001budget process. And then uh just uh go through the a couple of of the funds uh the operations fund uh the total amount uh were statutoily I guess restricted to to increase that levy by 4% uh based on the maximum gross quotient levy. from the state. So that's the the big number at the bottom is increasing by that 4% from 2025 to 2026. And then this just goes through kind of line by line how how those of the 18 the total budget is divided up into those line items and how they compared to to what those numbers were in 2025. U not too many big differences. uh kind of that top line is probably the biggest one and that's just moving some of those uh dollars from maybe those preliminary costs that that were anticipated
002in 2025 for the projects themselves uh to 2026 those reach this summer. And then uh kind of the easy one is the the rainy day fund. Uh as past practice has been to budget a million dollars be appropriated from the rainy day fund in case that those funds would be needed. We would have to go through additional appropriation in 2026. Um so answer questions on the listed on capital projects had certain for certain to-do list just to build an idea of need to see that they is correct. >> I don't know if there's any on there, but I'm sure there's some that have been continued to be pushed on from one year that are probably on there when I first started. They never go off the list. >> I I will one thing Travis mentioned
003about the 4% revenue increase. Yeah, the growth quotient does allow for a 4% increase in in uh levy revenue, but in lie of what we learned in work session. Um there will be some circuit breaker impacts that will probably increase that circuit breaker impact for us regardless. And therefore the revenue that we're looking at is probably going to be very similar to what we received this past year. So doubtful that there'll be much if any increase that tax levy revenue and operations. >> All right. So I think the only action we need is just approval to advertise those two plans. uh so that when we have to advertise them what 10 days before we actually have our hearing. So once we get this done, we don't necessarily have to advertise them right away, but we
004want to make sure that we can get them advertised within that a lot of time a lotment. >> We need to approve the capital projects and replace it. >> Yes. We'll make a motion to second. >> Got a motion, a second to advertise 2026 capital projects and bus replacement. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any >> oppose? I will say next year's schedule of all the stuff I'm planning to get back to what everybody used to have spread out a little bit more in this year. With that being said, real quick, what what's the reasoning behind the buses? Do we know? I mean, they keep kicking the can down the road. Why aren't we getting these buses? Does anybody know? >> Got a really good >> That's I'm just curious. >> No, I
005don't know that we've ever got a really good answer. I think it's just everybody's in this situation. I think it's just a matter of, you know, getting all the parts that's needed and that everything is in some areas are still on hold. We're making our bus instructions and don't buses. >> I mean, I think they're still going. >> Well, I mean, that's what we last year. >> Those are hard. All right, that all for that business. We do want to personnel this change. All right, got a couple resignations. Erica Garver, treasurer North Southwood effective 822 and Paige Clinger Clangler >> uh teacher at Southwood Elementary Randy Leachch bus driver South Kimberly Taylor professional for Southwood Elementary looks like all these are effective for school year Adri Adriana Gomez, par professional, Southwood Elementary. Ashlin Klein, kindergarten
006teachers, Metro North Elementary. Uh, and Deer, physical therapist for WAP. Mary Merrill, par professional, North High School. Corey McKay, par profofessional, Southwood High School. Shelby Meyer, nurse, Southwood High School. We have Amy Lambert, science teacher, Northville High School. Tammy Mollister, sub cook our schools. Rory Post, subteer, all elementaryaries or elementary only. Uh Courtney Finny, subteer, elementary only. uh under leave 192 leave begins August 7th through October 6th. Uh retirement Cindy Clinger at risk pair professional Southwood High School and that was effective at the end of July. transfers. Corey Roger, Cora Roger, sorry, transferring from par professional to prek K4s, a teacher to at Metro North. Aaron Rice transferring from par professional at Metro North Elementary to Sharp Creek Elementary. And then we have coaches um Northfield coaches all effective for this season. Andrea Beaks, head
007cross country. Eric Kirtland, assistant cross country. Anna Rubaker, assistant cross country. Ariel Miller, head girls golf. Brock Clo, assistant girls golf. Haley Shock, head cheer. Tiffany Vartu, sorry. Vu Barton, assistant chair. Sydney Daw, junior high chair. Brandon Deer, junior high volunteer chair. Brandon Baker, head of football. These are all assistant football. Stan Cox, Jeff Campus, Matt Burkhard, Joe Alderman, Mike Higgins, Kale Dyson, Joseph Mitchell, Jim Curry, Adam Sweel, Josh Pickle. Those were all assistant football. Casey Dyson, eighth grade, uh, girls volleyball. Tiffany Livay had volleyball. Shelley Myers, assistant volleyball. Pat Hopper, assistant volleyball. Kenzie Griffin, seventh grade girls volleyball. Emily Pennington, JB volleyball. And these are Southwest coaches. Cameron Shook, assistant football. Rachel Hurst, junior high volleyball. Kelsey Nickham, junior high volleyball. Laura Lingar Bartles, sixth grade volleyball. And Grayson Snider, sixth grade volleyball. I
008get a motion, a second to approve all those HR. Got a motion and second to approve all this HR. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> All right. Motion passes reports. Matt, you got anything? Have a meeting next week. Okay. >> Can I can I share a few things about >> Sure. Floyd sent some information. I'm just going to share. I don't know if you guys are aware of it fully or not, but they have completed the roof project uh and Garland and AAA roofing uh did a nice job with that. They have hired some new staff members uh for graphic design, automation and robotics and first year cosmetology. And then uh another interesting note here is that they have the opportunity uh to expand their construction program by adding ABC. And
