001Everybody sign in. Everybody ready? Good. All right. We welcome by everybody here tonight to our school board meeting. We're going to start out with the pledge of allegiance followed by a prayer. I pledge allegiance 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. Heavenly Father, we thank you today for your many wonderful blessings, all that you've given to us, this wonderful sunshine and the weather that we're enjoying. We thank you today, Father, for an opportunity to come together and serve in our community we live in. Lord, serve the staff and the students that we represent today. Father, today we just pray that you would give us wisdom, knowledge, help us make the decisions that would best
002impact our students, the staff, and this community. Father, we just pray for your guidance and all that we do will glorify you. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right, future board meetings. Our next one will be May 27th, followed by June 10th and July 8th. So, the next couple months will just be one meeting here at six o'clock here at administration building. Uh there are a few revisions to the agenda all under HR. Uh moving to public recognition. Uh we'll do all these under one. Um recommendation to approve $350 donation from from Corteva A for science for MSC uh for Southwest FFA. recommendation to approve a $249.90 donation from an anonymous donor and $100 from Vicky Mezer through donor's choice for Mrs. Cass Cassie Harold's Little Norse pre what is that? PreK PreK
0034 at Metro North Elementary for materials to create morning find more motor bins at the classroom. Recommendation to approve $500 donation from Dick Dick and Leavon Smith for Southwood choir. A recommendation to approve a $500 donation from Dick Leavon Smith for Southwood Theater and a recommendation to approve $2,000 from First Farmer Lake Trust for staff appreciation. And the last one recommendation to approve $350 from Cortell A Science for North Bay. I get a motion and second to approve all these generous donations. So move second. Got a motion, a second to approve all of these donations. All in favor say I. Any opposed. All right. As always, we appreciate all these donors that donate to all these different areas of our school district. Uh school recognition. Do we have any? Yes, we do. So, first of
004all, last week or last meeting that we had, uh, Jill Glascock accepted her retirement, but one thing I did not have, and that was her, um, years of experience. And so, that was 37 years. So, I just want to make sure I mention that tonight. Um, and then we have a longer one here. This is from Shark Creek with Mr. Martin. This goes along with Sharp Creek's Blue Norse bots headed to world championship um, robotics championship coming up here in May. So, I'd like to read this to you. He said, "The Shark Creek Robotics team, a the Norsebots team members, Elila and Noah and Hudson, Audrey and Gabriel and Hunter, have earned an invitation to compete at the VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas this May. The Sharp Creek Northspots are the only public
005school in Northern Indiana to earn a spot at the elementary VEX Robotics World Championships. This year's competition, Rapid Relay, is a fast-paced robotics challenge that uh uh resembles basketball requiring strategy, speed, and precision. The Blue Norspot stood out with their innovative engineering, including a custom-designed pneumatic flipper that transfers balls between a high goal and low goal shooter. No other team in Indiana has a design like it, and it was this originality and ingenuity that earned them the innovative award at the Indiana State Championship. one of only seven judged awards that secured a spot at Worlds. Out of over a thousand elementary teams in Indiana, all four Sharp Creek teams advanced to the state competition, placing them in the top 122 teams in the state. The Blue Norse spots went on to finish an impressive eighth
006place overall at state, capping off an already incredible season. During the regular season, under the expert guidance of coaches Kevin and Amber Bretzman and Joel Nestler, the Blue Northspots also brought home an array of awards. two-time teamwork champions, two-time build award winners, design award winner, skills champion, and judges award at a signature event which is a world qualifier. We commend these students not only for their accomplishments but for their dedication, sportsmanship, and creativity. Their success is a shining example of what students can achieve when they're challenged, supported, and inspired. Please join us in congratulating the Blue Northspots and wishing them continued success as they represent Sharp Creek in Northern Indiana on the world stage. Way to go, Blue Nor spots. We are so proud of you. So, excellent uh information and excellent job by that
007team and everybody else that competed at the at the state. I think they actually also got to apply to be flag bears for the opening ceremony. I don't know. I don't think they got it, but they were invited to apply. Not everybody got that invitation. Kind of like when they go to the Olympics, they do the same thing. So, I did ask uh Mrs. Bretzman about that and have not heard back. Did you hear I heard that? Wait, I'll ask again. So, at the time they hadn't heard anything back yet when I asked, but that was like during spring break, I believe. So that's all the membership at this time. All right, we'll move on to uh public comment on agenda items only. If not anything there, we'll move on to our agenda items. Um
