of our facilities. And so we put uh bait boxes outside to try to keep the pests out. Uh excuse me. They'll do inspections on a quarterly basis for things like door sweeps, holes in the in the exterior to make sure that there are no penetration points. Um and then they come out and they're reactive. Uh, one of the things that, um, we are really focusing on is our cafeterias and our kitchens. Those seem to be the the number one point of entry for rodents in the building. And there's really two points of entry. One is the rollup door
028gets left open for long periods of time. We're taking the trash out. We're cleaning out an auto scrubber. And that rollup door stays open longer than it should. Creepy crawlies come in, they hang out until dark, and then they go find another place to hang out. Um the other challenge there is something that we've seen is they're coming in on trucks. So at times we're we're getting rodents and pests that come in on delivery trucks. And so that's an area that we focus on when Orcin comes out. He spends a lot of time in our dock areas, a lot of time in our cafeterias to make sure that those areas meet the standard for a food service area. >> Thank you so much. >> Yep. >> I just have a comment. Uh thank you so
029much because for all the work that you have done that you saw through uh because I I would get um uh complaints about you know the the gym seating. I think we talked about that last year. I thought you guys were just going to clean it. You just replace the whole thing. So I'm I'm happy with that. And the the tracks at the middle school. >> Uh so I'm glad that that is all taken care of. So thank you very much. >> Thank you very much for the work on that. >> Yep. And I had one too. I wanted to compliment you. I was in uh Gian Middle School for their back to school night and I've been in that school countless times. I've walked miles and miles in those hallways and honestly when I
030got there I this was not top of mind. I kind of forgot that we were doing all these and I'm walking around talking to people and what I noticed finally I was like this feels different under my feet and looked down and then I saw the floor and and saw everything and then kind of paused and took it all in and it is it is beautiful. The floor is wonderful. It was really um it was a really good job. Really nice job. I'm assuming the cafeteria was done day one. All right. That's good. And of course, I know the softball and the baseball are coming along. I'm excited to see that. Very excited to see what you do, especially with the softball field. So, >> yeah. >> Any more questions or comments? >> All right.
031Thank you, Mr. Grer. >> Thank you. >> Next, we'll move on to our action items. Action item A, minutes of the board of education, regular meeting July 24th. So move >> second. >> Got a first and a second. We're going to vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Motion carries. Next action item B, board member compensation resolution. Uh, this action item is to bring current board compensation to the state approved legislation that went into effect July 1st. >> So move, Mr. Second. >> Second. Got a first and second. Are there any questions or comments? >> Oh, bring on the mic. >> All right, we'll move on to vote. All in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose? >> Opposed. Motion carries. Next, we're going to combine action items. CD E F
032G H human resource report. Dr. Hunter. Due to confidentiality of the human resource report, we want entertain any questions or comments. >> Mr. President, members of the board, and Dr. Young, I ask that you approve items CDE, F, and G as presented. >> I make a motion that we approve items C, D, E, F, and G as presented. >> Second. >> We have a first and a second. We'll move on to vote. All in favor for item C, D, E, F, and G, say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Motion carries. Thank you, Dr. Hunter. >> Thank you, sir. >> Next, we have action item H, approval of the Pike High School updated course materials. Dr. Gatewood. >> Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, and Dr. Young. I present to you item
033H, approval of Pike High School updated course materials, and request approval as presented. I make a motion that we approve Pike High School updated course materials. >> Second. >> We have a first and a second. Are there any questions or comments? >> If not, we'll move on to vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Motion carries. Thank you, Dr. Gatewood. >> Next action item I, digital learning grant, Mr. Hec. >> Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, and Dr. Young, I ask for your approval of the digital learning grant action item I as presented. >> I make a motion that we approve the digital learning grant as presented. >> Second. >> We have first and a second. Are there any questions or comments? If not, we'll move on to
034vote. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Hec. I would like to combine action items J, K, and L. Miss Gray. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, and Dr. Young. I present to you action items J, K, and L, uh, which include the bid to accept the 2025 food service project and 32 contracts and six donations. I request your approval as presented. I make a motion that we um accept items. Lost track here. Uh I J, K and L as presented. Sorry. >> Second. >> We have a first and a second. Are there any questions or comments? Um, as always, whenever there's a contract with Central Indiana Educational Services Center, I have to um point out that my wife does work for them, but she
035does not obtain any benefit from this contract. So, there's no um conflict of interest. >> Thank you, sir. I'll just make a comment. The uh food equipment that we are purchasing um is quite expensive. I I didn't realize. Um, so you may or you may not know. Are we this longevity? We're looking at what 10 12 years. >> So typically they last about 10 or 15 years. These particular items have reached their end of life. Um, they're breaking down. We're losing product and they really need to be replaced. So that's why these are grouped together like this and the cost is substantial because they're the big walk-in freezers and coolers. >> Okay. All right. Well, we'll move on to vote. There's no more questions or comments. All in favor for action items J, K, and
