001Get that lid off. Madame Secretary, whenever you're ready, let's all rise and say 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. I'd like to welcome everyone to our March 27th Pike Township School Board meeting. And we'll start off with the public hearing for number 1028 preliminary determination hearing for the 2025 to 2027 early learning center expansion, renovation, and districtwide facility improvement and equipping project and related financing. Presented by Mr. Foster. Good evening, Madam Secretary, members of the board, Dr. Young. I'd like to welcome everyone to the public hearing for the pre preliminary determination hearing for the early learning centering expansion renovation and districtwide improvement project and related financing. This
002is the second uh public hearing uh as required and is published by by NA law. The first uh public hearing was on March 13th in which information about the projects, the legal process, and the financing, including the resolution, were presented. I'll be presenting the resolution as an action item later on this evening. As a reminder, a public hearing is the opportunity to hear public comment. I recommend we make that time available. Is there anyone in the audience that has comments pertaining to this public hearing? Thank you, Mr. Foster. This will conclude the public hearing. Thank you. Now, we will go on to the regular scheduled schoolboard meeting. Starting off with for the good of the cause. If any patrons would like to use this platform, you have three minutes and you can start by stating
003your name. for the good of the cause. Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to Spotlight on Pike. Thank you, Madame Secretary, members of the board. I am standing in again for Mr. Dorsy. You may recall at our last board meeting, she wasn't able to be here because she was caring for um her iling alien father who has passed away actually this past weekend. So, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. But um Miss Dorsey did send me some highlights that she wanted me to share this evening. So, I am glad to share that a group of students from New Augusta Public Academy North competed in the regionals for the National History Day Indiana at Caramel High School earlier this month. Five of the eight projects qualified to compete in the state competition at Marian
004University on Saturday, April 26th. Please join us in congratulating Ephe Adelopee, who was selected to play in the 2025 IFCA football all-star game. Congratulations to our Pike High School Robo Devils for winning the Rising Allstar Award and finishing in seventh place with their alliance at the first robotics competition district event in Cooko. Our Pike High School girls basketball team continues to rack up recognitions with several players mentioned on the 2025 Indie Star All USA Central Super Team. Top sophomore and top freshman standout list. Fishback Creek Public Academy recently collected 1,330 items for the Red Zone Food Pantry at their family fun night. They also had 12 donations at their blood drive, which can help out up to 36 people in need of this life-saving gift. Registration for the 2025 2026 school year is now open.
005All returning K through 11 students are asked to register by May 9th of 2025 to assist us in preparing for proper resources and staffing for this upcoming school year. We'd also like to remind everyone that no matter where you live now, you belong in PIPE. We are proud to be able to offer exceptional learning opportunities to all students regardless of your residency. Additional information can be found on our website at msdpike.org. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Young. We're going to move on to the reports to the board superintendent above and beyond award recognition. Dr. Hunter and welcome back, Dr. Hunter. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Happy to be back home. Madam Secretary, members of the board, Dr. Young, I have the honor of introducing Miss Dell Jones, the principal of Snax Crossing
006Elementary School, as she presents the Superintendent Bob and Beyond Award. Good evening, Madame President. Dr. Young and members of the board. It is with my wonderful pleasure to present this award to one of um my staff members who means very much to me. She's a very dedicated, compassionate individual and her name is Mrs. Angela Suski. Um I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Suski when I was an assistant principal at Deerron Elementary and then when I came to Snacks Crossing she was my reading interventionist. Mrs. Suski she handles the interventions that my students receive in small groups. She oversees three academic interventions under her as well as creating their schedules. Her job requires her to analyze data, collaborate with teachers to build flexible groups, and just keep all of us on task. She continually continuously
007goes the extra mile and pushes the leadership team to reach their potential. She does not shy away from a challenge, but sees challenges as opportunities. Anything I ask, she's already thought of it and completed the task. She believes in every student's potential. She offers creative ways to support our students as well as pour into the leadership team. She's an instrumental part of the staff at Snacks Crossing and it is a pleasure to offer this award to her. I would like to introduce Miss Angela [Applause] Okay. Madam Secretary, members of the board, Dr. Young. I have the honor of introducing Miss Aaron Botford, principal of College Park Elementary School, as he presents the Superintendent Above and Beyond award. Miss Botford. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board. Dr. Young, College Park Elementary proudly nominates Miss
008Victoria Miller for the Superintendent's Above and Beyond Award. Miss Miller is our exceptional art teacher who consistently demonstrates a profound dedication to students and families. Her passion for arts is not only incredible, but it also helps to foster a nurturing and engaging learning environments for all of our students. She cultivates strong relationships with current students and former students as well. Miss Miller's commitment to instilling a love in art of art, excuse me, is evident in her tireless tireless efforts to encourage students to achieve their personal best. She readily volunteers her time and expertise as seen um in our hallways. All of our bulletin boards just look beautiful and there's other artwork that she shares throughout our building. This year, she's even showcasing College Park student talent at the Holiday Park Art Show. again to ensure
009that our artwork is celebrated by the community as well. Her attention to detail and unwavering support to reinforce our students in their artistic abilities is incredible. Miss Miller's dedication extends beyond the school day as she provides additional support to our students during afterchool events as well as in uh school clubs. So congratulations Miss Miller on this well-deserved recognition. Thank you. [Applause] Continuing with our reports to the board, alumni excellence, Dr. Young. Good evening again. Good evening, Madam Secretary, members of the board. I'm excited to once again have the opportunity to highlight a Pike alumnist that's doing amazing things in her profession. But you know, before I do that, I do want to in case you just don't always get to put a name with a face, Mr. Bording Cacker is the man behind the scene
010that creates all of these videos. He reaches out to the the alumni excellent candidates and he just makes it happen. He just does a phenomenal job behind the scenes and and I know he likes it that way, but I do want to recognize him here. Mrs. Green has an amazing story and um I don't want to go too much into it, but I've known her I've had the pleasure of knowing her her entire life, but also um her family and they have been rooted in in Pike uh for just decades and decades and decades. So, with that, I will turn it over to um our technology team, Miss Rita Green. My name is Rita Green and I graduated from Pike High School in 1999. I went on to go to Anderson University and um I
011didn't complete my degree there. I came home because I had a child. I had a daughter and so I came home and went to school here in Indie um at IvyTech. So, I currently work at Radio One and I have been in the communications business for quite some time. I started in the music industry by managing artists and coordinating events. I was very young when I started that, but um I've continued to grow in that field, something that I love to do. It's a passion of mine. I currently um still coordinate events all over the country and um I enjoy it. I was diagnosed with cancer with leukemia on my my 27th birthday and I just paused. I I froze and I ended up spending seven months in the hospital, 3 months on life support.
