LCSC Board Meeting 01-20-2026

001Heat. Heat. Heat. Grand Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. All right. Where's my little >> Everybody ready? >> Okay. I'll call the Lanesville Community School Board of Trustees uh meeting into to order. The first call is going to be the board of trustees, the board of finance, and Mr. Bridges was the president of that last year. >> I'd like to u um give a re a financial review uh by Dr. Apple for the corporation. If you would please. >> Yes, sir. Um financially, the corporation is in really really good shape. Uh I'm going to run through some account totals for you currently. um in our education fund, which is what we utilize to pay um instructional assistants, teachers, uh coaches, uh building administrators, a wide variety

002of people. We are currently sitting at 4,33,77. Uh operating referendum is sitting at $187,722. Our debt service, which is what we used to pay uh bonds off with, um older bonds, is um sitting at 123,480.90. Our operations fund is sitting at 1,983,515. Our local rainy day is at $161,387. Um, our money and investments in uh, Trust Indiana is sitting at $4,391. Um, $391,516. Uh, where we sit currently as a school corporation, uh, total cash balance is sitting at 12,854,528.99. Uh, so fiscally the corporation is in really, really good shape. Mr. Bridges. >> Thank you, Dr. Apple. >> Do I have a We have a motion to accept that report and then we are we just That was just >> That's just the report. Okay. >> Yeah. But you have to >> make a motion we

003adjourn that meeting. >> No, you have to make >> You have to secretary. Sorry. Sorry guys. Election of finance official officers for 2026 president secretary. I make a nomination to make Tim Bridges as president of the board of finance for 2026. >> Oh, I'll second that. Congratulations. >> We have nomination and a second. Do you want to vote on that? >> We have We have We have a nomination, a second. Let's go ahead. Is there any discussion about that? >> No. >> If not, all in favor say I. I. >> All opposed. Same sign. >> Secretary last year, this year was secretary last year was um >> Lynn Lyn Lynn Powers. >> She's not here. >> He's not here. So >> I do that, too. Or we have we have nominations. >> I'll make I'll

004make a motion. Donnie Hussong as secretary for the board of finance for the for uh 2026. >> Second. Okay, you got it. >> Any discussion? I have I have a motion to second. >> All in favor? >> I saying I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion pass. Congrat. Congratulations. >> Thank you. I guess >> now you could. >> Now I can adjurnn. Okay. >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll second that. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Okay. And then we'll be back. Uh we have to wait till 7:15 for the regular meeting. Um so it'll be a few minutes because I know Jeffrey first. >> Hopefully not. >> So when this comes out, do I have to put my password in? Probably. >> Is it going to double authenticate?

005It's a pain in the >> No, it shouldn't. But it'll it'll time you out. You just cut your mouse back on it. >> Is this why the people are here? >> Because of the >> financial thing. >> Okay. >> So, I'm timed out every couple minutes just >> Are we ready? >> Yeah. Let's go. Everybody ready? >> Okay. I'm going to call the Lanesville Community School Board of Trustees regular meeting at 7:15. I'm calling it to order. We'll start by 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 want to start off. Um, we lost a member of the community that was u uh I would say almost

006we could say he was family here. Um, Mr. David Smelts. Um, I don't know if anybody wants to say anything. Um, over the years he was school bus driver, school bus driver for the u many athletic teams. was very active in the school. Every every picture you saw of him had a Laneville shirt on him. Um so I we want to send the condolences to the family. >> Let me say one thing real quick. Dave was here drove bus for 23 years. I drove for Dave on several on on several years on a route. Uh wonderful guy to work with work for. He is he was Langville. >> And the whole family I mean you you look at the whole family. Penny from Penny to I mean just everybody. It's um that that whole family

007was part of this family. >> One thing about Dave is he never you ask him to do something, he never turned you down. He was always there to help you. Whatever. It didn't matter. Can you drive a bus this morning at you know 6 you call him at six o'clock in the morning? He's there. I'll be there. And um those are the kind of people that that you that become a part of the family. and he of course family were here forever and um uh he will be sorely missed. He was just here Saturday before uh he passed away and and uh just giggling, laughing and just having a good time. He enjoyed people and uh he enjoyed he loved Lanesville schools and we will miss him. Right. The first or the next item number

008three is election for officers for 2026. Could I have a nomination for president? >> I'll make a nomination for Ryan Lynn to remain president. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second. Could I have a or sorry um any discussion? If not, all those in uh favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Could I have a nomination for vice president? >> I'll nominate chair for vice president. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Mo motion passes. And could I have a nomination for secretary? >> Nominate Tara Smith for secretary. >> Could I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Okay.

009The next item. Can we do all these at one time or do we have to do those separately? Okay. >> Can I have a U appointment sorry for >> appoint uh the treasurer, the deputy treasurer and the executive secretary. >> That would be currently Dustin Crawlhorn as treasur deputy deputy treasur is U >> Carrie Simler and then executive sec secretary is Rebecca Still. I make a motion that we accept Dustin, Carrie, and Becky in those positions. >> I'll second Tim's motion. >> Okay. I've got a motion for Dustin Crawhorn to be corporation treasurer, Terry Similar to be deputy treasurer, and Becky Stiler to be executive secretary. I've got a motion in a second. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Okay. Um, we shifted

010some stuff out of the executive session. Um, the training for um the row of members as a public official that um Jeffrey Hammond's going to give us. Um and then also he's going to talk talk a little bit about the tax um impact for um a possible new school on the grounds that we own on the other side of the road. So I'm going to turn it over to Jeffrey um for our training real quick. >> I've got a couple slides that Dustin is gonna help me with over here. So, thanks Dustin. Um, as Mr. Lynn mentioned, um, wanted to talk about a couple things with you all this evening. Um, first is a few slides on some legislation that passed, um, this past year in 2025 that impact school corporations. So, I wanted to

011go through some of those potential um, impacts and and changes that came about from that legislation. And then I do have a few slides on potential tax impacts associated with a new building project. Um, as I'll mention whenever I get to those numbers, these are it's just a range of options at this point. Um, so we can we can talk more about those when I get there. But first, just wanted to go through a few things um that came about from this most recent legislative session. So, if you could go to the next slide there, and it's going to be hard to read up here on the screen, but I I hope you all have this information, too. You can kind of follow along. Uh, so what what we're looking at here on this slide