008can I get a motion second to approve our uh regular minutes of March 25th? So second motion and second to approve those regular meet meeting minutes. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Um claims and payroll 18 and 19. Any questions or comments on any of that? I think the second part was on there. That's the last one. I believe it's only two payments. Getting close. Yeah, they're working on the second layer. the final layer and that might probably go faster than I would think. So the line for the LED lighting we retro we not retrofilled but we changed all the indoor lighting at South there was some parking lot stuff in there. We actually are gonna work with that group to finish up the rest of the parking lots. Um at Metro
009North won't be as high as that, but there'll be another finishing part with that. And then we should be pretty much all pretty close. So it's all all the classrooms all class. Yeah. Question on that claims. Get a motion and second to approve the claims of payroll. Move. Got a motion and second to approve claims and payroll 18 and 19. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Financial summaries. Yeah, since we only have one meeting this month, uh I went ahead and u did gave you both the end of the month balances um for our funds for the end of March and then I also went ahead and did uh some information through the education fund and operation fund cash flows for the year. So, the only thing that I would highlight right
010now in the education funds that we haven't talked about is I did update uh we did receive our um amounts for our updated ADM from this spring. So, um April, May, and June reflect what those actual amounts will look like from that. Uh but I have not changed anything beyond that from what we were previously getting. Uh because we don't know what those amounts are going to be yet because they've not approved. State legislation has not approved the budget yet. So once they do that, then we'll be able to have a general idea of what that estimated amount will be based off of the estimated ADM number that we had to provide. Um so there's that and then on the operations side uh the one thing that I did highlight in there uh was um
011impact on uh it wasn't proposed legislation at the time. Now it's been approved which was SB1. Um and we'll talk a little bit about some of that. But one of the things that uh SB1 does is it removes local income tax dollars uh that the county can provide school districts. And so there's a line item right there on there that is highlighted that shows you what those amounts are that we are receiving for that and have received for that and that will go away um in 2028. Where does it go to? Goes away. It won't be assessed. We're still going to be paying local. Yes. But can't be shared with schools. So, which part? It should have been green. I don't know why it kind of came out color. It's this yellow one, right? The
012yellow one. Yeah. Local income tax. The second line under revenue. Second row under revenue. It's a big number. That's just one implication. So that one is that one's pretty noticeable. I mean obviously there's going to be otherations related to SV1, but that was one that is going to Yeah. say 2028. 2028. Y back to the education fun. the textbook rental that's got all messed up that how's that flow through? Does that flow through? It's going to Okay. So, we're going to dy that out over the whole it'll be just locked in the basic and lost and lost won't be able to track it. So they just give a certain amount per per student. So in the original proposal, they're on their second proposal now. They'll probably come out with a third one because of the
013revenue forecast. Um so on the first proposal, they were telling us that they we would get a 200 like I'm just kind of ballparking here. Roughly a $200 increase in APM. Well, part of that $200 increase was the $151 they were already giving us per kid. So in reality, we were only getting like a $48 increase to our APM. So that's where it was in that first run. Second run was a little higher, but the revenue forecast is not very good that they had in April. So we'll see where they land uh in that distribution. And they've said all all cuts are on the table. So all entities. So there could be a good chance that we could get cut. There could be a good chance that we remain flatline. There could be a chance
014that we could receive some extra dollars, but it's all on the table. All right. Any other questions on the cash flows? If not, we'll move on to HR. We go. I already drank my drink. All right, we're going to start with resations. First one is Matt Johnston, teacher at Northwood High School. Um, effective at the end of this school year. Uh, Yubert Baker, bus driver at Southed effective immediately. Thomas Tyrie, uh, teacher and football coach at Southwood High School. That'll be effective at the end of this school year. Employment, Tracy Kennedy, summer secretary at Norco High School, effective June 3rd. Chris Cartwright, volunteer junior high and high school assistant golf coach at Northville High School, effective immediately. Colin Daw, assistant golf coach for Northfield, effective immediately. Trey Cole, head golf coach for Northfield, effective immediately.