012The doctors gave me 3 months to live. I was in there through Christmas, through Thanksgiving. Obviously, I couldn't work being in the hospital, but I had children at the time. And I remember the the nurses on six south. They came into my room and they brought Christmas gifts for my children. And that is something that I will never forget. Just the experience of a stranger giving to you and helping you in a time of need. And my first thought was everybody needs to experience this once in their life where they are, you know, someone is reaching out and helping them in a capacity that they need and maybe not understand or know where to go to get the help from. So I wanted to be that for somebody else. So that's what started the resource.
013We started as um just doing a Christmas event every year where we would adopt families and we would give them Christmas, but we would tie it into the disparities that they have. the kids would get, you know, new clothes, new shoes because that's what they need for school and they would get school supplies. They would also get a lot of toys um because what's Christmas without toys and um and we also gave them food for a week. So that's where we started. We are now able to do a lot more and reach a lot of ground um which is such a blessing. It's so exciting to be able to be a part of the community in this capacity. The most important thing for me is to be able to serve the community and I would
014not trade that for the world. Mr. Stalwalk was a guardian angel for me. I mean, he completely changed my life. He was my orchestra teacher and he pulled out a gift that I didn't even know was inside of me. I started playing the violin in middle school, but when I got to Pike, Mr. Sblock, he stopped. He took time out with me. He cultivated me. He cultivated my gift, and he really saw the best in me. And that was something I wasn't used to experiencing. Um, so Mr. Stobach really brought some things out of me that I didn't know were in me. And even again, to this day, I I follow Mr. stopwalk on social media and he um interacts with me on social media and he still gives me that push and that drive
015to be better and I do go back and and remember and I grab some of those pieces of what he gave to me when I'm going through something that's tough and that helps me to continue to go forward and push through it all. I would say to people who are currently in Pike um or families that will be attending Pike to to know who you are, to be proud of who you are, and to get everything that you can out of your education. You know, I had to fight for a lot, but now looking at the things that I've been able to accomplish and the things that I've been able to experience, I wouldn't trade it for the world. It gave me everything that I needed to really face the real world. So now I'm
016working in the music industry. I'm working in radio and TV. And I just couldn't be more thankful for where I come from. Well, Miss Green is definitely a giver, but she's under the weather and she didn't want to give that to everyone here. So, she decided not to come in person, but um hopefully she's listening and I would personally want her to know just how proud I am of her. And at this time, I would turn it over to the board if you would like uh to to make any comments or questions. I certainly would. I um it's always um amazing to see the miraculous um especially the miraculous hand of God. A lot of times we don't like to talk education and and and and community Christianity, but I'm glad to see that she
017understood when she uh literally uh was counted out that the good Lord raised her and now she was able to go on with her um education and then serve in the community. So what a miraculous story. Thank you, Dr. Young. You know, I just want to say that um her accomplishments are amazing uh and the mental toughness to do all that she has done. Uh but she spoke to without even knowing to our unofficial slogan, Pike is the gift that you didn't know you needed because she talked about the impact that her orchestra teacher had given her and she goes back to get those pieces and still use them to this day. So, it's just a testament of what our district is doing. So, congrats to her. Yeah. I also have to attest to the
018fact that she started the resource hub in order to give back to the community and that's a testament to what was given to her back her life and the ability to do some things that she probably thought with the adversary that she had she wasn't going to be able to do it. And it just great to see when students have finally they find someone at the school that they can say they were a big part of my whatever I'm doing right now. And she saw that in Mr. Starbucks. So, I think that was commendable of her. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving on to our next report to the board, construction pathway. Mr. Enman and um Miss Hart. Madam Secretary, members of the board, Dr. Young, good evening and we are very excited
019to talk construction pathways tonight. Construction Pathways is a new pro program that we'll be implementing into Pike High School next year. Um in the fall, the board approved principles of construction trades carpentry. Um that is the leadin course to the construction pathway visit there. So I had a lot of uh of student interest in this course. In fact, we have a 100 student 120 students that will be enrolled in this course in the fall. So, 120 students will be involved in that skills trade. So, we're very excited about that. Tonight, we want to bring in a couple individuals or one individual, excuse me, who are actively involved in construction trades. They want to tell you what construction what construction trades are and then what opportunities are available for our students if they choose to enter
020this pathway. So right now I'd like to introduce Miss Hope Harp. She actually drove all the way from Louisville. Oh wow. That's a normal commute for me. Thank you. did that there. All right. I appreciate it. Good. Good evening, afternoon, morning, whatever. Um, I'm so glad to be here and thank you all for your foresight. Uh, thank you on behalf of my organization because the one thing that we need is people to work. Um, and what these students are going to bring to the table right out of high school and even while they're in high school is absolutely essential to us and to what we do. So, I am Hope. I work with the uh Central Midwest Regional Council of Carpenters, formerly known as the IORCC or IOR. Um, we changed our name just to
021better represent our membership because we've got people in Michigan, Ohio, everywhere. So, who we are? We're actually an affiliate of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. Uh, it's a labor union that was formed in 1881. Um, we've been going strong ever since. Currently, there's about 450,000 skilled trades professionals uh that work with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. Now, we're called the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, but it's actually that's our big umbrella underneath. We are the CMRCC. We have about 35,000 members throughout Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. And we are so excited to have some Pike students coming to us. Even after that first year, there's going to be opportunities. So, we actually cover more than just carpenters. When you say carpenters, uh that doesn't really cover everything. Our carpenters are all commercial carpenters.