012is just some of the uh school specific bills that were passed that impact really funding for public school corporations. Um, so there were really three bills that impacted schools. The first is House Enroll Act 101. That's the state's budget bill that they pass every year. Um and its main impact was that it changed the tuition formula that per student formula. Um there was some new money that came about in that. It's only about 1 or 2% more new money. Um but that did change in house enrolled act 101. Then there was senrolled act 146 which was focused on teacher compensation. It um sets a target for beginning teacher salary to start at $45,000 and then it also increased there's a percentage of the education fund and that's the dollars that schools get from the state

013per student. Uh and it changed the percentage of that that should go towards teacher compensation from 62% to 65%. So that that bill was largely targeted at increasing teacher compensation. And then where I'll spend the most of my time this evening is on Senate Rolled Act One and that was uh designed as a property tax relief bill and it had quite a few impacts to both school corporations and just municipalities in general throughout the state. So I'm going to highlight a few of those. Uh the first is that it changed some of the um thresholds with what's called a controlled project. So, anytime a school corporation goes out for a project, it's either a controlled or non-controlled project. And what determines that is just mostly the size. So, the borrowing amount, the size of the

014project, uh but also the school corporation's existing tax rate. So, prior to Senate Enrolled Act One, um the non-controlled project threshold was at um about it would be about 6,860,000. So any project above that would be controlled which means that it's open to more taxpayer um say in the process and it also um based on that debt service tax rate if a project is over if a school corporation has a tax rate over 40 cents and they pursue a project of any amount it would be considered a controlled project. The big change from this legislation was there's an upper bound on the tax rate that was 80 cents. So if a school corporation debt service tax rate above 80 cents and they tried to go forward with a project, it would automatically be placed on

015a referendum ballot that this bill lowered that threshold from 80 cents to 70 cents. Lanesville's tax rate is nowhere near that, but um just something to uh be aware of moving forward. >> Yeah, we are just under 20 cents. >> Yeah. So >> 1969. >> So that exempts you from the 40 cent threshold and obviously the 70 threshold. So that's that's a good place to be from a a debt service tax rate standpoint. Uh there was a big change to when schools can go out on a ballot for a referendum. Prior to this bill passing, you could go out in May, November, any year. You could even hold a special election where the school's question was the only thing on the ballot. And that changed to where now a school can only go out in

016a general election. So it has to be in November of an even number year. the only chance that a school has now to go out on a ballot with either an operating or a capital related referendum. >> And that's what killed it last year because >> because that changed when we were working on this, it changed right then. What was it? When was this pass? April. >> It came into effect that that specific thing July 1st of 25. So it was passed in April. Came into effect on July 1st. >> Okay. >> Uh there was I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this one. there was a a general obligation bond cooling off provision um kind of very specific and technical with the language which would not apply to Lanesville. Um there

017were changes to property tax deductions and I've got a few slides to go into that in more detail. I think that was large was one of the biggest components of this bill was what it does to property tax deductions and therefore net assessed values. So I'll have a few slides on that. Um, it eliminated the excess levy appeal, which was a not commonly used thing. Um, doesn't really apply for Lanesville, but that was eliminated. So, you no longer can, if you have a bunch of growth in a school corporation, you cannot appeal to have your levy increased larger than what it otherwise could be. Um, local income tax dollars, again, not something that impacts Lanesville, but local income tax, if a school received those dollars, that is going away in 2028. We did get about

018111,000 a year. >> 111. Okay. So then in 20 beginning in 2028, that 111,000 will no longer be available to schools. And then um charter school revenue sharing, not not something that impacts Lanesville, but again, if schools have significant charter schools within their boundaries, beginning in 2028, they will need to share some of their operations levies and dollars that they receive with those charter schools. And then the last one um does not come into play until the budget for 2030, but there was a provision in this that says if a school increases their tax rates or levies from the prior year that you would have to hold a separate and distinct uh basically a project here, not a project hearing, but a budget meeting to discuss those changes with the community. But that won't come

019into play until 2030. All right. So I before I get into some of the specifics on deductions, I just wanted to share a general slide that shows how property taxes are calculated. So how your individual tax bill is calculated. And so you start with the gross assessed value, which um is determined annually at the county level. In Indiana, we have a market-based assessment system. So your gross assessed value should be relatively close to the market value of your home. That's where you begin. Then you have deductions available to you, especially as a residential taxpayer. Um, currently that's the standard homestead deduction and the supplemental homestead deduction. So that allows you to take your gross assessed value, deduct those dollar amounts, and get you to your net assessed value. And your net assessed value is the

020value on which the tax rate is levied. And that determines your annual tax bill. So the net assessed value times your tax rate divided by 100 equals your tax bill. So that kind of speaks to on an individual level if we own property we all have a net assessed value that determines our tax bill. But the school corporation also has a net assessed value which is very important when it comes to tax rates and their budget each year. And think about that as all the individual net assessed values within the school corporation's boundaries make up the school corporation's net assessed value. So, I'll talk about net assessed value kind of in two two different ways. Um, but it it is all tied together. A couple general correlations. So, um, if your tax rate is held

021constant and the assessed value increases, so think about this as the tax base growing, then that same tax rate is going to bring in a higher tax levy. Same tax rate, higher net assessed value is a higher levy for the school. The opposite is also true. If the assessed value decreases at the same tax rate, it brings in less in levy. And then if you hold your tax levy constant, so the amount of ask that you are making of the public, your levy, the revenue that you bring in from property taxes, if that is held constant and assessed values increase, then that same levy that you're bringing in at a higher assessed value would be a lower tax rate. And the opposite is also true. same levy, decreased assess value, it would be a higher

022tax rate. So just a couple correlations that I think in a couple slides here it'll make sense as to why I kind of went through that. So this this slide here really highlights the changes on a residential property that came about from Senate and roll back one. So 2025 column furthest to the left that was kind of the current or the old way of deductions working. You had that standard deduction which is the lesser of 60,000 or 60% or $48,000 of your home value. And then there was the supplemental homestead deduction which allowed you to deduct another 37.5%. You see starting in 2026, these deductions change and they really change over time until 2031. So this impact of this bill is going to be phased in over a period of about 5 years. But what

023you see happen is that standard deduction, the 48,000, slowly goes away to zero. So it will it will wind down, so to speak, until 2031 when it's no longer in effect. And the supplemental homestead deduction, which was in 25 at 37.5%, will slowly increase. So it will go from 37.5% to 66.7%. And we'll look at an example on the next slide, but that's that's just a general um impact of this bill that the deductions are changing and it's going to be more of a deduction for a residential property. >> So, you can you choose which one you want, standard or right now >> you get both of them. >> Okay. >> Right now, but it will slowly phase away to where the standard is is just no longer an option and it's going to be