036L, say I. >> I. Any oppose? >> Motion carries. >> Thank you, Miss Gray. >> Lastly, we'll move on to board member items. Dr. Moore, we want to say happy to be here tonight and to uh see the progress of the facility. Uh Mr. Gruber, you're definitely right. I'm having some work done in off on our facility and uh they can only work till about 9:00. They start at 6:00, work till 9 >> and then come back in the evening because of the heat. Uh you're definitely right about roofing. Uh but uh as I move through the district, I I go through the district one day a week to look at the roofing. Uh and it's coming along. uh and u want to thank you for the work that you've done to get our students
037uh to feel a sense of pride uh in our in their hallways. It's it's it's tremendously beautiful. Uh thank you for the work you're doing in that particular area. Also, I want to uh just encourage um all of our staff and all of our teachers. Um, you know, mental health is important to our children and we hope that uh this year will be a great year for our teachers and it staff because if it's good for you, it's going to be good for our children. I believe that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Moore. Mrs. Wilson, >> first of all, I wanted to um Angela, she's not here today because she had to have some u medical surgery or So, we wanted to hope that things will go okay with her there. And then, um,
038I want to also commend Josh Coats and David Moore on the, um, filming that they did for one of for a student. Um, I was in the front end of that getting spearheaded it with um, a couple people including um, Dr. Young. So, turned out to be a really nice um really nice thing that that they did. Then thirdly, um we've had back to school night and I just would like to figure out the formula that we can get our parents to start coming back to back to school night because without them when we look at the statistics on our scoring we could do better and we can't do better without our parents. If they don't push our kids, we can't do much. You know the thing I used to do when I was teaching,
039I always tell a parent, I can't do any more than what you can do. So, you got to help me help you to help that person, your child. So, somewhere along the line, we've lost that piece of the parents taking the time out. Maybe the time it may look at the time, parents are getting off work, they can't find someone. Um, I had someone ask me, "Can you watch my childhood?" Because I got back to school tonight because the teacher said, "I can't bring the" They asked me to bring the smaller one. I said, "Well, I got school board." But if you have to bring your child so that you can learn something about your other child, we should encourage them to come however they can. And I I know this is really not the
040platform, but somewhere we have to start telling our parents. The teachers have to start telling our parents. The principles have to start telling our parents. The administrators have to start telling parents. We need you at our schools. We don't need you to come when you think that we've said something wrong to your child that you didn't like what they had on or how they wore their hair. We want you to come when we tell you that your child is failing or they need some understanding of why they didn't get the grade that they got or why they didn't get in the class or the teacher have them sit outside because they don't want to deal with whatever the issue is. We got to get our parents involved. Um, Indiana as a state, we're we're we're
041not at the top of our game as far as the as testing and we're we can be. It's not that we can't be, it's that we can be, but we can't do it ourselves. No matter how many tests you give a student, no matter how many programs you come up with, we still have to have those parents involved. >> Um, I want to take Speaking of that, Miss Hernandez, she is an asset to this community. And I just want you to know that >> I sure did because you know why that's how I know her when she was dealing with my daughter. Nobody else could deal with her but Miss Hernandez. And so I that's always stuck with Miss Bishop and and to you too. These two dealt with my daughter. So just so you
042know, she's got a reputation at Pike. So, and so I know I'm talking a long time and Miss Demon too, but um I just this has been on my heart and when I see the statistics I and actually I I came across this because the other day it popped up on on a on a social media thing that I was reading and the parent the teachers were talking about they had one parent show up out of 346 kids. That teacher had one parent that showed up. Come on, we can do better. So, with that being said, I'm happy that the tracks are fixed. I'm so happy because I had parents come to me saying when I went I was going to go to a game to a track meet and I noticed that they're all
043away. I don't do away games anymore. That's I don't coach anymore, so I don't go to those. And I said, why don't we have any track meets here? Because the tracks needed to be fixed for safety reasons. Now, we can have home track meets and I can go. And thank you very much because they look absolutely fabulous, Mr. Grutder. Thank you. So, sorry, but I had to get that out, guys. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Hoofer. >> Um, so do want to um just always acknowledge and thank all the the teachers. I know everybody's getting kind of back in full swing now and so thank you guys. Um I want to acknowledge so um I know for uh with the teachers back in full swing for all of their spouses
044and partners and family members that love them. I feel you and uh it's a long year. So, um you know, but thank you for for allowing your your loved ones to uh to care for our babies. Uh we it is it is a wonderful thing. Um and I do want to kind of echo a little bit what um Miss Wilson was saying. You know, we had the work session before this looking at numbers and and she's right. Parent involvement is al you obviously critical. Um another thing that we know and I know Dr. um Young beats this drum all the time. We know that early education, getting our kids into quality preschools, Nathaniel Jones, uh, being, you know, key here in Pike, um, that is critical. And, um, had a chance, um, earlier this week,