022There's no um residential really in this area that that that we cover. Um our guys are doing guys and gals are doing interior systems. They're building hospitals. And we're going to talk a little bit more about some of these big projects that we have going on. But these are all commercial and industrial carpenters. So not residential. This is the big jobs, the big money, the big tax bases, right? That's what we that's what it really I mean when it comes right down to it, we want that money coming back into the community. Um, we also have the mill rights. That's what I am. I also have Jerome Stanford with me here. He is uh he is one of our reps and he's a carpenter. I don't hold that against him. Um, but as Mill rights,
023we and and any of these students that go through this pathway are going to have the opportunity to go either way, whether they are more like the the turny things and more interested in the machinery. Um, because that's what we do. We diagnose, repair, install, and maintain machinery. Um whether it's conveyor systems like all the conveyor that was put in out at the FedEx hub or the uh powerhouses that are downtown, that's what we do. If it turns, it belongs to us. All right. So, industrial maintenance, welding, machinery, installation, heavy rigging, those are just some of the parts of what the mill writes do and we need your students. We also have the floor covers. That's the third one. and they do everything from the hardwood floors that you see in the high school gyms
024to the carpet tiles that are in here um and everything in between. So, not just one opportunity postsecary, but three. It depends on what the students interested in. This is the big part. So, there is so much literally billions and billions of dollars worth of work in this central Indiana. And we listed just a couple of the big ones on the carpenter side. The IU Methodist um $3.4 billion currently right now 250 carpenters on site and it's ongoing. The Circle Center on Mall 600 million construction lasting 10 years. These students that graduate next year through this even with this one this beginning level program they can work for the next 10 years on this one job here in the community. Marian County Public Health 75 million 100 carpenters plus right now on site. The P&M
025Hotel 800 million 60 plus and then how can you not talk about Eli Liy in Lebanon uh 150 right now on site 15 to 20 billion dollars in work with a thousand plus skilled crafts people on site uh at peak. So we are just in they're just moving ground right now. So there is so much coming in coming up and it this is just these were just the great big ones that really popped out at me. That's not the ones that haven't even been that haven't even dropped yet and started. So, for us, it's all about apprenticeship. We have a 4-year registered apprenticeship. Any of these students we would love to have. They uh wind up they come to school one week every 3 months in between the times when they're coming to school. They're
026out there working. Now, this is after they graduate. While they're still in school, there's still going to be opportunities too for that workbased learning, right? So, there's capstone dollars there. There's a whole lot of different ways um that those students can get that good um CTE programming in the classroom and that on the job learning which is where the real learning, the big learning really happens. One week of class every three months. They take four classes a year, 16 classes total over four years. Um paid hands-on training in between classes, uh where they're out there on the job and they learn something new in every class. the kids that are going to participate in these programs. I'm one of those kids, right? Um I started back in the 1900s. So, right. So, it was a
027little bit ago, a little minute ago. Um but these are kids that are highly intelligent, but not maybe in the way in the traditional way. They got to I got to put my hands on I'm a tinkerer. I got to fiddle with stuff. I got to mess with stuff. And that's how these kids are. maybe they would not be as successful in just the regular traditional learning style, but that hands-on that CTE model, these kids are going to thrive. Uh, and we want them after they get done while they're going through apprenticeship. If they if there's a parent that wants that um college degree because everybody wants that college degree. Um, while they're going through us, they also will take classes that won't cost them anything, and they'll graduate with from us with that with
028that four-year apprentichip, that journey level certificate that's portable with them anywhere in the United States, plus that associates degree. These students would be starting out right there in the probationary, the lowest they would go would be that probationary amount, which is 22.64 an hour. So, that's decent. But what's it's really about are those benefits. All the benefits are paid by their employer and these are the opportunities these kids are going to have coming straight out of high school, right? Um there's a huge need, a huge need and you all are doing a huge service to the community and just the central Indiana economy by placing these programs in. We got rid of all of them. We got to bring them back, right? And that's what this is about. And you guys are ahead of the
029game on that. uh on April 22nd and we would welcome any of you all, anybody in the community to come out. We have a campus in Greenwood. Um so you can come and see how how we work, how we do things. Um we have you'll be able to meet our our staff. Jerome will be there. He's he's going to be the highlight of the evening. If you know Jerome, he usually is. Um to our facility, we have about 80,000 square feet of training space. Uh see some of our projects. Um, all of you all that have the um that have the presentation can either click the link in the in there or just show up. It's at 7-Eleven Greenwood Springs Drive on the 22nd from 5 to 7:00 p.m. We would love to see you
030there. If you do have any questions um for later on, if you want more information, you can reach out to us at partnershipscf.org. or that um goes directly to my team. Uh there's three of us. We have one uh gentleman that is kind of centrally located here. He also does a lot of work with uh veterans programs. So, he's currently out in the on the West Coast in San Diego doing a a veteran recruitment thing uh for our organization. But if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us. I'll also take any questions that you may have. Now, we have so much work. There is so much work and you all are in this wonderful area of Indianapolis where you have all this access to get right to I mean hypothetically
031speaking Eli Liy right where it's a quick drive for those all the hospital work and things like that. So you all are in a great place. Your students are in a great place uh to take advantage of this and we thank you more than you can know uh for your foresight in having in and allowing this partnership or not partnership but this programming to start and we look forward to hopefully having a really really thriving partnership with you guys in the future. So if you have any questions for me you are more than welcome to ask them or you can send them to those email and I'll get right back to you. Also, you can send that uh if you have any questions about the upcoming uh career event in the evening, please send it
032there and I'll send you the link to be able to register. I thank you all for your time. And um if you have any questions for me, I'll take them. If not, I appreciate y'all questions, Mr. Inman. Yes. Every student is not a liberal arts student, correct? Every student is not a liberal arts student. And I'm pretty sure we Being in the system here at Pike Township, you can discover those students. You have over a hundred already enrolled in the program. Um, how do you handle a student that's not that is that isn't aware of themselves yet as it relates to this program? How do you guide them into this direction? Does that make sense? Yes. Yes. Uh, I think a big big thing we try to do is is expose them to as many
033careers and opportunities as possible. Um, and that again I I do want to introduce Miss Mrs. Ortman. She's here. Uh, we have a she's our CT director at in the Pike Career STEM Center. But, uh, our students are constantly doing service um, yeah, service inventory. Okay. Hi everybody and the board. Good evening. Um yeah, we have offered a couple of events that have been sponsored by various um partners that I've heard about through my director community and network. Um and we've taken them to see what these opportunities are. So uh one foundational course that every freshman takes at Pike High School is called preparing for college and careers. And in that course, they get exposure to all the different opportunities. So, we asked anybody in that course if they wanted to sign up to go
034to we had a couple of field trip events this year to see if they were interested in it. So, we'll continue to do work like that, that exposure um on the continuum of work-based learning. So, starting at the lower grade levels, we've done some career fairs this year as well to educate our eighth graders about some opportunities at the high school. the fallout of uh trades. Where is the young lady? Oh, you're my favorite. Depends on who you talk to about that. Um the fallout. It's a big fallout. Um there has been the data shows that's a big fallout. Um what area is is where's the concentration of the greatest fallout at this particular time? for for us it definitely has just been in in incoming apprentices. Um because I mean I'll be completely honest
035here. I'll speak very plainly. Um until very recently unless you knew somebody or you were related to somebody, you couldn't access you had no access uh to the trades. I mean I'm very much aware of that. So I'll say it out loud. Um it's not like that anymore. Yeah. the people. We need everybody. We need everybody. And when when part of the the problem with the fallout is it takes so long to catch up. Um for instance, I'm uh I've got a I've got a year and 11 months before I can retire. My generation of people in our early to mid-50s, we're all getting ready to leave. We were born in the 1900s. We were born in the 1900s and we're almost done, y'all. Um and so it's just it's been difficult. And what's happening
036is it's a brain drain just like it is with anything else. All of us are leaving and then there's just a there was a such a small portion of people coming in because there was no awareness. There was lack of access. There were obstacles and roadblocks that were constantly put up in front of people. I know because I was a female milright in 1992. like I was not the most popular person there in the beginning. Um well in drama I'm probably may not be now. I'm sort of like you depends on who you talk to. So you know I think I think getting these people in and like like she said like Hillary said there are so many things that we do and and what's the best way who do kids listen to? Kids. Yeah.