024fully replaced by that supplemental. They may have to change the name. It's no longer supplemental. >> Yeah. >> Uh the next slide may have what you're after. Um but the supplemental so you would start with your gross assessed value. You would deduct that standard deduction and then whatever's remaining of your assessed value, you could deduct another in 2026 40% from that. So that's how that would work and and we'll look at that on the next slide. But one other thing I wanted to to mention is this bill had a supplemental homestead credit that came into play for the first time. And so that is a credit that would come on to your tax bill. That is uh the lesser of $300 or 10% of your assessed value. So that is that is new. It's similar

025kind of to the circuit breaker credits which have been around since about 2008. But um for purposes of the school corporation, that credit represents a shortfall in what you can collect. So it will be treated very similar to a circuit breaker credit where it would hit your operations fund and mean you are going to be able to generate less funds because that credit is essentially funded by the school corporation and other municipalities. So, uh, this next slide shows a kind of a a real world example of how these deductions will change over time and what that means for assessed values. So, we've got $193,500 is the home value here. That's about the median value of a home in Indiana. Um, so you can see as time passes how this changes your net assessed value, which

026is um in bold, the third row from the bottom. So, under the current 2025 assessment, a home with a gross assessed value of $193,500 would be a net assessed value of $90,938. That's the amount you would pay. Your property tax rate and tax bill would be determined based on that amount. You see, as we move to 2031, how the supplemental homestead deduction changing and the standard deduction phasing out takes that same home value. So assuming no no appreciation in the value of the home, but that same $193,500 home now has a net assessed value of $64,436. So you would be paying your tax rate on a lower assessed value, which would in theory lower your tax liability. What that means for the school corporation is when you think of the net assessed value being all

027the property within your boundaries, as we see these deductions come into play in the individual home values, their assessed values decrease. That could also and and will likely decrease the school corporation's assessed value, too. So, that's something to be mindful of. And we think back to the correlations of the slides, the same levy at a lower net assessed value for the school corporation could mean higher tax rates over time. Obviously, there can be growth in the tax base and changes that can offset some of that, but the general theme is that it will lower assessed value over time, >> but you still you still need the same amount for your levy. So, a percentage of a percentage is you're going to be paying basically the same price even though it looks like your tax rates

028going up, but it's just because your assessed value is going down. Correct. Yes. So you would likely see a lower assessed value but a higher tax rate. So your tax liability will probably be somewhere similar at the end of the day. >> As long as your levy doesn't change, it's pretty much going to stay the same the same dollar amount. >> Correct. Yeah. The the levy is how much so that a levy is something that is directly in the school corporation's control. The tax rate is not within your control. So the tax rate because it's so heavily dependent on the net assessed value can change but the levy is how much you're asking from the public each time and that is something that you can control. Okay. >> All right. Next slide please Dustin. So

029um there was also a change to what what we sometimes call 2% properties and that's based on circuit breaker language. Um it's a different classification of properties from a residential property. A 2% property is um rental property. it's agricultural property and its long-term care facilities. So before Senate RO act one, those property types did not have any deductions available to them. What your gross assessed value was was your net assessed value, which is what you pay taxes on. Sen Act one added some changes to these and you can see by 2031 uh we go from 0% deduction in 2025 to a 33.4% deduction in 2031. So those properties would now have deductions available to them to lower their net assessed value just like residential properties. Um again, general theme here is as those net assessed

030values are reduced because of these deductions, the school corporation's net assessed value may also be decreased as these come into play. So again, we got a really a 5-year period of time, but this will happen by 2031. >> I' I've got a quick question on a 2% tax cap. Is that going back um 10 15 years ago when it was 1% 2% 3%? >> Yes. And it is still 1% 2% 3%. So 1% is all your residential property, 2% agricultural, rental, long-term care facilities, and then 3% is all commercial property. >> Okay. So that's staying in play. >> That is still there. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> It's a good question. Uh I included this chart to show um the base rate of an acre of agricultural land. So this is determined at the state

031level. The base rate is based on a formula. There were some changes in Senate enrolled act one that decreased the base rate. And then um if you were looking at your individual property tax bill, if you own agricultural land, there would be productivity factors and things applied to that base rate. But I wanted to share this chart because I think it shows what has happened to the base rate of an acre of land over time. Um it started to go up quite a bit in 2015 2016 time frame. The legislators actually passed legislation to bring that down as you see it trended down. It was based on a formula for for a long time. Um, in 2021, 2022, as property values increased pretty dramatically, so did the base rate of an acre of agricultural land.

032Again, because it's based on a formula. And um, what Senate Rolled Act One did is they made some changes to that formula to bring it back down a little bit from where it had been in 25. There was also a change to business personal property um which this is not going to fully come into play until 2027 but could could be relatively impactful as well for assessed values. Uh the dimminimous exemption on business personal property. So think um equipment, machinery, personal property that would have taxes paid on it. >> Farm equipment. Absolutely. Um, this had a dimminimous exemption from taxation. So, you would not have to pay property taxes on business personal property if the acquisition cost was $80,000 or less. That is changing in 2027 to $2 million or less. So, that is going

033to capture a lot more equipment and machinery that is now going to be exempt from that business personal property tax and that will happen in 2027. Um lastly, they removed the depreciable floor. So you could depreciate that property down to 30% of its value. Um unless it is in a tip area, which we have, I think one small one in Lanesville. Um that is now able to depreciate all the way down to zero. So that will be a change that will impact the assessed value coming from business personal property. Then I do have a a quick slide here that um we try to quantify some impacts based on the new funding formula. So these these are based on some assumptions um flat enrollment but you can see in 2526 school year and the 2627 school

034year what that change in the funding formula means for Lanesville. So, it's an increase of about 92 just under 93,000 in 2025 2026 and an increase of about 77,000 next year in 2627. Again, that's the per pupil state aid that the school gets um from the state of Indiana. And then um the supplemental homestead tax credit that I mentioned was was a new one that $300 or 10% of your assessed value. Um, we're estimating that could be an impact of about $97,000 u annually to the school corporation from having to fund that credit that is now going to be available to residential payers. >> I've got a quick question. Yes. On the funding formula, is that the one that we're hearing from corporations around here that they're going to lose approximately a million dollars or