009ABC is the start of an apprenticeship program through construction where students can start the process of an apprenticeship into a journeyman program. Students will also be able to earn dual credits through Vincens. Students will get all aspects of construction from foundation, framing, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. With our current program, we are unable to offer some of these areas and we are very excited to start this as a half day program this fall. So they have to travel somewhere in house in house like Ben. So they'll have some credits assigned to that kind of a program already made for them. >> They have room for that because building trade is always has that little area. It seems to be >> they might be using more of the building outside. What's a good one? they'll figure out
010a way to get it in there because there's a lot of kids with one in construction only one house you can build. We weren't getting enough students in there because I don't know how many CMS kids didn't get to go last year. So there's a great little opportunity to get more kids. >> All right. >> Uh yeah, a couple things here. Um, first off, um, we talked about laws a little bit last time, so we're going to talk a little bit about them again today, a little bit more specifically on a couple of them. Uh, the first one is Household Act 1002. It made a variety of adjustments to educator evaluation plans, including uh, removing the requirement that schools use a designation of highly effective, effective, improvement necessary, or ineffective for each certified employee. School
011corporations are still required to develop or adopt an annual education educator performance evaluation plan that is not subject to collective bargaining for each certified employee. This plan must be posted on the school corporation website. These changes became effective July 1 uh 2025. And so for this year, we're going to continue the same evaluation plan that we have uh just because of the timing of everything. uh and you know we'll we'll figure out if we want to make any changes for next year or not. Also, as part of that new law, um we we uh need to provide the school board with an evaluation plan aggregate before August 15th. So that's three days away. And so uh for last year's we evaluated 148 certified staff. Uh 70% of those staff members fell into the highly effective
012category and 30% of those staff members fell into the effective category. And so I have a breakdown by building. I don't know if we have to get into that great a detail. Uh but for Metro North we evaluated 20 staff members. Uh for Northfield we evaluated 34. For Sharp Creek 17, for Southwood High School we had 33. For Southwood Elementary we had 30. And for whites we had 14 certified staff. So we met that law. Next, uh, I'd like to recognize and thank Laura for all of her hard work. I don't know, I gave you guys all a copy of our year-end review magazine. Um, I asked her for a reminder that this was sent out to all residences in our district and Wash City's district. Those at minimum, there were probably more uh zip
013codes that cross over. And so, uh, it was based off of zip codes basically on how those were sent. Uh, but she did a very nice job of highlighting, uh, several positive, uh, experiences and and things that happened over this past school year. So, she did a very nice job. I think we highlighted that she had won an award for last year's magazine and so she set the bar pretty high for herself. So, we'll see where this magazine evolves. But we appreciate Laura and all her work and effort uh that went into this magazine. And then last but not least, you mentioned this uh at the beginning, Scott, but we start school tomorrow. So, we'll have lots of wonderful excited faces walking into our buildings ready to learn. And so, we had a good opening
014day on Monday with our teachers. Uh and then today um they had time to prepare and get ready uh for their classrooms. So looking forward to tomorrow. That's all I have. Cool. >> Tim. >> Yeah. Um first let's go with I'm working the video and so we need to apologize. It was a little technical difficult at the beginning but we're up and live. I have Laura Lang Bartles confirming that we're good. So there's question it was the operator error technology. >> Surely it's hard to believe. It's hard to believe. Um so first in the board packet I gave you um we got some college board materials from our AP students and u I also included our ICC graduates. So uh I don't know if it's worth taking the time to read those names out loud,
015but it certainly is a very big accomplishment. And so we work really hard even though we're a small school to offer unique opportunities for each kid. So some kids the dual credit path makes sense. Some kids it's blend some kids it's not even college it's straight school. So we try very hard to respect all of those. So if you'll start at the top Chris. So all of those kids walked out of their high school career. Those are all seniors who graduated in May uh with at least one year of college under this is through the Indiana College Corp which is set up by the state of Indiana. We partner with any university at Cook to cover most of those classes and so um yeah know what money is that savings that gets them ahead. So,
016and I say at least because several of those kids I know off the top of my head took multiple college classes addition in addition to that. So, so yeah, and we would have a lot of kids if I were to put in other ones that didn't get the IC but still got their first year college done just not through that specific program. Uh, and then under that you'll see the AP stuff and we've talked about that before. I found it interesting. I was able near us share their data and so I'm just going to what they put on their social media. So you can see here there's just some numbers to jump out. 97 students passed 100 or took 117 no passed 117 exams for 14 different courses. And that is for our little schools.