037you get this program started and they start seeing all that cool stuff that these people are building and all the things they're getting ready to do and that kid's going to be like, "What are they doing over there? I want to go do that. I'm tired of sitting in in this class or that class." Then you can narrow it down and then it starts to be a selective process, you know, and you let the kids that are really, it's not a dumping ground anymore. And that's another problem that we've had in skilled trades is that we were treated as the dumping ground. a a kid you don't know what else to do with send him back in the welding shop, right? No, we couldn't get in the welding shop, but at school. At school. At
038school. No, I know. Um, but I think that's part of it, you know, increasing access, increasing awareness because the parents are all like, I don't want you my kid going and doing that. They can't make any money. I know that's how I felt when I went through school. I'd see construction workers. I'd be like, "Oh, that poor man. However will he feed his family tonight? They was eating better than we was." Right? And now that I have I'm in a position in my career where I don't want people to have to go through the stuff I had to go through. And I want people to know these opportunities are out there and they're lifech changing. These are paths to individual and generational wealth. You and I are friends now. and and and and I hope
039I can ask you this question and you'll be honest with me. I will. I'll try. That's to a fault. The minority piece it has okay and it has grown. But will it be affected by DEI now because no because you know what our people don't if I don't care. This has been my experience as a woman in 1992. They didn't care what pieces and parts I had or didn't have or what color I was or what I looked like. If I was making that guy money, I was coming back. Yeah. And I worked steady. Thank you. I don't think it will make a difference in our world now in uh in a corporate world or something like that. Absolutely. But I think diversity is one of the things that construction has really embraced. Okay. So,
040how do you um address the mindset to compete with students when they get old enough to work, they want to go work at the restaurants instead of Well, I mean, you can go come home every day smelling like French fries for $15 an hour or you can home come home smelling like sweat and metal for 25. I mean, if they've learned basic math, they should be able to figure that out pretty quick, right? So then my question still is I understand that you're you want to get this into the schools but um how are you planning on reaching to those marketing it yeah marketing it we spend Okay so uh that's that's where I come in so my title is outreach specialist and what I do is work directly with schools uh to find them
041uh employer partners that will come out and talk and spend time with the kids that will volunteer their time that will donate materials uh we have a whole staff, a whole building full of people that will come out and talk to the kids. That's what we want. We want, and it's not just us. This is not a union, non-union thing. Like, what's your favorite flavor ice cream? Mine's Superman. Everybody else is wrong. But that's not really it's it's what what what's best for you, okay? You know, and on the minority standpoint, this is another thing that I have heard out in the real world that women make.7 cents on the dollar what a man makes. I don't know nothing about that. like we are all make the same money. We all make the same. It
042doesn't matter as long as you show up. The minority numbers are definitely coming up though. And that's why I don't think DEI is going to have it. And we don't most of us don't have HR. H really got. So like we're just doing we want what do I care about? Are you going to show up every day? Are you going to be able to pass the whiz quiz? You pass the drug test, you going to show up. Can I shake your hand? I just feel all tired of men's words. I just want I want these kids to know like I came from nothing. I I'm like trashy as they come. No, you're a beautiful person. You are a beautiful person. You're a beautiful person and I just want I never dreamed that I would have
043the things that I have now. Every house, every car, every vacation, every fluffy thing, every shiny thing I've ever owned, I own because of the skill traits. That's great. And I want everybody to have these things. That's good. Miss Kelly, did you have a question? I do. Um, it's for um Mr. Enman. Yes, ma'am. So, you said there's currently 120 students interested in this program. We we have 120 students signed up to take the this course in the fall. Okay. What is the capacity of that of this course? Well, I mean, we're we're we're at capacity right now with the introduction course. So, uh, obviously as we get more and more students and that pathway grows, we would we would add another course and then another course and um and lead into that construction pathway.
044Me too. That's great. That you answer that was my I wanted to know do we have is there still space for those that have not made that decision yet? But you answered it that that's full. Um, I do have a question and don't know who it'll be for. Well, first of all, I I love this. In my family, we had one child who college was the perfect path. Another, it wasn't. And I think for far too long, we narrowly define success. And I like that we're broadening that back out that everybody can find success a niche. We have what it looks like for them. Um when my son was go coming up through high school and we were looking at different opportunities for him, construction was one of the things that was tossed out, not
045the path he ended up going down, but when we were in the programs we were looking at, one of the things they were very much promoting was the effort they put into getting the students OSHA certified at I'm assuming that's part of this program. And at what point does that happen? Because I know that's very important when you're entering the job. usually in the very beginning. Um because you want them to have some basic safety knowledge before they even start touching sharp and spinning things, right? Um so and and that's another thing that we can help with. Okay. um when when we we're here because we want we want to do everything we can to help develop these students um and and bring them our way whether it's our way or whether it's to another
046contractor it doesn't matter right it's about the success of the individual and finding that niche like you found like you said finding that thing um Jerome and the DEI not the DEI but the um the the minority questions are something the numbers He's way more familiar with the numbers. But it's just about getting those kids and getting them exposed. Like nobody ever all my life all I did was take stuff apart. When I was a little kid, I took the toaster apart. Like why does the toast pop up? How does that happen? I never knew that. And nobody ever once thought to tell me, "Did you know that there is a whole job that that's what you do is just take stuff apart and put it back together?" Nobody told me that once. And I
047want to make sure that everybody that I meet knows that these opportunities are out there. Whether it's with us, whether it's with the pipe fitters, there are so many different things out there. These kids have no idea. Yeah, they have no idea. Right. That's exactly. And to also add to that, so we do have programs currently offering OSHA 10 as well. Okay. Um HBAC, our um smart manufacturing does as well. Um so that will be one and then there is one that is grad pathway eligible that is offered through their program um as well. So that'll be another leg up for kids. Thank you. Yep. What did you say our number increases are. Please keep this is Sanford. He's he's our um feel free to Google me if you want to. Um so just to
048give you what how I how I operate. So, I'm the diversity director for Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, and I'm the political director for the state of Indiana representing the Carpenters Union. Okay. So, to your diversity question, yes, I know that DEI is a bad word now, and it's under attack. We're 100% self-funded. We don't care about what attacks DEI has. We're moving forward. Thank you. So, our friends are scared to play with us in the sandbox because they could lose funding, but we don't receive a nickel from the federal government. We don't care. Our numbers for DEI, we have increased our female membership participation by 35% last year. We've increased our minority participation by 45% last year. And that's just a start, right? We're we're pushing forward. As Hope mentioned earlier, there wasn't an opportunity
049for individuals like myself or like Hope to get into this. The doors are wide open now and we're going after because at the end of the day, it's about making money. When we talked to, and I'm a numbers guy, so I apologize, but when I talked to the city of Lawrence, they said their average income per person is $14.50. That's their average income. We're starting an 18-year-old kid who has zero experience at 2250 with full benefits. And what Hopefa mention was they're receiving a 10% increase every year of Journeyman scale. Journeyman scale is $37 an hour. So every 12 months they're going to get a $3.70 raise. So after their first full year in, they're going from $2250 to$25.90. And then the second year, they're jumping up another $3.70 to 26.60. These kids are making