035$2 million? Is that the is that the one that everybody's talking about? >> No. The education fund. Um what what they're losing a lot of money on um are the um property taxes or their operations fun. >> Okay. So this one's education. >> Yeah. The top one is your education. That's your per per pupil. >> Okay. >> A little over 7,000 is the base. >> Okay. >> And that that loss that you're mentioning is likely probably circuit breaker loss or it could even be um >> or from tip districts. tip district's circuit breaker loss or that new credit would be what I would think that would be or local income tax dollars going away. >> Okay. >> I think that's what it was. Local income tax mentioned earlier. Yeah. >> And that that is some

036schools do get millions of dollars. I think that's >> that is that is going away with no proposed solution as of as of now. >> Um so just a few highle summaries here to to conclude this portion. Um there there is new money coming in from that state funding formula, but it is it is minimal. Um it doesn't quite keep pace with inflation that that everyone has experienced. Um the new money into the operations fund. So you can grow your operations fund levy by 4% each year. That's capped by the state of Indiana. So even if you wanted to or needed to increase your levy more than that, you cannot go more than 4%. Um and some of that 4% growth is going to be offset by the local income tax suns setting and also

037um that supplemental homestead credit. Um the other big thing here I'll just mention is net assessed value. Keeping in mind how those changes are going to come into play. If the net assessed value increases, it could drive tax rates up. Any questions over that information? There's a lot there's a lot >> and for the board um you know here in a little bit we'll ask you to do the the resolution so we can transfer money from education to operations. Uh those corporations like Lanesville that have over the last few years transferred less than the 15%. Uh that is the only area probably of growth that we can count on over the next few years. And so we depending on what happens may have to transfer up to the 15% max from the 12 or so

038that we've been. >> All right. Well, I've got uh one more slide here to share. So uh Dr. Apple had asked me to look at a few scenarios for a potential project um and try to get an idea of what those tax impacts look like associated with uh a few different ranges of projects. So, I've I've provided um a tax impact schedule here. Um looking at a borrowing amount $45 million, $55 million, and $65 million. These are at this point relatively high level. Um as if if the board decides to move down this path and and pursue a project, the narrowing in of the scope, deciding what exactly to be done uh will change these numbers and and will need to happen before we can get truly accurate numbers of what some of these impacts

039may look like. Um, but I've provided on the far left here, um, some market values of of a variety of properties. So, ranging from $100,000 up to $550,000 home values. I've included the median home value within Lanesville of $239,600. So, that's kind of the one that I'll focus on here as I explain these. Uh, and then the net assessed value is to the right of that. Keep in mind all we just talked about that assumes that those deductions are in place and that's the difference between that market value number and the net assessed value number is that it takes into account those deductions. I've also included an acre of agricultural land, um 100 acres of agricultural land, so you can kind of see that as a a multiplier and then uh a $100,000 commercial or

040rental property as well. So, if we look at the median home value of $239,600, when you go through for uh tax year 2027, so that' be next year and look at the net assessed value and you apply those deductions, you get to an amount of $17,784. That is the the number that your tax rate would be based on to determine your tax liability. And then I've provided um tax rates associated with each of these scenarios. So the 45 million up to 65 million. This is the tax rate solely tied to the project. So it wouldn't account for your existing tax rate, debt service tax rate, operations fund tax rate. It is solely focused on the project amount. And if we move forward down the road and this ultimately goes on a ballot, these are numbers

041that you would see on the ballot or whatever is ultimately determined, but you would need to provide them in this format, a maximum tax rate associated with the project being considered by the public. So, if we look at again the median home value or the $45 million scenario, that would come out to be a tax rate of about a dollar 11.58, which would be um on an annual basis about $1,23 impact to that property. The $55 million scenario would be 1 point $1.36.32 and that would translate to an annual impact of about $1,470. And then for the $65 million scenario, it would generate a maximum tax rate of $161.05 and that would generate um a tax impact of about $1,736 for that median property. I will note these are um they're based on 5% interest

042rates which are conservative for where we're at today. We're at about four and a quarter currently. Um however, kind of the process of going through putting something on a ballot or just approving a project in general that has to have bonds issued is if the board moves forward, they would adopt maximums or not to exceed numbers, which is why we have to be a little conservative with how we project these out. we have to account for potential movement in the market over time between when the process is adopted and when the bonds are sold. Um, so we have to build in some cushion there. Ultimately, if bonds are issued, you would not know the exact tax impact until the bonds are sold. It's a competitive process that goes through a market and that would be

043the time when you would actually know then what your amortization schedule was like on the bonds and what that actual tax impact would be. And uh Jeff, just so we're all on the same page, those tax rates that you just went off are just for that project, not including what we currently already have. >> Correct. Correct. And I did I added a column if you want to scroll down maybe just a little bit, Dustin. >> There is a column that has your estimated total school tax rate. So that would take into account the existing tax rate which in 2026 $6420 or 6423 or 64.23. Um I also to get to that number in in the second from the bottom row there I subtracted out the existing operating referendum rate of about 14 cents and then

044added those rates you see up in the in the column header. So the total rate could range from $161.76 to $211.23. So I I did try to give you a feel for what that would look like these rates plus your existing rate because that ultimately um a taxpayer would pay both of the all of those rates together. And then I included just for kind offormational purposes the um state average tax rate in 2025. So 2026 data is not available yet, but um the state average for a school corporation, there's 290 of them in Indiana. In 2025 was $1.266 >> and we were 51 cents. Is that correct? >> Last year. Yeah, >> last year. This year 6423. So I did look at what how does Lanesville's 2026 rate stack up compared to the 2025 rates?