015And Jeff Springer, Clay, target coach for Northville High School, effective immediately. Logan Julian, band teacher, South High School, effective 811. Meredith Hopper, math teacher, Northville High School, effective 811. Michael Bunnel, long-term sub at Sharp Creek Elementary, effective 811. Caleb Pereé, uh, Spanish teacher, Southwood High School, effective 811. Under retirement, Ricky Reid, custodian, Southwood High School, effective at the end of the school year. Brian Dodges not Snodgrass Southwood High School effective at the end of the school year. Uh termination number eight or 191 terminated April 7th, 2025 under leave 190. Leave will begin April 11th returning uh for the 25.6 school year. transfers. Janelle Ecman transferring from teacher at Metro Elementary to educational competition for WAP effective for next school year 2526. Evelyn Fowler transferring from classroom instructor to teacher at White High School effective 252.6
016school year. All the rest of these are all the summer school staff for the schools. Janette Moore, K through8 program coordinator. Second and third grade reading support at Southland Elementary, second grade teacher, Megan Wright. Second grade par professional, Amber Sweet. Third grade teacher, Melissa Deer. Third grade pair professional, Jennifer Kenny. Tenny, second and third grade reading support for Metro North Elementary. Uh, second grade teacher, Stacy Bone, second grade pair professional. Becca Ellie, third grade teacher, Tara Hoppers. Third grade professional, Caleb Black. Minds and Action, level one, Cory Schultz, Cayla Paul, and Janette Moore. Level two, Caleb Paul, Heather Click, and Janette Moore. Level three, Shelby Gibson, Brett Evans, and Janette Moore. Uh, summer learning lab at Southwood Elementary, kindergarten teacher, Patty Steel, first grade teacher, Michaela Vento, and third grade second grade teacher at Kelly
017Bear. Summer Learning Lab at Metro North Elementary, kindergarten teacher Andy Herring, first grade teacher Angie Benner, and second grade teacher Nicole Knox. and Tanya Boon 8 or 9 through 12 program programming director coordinator sorry addendum Adam Felts precape Tom Callaway or Tim Callaway and Kale Parson I get a motion second to approve all those HR reports. So, second motion, a second to approve our HR report. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Just like to mention to Ricky Reid and Brian Snodgrass. I appreciate um their service um at Southwood. Um many years for Ricky. Brian hasn't been with us as long, but uh Ricky's been here for many years, so appreciate their service and wish them well in their retirement. All right, appreciate that. We'll move on to reports. Heartland Career
018Center, Mr. said the base layer and repairs are done. They're working on the top layer now, so it should go fairly quick. All this hard work is done. Uh on May 8th, they'll have open house of the construction of the house that they built between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. If you want to come take a look at that, it would be fine. Um donations u Mr. Lions, Mr. Mintthornne, and Alro Steel all gave a bunch of supplies to these school. They continue to do that. Um that's basically it. That one super special repair. Okay. All right. Superintendent. Okay. I got several things. First of all, um we have not had a transportation outside of school district um standard operating procedure before. And so um we have this draft. I've shared this with you. Um and
019you can see basically um who it who it um applies to and the scope of it as far as um applies to students currently enrolled in MS of Wish County Schools and living outside the district boundaries and also new students enrolls enrolles who reside outside the district boundaries. So the procedure it talks about the grandfather grandfathering clause for current students um and then transportation for new students outside of the district. uh basically bus transportation and that's that's 2.1 bus transportation for students who enroll after May 2025 and reside outside the legal settlement will only be provided if an existing bus route passes directly by the students home transportation will not be modified or extended to accommodate students outside the district. I will say at the when we get down to the end um there is
020a clause that says that that could be uh changed a little bit. the eligibility verification will be done. Uh transportation approval process um which is pretty standard. Compliance with bus safety rules obviously is um something we always want to happen. And then the roles responsibilities of the transportation director uh school administrators and families. And then effective date would be uh when we uh approve this and then the review and amendments. This OP SOP will be reviewed by the transportation director administrative team on an as needed basis to ensure its effectiveness. Um, additional notes then exceptions to this SOP will require approval from the superintendent or designate. And so there are some things that that could happen to do that. Um, and then changes in bus routes that impact eligibility will be communicated to affected families