050money. By the time they top out, they're at 37 38 bucks an hour, full benefits with a skill that no one can take from them. Jerome, may I ask, um, I'm interested in this, and I know I'm probably taking too long, is because when I see Five young men walking down the street with guns in their hands. Yes, sir. It disturbs me why why they could not plug into Pathway. Some people it doesn't make any difference. They say, "Oh, those are bad boys." Nobody's a bad person. They're just been influenced the wrong way. Look at this. Um, when we look at this and we try to understand it, this is not just a a living wage, it is a thriving wage because we are behind the eightball in in Indiana as it relates to a
051living wage. And and I was wondering with so many young people who are raised by single mothers and fathers who and even homes that don't have adequate income because our income is what 36 to $38,000 per in household income with both people working almost in some instances but not all. Um my question to you is if a young man wanted to get into the carpentry program, I have a friend who owns a construction company. He he creates apprenticeship programs. They don't have it. He punishes them with a toolbox. Uh is there anything you offer these young people as an incentive? They might want to do it, but they don't have the resources to get going. Do you do anything or offer anything? Does this program offer anything to help them get going? So, what we
052offer is free training, free education. That's that's about the extent that we can go, right? Um, but we do have partners that will supply these kids with boots, that will supply these kids with tools, that will supply these kids with um, helping them get transportation. We have a partnership with uh, prosecutor Ryan Mirrors for Marian County. Anyone that is in our program that has issues with their driver's license in Marian County, he will unsuspend their driver's license so they can go to work in our organization. These are the type of things that we can offer. So, we can't give you any type of tangible. I can't because if I put a hammer in your hand and you really need it, I got to put a hammer in your hand also and you don't need it,
053right? So, we can't show advantages or favoritism and that need. But the free training, the free college education, um, and putting them in front of our partners who can take care of stuff like that, that's that's what we Thank you so much. Yes, sir. We also have some stuff with DWB that allows for regional funding grants um for tools and things like that for students that may not be able to have that in the beginning. Thank you, Mr. Inman. Hey, thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving on to our last report uh to the board this evening, weapons detection plan, Pike High School. Mr. Gver. Thank you, Madam Secretary, members of the board, Dr. Young. Um I I've got to say, as somebody who works with the trades all the time, this is wonderful. I appreciate
054the superintendent, uh Mr. Inman, Mr. Zortman, and the board for supporting this pathway. It's desperately needed. Um, but that's not why I'm here. Um, I I am here tonight to talk a little bit about security, building security, particularly at the high school. So, it may be hard to believe, but about a year ago, we were all out campaigning for a referendum. And, uh, that referendum, the one pillar of that referendum was security. We wanted to bring in additional funding so that we could ensure that our facilities are safe. Not only for our students, but for our staff, for parents, any guests that are on the facilities, we want to ensure that they're safe. This was a commitment from Dr. Young from the very beginning. And shortly after he uh became superintendent, uh we started down
055this path of improving and enhancing security in the district. And since then, we've continued to kind of evaluate and figure out ways to to be better. So, what I want to do, as I often do with all of my presentations, I want to show you where we've been and kind of where we want to go. So, in the fall of 2022, we purchased weapons detection systems. There were eight of them, and it was from a company called Opengate. And at the time, these were the top of the line. Everybody was purchasing them. You would see them at the at the state fair and and everywhere else you were going. And what was so unique about this system was the mobility. So we could take them and set them up anywhere. We could take them down,
056move them, very very easy to use. And so we purchased them and we started doing what we were calling random weapons checks. So at our secondary buildings, middle school and high school, um at the beginning it was just a couple days a week. Uh, and then we moved to every day of the week where we were picking out uh one or two school buses or we were taking the first 60 kids in off the car rider line or taking students in from the student parking lot and we were running them through the weapons detection system. And the idea behind that was not that we were going to catch a weapon every single day, but it was a deterrent. We wanted our kids to be thinking, "Hey, I could get caught today, right?" Because sometimes kids,
057they're teenagers, they're not always thinking straight and they make decisions that are not always the best, but that deterrent is there that, you know, it could be my day today to get off the bus and go through the weapons detection system. And so we did that. What we really liked about it as well is it allowed us to kind of then pivot and add additional security to things like our football games. And then we moved on to our basketball games, our volleyball games, and really all athletic sports at athletic events. At this point in time, we are running through running people through weapons detection, ensuring that we have safe environments for those games. Um, but that got us thinking, what more can we do? Can we improve this? And so Dr. Young tasked me with
058going out into the community, particularly with our other schools in the in Marian County to see what they're doing and see what makes sense here in Pike. And Chief Casper and I, we contacted a lot of other school districts and we found a system called Evolve. It's a system kind of a sister company of Motorola, very common name, right? and Motorola in divine designed this system that takes your basic weapons detection system but it added AI technology which was really a gamecher. Um so one of the things that we are seeing with the benefits of this evolve system is as I said it's AI gen AI powered so it reduces the the number of people we need to operate it. It's not only doing metal threats but it's doing weapon threats. So, it's looking it's
059really more of a densometer than it is a metal detector. Um, if you can see there the little screen, it has what they call red box technology. So, as you're walking through the metal detector, it will draw a box around the part of your person that it has identified a weapon. The open gate system doesn't do that. So, if you set off the open gate system right now, they have to wander of your person to identify what's going on there. Whereas with this new AI technology, I could walk through and they could say, "Hey, on my right hip, there's something." And the officer knows exactly where to look, saving time, improving efficiency. And so that incre improves our passrough rates. And then the really cool thing about this is it's also a mobile system. So,
060one of my concerns thinking about all of our facilities and what we're trying to do with events was if we put a bunch of stationary systems in, we're going to have to buy two and three times the number of of equipment so that we can manage events. But this is 100% mobile, very easy to move. One or two people can move it to any area of the school to do weapons detection. So, we invited them out um evolved to come out and look at our high school facility. And at one point in time, we talked that the ingress, so arrival at the high school is a little bit challenging. We've got kids coming from all over the place. We have buses that run the entire length of the south side of the building and the
061entire length of the west side of the building. Our students are coming in from the student parking lot are coming in across and they're coming through the freshman center. We have a car rider line that's in front of the freshman center. We have a second car rider line that comes through the Circle Drive and comes in through door 10 there. And so the question was, how do we capture all of these students and it proved to be quite challenging. So when they came through, we identified the Pike Freshman Center West entrance as one location where we could set up a dual lane system that allows us to bring in most of the students coming in off of buses starting on the southwest corner and the entire length of the west side of of the freshman
062center. So they would come in through the double doors, double lanes. We have people there watching the the the the iPads or the tablets and we just bring them all through the building. Another area we looked at, and it's an area that we're not currently utilizing, but was the Pike Performing Arts entrance. Those are lot of doors there and a lot of opportunity to bring a lot of people through in a very short amount of time. So, at first glance, they said, "Well, we could just set up another detection system right along that wall. You bring them in through the double doors, they turn left, run through the system, and on to the high school or to the freshman center, whichever direction they have to go." So, we really like this entrance for now our