045little imperfect because I'm looking at a year back, but 64.23 cents would be um the 23rd lowest tax rate out of the 290 schools. >> And traditionally, we've been one of the five lowest. >> I think last year was the second lowest tax rate, >> the 51 cents and 20. >> Correct. Just just for reference from the board, I know you may not have these exact numbers, but $161, $186, and 211, would that be one of the highest in the state? Ye. Yes. So, if we the $65 million scenario, the $211 would be about the fifth highest in the state based on 25 data. And largely um these these tax increases are high because the school's net assessed value is small. It's a small school, small boundaries. The tax base is not as large as

046other schools. Some schools could do a $65 million project and it might be five or 10 cents of tax rate. So the reason that these numbers are on the large side is because the net assessed value, the piece of the pie to divide that out amongst is small. >> Um Dustin, if you scroll back up at the very top, that's so 1.1158. >> That would be the increase. >> Correct. >> Um what do you usually see on what what passes when it goes to referendum? What's give me what numbers would normally pass? But we're if we if we asked for 45 million, we're asking for a $111 increase. What What normally passes? Does a dollar normally pass? It's it's really hard to get a feel for it. I would say that a$11 is certainly on

047the high side of what usually goes out on a ballot. Um I could I could look into some more statistics on what traditionally passes versus doesn't. There is there's a tipping point. Certainly, I don't know it off the top of my head, but I would say that a dollar2 is is on the high side of a tax impact for for a ballot question. Now, I've got one more question. I don't know if the board has any questions, but um when when did you come up with these numbers? Was this is this recent? Is this last couple weeks? or was this last year's data >> two uh it it was probably two or three weeks ago based on these different borrowing amounts. >> Um so yeah and again it's these tax rates are based on the

0482026 net assessed value. So it is incorporating the most current data to determine these rates. Any other questions? >> A lot to think about. It is and and I would say that um one thing that we can do as well is if the board makes a decision to pursue this further, we can prepare a tax calculator. So it's something that can go on the school's website. You would then go in. So these these are obviously chosen numbers. You could go in and put your exact assessment into this calculator and then see what your personal impact would be. So that's something that um as >> for each of these levels, for each of these scenarios, >> correct? >> Yep. Or or if there was, you know, if if a decision was made more on the scope,

049we could narrow it down to just be what what was decided on at that point. So we can we can go a number of different ways there. But um I I personally find that very helpful because property taxes are already kind of complicated and confusing. But if you can go in and take your last year's bill, plug that in, and then see the exact impact for you, I think that helps quite a bit. >> Any more questions? Thank you very much. It's a lot to think about. All right. You're welcome. >> Thanks, Jeff. >> Jeffy's one of ours. Very proud of it. Nice job. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, next item is number is number five, the approval of minutes from the December 16th, 2025 board meeting. Could I have a motion and second to

050approve? >> I make a motion we approve the minutes from the December 16th, 2025 board meeting. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? >> If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. The number six, the approval of claims and pay payroll for the month of January. Could I have a motion and second to approve? I make a motion we approve the myth of the uh excuse me the claims for the month of January. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Next item is principal's report. I don't um Eric is sick, so I'm not sure if Dr. Apple's gonna report. >> I think Miss Brown's going to

051do it. >> Okay. So, we'll start with Dr. Holder. >> We got a lot of kids in the crowd. So, that was an example of realworld math problems, right, boys and girls? That was a lot of heavy math and um thinking there. So, um January has been um a busy month for our kiddos. So, we have kicked off athletics, robotics, clubs, and academics. And so, we've really hit the ground running in 2026. Um our fifth grade boys won the St. John's Invitational. And our sixth grade our fifth that was the fifth grade won St. John's. And then our sixth grade boys um just won the Wildcat Classic, the Heath Washington um tournament this weekend. So, congratulations boys and they're currently playing Clarksville tonight here. Um robotics, our elementary robotics team had their first competition um

052this past weekend in Tel City. So, we're super excited to see that program come to light and be able to compete um with other schools in the area. So, thanks to Coach Kramer and the parent support. He really just bragged and bragged about the amount of parental support and just how great the robotics parents have been to help with all things robotics. So, shout out to you guys as well. Um, our third through sixth grade is wrapping up with Island Checkpoint 2. Um, and the scores look really good. Um, our sixth grade team is here and last week I've never seen such joy as they came in and we're just so proud of their students and just so proud to to see success. Um, and that all of their hard work's paying off. So, um,

053way to go guys. Um, our teachers and pairs are working hard to support of all of our students and we're hoping to launch our quarter 3 tutoring program the first week in February. So, we've kind of got that on the docket. So, tonight we have lots of students to highlight some amazing programs that we have at the elementary. So, we're going to start with the student council and they're going to start and then we're going to pass it um to Bethany Miller so that we can kind of talk about high ability. So, if Mrs. Broer and Mrs. Good and student council could come up and share all the great things they're doing. um and the accomplishments for our kids. Come on up. >> Hello, my name is Olivia Shel and I'm vice president of the

054elementary Lansville student council. Lansil Elementary student council aims to raise money for good causes. Additional things we also try to do is make the school a better place and help make the school day more fun. Student council members strive to show good citizenship and examples for others. >> Hello, my name is Bernard Shersme. I am the Lanesville Elementary student council president. We will be speaking about some of our fundraisers that elementary student council has participated in including elf program, chucka duck, and punk palooa. The ELF program was very successful in exceeding our goals. On the elementary side, we raised $3,135 and 4,313 incounting goods. Um, since we raised our goals, it earned us free seating and lunch. And in the overview of 2025's program was a huge success in supporting Lanesville families. A fundraiser student

055council also did earlier this year was Chuck Duck. We did Chuck Duck for a fun way to raise money for ELF at the elementary student night for fifth and sixth grade boys basketball. It was a huge success. The the student council raised 304 $347 for the L program. It was a blast and we had so much fun watching squeaky ducks being thrown across the court. all while knowing all the profits were going to those in need. We also did pumpkin pulooa, which was not a fundraiser, but tons of fun. The pumpkin puzza was a pumpkin decorating contest between the elementary classes. It was amazing how creative people got with the pumpkins. Mr. Kmer's class came in first place. Mrs. Guest Guest Wine came in second place, and Mrs. Shiger's class came in third place. Thank

056you, Lanesville School Board, for your undivided support in our efforts supporting the Lanesville community. >> Good job, guys. Got it. Okay. >> My name is Bethany Miller and I'm the high ability coordinator and I've also been uh blessed this year to work with high ability groups as well um teaching them. So I have some students with me here today who are going to talk about some of the neat things that we've been doing during our enrichment time the first semester. Uh, first up I have my fourth graders Reagan Toby and Madison Smith who are going to talk about our dinosaurs we created using our Greek and Latin roots and 3D printer. So, um, we did the dinosaurs and we had to look up Greek and Latin roots like how sorus means lizard and spino means