017That's what we do. And you can see there I pulled out a couple of classes. So our AP pre-cal class passed an 83% uh English lit 87 and you can see there um now the art classes are smaller classes usually one or two kids so that's a little bit but still the kids that are in there are passing that and so if you look at that next sentence then I don't feel like it's fair to name the school but just know that they have overund or over a thousand students in high school and they had I feel like smaller numbers and so a pat on the back for what we're able to do. We stretch our dollars as soon as we can to get them out there for kids. So um so yeah, then underneath
018it now you got the recognition from the college board. Um so to be there you can see you're going to have a mix of seniors because some people started their junior year and you're also going to see graduates. So we have those people there. took three or more exams that passed three or more which is impressive enough as it is. I need to go underneath that those guys are three or more with four exams and then underneath that with distinction that three or more on five exams uh and I took the time to let you know at the end there you can see that student they scored five scored five on two exams scored five on four exams that's the highest score you get. So, we like to put that out there for kids where
019this is a a track, right? Like this isn't to say everybody fits that, but we feel very fortunate that we can find a way to offer that level of challenge, I guess, for those students that it fits, but it fits. That is not to say it fits everybody, but we we have that as an option. So, any comments, thoughts, questions about that stuff? that second name as an overachiever. >> She's she gets it from her mother's side. >> And and now I can speak to that as a dad. We, you know, some of those are going to transfer for credits. Some of those she's not going to take for credits because it's a major. Like there's a whole It's very complicated, but I I feel like I know she's going to do well in school
020because she was able to demonstrate that. So that's the beauty of AP. like you got to pass the test. So you got to have some kind of skill for that. What we're carrying five fives on. So yeah. Yep. And I'm glad we do that right after our I want to keep preaching. We have kids who go to trade school and make great money and have great lives. They don't need to do that. But we have this option for where it does fit, right? And so I feel like I wish those guys at the state Jeff would hear us. We don't really need to consolidate. We're offering stuff for trade kids, partland kids, AP kids, dual credit kids. Finally, now you can choose to stay with me till about 9:00 a.m. tomorrow or I'm just going
021to have to hold off and bait you with this. I just got, you know, we've been waiting on IR results and I'm tempting you. I said we got really good IRA results. I just can't show it. Well, we are under embargo. It says until the state board of education votes on these numbers tomorrow at 9ine. So I can't share like specifics without being getting fired because we're on social media like people sell me out. But um I can tell you that one of our schools passed at 100%. Every third grader took other of our schools passed at 98.5%. Which puts them both highest in the area. Uh and as a district we will we will f we'll finish across the state in public school districts. It's tough because like charter schools are considered their own
022district and so they might test eight kids. So there's quite a list. So if we just look at public schools uh MSD will finish it looks like top five in the state as far as the I pass rate and we tested according these numbers over 130 students. So it's just a tomorrow at 9 be on your phone Kevin put it out on Instagram. >> You may have to read mind. >> So just real excited um excited to see those things. >> Well and that's that goes to our teachers and making sure that every kid is getting the attention they need. You know, some kids don't need as much attention because they're coming to school on Saturday, but not all are able to do that. And this is a credit to our principles and teachers and
023staff to make sure that they're all get what they need. Absolutely. And I would say even families, we have good families that value that they're all takes a lot to raise child for. Yeah. So, social media blasters come out. I actually about 10 o'clock is one of the votes. So, yeah. Thank you. >> All right. I guess we'll move on to new business. Um, >> you want me to speak this? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, um, according to the Indiana code, we've done this in the past, is that we have to have a public hearing before we can start formal bargaining. formal bargaining can't happen anyway until September 15th. Uh but we we will start some informal talks. But anyway, just to align with where we did this last year, um we would just open
024up for public comments related anything to uh formal bargaining which would be only related to salary and benefits of teachers. comments or any questions. I open any questions comments how that's done. >> Steve's got a lot of questions. >> Retirement has to move. There isn't any. >> Thank you. >> Next order of business, I guess, is board policy. >> Sorry. >> Yes, we got unfinished business. We got board policy. First reading of revised board policy number 4085 for student attendance. >> Yeah. So let me talk a little bit briefly about this here. Um so Senate Enrolled Act which was another um Senate Enrolled Act 482 which was legislation that again came out is effective July 1 uh of 2025 uh revised uh or created new requirements outlined uh in Senate Act Senate Enroll Act 42