063our car riders or I'm sorry, our student drivers. They can come in. There's a safe way to cross the the lot, come through, they can come through the performing arts center. Here's another example. Pike main entrance. So, this is door 10 at the Circle Drive. This is something that we would set up there. Um, single entrance or single lane bringing everybody through. Um, and so these are the things that Evolve looked at. And then after Evolve came out, gave us some pricing. We were really excited about the opportunity. Uh we went and walked the facility with uh administrators from Pike High School. Um we walked it with Dr. Young and we tried to figure out a way to increase the number of students coming through and we identified additional entrances on the south side of
064the building. Then now we can run six different entrances in the morning and we will be able to capture 100% of our students every single morning. And that is something that I know Dr. Young was committed to and it's something the high school administration is very excited about. So you might be wondering what does this cost? So the dual lane one-time cost of a little over $63,000. the single lane, a onetime cost of just shy of $54,000. What is not clearly laid out there is there's also some some annual licensing, some software charges that we have there. So, this total equipment investment for just under $500,000 gets us this equipment at the high school operating for a total of four years. To extend beyond that, what we're looking at is approximately $25,000 a year in
065software costs for remaining years five, six, seven, and eight. But we have every reason to believe based on what Evolve is telling us that the technology itself, including the the detectors, will function without any problems for the full eight years. It's just their base package back package only includes the first four years of licensing. But the other cost that we would have there that we have to consider is personnel. We currently do not have enough officers to run all of those different um gates and bring all of those student through. So on the top here you can see this is our current staffing. So we have eight full-time officers. Um one of those is actually working a swing shift. So we have seven officers that are here in the morning. We have two part-time officers
066that support our staff. And blue line is currently the contract that we have for our security officers. And we have four indoor officers and three outside officers. After we got this plan with Dr. Young, Chief Casper and I sat down and mapped everything out and we determined that we can effectively run all of these weapons detection systems with adding only three additional police officers and adding two security officers. And that is approximately what the cost would be to add those officers uh here in the district. Just under $300,000 annually to add three armed, trained, certified police officers and approximately $110,000 annually to add additional security officers that can help with monitoring the screens, doing additional wanding, and that sort of thing. We are really excited about this opportunity. We think this fits exactly what we
067talked to the public about in meeting that third pillar of the referendum of in securing our facilities at a higher level than we've ever have before. Um so what questions do you have about that about our our plan the technology process? Mr. Goober, don't take this personally. It's a great a great great uh layout of showing us what's happening. It's a great and this is nothing personal. Um going to the uh the staffing. Um that's that's great. That's needed. Um, it's it's it it it I don't understand how we can in this building alone close to almost $3 million to pay the staff and all of that. 80 $100,000 for a bus. Um, plans to renovate this particular facility, plans to do some other things. This security is very much needed in times like these.
068I am a security person. I believe we need it. But I also think we need uh a new fleet of police cars. We need that. If we if we're going to address security, I think we ought to address it all the way. And I say that because we have eight years of referendum dollars. And the quicker we address this issue, you you might not have to address it next year in some areas. But I think the cars ought to be added in here. New vehicles ought to be added in here because if you look at what's going on with the vehicles, I think all of them are over a 100,000 or 200 close to 200,000 miles. Most of them are vehicles that have been given to us. Uh uh the maintenance on those vehicles for
0693 years is $160,000. Last year it was $60,000 in 2024. So I think you need to add the vehicles to that. Um and if we can find a system or not a system, but uh a way to get those vehicles to where uh it can be a part of this particular package, uh I will I will vote for it. But as it stands tonight, I'm going to abstain from it until I see vehicles. And I recommend anybody everybody else to do so until we get the total package. We can get the total package for everything else. But when it comes to this, we need to have the total package as well. That's just I'm just one vote. So just to clarify, so we were just talking about just one system. This is not everything that
070we're looking at doing in in regards to um how we would utilize those funds that were set aside for the referendum. It's a million dollars um each year for the next eight years. So, this is only this one system, but we can share with the board and I know we we actually had some discussion about vehicles as well, but this is just one piece of those dollars. question. Why isn't the vehicles in this one piece? Why didn't we put the vehicles in this one piece? It was just wasn't the intent. The only thing we want to talk about because this is a this is a new plan, vehicles we've had for years. And so my thought was with this being a new system that um people had not seen that would give an opportunity for
071the board to ask questions and understand because this is a promise that we've made. I know I've talked about this particular system, but if we have officers, we obviously, and I'm in agreement with you, want to have reliable vehicles. So, we can talk about that and we can share more information. Matter of fact, we actually have have had conversation about the vehicles as well. If if the system goes down, which we pray it never does. Sure. and a problem happens um in the school system, who do you call? Chief Casper. What? But what if his vehicles are not equipped to get there quick enough? It's a great point. Who do even if the system is working and something happens? Yes. Who do you call? Yeah. Um who do you call? If if our pipe police
072can't respond, then we're relying on I exactly my point. I completely understand. And all I'm basically saying in that scenario is I just believe holistically, let's address if we're going to address security this year, let's do our best to address all of it and then go to another piece next year if we might not have vehicles are part of the plan this year. I just Okay, we we just did not we're just talking about this one part this tonight, but we are definitely looking at vehicles this year. Matter of fact, we've had conversation about vehicles. We've actually brought in Chief Casper who has proposed the plan, the chief of police in regards to vehicles. So, what we can do is share with you if that's what the board would want, even what the ideas and
073plans are on vehicles. But, we we've had the conversation. Our actual chief of police has a recommendation. Um, and we can we can I can share that with the board. And what I would recommend is that is that we do just that. Get back with the board on the information on the vehicles. we can talk about and discuss. I don't think this is on the on the agenda tonight for a vote, right? So, we just talk about No, this is just information. Is it possible, Mr. President, but uh brother Superintendent? Yes sir. to bring the vehicles in uh to this particular piece here when we discuss it again as you mean to bring Yeah. As Dr. Wester. So, so what I'm hearing is if the board would kind of like to see even what um
074kind of security ideas and plans are for this upcoming year, we can come back and then share more holistically all the things we're looking at for the upcoming year. And even part of what we're doing too is bringing together um our safety experts because we just this is just initial. We also want to look at as you referenced Dr. more kind of what our our ongoing plan is. So So some of these costs are onetime costs. The equipment is not something we have to purchase every single year, but it's it's a it's a it's a pretty big purchase. Now the staffing is an ongoing cost, but the equipment is pretty big. So that means once that falls off this year, we now have consecutive years of of larger chunks of money that we can then
075be very creative on how we can spend those dollars. So again, Yeah. But Mr. Superintendent, that's what I'm saying. Yes. If that is in here, we're beating most of the security. We're putting it where we want it. Put it and and some of those other dollars can be moved in other areas that you want them to go in and as way of recommendation to us. Yes, sir. And all I'm basically saying is address the security issue and be done with it. That's all I'm saying. And then uh and then if you have to address Gian with this system. Yeah. Then we can address Gian and we don't have to worry about vehicles anymore. Then absolutely you can address Gian or some other uh elementary school the middle school the middle schools with these systems but
