001How's that? Okay, we'll call meeting to order and stand for allegiance and a moment of silence. 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. >> Okay, let's get started. Our mission statement, excellence in education, preparation for life. All board members are in attendance. And do you have any public comments? No public comments. >> [laughter] >> All right. Now, let's move on to consent items. We have the approval of the June 15th, 2026 minutes, approval of June 25th, 2026 and July 10th, 2026 payroll, the approval of July 2026 claims. So, do we have any questions on those items? No. Okay. Moving on to personnel, Mr. Reed. >> All right, for new hires, I'd
002like to recommend Marcus Green as elementary PE teacher, Devin McGee, elementary paraprofessional, Brandy Steger, elementary permanent substitute, Evelyn Negley, part-time paraprofessional, she's a high school student in the work-based learning program. Dylan Reed, boys varsity basketball head coach, Emily Anders, varsity girls golf assistant coach, and Layton Byler, varsity boys tennis assistant coach as a volunteer. Couple reassignments, Chandler Saylor, boys junior varsity basketball coach to boys varsity assistant basketball coach, Jeff Hicks, girls varsity basketball assistant coach to middle school girls basketball coach, and a few resignations, Joe Rayburn, high school math teacher, Melody Wade, middle school special education teacher, Adam Brimme, varsity boys golf assistant coach, and Brandon Howe, eighth grade boys basketball assistant coach as a volunteer. >> [snorts] >> Okay, we have a motion, for the consent items. >> Motion. >> Second. >> You're in
003second. Take it to a vote. Passes 5 to 0. Okay, action items, Mr. >> All right, the first one is a recommendation for approval to explore renovations to the high school culinary classroom. I We had just a brief conversation on this, you know, we did not pass the fire marshal kind of ding this on the vent system for our cooktops. They don't meet code. Those need to be vented outside. It's not something we can just do on our own. You would have to have an architect involved in that and do that correctly to meet all the codes. And along with that, you know, the culinary kitchen is pretty outdated. We'd like to look to explore renovations to to the whole to the whole classroom, cabinets, equipment, that type of thing. So, I do not have
004any estimates, any ideas for you at this point. What I'm asking for is just approval to explore the idea of this and bring back some ideas for you guys. But there is going to be a cost to that just exploring it because we will have to have an architect involved just to get, you know, a good estimate on what it's going to take to make us up to code with the ventilation system. >> What is the estimate cost just to explore it? >> I don't know. >> Okay. >> I don't know. >> Is there a timeline? You know, if they ding you on this, do you have so long to correct? >> The thing is don't do it again. So, she can't use it. So, she she's limited on what she can use. >> Oh,
005[clears throat] okay. >> So, there's no timeline to get it fixed. It's just if it's not fixed, don't do it. >> Okay. >> We have a motion for the approval to explore renovations to the high school culinary classroom. >> So moved. >> Do you have a second? >> I will. >> Here. Take it to a vote? Passes 5-0. >> Okay, so the next one recommendation to approve changes to the transportation handbook. Last month I gave you a copy of that handbook and inside of that were the changes that Galen is recommending. Uh those were in red. Uh the first one was on page 11. And basically that's putting in language on how to use personal days and uh they have to request them so far in advance. You're going to grant so many people allowed
006to use a personal day before vacation. Um and then we'll go by seniority. So it kind of follows the same language that we use for our teachers. And obviously the reason for that is we just don't have subs to cover. So if we have 10 people wanting to extend a spring break, we don't have 10 drivers to to sub that. So that's the first request is kind of to change the language there on how to request and how many personal days will be granted for people to use around vacations. The second change was on page 13, e-learning days. Basically saying if we cancel school and we're going to use a remote learning day, they're going to have to make up that day. They're going to make it up by doing professional development, some type of
007video online learning. And then Galen will organize that for them. And then the last one was on page 21, I believe. Um again going back to personal days. And uh he would like to put the language in there that unused days will be transferred to sick leave or you can elect to be paid two times the daily rate at the end of the school year. So again, this is trying to incentivize our drivers to be here as much as possible because again, we just have very limited subs. So. >> That's going for school year, not on retirement. >> No, just at the end of the school year. So if they roll over and they don't use them, they go to sick days. So they can't be paid out at the sick days, just personal days.