057spine. So, we found out the meanings of the details we wanted our dinosaurs to have. And we and we put and and we put and we um not sure how to put this. And we put them on a poster then wrote down the meanings of the stuff. So, mine was microcod source. It means small tail lizard. >> And then we made them on a 3D printer. society like Susan Banthony. She changed the world. She changed the world by allowing girls to vote. And we did a presentation. We mo we wrote we wrote a monologue and we dressed up as our character and we read our monologue aloud in front of our group. >> Um Finally, we have three fifth graders, Violet Bair, Ryland Dodson, and Marley Carter. I promise you, I also do work with

058boys, but they're playing basketball or they do not like public speaking. Um, and they're going to talk about a labyrinth that they worked on through our Greek mythology project. U, I was super impressed with all of the labyrinths that the students made. I had shown them like an example that was just a really simple like this is a lid and put some popsicle sticks, you're going to glue them in there, and you're going to have a marble. And um nope, that's not what they did. So this is just an example of what uh one of the groups came up with. We were studying Greek mythology and in our story, a character made a labyrinth. So our project was to create our own labyrinths. First, we combined our ideas and decided on a plan. And then

059we hot glued everything together and duct taped a lot of it. >> I was really impressed by their engineering. If you look at the underneath parts of it, like they have lots of like different holes in the top and like you have to u try to manipulate it around and most of those end where you're dead and only one of those holes ends up where you're finished. But they all made all sorts of tunnels underneath and all sorts of things like that. So they did a really great job with that. Um let's see here. In addition to these project, we've also had a guest teacher come in this past semester who did a farm-to-table project with our fourth to sixth grade students. They studied how many hands touch their food from the farm to the

060table typically versus how many touch it if you buy locally. Uh then they chose a local product that could be found within 100 miles of Lanesville and they researched that project and then in the end they made a recipe and they brought it in and we actually had a feast and we invited our families to come in and then they uh did their presentations for their families. So that was a really great project as well. Uh this semester we're hoping to do more of a project-based learning. The students are going to be choosing a topic that they're going to be researching and then that's going to end in a field trip um you know for those kids. So we're really excited, you know, about the things that we've already done and the things that we

061still have to do uh the rest of the school year. Thank you. Thank you. Obviously, I'm not Eric, but um I'll roll with it today. Um so, just kind of updating where we kind of left off at the beginning of January. Um our vintage sale went really, really well. Um great success. Um watching people purchase their newspapers, articles from their birth year, or just memorable events. Um, also seeing former Lanesville athletes find their jerseys, old uniforms, um, some even found banners. So, that was really neat to watch. Really highlighted school pride, um, and traditions here at Lanesville. Um, upcoming on the junior senior high side, uh, this Thursday, um, I'll be taking with our nurse, uh, juniors and seniors attending the Norton healthcare show showcase in Louisville. Um it's kind of a just kind of

062a layout where they get to actually see all the possible health care professions um and get them explained to them. So it'll be a good opportunity for those students. Also this Friday um homecoming is happening during the boys basketball game and then our next Friday is our all senior night during the basketball game as well. So, the rest of my time is going to be with Miss Mlan with our junior high robotics team who actually just placed third in a regional tournament this past weekend. So, to you all >> when you say homecoming was Friday night. >> Next Friday. >> I'm Darcel Mlan. I'm the middle school robotics coach and this is Brooke Kramer who is our elementary and in charge of all the robotics. Um we did go to Tel City and had a

063competition and I'm going to have the kids talk to you because it is all studentled teachers we show up. The parents even saw that we sign a paper and we sit. They have to do everything. So will you please describe what it was like? It was a lot of fun just to see the creativity of students from like a bunch of different schools in our area and like how they interpreted the task of stacking the pins and beams on top of each other to get points. >> So, what competition were you in? >> I did the teamwork one where you had to work with another team in front of like all the parents and stuff to get a shared number of points that you both get. So that way like if you get paired with

064a really good team that like has been doing this for a lot of years, you can get some really good points and place higher up than if you were paired a newcomer. >> Can you give an example of what scoring looks like? So what would what did you have to do to get points? >> You had to stack pins and beams on top of each other. And it worked better if they were different colors because the different colors got you more points. So like if you had like a red, a blue, and then a yellow all stacked on top of each other, that would be a lot of points, whereas just a yellow would be zero points. So yeah, that's really how the scoring works. >> And then Logan, he was in a different competition

065that was also at the same competition because they have different skill sets and things. So describe what you did. >> Um, I did what? I did something very similar to what she did except we didn't get paired up with another team. We just did it with our own team. >> So, and were parents allowed to be there to see any of that? >> I don't know why, but no, they weren't allowed to see any of it. >> So, the parents showed up, drove an hour, and they didn't get to see that part of the competition. So, as the coaches, we would only see their score, and we would talk to them like, "Hey, so what do you think you can improve? you know what went well, what didn't. Talk as a team, see what you

066can improve. And each time they went back and they had their goal and they did really well. And what was the other part that was in the library that we also could not see that you guys? It was the programmed >> program. Oh, the autonomous driving. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, talk a little bit about that. >> So, the autonomous driving is where no one's actually driving the robot. It's driving on a program we made for it. And >> we didn't do a whole lot of that. We didn't get very far into the coding. So we did get two points which did put us in a higher level because >> just drive around like in a certain track or is it >> so they have a set field with pins on it and some

067beams and so they know what it will look like. So they try to program it and um so they were they did well enough that they got they had to be touching two items on the board at the end and they got points for that. >> And then will you share how um Ezra did one of our sixth graders. So um yeah >> un well fortunately but unfortunately um so they had three attempts and the s the sixth grade did not score on any of their attempts unfortunately because we learned in practice we don't think about the clock so we're going to use the clock now he false started >> and he had a stack that was worth >> 17 points but he didn't get it because he started before the clock started >> so

068Again, we live and we learn and we figure it out. So, >> and he did go back and he did get um he did a double stack. >> Did he get >> So, he got six points. >> Okay. I couldn't I didn't. >> Yeah, he did. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, >> sorry. >> So, we've got we do have a video to show you, but um very quickly, Flynn is going to show you our robot. It's a little different than the other one you saw a couple of weeks ago. >> And Flynn is also our um journal keeper. So we get points um not at this last competition but at the next one they do have where they will score our journals. So we are submitting our journal and he has to talk about and he

069has to record everything that they've done with this. So he says you know everybody was talking they decided they wanted to modify it. How did you modify it? And so he keeps track of all of that. >> All right. And Paul can you >> and u Mrs. Lind want to thank her for recording this. She did a fantastic job. So, here are some photos and a video. >> They had to go track. This is tight. How many teams did you say were >> 32? >> And we got third out of 32. >> Yeah. With another team. Yes. >> And And how many uh middle school robotics competitions have we been in until that one? >> None. So on our first one, third out of 32, >> I told them they were overachievers. I'm like, you