045the days all ran together, but went to Dr. Moore had a um a session at at his church on the kind of the state of public education and Senator Kadora was there and I'm going to get some of the numbers wrong, but he pointed out that in this last budget round that we had, we took money from early education from twos and threes and fours and fives. Uh it used to be family of four that made about $47,000 would qualify. um apparently that was too wealthy and so we take that money away to subsidize the top 1% of the state to send their kids to private schools. Um we're messed up and uh I just >> as people consider I know it's not I don't know if there's any elections this November. I don't think
046so. But it's never too early to start talking about it >> when it is election time. come out and vote and then keep in mind what's happening. If you don't like the state that the schools are in, the the the condition the the what's going on at the schools. One of the key places to look is where's our funding? Uh because where your funding is shows where your priorities are. Um and our state showed a lot where our priorities are this last time. And so I just always want to keep pointing that out. Um and take advantage of this platform. So >> thank you very much, Mr. Hooper. Miss Kelly. >> All right. Good evening. Welcome back. We are officially in the first two to three weeks of school. Pace yourself because we do have
047to get to December and we will um >> as we have we just came from the work session prior to this meeting and we looked at the data from last year and the challenges that we face to increase the data for our students to move our students in the right direction. Again, I echo Miss Wilson. Parents, you hold the key to a lot of of that and partnering with your schools, with your principles, with your teachers. When those buildings are open, we're looking for you to be there. I'm looking at the audience, even here at the board meeting. We should have standing room only for information that's going out about what's going on in the district. This is a place where you can learn about what is going on. What's driving that decision that that
048teacher made in the classroom? What's driving why my the dollars had to be spent the way they had to be spent? Why is my building getting XYZ resources and all of those things? This is where those things are talked about at this meeting. and you have an opportunity for 3 minutes to share and as a board we want to hear what's on your mind. We want to know how we can serve our community better and we also want to know we also need you engaged with us helping us. It's not just our committee community. It's all of our community, everyone that lives in Pike. And we're hoping that all those that live in Pike have a vested interest. Again, as Dr. Moore said, teachers, your mental well-being is key and crucial to our student outcomes
049as well as your own outcomes. So, we're concerned about you as people as well as the students. But when you're well, our students are well. And so I think we have to keep that in mind. Um I know Miss Wilson and I are like we going long tonight, but I really feel very strongly that we have to as a community partner together to achieve the outcomes that we're wanting to see our students have. It's not Dr. Young can't do it all. His team can't do it all. Teachers can't do it all. It takes everybody coming together to make it happen. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Kelly. Dr. Young. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, and I concur with what has been shared. I also do want to share in addition to that that this
050week the state released I read scores. I'm very excited to share and congratulate our educators and and our families that this is the third straight year that the MSD of Pike Township has experienced growth on I read. So, we are definitely going the right direction. In addition to that, 44.9% of our second graders passed I read. So, that's a third grade mastery test. And yet, yet almost one out of two of our second graders have already passed that test. they will not have to take Irene in third grade. I also want to share that we're getting the basketball court ready. But I also want to share for the first time that I can recall and I've been in Pike a long time, our boys and our girls basketball teams preseason are ranked number one >>
051in the entire state of Indiana. So I jokingly tell Mr. group where we can't have the number one boys and girls team in the state and then we play we're playing and practicing at the Y. So, we're going to push to get the floor ready to go for the top ranked boys and girls team in the entire state. >> Let's go Keith. >> Thank you Dr. Young. Uh welcome back everyone. I'm glad that we're in our second week of school. seems like things are going over smoothly and so we appreciate that uh to our administrative staff and to our teachers and our IAS our bus drivers everyone coming together make that work. Uh also we got a chance a lot of us got a chance to get to the um ice cream socials at the
052school. I just want to give a shout out to Dr. Steel. I was over at Fishbach. Um I I can see the love that they have for their principal. She's holding babies and getting hugs. cuz there was a line to see her. I had to leave so I didn't get a chance uh to get a chance to say anything to her because there's so many parents around her. So that that was good to see. And also to an unsung uh hero, Officer Lane. I won't mention everything, but he has a really big heart. I was at a restaurant far on the east side. >> His pictures on the wall >> and the owners just kept going on and on how many how much he does for the community that he doesn't really talk about. Right.
053>> So, shout out to Officer Lane for all that he does. That being said, if I can get a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> So, move, Mr. President. >> Second. >> Have a good evening, everyone.