008Okay. Other questions on any of those changes? >> I have a motion to approve the changes to the transportation handbook. >> Second. >> Do you second? Vote, please. Passes 5 to 0. >> Okay, our next one comes from Anita and food service, a recommendation to approve the adult meal prices for '26 and '27. Breakfast will remain the same at $3, but she is going to have to increase the lunch prices by a quarter. So, the new lunch price for our adults will be 5.25. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> [clears throat] >> Ready to vote. Passes 5 to 0. >> Next one is a recommendation to approve the 2026-2027 food service contracts as presented by the Northern Indiana Educational Service Center. That is who we partner with as a co-op to get the best
009pricing for our food service products. Gordon Food Service was awarded the major contract, and the only company who also bid on the main contract. That's about 90% of our supplies come through Gordon Food Service. Schingels will be the dairy provider, and our snack and beverage proposal was awarded to Commercial Foods out of Indianapolis. >> So. >> I have a motion to approve the '26-'27 food service contracts as presented by the Northern Indiana Educational Service Center. >> Second. >> I'll second Jessica's second. Ready to vote. Passes 5 to 0. >> And then the last one is a recommendation to approve the extension of our administrator contracts. This is something that we usually do in July. In your package, I listed all the admin there for you. Basically, by extending their contracts, we keep them on 2-year
010contracts. Mine is a 3-year contract. Their salary that's listed reflects the $2,000 raise, that same raise as our teachers are receiving from the collective bargaining agreement. So. All of our administrators had a pretty good year. So, I just recommend that we go ahead and extend their contracts. >> I motion to approve the extension of the administrator contracts. >> So moved. >> Second, please. >> I'll second. >> Do you have a second? Ready to vote? Passes 5-0. Any other board or any comments? >> Yeah, just a couple other things real quick. We had our renewal for our insurance trust a couple weeks ago. It was a 1.5% increase, which I think is outstanding. We've had really, really good rate increases the last couple years and markets trending towards double digits. So, feel really good about that.
011And so, what that means for our teachers and us is we split the increase 50/50. So, basically a 0.75% increase for our teachers and a 0.75% that we pick up. So, happy for our teachers on that that they're not going to have a lot more money deducted from their paychecks for insurance. So, feel good about that. Tomorrow night, July 21st, we have the ribbon-cutting ceremony for our learn-to-work program over at Lakeland. That's where we're partnering with Lakeland and Westview on that program, electrical maintenance. The room is pretty much finished over at Lakeland. That's where we'll have the ribbon-cutting ceremony. All of you are welcome to attend that if you'd like. It's at the intermediate building 6:00 tomorrow. Projects, I will anybody who wants to, I'll take you around after the meeting after our executive session
012and show you what's been done so far. Carpet at the middle schools pretty much completed, looks great. The playgrounds are about 90% complete. Brooks Construction is still working on the uh the asphalt on the playground back there. They're ready to to uh in the asphalt this week. Uh the roofers for the middle school and elementary building just started today. Uh they were supposed to start well, about a month ago. Um so, they say they have about 3 weeks to do that, which obviously puts us in school. Um they're not done, they're just going to finish on the second shift, so not as concerned about that one. Um going over to the high school, uh the high school is a little bit behind. We still don't have all the demo done of all of our classrooms.
013Um do have a lot of lights put in, a lot of new ceiling tile and grid have been put in, but uh we're still a little bit behind, so and you can see that when we go over there. Um press box is up. They're uh working on installing the platforms on the side and the and the guard fences and railings around that. Um yeah, I think that's pretty much it, so they're rolling, but uh we'd like to be rolling a little bit faster. Uh just a lot to do in 8 weeks time period. Just trying to get everything done this summer, but >> How many days How many days do you have left? >> Well, 3 weeks from today is our first day of school. >> Yeah. So. >> You have a plan in place
014for high school? >> We'll we'll get there. We'll get there. >> It'll be usable. >> Yeah, it'll be usable. >> [laughter] >> It will be usable. Uh I'm I'm pretty confident our classrooms will be done. So, they may have some odds and ends to finish up, but No. No plan B. We will start on time. >> [laughter] >> We will start on time. That's the contingency plan. So. >> Okay. >> Well, that's that's all I had. >> Everything? All right. You have to turn that in by 5:12. >> It's a nice congratulatory letter it? >> Yeah. it is.