076the vehicles are out of the way on the first year. I would recommend Dr. Young in the administration showing us the whole plan. Absolutely. So that we can see the whole plan. talk about what makes the most sense and and what's most economic. Yeah. And I will even invite the board to be part of that group as we look at our 8year plan. We we we would welcome feedback from the board. All I I Great presentation. I think it is great. I think we need to protect our students as well and I think we ought to have the best equipment for our officers to meet the need for our students as well. That's where I am with it. Great, great presentation. Uh, and I just hope when we when we come back to this that
077those vehicles, even if we look at the plan, Dr. Webster, are in this package to do away with this type of logic uh as a security thing and maybe go on to something else. Absolutely. Uh, uh, in that particular scenario, I don't know if it makes sense to you all, but it makes sense to me. I have a question, Mr. Cooper. um with the plan with the um these enhanced building security metal detectors, density detectors, are the officers that you're looking to hire full-time or part-time because if we're looking at entry in the morning, that's that's not eight hours. Yeah. Yeah. So, no, all of the positions that we that I recommended this evening are all full-time positions. Um there is a need right now. So we would continue to man two stations all day
078long. So any guest that comes into the high school once these this system is implemented would go through weapons detection system. And so we have to have an officer stationed and this would be a security officer. So no weapon security officer stationed in the freshman center entrance, security officer stationed in the high school entrance. And anybody that comes in whether to pick up a student or to meet with a principal, they're going to go through that system. So the two security officers you saw on there, that's how they'll be utilized throughout the day. One of the things that Chief Casper and I talked about is currently we have three officers that are working at the middle schools full-time right now. And our thought was if we flex them over in the morning for arrival and
079then maybe the three additional officers that we bring in, maybe they can work a second shift in afternoon and help with athletics. But we haven't fully vetted that. But I would but I also mentioned though and you'll recall too Mr. Um, Gruber, that you are correct that we also I would love to see us get back to old programs like DARE where we have police officers are actually even at the elementary level that would talk to children about drugs, about gangs. And so if we have these types of resources, we will be able to build that capacity and use these officers in other ways. Is this equipment also um going to be placed in the middle schools or is that is that contemplating that at all? Do you have statistics? Not at the moment. Um,
080do you have statistics? We will continue to do the random weapons checks at the middle schools. Okay. Um, the way that it's currently set up. Um, and then obviously we would reassess based on how how well this works at the high school. Do you have any numbers on on um guns or weapons or those type of things at the I don't Chief Casper and Dr. Young would have those numbers? And I I'm not involved when anything is found. Okay. like basketball, the outside extracurricular as opposed to when they get off the bus. And then my other question is, does that system detect um our kids that come in in wheelchairs? How will you does it set this? Well, because I know wheelchairs will disabled situations. Yeah, they will they will set them off. So, how
081do you And so, in those situations, uh the security officer or the officer there that would be working would would end up wanding that student. um you know if they're coming through in in a wheelchair or maybe they you know hurt their foot and they're on one of those scooters we would I mean we would have to do them individually. Okay. My second question Mr. Gruber is who supports the technology? Is that something our district staff has to support or is that contracted? No, that was that was one of the questions that we had. So this system is a standalone system. It does not tap into our data network anything. It's 100% supported by Evolve technology. Every device has a a mobile is it a mobile card inside of it and it uh communicates back
082to their own uh servers. Um we can then request information at any given time of hey we want to know we want to see the report from you know March 27th this at the high school this morning and they can provide that to us but it's not maintained here at the high on in Pike. Thank you. Yep. Um I have a question. I want to I do want to echo Miss Wilson's comments about the middle school. I want to make sure we're not forgetting that. Um when I look around the nation at where things tend to happen, that's a lot of of where things tend to happen. Um but then also just think the AI technology one. This is a great presentation. This is um I love what I'm seeing here even as opposed to
083some of the discussions we had in the work session that one time is that um where you guys landed on this plan. But the AI technology, we've got a lot of people coming through all at the same time. What is this the bit rate that how fast can this operate? Because if you got a but you know, if you got a kid that decides to bolt through, is it going to catch them? What what what's the if they bolt through, we're going to get you. I mean, we got to get through coming through quick trying to get into class. What What is the rate that that it can detect? So So the pass through rate is uh is like uh I I don't remember off the top of my head. I believe it's 50 people
084um like per two or three minutes. Um but that's why we had Evolve come out and help us out with saying, "Hey, we we need to get this many hundreds of students through this this entrance." Um and so we need the dual lane here so that you can double the amount of people that are coming through. Uh it's extremely fast, though. I went and and watched it at Perry Township and they literally brought in every student off their bus through four four lanes and they did it in less than three minutes and it captured all of them. Did Yeah. I sat there and I watched the iPad the whole time. Okay. And and there's there's an element of training, right, that has to happen with our kids. That first month of school, I'm going to
085be real honest. It's going to be a little bit difficult, but over time, and that was something I was impressed with as I watched the kids at Perry Township, they understood the procedure. They pulled their Chromebooks out of their bags and they held their Chromebook above their head. So that way when they're walking through it would draw a box around the Chromebook but nothing else. And then we knew they knew, hey that kid is good. Um but because that's one of the challenges that schools have across the nation is a Chromebook, a laptop, a tablet is going to set that off. And so there is a component of training that has to happen. And there were growing pains. U this is something I've been aware of for a while. And to be quite honest, the
086superintendent said, "Well, hey, we're trying to work out some bugs." And so, I think, you know, if we move forward with this port with this tool, we we can actually benefit from what other school districts have learned. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Moving on to our action items tonight. Action item A, minutes of the board of education public hearing and regular meeting. I'll entertain a motion at this time. So moved. Second. All right. Uh the mo sorry we have been sorry let me start again. God glitching. All right. We've already heard a motion and it's been second. Is there any discussion? No discussion. All in favor say I. I opposed. I sorry. All right. Action item B, approval of the board of education policies. Dr. Bishop. Good evening, Madam Secretary, members of the board,
087and Dr. Young. This evening, I seek approval of action item B, approval of the board of education policies as presented. So moved. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? No. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. Thank you, Dr. Bishop. Thank you. Moving on to action item C, human resources report. Dr. Hunter. Thank you, Madam Secretary, members of the board. Dr. Young, I have that you approve the HR report as presented. So moved. Moved. Second. Due to the confidentiality uh insensitive nature of this report, we will not have discussion. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Thank you, Dr. Hunter. Thank you. Action item D, request for proposal cyber security pilot program. Mr. Heck. Good evening, Madam Secretary, members of the board. Dr. Young. I request approval of action item
088D, cyber security pilot program RFP as presented. So approved. Second. Is there any discussion? Just one uh question. The pilot program will be reimbured up to 90%. Um that's, you know, that's we're dead set on that. We're definitely going to get back 90% of this 418,000. Correct. depending on the security of that federal funding. You know that these days federal funding seems to go out with the whim, but right now we are approved for a 90% reimbursement rate. I think that's why we actually moved it up as well. Yeah. Because we weren't quite sure what was going to happen. So we actually bumped this up to make sure that we could tap into those funds. I remember that. Call for the vote. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Thank you, Mr. Thank you.