070know, don't expect this every time. >> There's not too too far to go. >> Well, I will say it was a learning curve for all of us. Even the parents that showed up. I mean, we learned that this is like a swim meet. You get one minute of action and then it's like, okay, hang out all day. >> So, we learned a lot. The parents learned a lot. But I want Addy to share one of the robots, a description of this thing because we were all like I'm like videotape that. We need to know how that thing works. So we unfortunately did not get paired with that robot. But but I called it the vacuum elevator robot cuz like it just sucked up the pins like really fast and stacked them on top of each

071other like just as fast cuz it suck it up and then the pen would just go up on top of another in like 3 seconds and it was just really cool and I honestly don't really know how they did it but it was really impressive. >> So our goal from here we had a strategy at the end and I said okay we have Mr. Kramer's going to talk about this in a minute. we have an upcoming um robotics competition. And I said, "What's your goal?" And they're like, "We want to change everything." And I said, "We don't have time yet." I said, "So, let's just work on the skills we have to get better for this next one." And I said, "But after that, we have about four weeks." And they're like, "We're rebuilding." So,

072and guys, if you have any parents out there, thank you again, parents. You were amazing. The the snacks, the support, everything, sitting on those hard bleachers all day. I mean, one minute of here we go and then it's over. So Brooke, will you share too? >> So um yeah, it we we did leave about we were here at 8 o'clock Saturday and we got back at 6:30 um Saturday. So it was an 11 and a half hour day. Well, not quite 10 and a half hour. Um but they did eight competitions. So it does it sounds like but they're one minute a piece. Um, I will be taking this group, the middle schoolers, to Seymour this Saturday for a middle school only competition. And then we're going back to Tel City February 28th for another

07332 teams. There will be teams there this time from Cordon, New Middletown, and Heath, Washington as well. And then we'll have a short one on a Sunday in Henryville um March 8th. So we'll end up with four competitions this year. Middle school will have four and the elementary will have three this year. So, and then the top team at each competition qualifies for state in in Indianapolis. So, they were close to qualifying for state, but we'll we'll let them have a little more time before they do that. Yeah. >> Thank you. All right. >> I was just letting everybody clear out. Um, next item is superintendent report. Um, I'd like to echo what was said when we started and I and give my condolences to Barb and Michael, uh, to family and Sheila and Stevie

074and little Stevie and um, but everybody uh, in Dave Schmelt's family. He was one of the when I first came to Lanesville, one of the first people that I spent time with and I always saw him coming towards my office and I knew for the next 30 minutes I would get absolutely nothing finished, but I would laugh the entire time and sometimes to the point of tears. Maybe the same story I heard the time before, but I enjoyed it every time. Really a good friend to me. Um, one thing that we are wrapping up now, um, fundraiser for Riley Children's Hospital, uh, as of this afternoon, there were still a few things coming in. Um, we will cut a check for that, uh, at the end of this week, first of next week, uh, but

075we were at $7,74,543. I'd like to thank um both schools, the whole community, uh even those in Big Purple Nation that don't live in Lanesville anymore, uh chipped in and even just kind-hearted people. Um that that's all a good deed for for kids. But every penny raised will go to Riley Children's Hospital. Um like to thank Miss Becky Stiller uh for keeping all this going. Uh and then also uh Lane Thompson and um Mary Simco uh for collecting um as the week went on. Um I will on Thursday night go to the uh Harrison County Board of Zoning Appeals. Uh you've probably seen a sign out front. It's a little one. What that is, uh we are putting a marquee sign up. Um, we've discussed it and went through that and looked at it for

076several years now. We're about the only school that I can think of that doesn't have one. Um, it'll be two-sided uh facing Crest View. The parking lots, you can see it from the parking lot, so you can see it from the soccer field. Uh, coming up Crest View both ways. We are a residential zoned entity. Uh because of that, I've got to go to the variance hearing uh to explain what it is that we're doing. But since we are technically in a residential area, we're zoned residential, uh we've got to go through that step, but that's all that that is. Um but wanted to let you guys know. Um we are in the midst of our bianual audit. Uh it should be wrapping up soon. Uh Dustin and Carrie have been working really really hard

077uh with the auditors, but it's something that we have to do through the state board of accounts every two years. Uh so nothing nothing unusual there. Um I would like to thank the board. January is school board appreciation month. Um those of you if you haven't served in such a capacity, you don't know the the toll that it takes on you, the toll that it takes on your family. Um, what I tell people whenever they tell me they're looking to run for school board, I I try to tell them in some capacity, in some conversation, and sometimes I don't get it done till after they're elected. Sorry. U, but it's not a position where you're going to make friends. Uh, you're going to lose friends because you make real decisions and real decisions um have

078people on both sides. And u it is a very difficult job. You hear a lot of times, ah, it's one one night a month. No big deal. I have one meeting a month. But you don't have that, especially in a small community. Uh, where you go to ball games and you get cornered or to the store, you get cornered or people want to pick your brain on something. And so, it really is not a full-time job, but a a lot of time job. And so, uh, with January being schoolboard appreciation month, I just want to give my appreciation to all five of you. Um, one last thing, we've got applications in for TAG. That's the teacher appreciation grant. It's a lot different than it used to be. Used to be everybody who was effective or

079highly effective got a piece of the pie. Uh, legislation last year changed that. Is a somewhat competitive grant now. Uh, we get a a certain slot of money and we don't get to dictate. Well, we do a little bit, but there's 35 and five and 750. Uh, that's 3500. 5,000, I think. 7,500. What we've done here at Lanesville this year, um, we've gotten enough money for, uh, seven of those. Uh, now we what we don't know is that the corporation will have to pick up all the the turf and retirement, all those things on it. Um, we have more people that qualify for it than we have money for and so they've taken those in. I signed off on those today. What we will do next week and we'll uh do it one day here

080after school. Got to look at some schedules real quick and we'll use that board right there and we'll put everybody who qualifies name in the button. uh teachers are allowed to come and watch and that way you know everybody knows it's kind of on the up and up and but seven will be picked at random and then those names I'll submit to the state um and hopefully everything goes okay on that end but it is very very different than has been in the past uh but we have a lot of terrific teachers and uh some the state has really done a disservice uh some teachers don't qualify uh counselors being one state says, "Nope, you don't get a chance anymore." Uh, and so it's that that's disheartening. Uh, and hopefully they get that fixed, but