021promptly. And as you can see, there's a couple things that that uh play into this again. Uh we have another bus driver that has um resigned. And so we do not even have a full staff right now because we have um substitutes that are are working with that. We would love to be able to go everywhere um and do all of that, but that's what we continue to uh have to be concerned about, just having enough bus drivers. And then also with SP1, which we'll talk about a little bit more, will affect um some of our um funding that we have for um not just not just transportation, but but other things um involved with the school. So um we can talk about this again next meeting. Um but it's it's always evolving all the
022time because of staff members in particular here bus drivers um routes how many students that we have and so it um this is one thing that we would like to put into place uh once you we can look at it again next next. So was this modeled after other school districts policies or no just we formed it ourselves. I just wonder what other places are doing. I think if you see there's places all over um that are advertising for bus drivers all the time and so um and our difference is that we have 300 square miles um and compared to other districts around us. Now Huntington's different obviously um but everybody else around us is not near as large. Do we ever consider maybe morning and evening when the bus stops different drivers right typically
023in the past it's been one individual does morning and they do afternoon I didn't know shortage gets more intense we have to look at hiring for the morning and then a different person we hire for the afternoon staff for that person it just would fit schedule. I mean, if somebody wanted to I don't know if anybody's ever come to us and said, "Hey, you know, I think that we would look at it if we had those people that available to you." Well, I see what he's saying because, you know, if you advertise it that way, knowing that maybe you could fill fill that usually doesn't get dry for you guys, you know, in the morning. So, some people want to Is that what you're saying or you kind of is that what you're saying? Yeah,
024we can do it in the morning. We just can't do it in the afternoon. Well, I don't know what the answer is other than you just got to keep increasing the pay to traffic. We try to and we'll continue to do that as much as we can. I know like for Melissa example, I mean, she's probably average driving at least two days a week. It feels like has driven, other people have driven. I've driven. Um, well, we appreciate you. I mean, that's reflective. You're retired. We can pick you up. He's picking on that. Well, and the other thing is, you know, by law, um, the other thing that we've thought about in the past, too, is just being able to look at our activity buses to be able to use one of those, but by
025law, we can't pick up people doortodoor on that. And so, that would certainly help, too, because it's not just the pay, though. Um it is what you're saying though too it might be convenience of little work if you can do morning and afternoon or not morning for afternoon but the other situation is um you know today is actually u bus driver appreciation day and so I I saw a post um someone put on there that's they're not just a bus driver you know they they counsel kids they they go to different events they do different things but also how much they have to learn to become a bus driver and it's not it's not real easy and it's a lot of time to do all that so it's a big responsibility very big responsibility So
026we can we can you know you can look at this again um ask questions. It it does leave it open though. That's why I highlighted it there. It does leave it open um that if um the exceptions can happen approval of the superintendent or designate. So um but it's difficult when we don't have all the answers that we need. In other words, we don't have the drivers necessarily. We don't know even in the summertime, you know, who's going to be the new students. You know, is there going to be a situation where how it's going to work. So evolving. So that's that. So the other thing I want to share and I want to I want to share several things first before we I want to share a video coming up here in a little
027bit. But talking about legislation because that's a big thing that's going on. We really didn't know what was going to happen uh this year, but we knew there was going to be a lot of talk about the budget and about property taxes. And so just to give you um a little examples, number one, um there are still 29 House bills for education that are on the tracker. Eight have been signed by the governor. I'm not going to go over all those um but there are eight and Dr. Q and I have looked at those together and because there's some things that we'll have to do with that. Senate bills, there's actually um still 22 Senate bills still on the tracker and there are four that have already been signed by the governor. Another interesting thing,