025which took effect on July 1, 2025. This new state law is designed to improve how schools report student attendance to the Indiana Department of Education by providing definitions and categorizations for exempt, excused, and unexcused absences. Importantly, SEA 482 also updated the definition of a habitual truent. A student in grades K through 12 and so the old law was grades K through six. So, that's the only thing that changed with this definition was that any student uh in grades K through 12 who accumulates 10 or more unexcused absences in a school year will be considered eventually Trump in accordance with Indiana code 2033 2-25. School districts are required to report students who are habitually trit to the juvenile court system or the department of child services. So, there's been some confusion out there, but we wanted
026to make sure that everybody understands that this is related only to unexcused absences and excused absences do not count as being eventually. And so, as the state is asking for uh data, um in the past, we would just send them uh whether the absence was excused or unexcused. Well, they wanted clear definitions of what the excused absence was related to. So, they came up with these categories here. And so, I have them shown up as part of the revision of this policy. Um, so the first category is exempt absences, which we've had exempt absences before, but they were just counted as excused. But these are students that are absent, but they're counted as present because statutoily they are exempt. Those would be things related to service as a page, serving as a pole worker, court
027appearances with a subpoena, active duty, civil air patrol, educationally related non-classroom activities, which would be things like school field trips, exhibiting or participating at the Indiana State Fair and or participating in a scheduled competition, exhibition, or event for educational purposes. So these are absences that are considered exempt. And so those would be classified and reported to the state that way based off of where they fell in that category. Now as far as excused absence are concerned, these would be where students are absent out of school but they are also counted absent but they are excused. And the categories uh related to that are administrator approved, family choice, planned, family choice unplanned, funeral or bereavement, medical and religious. And so nothing really changes with how we've handled these in the past. U we still have the
028pre-arranged absences. Uh we still have medical appointments and absences. Uh some of those require doctor's notes. Nothing of that has changed. It's just now we have to report those to the state in that format. And so uh families will see new attendance codes basically uh on their Skyward reports uh if students are absences. And then like always, if the absence is not falling into under these categories, then it's an unexcused absences. And typically our only unexcused absences are related to those that are not being reported or those that are needing to have some type of documentation and documentation not being provided. And so nothing has changed with that either. Uh and so we just want to make sure that we're clear uh on on what these new uh categories are uh related to and also
029clear up the confusion that excused absences do not count towards anything related to being habitually trans. I had I had a parent ask me so on the excused absence are they required to call like in advance like a day earlier to tell the school that their child has >> nothing really changes with how they report things and so a lot of times they can report it the day of if they know in advance that's totally fine as well. Uh, obviously if they're pre-arranged planning thing and they're going to use a pre a pre-arranged form, we've always asked that they turn that form in a couple days prior to the absent because a lot of times they will get their work from their teachers early uh instead of getting the approvals and so to be able
030to do that they need to know ahead of time. So now I know this requires uh two readings uh typically uh and talking a little bit with Josh, we feel like that's probably still okay to continue to do the first reading now and the second reading at our next board meeting. However, I would like to get information out to parents tomorrow since school starts just so that they're aware of these updates. So, um, that is my plan is that we'll have our first reading tonight. Tomorrow, I'll get this information out to the parents and then we'll officially approve it um at the next court. >> Yeah, sounds right. With it being a state law superseded by state law, >> any concerns or anything about that? Is is this a change then under this? >> Yeah.
031Yep. So there there is a new law as part of the law that came out um which we didn't do this anyway because it seemed counterproductive. But it does say that a students cannot be suspended or expelled because of habitual truency or being chronically absent. But it's only for this school year. says for only the 25.6 school year. So if they want to keep that in the law, they'll have to come back and do it again. >> So this is only a oneyear deal in that than that. >> What's the consequences of being habitually? >> So we have to have a truency prevention procedure and so that that is our procedure which we u have had. So basically what happens is after they've had five unexcused absences then by law we're required to have a
032meeting with the parents and student and we can bring other parties involved and we have to come up with a plan to reduce them getting more unexcused absences. And so then at that point it's to try to prevent them from getting to the 10 because after the 10 then we're legally required to report uh those unexcused absences to ECS and juvenile but again these are unexpect All right. Well, we'll move on. Public comment. Comments on anything for the meeting. Any items for board members? All right. We will journ.