089Action item E102A, preliminary determination, reimbursement resolution for the 2025 to 2027 early learning center expansion, renovation, and districtwide facility improvement and equipping project. Mr. Foster. Good evening, Madam President, members of the board. Dr. Young. I present item E, preliminary termination res reimbursement resolution. I recommend approval as presented. So move. Second. Is there any discussion? I'll call the vote. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. Thank you, Mr. F. Next up. Oh, yep. Don't move. Action item F, monthly claims and allowances. Mr. Foster. Good evening, Madam President, members of the board. Dr. Young, I recommend approval of the monthly claims and allowances as presented. So moved. Second. Are there any questions or discussion? All right. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? One more action item G, contracts. Mr. Foster.
090Good evening, Madam President, members of the board. Dr. Young, I recommend approval item G. They are the contracts. I recommend approval as presented. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? Okay. Call the vote. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you, Mr. Foster. Thank you, Madam President. All right, at this time we'll move to board member items. Dr. Moore, I've talked quite a bit this evening, but uh I'm excited about the pathway program. Um and uh I'm excited about the security program and what it's going to entail when it has been refurbished and revisited. And we're excited about that. And uh because um our children must be first. uh they must be first. Their security is should be important. Uh and I'm just excited about what what is taking place in this meeting
091tonight and what I'm hearing. Uh and I want to say to Madam Secretary, you've done an outstanding job tonight. Thank you. And um thank you so much for what you're doing. Uh that's all I have. Okay. Um I just want to ditto that. Um just glad pathway seems to be something that we desperately need for our students to have a different avenue if they don't want to go to college and they don't think that that's a place for them. They can use their hands and you know there was it show me state Missouri show me they can show you what they can do. And so therefore I think that us us embracing that is going to be something that is going to be really powerful in the Pike community. And um I'm so happy that
092we're going to be trying to do something with security, not just for the high school, but for the middle school as well, because it's in this day and age of what we're going through right now and society as a whole, it's becoming more and more important that we protect our students while they're inside the institutions trying to learn. That's me. All right, Mr. Huffer. All right. Um had a great uh time this last um in these last two weeks. got to go to see Cinderella at um Napa. We were uh had the great invitation by the two kings who were here and so that was a fun time. Um and then winter showcase. Um this past week uh at the food pantry was speaking with one of the representatives from Chartwells. So far this year,
093they have donated 1,600 pounds of food to the food pantry. And so just really want to thank them and commend them for their their commitment to supporting our families um who who are in need. I really appreciate that. Um had a wonderful time at the high school today for career day. Uh I was telling Dr. Young um I can say nobody threw anything at me. Nobody threw food. Uh can't say nobody fell asleep, but that's all right. I wasn't talking about the most exciting thing. So uh but really appreciate Mr. uh Villa Forte and I'm sure I butchered his name but I appreciate him for hosting me in his classroom and Miss Enllo for inviting. And then um do want to offer condolences to Miss Dorsy um with her father passing. And then finally just
094want to mention PTF Treasures. Uh we had a great time there, a wonderful fundraiser. Uh Pike Township Education Foundation does amazing things for the district. Um will say giving was probably a little bit down this year. I think the preliminary numbers. So for anybody out there, if you want to support our kids, support our teachers, donations to the um education foundation go directly to support our teachers and our students and um it is a great and very worthwhile cause. So definitely encourage that. Thank you. Great. Dr. Webster, um again, I ditto everyone on the Mr. Emman on the U pathway uh job. I serve on the um Pentagon for higher education and the state state of Indiana last year had 7,000 construction jobs not filled. Wow. So tonight was a testament to uh the need
095for such a uh training. Thank you Mr. Anderson. Um tonight was a great night with our presentations from Mr. Gruber and Mr. Enman. those pathways are especially for are what they call non-traditional but in the trade students very very important since I come from that field uh and also good job tonight Mrs. Barnes on stepping up to the plate. Thank you, Miss Kelly. I bring you greetings from the show me statements on the spring break. So, doing what I have always encouraged everyone to do, take care of you, travel, refresh. So, I am getting that in this week. Um, I too had an opportunity to attend Cinderella prior to leaving town. had an excellent experience at Napa. Our students do an outstanding job when they do a performance. I want to offer condolences and sympathies.
096I think the board has sent more sympathies cards this year than we have. Yeah. In a long time. So, just we want to keep all our staff members that are grieving loss and um suffering loss right now. Keep them in our prayers. Um the pathways uh presentation was excellent. um definitely very much needed. Um hoping we can build capacity for that program and any other hands-on pathways that we're able to offer our students. Looking forward to our continued discussions on um the security plans for our district and our students. And then I would just say as I always end every time I know we're our district leaves for break. Students are on break now and there's no school tomorrow. So please take this time to refresh, recharge, but when we come back we can finish
097semester strong and ready to help our students through all of the challenges that everybody's facing. Thank you, Dr. Young. Thank you, Madam Secretary. And you know, as we were thinking about the pathways, it's a reminder to me of what our vision is. Last year, we've collaborated and we developed a vision together. And that vision is that every single student will leave the Pike Township, prepare to take the next step in realizing their dream, right? Not my dream, what their dream is. And this is just an example of another way that we're providing that opportunity for our students to to realize whatever their dreams may be. So, I'm excited about that. I also had an opportunity to um see the Cinderella performance. Our students did an awesome awesome job. Um I hope that Miss Green gets
098healthy um and gets over her bug because the work that she's doing in the community is incredible. I was also career speaker today and um I was really blown away. I had a group of freshman and sophomores and when I tell you their questions were so thoughtprovoking that it just blew me away. I was super excited and there was at least two students in the group that were interested in being educators. So fingers crossed um on that one. And then uh last but not least, every year I joke about this, but I'm really not joking when I say have a great spring break and I don't want to see you on the news, right? I need to have you back after spring break, but outside of that, please recharge and enjoy yourself. Thank you. All
099right. Um my comments and I one I want to thank uh Mr. Anderson for allowing me this opportunity to chair our meeting this evening. Uh, it's good practice. I think there's a lot that happens up here. Um, there just is. Um, I really like the construction pathway presentation, too. But I I've noticed, Mr. Enman, you have really brought just systemically things to our high school that are just non-traditional, and I like that. I I pay attention. I noticed that. So, I thank you specifically for that work. Um, also want to say that um, Mr. Huffer and I will be attending the National School Board Association annual conference in Atlanta as part of our training um, to be the best schoolboard members we can be for you. So, we'll be there. I'm also on spring break
100right now. Maybe you can't tell, but at any rate, thank you so much. Uh, I will entertain a motion for adjournment. So, move second. Hallelujah.