028um, over the last 25 years, legislation, um, has, this is the state legislation, has put in place 560 mandates to traditional public schools, K through 12. So, it's just interesting, um, how much has been added to the plate of schools. And so, anyway, that's that. But I do want to play a video. And I know when I did this earlier, I think I'm going to have to Oh, that's corporations. didn't work. So I took but this is about three minutes long but this will explain Senate Bill one a little bit more and then we'll show um another slide deck that we like to share. So I'm going to go to working all that. We're going to go to 18. And these are the the the top three things that the Indiana School Boards Association, they
029sent out on Fridays. You might have heard seen this already. Um, but Lisa Tanzel is one of the attorneys there at the Indiana School Board Association. The director actually usually does it, but apparently he was not available. So, I just want to show this and learn a little bit more about this. Was the third reading deadline for both the House and the Senate? meaning that any bill that was not called by the author by Tuesday of this week is considered dead. Looking at the ISBA tracking list, it looks like we remove at least 13 bills from our list because they are considered to be dead. Other bills on our list are on their way to the governor for his signature or are being assigned to conference committee. So, speaking of the governor's signing bills, issue
030number one, Senate Bill One, has been signed by the governor. He signed this bill on Tuesday of this week. As you know, this is the bill that was designed to give significant property tax relief to taxpayers, but unfortunately resulted in a significant decrease in expected property tax revenues available to public school corporations. Other provisions in the bill include limiting referendum questions to the general election ballot and requiring certain school corporations to share operating referendum dollars with charter schools beginning in 2028. Lastly, the bill also includes language that will dissolve the union school corporation effective July 1, 2027. Issue number two, the revenue forecast was presented to the Senate Budget Committee just yesterday. The April forecast estimates a loss in state revenue or a decrease in state revenue of over $2 billion over the next two
031years. Obviously, this news greatly impacts House Bill 101, the budget bill, and the ability of the general assembly to give school corporations any significant increase in tuition support dollars. Issue number three, conference committees. House Bill 1001 has been assigned to a conference committee and it is through this conference committee process that the final version of the bill will be negotiated. Other bills assigned to conference committee include Senate Bill 287, the bill on partisan school board elections. The conference committee was scheduled to convene to this morning. Um but that meeting was cancelled so we are awaiting to see if it will be scheduled sometime next week. Two other bills on our talking list that are currently in conference committee include House Bill 1002, the education deregulation bill, and Senate Bill 482, the absenteeism bill. As I
032said, all of these bills That's I was going to end it there at 3:25. So, um, not necessarily great news at all, but just want to make sure you saw and heard that because it explains it pretty um, succinctive. So, questions, comments, maybe it doesn't pertain to us, but Union Township School, why did they dissolve that one? Were they financially bankrupt? No, they have a I think they have a $20 million budget approximately. Yeah, I don't know the specifics. I do know that it's a brick and mortar school of about 300 kids districtwide, but they actually have an enrollment of 9,000 kids because they have a a virtual school that they run. Um and so I think there has just been some concern with that school corporation in various areas related to um testing results
033scores as part of it. Um, and I think they had been that county had been in earlier conversations about a potential consolidation, but it never happened. And so I think there are a lot of things that have led up to a representative making a decision to put that into a bill. Interesting. Which opens it up. I know. I think it's Travis to count as a fire. Yes, it does. Yes. So, and really the session by statute supposed to end by April 29th, but they say that they'll probably try to finish this week. So, we should know a lot more answers um by the end of the week as far as House Bill 101 with the budget. Um we already have the property tax information, but that's what we want to go over next. So, we'll
034just go over that um quickly here. This is effective July 1. Um, I guess Dr. P and I hope to talk a little bit about this, but I'll just let him chime in. He'll do a lot more to continue on here. But, you know, schools with debt service tax rate, the 70 cents must use referendums for new debt. It used to be 80 cents. Um, and so that's a new law. That was a new law just a couple years ago, right? because when we built our debt plan, we obviously made it so that we wouldn't be close to that threshold of 80 cents. Now, with the property tax relief and the loss of assessed valuation that we'll see happen, well, when your assessed valuation goes down, your tax rate goes up. And so that could
035push us up to that 70 cent threshold, which would then really limit our potential for future borrowing because to borrow over that 70 cents, you'd have to go through a referendum, which makes it really unique for situations like our partnerships with Hartland Career Center. And so, for example, you know, it we're trying to look at ways to um help uh make improvements with that facility because there hasn't been any improvements since it's really been built in the 70s. And you know, there will be school corporations that we are members with in that that will be over that 70 cent threshold. And so how how does that relate to does that mean we all have to try to pass a referendum to to be able to improve that facility? Is it just those? You know, I
036I think it just creates now some bigger obstacles that we weren't really anticipating when we, you know, built some of these um processes, I guess, to say. And we did meet with our professionals, our financial and our um other professionals as far as uh you know, attorneys with the rest of the members of Heartland Career Center. And there's some different ideas to go along with that, but it is going to be very challenging. That's just bottom line. So there I mean that could impact us. That's one of those that could really impact us for the future. And I think we sent this to the pack and I don't know if you had a chance to look at it, but you can see the value changes with the homesteads, the farmland, the commercial, um, and then
037the circuit breaker losses there. So here again, great for um property owners um and different people like that, but when it comes down to it, it will affect municipalities and also schools. Not sure this Chris, but so the the big thing with it is that they the legislation use has used the term a decrease in the increase. So you know, we'll still receive an operation fund levy. Um but it is not to it's not going to increase at least for the next year more than 4% and in the future years we don't know if it will increase at all or if it may decrease. Who knows? Because they're talking about going to instead of a levy rate tax base to a tax rate tax base. Uh which would cap which means they could cap what
038our tax rate could be. And then the amount of money we get just depends on what our assessed valuation is at that point in time. And so with a a lower assessed valuation, lower dollars you're going to collect. Um, and so that's still on the table for the future. Not been decided yet right now. Uh, but there is that possibility. And so we do know we're going to lose the lit dollars, which we'll get into in a second. But the whole thing was that our property tax levy would not really increase for the most part. Shouldn't decrease, but with everything that's in there, who knows? That's a thing. We were talking about the referendums. I think um during general [Music] elections, additional financial impacts there. You could see that some different credits. Uh but just
039like Chris said, local income tax the revenue ends in 2028. Goods. There is some language in there so that if our if a a district's assessed valuation does increase, the tax rate has to decrease. And so if you want the tax to increase when the assessed valuation increases, then you have to do something. You have to do a a hearing and you have c procedure say in place to have that happen. So the summary kind of finalizes most of it lower revenues increased referendum reliance and tighter financial limits. So again, that vote was 27 to 22. Um, pretty much along party lines, but our own senator, our representative, Senator Andy Z did vote no um for that. I think I did not talk to him, but I did know I talked to him, but not
040specifically why he said no, but um probably because there's some things in there. Maybe it's because of union, maybe because of some other things, how affects schools, but um we appreciate him looking at that to see if there could have been some changes to that. And we'll learn more about it. See, I don't want to be uh doom and gloom, but you know, they have said that this budget mirrors the complications that happened in 0809 with the recession. And so um that was a huge impact on schools and school districts at that time. We obviously felt part of that impact a few years down the road from that. Uh and so we'll continue to learn more and we'll continue to find ways to make things work. But things probably will be tight for a while.
041And on a positive note, um, lot better shape than what we were 9 years ago. And so, um, if it was 9 years ago and this didn't happen, that would have been better situations. Regardless of what side of the fence you are on this issue, it's just the whole curveball. We've sat here for the last two, three years making long-term plans. This is a complete throw everybody in the same basket. This is basically they this is basically a complete restructuring of the tax the property taxes. And so it with it's not over with this bill. I mean there's going to be other budget sessions down the road that's going to continue to make those property tax changes. And so how it all shapes out, we have no idea. I mean this is we just know
042what we'll have to deal with with these next two years. And so um but it will be a complete I I believe it'll be a complete change in our property taxes are managed and figured out. Anything else on that? All right, we move on to new business. Uh, we got a recommendation to approve an overnight extended outofstate field trip for Sharp Creek and Blue Thor spots to the next IQ Robotics Comp competition May 11th through 15th to Dallas, Texas. A motion, a second to approve that field trip. Second motion, a second to approve that out of state field trip. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Un finish business form policy. So you got a video there. Well, video cameras 6110 video cameras. Uh yeah, really this is just um uh
043left all the uh strikeouts in here and different changes like that. This is just the first reading, but a lot of it's based on some other information we've learned um from video recordings like in the second paragraph here. Uh favor points may become a part of student's educational record under FERPA guidelines or staff members personnel record under access public records act guidelines. District shall comply with all applicable state and federal record maintenance and retention laws. And then explains a little bit about the review of video by school. And then one thing that we haven't had in place is that we need to make sure that we have um we let people know about we have video cameras and some are audio. And one way that uh we were told through a council that we could
044actually have um not local council but through uh schoolboards association that uh we could do this in the student handbook. So we will put this in the student handbooks to make sure that people do know that uh we do have cameras. I think most people already know but just to make sure that's written in there. So this is just the first reading just to clean up some things and course on this next question on that first paragraph which the last why is that content of the video may be used as evidence of student [Music] discip by school. Yeah, it's in the the fourth paragraph. Okay. Yeah. Um, that next to last sentence actually has that. That's a good question. So, if you have any questions between now and then Josh, if you I was going
045to get with you on this too, but it's some of that same information we got from Lisa Tantel and policies. So, things that we already discussed should No, I think my review makes sense based on kind of some things we came across. Look at it. So that's it for now. It is a revision. It's already one in place, but that's why we have to strike out. All right. Public comment all items. Yes. Uh yeah. So we had originally agreed upon that we would have an answer regarding the transportation situation before the end of the school year. So the switch we did have our kiddos say goodbye. Um, and I appreciated we didn't know that that transportation of Sophie was going to be part of this meeting, but perfect timing. Yeah, it was great. Um, would
046you mind pulling that back up? Is that something that we can go to over? I know that or I can just give you a copy afterwards. That works too. I would like to discuss it now if we could. Um, but I know that it hasn't been approved. Correct. So that my understanding that it was just brought up going to be discussed and approved or not approved the next. That's correct. Okay. So I just want to make sure I'm understanding the draft um on the procedure. There we go. Um, so students currently enrolled, if you have a bus already, you're continuing to get a bus. Um, you will be grandfathered in. Doesn't doesn't bother those people, but the current non-resident students not receiving transportation will follow procedures. So that's us. Um, not that we don't want
047transportation. We are just not receiving it. Um so that procedures in number two would be we don't get bus unless it's on our road or or if you go down. Yeah. Okay. Is it all depend I'll let you Well, that was just that was just my question is I know that some of the some of the students that have that are I I agree with if they're already getting transportation. I'm not I do not want transportation to be taken away from any child that does not live in the district now that is getting transportation. Um but in certain scenarios that I have seen where a bus is on a road picking up a student in our proximity not on our road but in our proximity already going out of district. Those students were given those
048current non-resident students were receiving transportation. So they were allowed to be they were allowed to be grandfathered in. We weren't given an option. Um, if that makes sense. I know that on 700, the bus doesn't go there. The bus goes to 700 for the specific student students just to pick them up and that's it. So, that just seems a little I hate using word up here's not here, but um it just seems a little odd that they could be grandfathered in, but we've been students. We've been enrolled since 23. So technically, if we would have been allowed to have that, then we would be grandfathered in. But because So you you live on 700? We do not live on 700. No, that's where that's where the bus is at now. The bus is going out
049of district currently. Y um which is the same distance out of district that we would be. I think we're just Like we understand there has to be a line somewhere, right? It's here and it goes and then the next person we get it. Like I understand our biggest thing is like we just need an answer. So my son Garrett's in first grade. Um he's been to three different preschools. He's been to two different kindergartens. And now he's, you know, his trying to get some stability. So if it is a different school district for us, I would rather do it when he's in second grade than do it when he's in fifth grade, sixth, you know, like because right now they're building those friendships. If he goes to another school in second grade, it's not going
050to rock his world. You know, they just walks in. I get it. We don't like it. Uh but and I understand, you know, contract writing, you know, there's always exceptions that can be made. I guess for us it would be like we would really would like to know if that exception is going to be made and if it's not I mean it's not and that's fine. Um but we need to make where we're going to go sooner rather than later. Yes. And we said by the end of the school year. So make that decision and unfortunately we said that we probably should have said well if we go to August because there's so many there's so many questions between May to August too. um even having enough bus drivers for the regular routes that we
051have right now which we don't have. So th those are things that it's just tough to but we did say by the end of the year. So which is coming up. Yeah. And obviously it's just one of those things that just trying to you know we we want we want all kids you know to have access but it's like you said you got to draw a line. Yeah. Has to go and I get that has to and somehow you had to come to that determination and And obviously uh maybe we'll have a whole slew of bus drivers that walk in the door. Yeah, there we go. I know you went south of town. But I I do appreciate you guys, you know, coming in as you know, you gota you got to ask the question.
052You're not if you can't if you don't ask it, you're not going to get answered. And so we'll we'll do our best. And obviously Melissa's probably wants to make it happen, but we'll see what the ultimate answer is. And will the ultimate answer be at the next school board meeting? That's at the end of May. I said by the end of school year, which would be earlier than that though. So that's true. 24th is okay. So, so basically you want to have the answer so his your son can say goodbye can say but not so much I don't want to blindside him in August and say you thought that you're going to metro with your buddies and now you're not sorry um mom's having a baby and can't take you to school like I don't
053I don't want that to okay his his world is already but that should not factor into your decision yeah I mean it's a third kid financial well I do as a board member you know we're we're trying to reach out you know and yet we don't want to limit access in any way either so that's the conflict I find myself in you know and I don't think it's a conflict if we had the bus drivers and the financial means to do all that I I don't think that's that's really I mean there would be other people we could pick up But here again, we are a large large district. We're the 22nd largest geographical district in the state of Indiana 292 districts. And so it it makes it a little bit more difficult than other
054other districts. So no excuse is just a fact. So and it's not that uh Melissa Ball's done a great job trying to recruit. we have these driving um you drive a bus days and different things like that, but then a lot of times people figure out, oh, this is a lot harder than I thought. Um there's a lot to it and so she's even gotten state license trainings to be Yeah. here at Northfield. So people drive to Fort Wayne or Indianapolis try to help out too to take those classes. We've already asked that. We weren't we weren't that she went like that. No way this your plans as you finalize this SOP operating procedure thing. Should there be a a formal or something drawn up that people such as them could appeal or they write
055that and they submit it? rather than just throw it out verbally. I guess I don't I don't disagree. I think there is a part on there we would probably just need to create a form of some sort that would request that we're trying to do how how a parent can like request request to see if it's and you know certainly have their address and all about how much a additional route would have to be added to it. I can tell you the number is three miles. Now I live on the corner of 850 right behind poet on the other side of the track on the east side of the track. So behind poet is 100 east that runs from 900 to 700 dirt road and we live on the corner of 850 right the hopper
056farm right beside us. uh and the grossman farm category is okay. So that's where we're at. We we see it's not I mean for what it's worth they drive past 150 on 700. So I mean I understand the line's got to be lined somewhere but we can see it. And we have offered though too if you want to meet someplace too that would be is there a drop off that like before you go to work you can drop off like at your parents or something and that might be something you know I know 200 north that's um but at that point when you're driving into 200 north you might as well just drop off. Well, I'm just saying at an earlier time that could be, you know, dropped off at the mom mom and dad
057or something that you could pick up the bus at that, right? Obviously, that's not ideal, but but if you're going to work already, I'm just I'm just going out. If his if his work schedule was a little bit more I mean, I drop him off most days. It's just the the more part is where, you know, you gota have you got to be picked up sometime. Yeah. Yeah, that's too early. Yeah, but getting there is not the problem. It's the ability to get home. But anyway, we don't need to talk about it anymore. Um, we appreciate the SOP. I think that's awesome. Uh, I mean, nothing what I would like it to say, but you know, the ability to have one of those. Yeah, it's been missing for a while. It's never been in place
058before us either. All right. Any board items for board members? All right, we'll journ.