081I wanted to give you guys a heads up on that. Um, one thing I want to mention, I don't know where the eighth grade finished tonight, but seventh grade boys basketball team uh, finished a perfect seven-0 uh, in their conference slate, beat Henryville tonight. So, that's a that's a good thing. And I'm I'm partial of that team. There's a little apple on there. They got a little a little rock. >> Uhu. And so two of us can really celebrate that up here. But I wanted to throw that in. Um and then last thing I've got I've got three ladies. Miss Africa Garlock, Miss Bethany Miller, Miss Leslie Holddridge. Um are going to talk to you about the Indiana Association of the Gifted Conference. for the gifted conference last month. Um it's in Indie. It's a

082two-day conference. Uh we usually try to take a group of teachers to attend that every year. Um it has the way that it works is that there's lots of different sessions on different subjects, different topics, um for different grade levels, and you kind of choose the ones that you want to attend um you know, based on what you teach. Um I personally heard a lot of great speakers from and some were local teachers. There was a teacher from um Peak and Eastern who came and spoke about how you know turning your classroom um you know into like a pirate ship whenever you're learning latitude longitude and just really bringing like subjects to life for your students and making them more high interest. Um and then there was like national speaker speakers there. We heard Todd

083Stanley who is known as the gifted guy. Um, and he has that's what his website is, the giftedguy.com. And he talked about like lots of really practical things that you can do for students who maybe who are early finishers all the way to students who really need something, you know, really different, a lot more challenging like project-based learning or genius hour and that type of thing. Um, so we had heard lots of great speakers. We had lots of great choices. Um, Mrs. Garlock also presented the conference and she's done that several years in a row. So, she had a really great lesson that she gave about poetry. Um, and I was able to, you know, even though she that is an AP lesson that she does, I know I can could see how I could,

084you know, easily use that with my students as well. So, like I said, we had lots of great, you know, choices that we could choose from. Um, one another big area that I always find find very useful is um workshops about meeting the social emotional needs of high ability students. people don't often realize that, you know, they have different social emotional needs, you know, than typical students do at times. Um, for instance, perfectionism is really, you know, an issue where, you know, where they struggle and so lots of conferences or lots of the conference sessions were about those topics as well. Um, lastly, I just want to say that, you know, going attending conferences and being with your teachers outside of school is, I think, very beneficial. you know, getting to know like things that

085they already do in their classroom, great things already to do with their with their students, and then talking like each night about things that they learned and things that they would like incorporate in their classrooms. So, that's one thing that, you know, I always enjoy about attending these conferences. >> Hello. Um, I was looking through my notes. I have four pages of notes. Um, it's it's a lot of information. So the conference is really spectacular because you get to go and you get to meet other teachers and gather all of these ideas and like Bethany was saying at night we get to go back and bounce these ideas off. How are we going to make this work and get it into action? Um I do want to thank the school for allowing us to go.

086It is my third time going and I just learn so much every time I get to go and I try and bring back different books and ideas to implement. So that's usually where I get my my new uh thematic units each year. So thank you for that. >> Hi guys. So, I just wanted to echo what both of them have said about um being very appreciative to you all for allowing us to go. There are some corporations that don't, which is ridiculous. There's corporations where PD is not encouraged and it's seen as a waste of money or a waste of time. And Lanesville is very unique in that they give us time and finances to go out to these places for said professional development. And I hope we can get more teachers to go um

087and encourage them. You do have to take time away from your family and that's really hard. But in our opinion, it is worth the investment, worth the sacrifice that you make there. So, I wanted to show you guys something specific I learned that might apply to a lot of our kiddos. Is it popping up? There we There we go. Okay. So, you can see it on the screen, too. One of the best lessons I went to was about the underachieving high ability student. If I know some of you might have people like that in your life. I know I have at least one in my life who is definitely an underachieving high ability kid and I as both a mom and a teacher have tried to figure out how to reach these children and how

088to get them to perform at their peak levels. So we learned about um basically there's one key phrase for these high ability children who are low achieving and it's if you like me and I value what we do and I believe I can then I can follow through. So there's those four main steps that we need to make sure that these children have. So she kind of walked us through each one in some different ways teachers and parents can help impact their children. So uh first of all the underachiever and gifted students. This is somebody who doesn't have a learning disability. This is not something else that's going on there. And it's usually a persistent pattern that shows up pretty quickly after kindergarten. They still maintain B-level grades. So they're not failing, but they're not

089living up to their potential. and they do have that potential for much higher performance. So there's two main types. There's covert underachievement and this is the most common one. These kiddos avoid challenges. They choose easier tasks. They want to keep their good grades and they minimize risk-taking. We see this starting in first grade. I see some of my friends nodding their heads. Yep. You see it starting in first grade and then by fifth grade you have a kid who's refusing to do anything extra and just wants to do the bare minimum, right? And then by high school, these are the kids who constantly ask me, "Is this for a grade? Is this for a grade? Is this for a grade?" And what we've realized is that's not just wanting them to make sure that they're

090not just wasting their time. It's also they're afraid to take any kind of risk and push themsel out. Overt achievement is much more rare. These are your high ability kids who are making C's and D's and are actively not completing their work. It also gets into some behavioral stuff. So the root causes of underachievement, there are environmental factors such as classes that move too slowly, so the kiddo gets bored and learns to be complacent. Peer pressure, the school culture of being smart isn't cool. And so that's something I'm very proud of Laneville is trying to turn around in these past couple years is that being smart is cool. We have more academic programs in the elementary than I've seen probably since we were in elementary. The robotics sounds a lot like Odyssey of the mind

091to me and Destination Imagination which were some fantastic problem solving and that's how we got kids like Brian Hamley and Jeff Hammond and others among us. So I think it's a good thing to bring back. Um individual factors are things like self-regulation challenges. We have postcoid babies who don't know how to regulate. Uh they have bad anxiety and low self-esteem. So as a teacher and as a parent, the first thing you have to establish is we have to get our kids to believe that we like them. So we have to use infect uh effective encouraging language like how did you solve that and I appreciate how you explored rather than wow I'm so proud of you got 100%. Because very quickly our little ones learn 100% means I'm good. Anything lower than that I don't

092want. So this is a way to change the conversation. And then we need to create a culture where failure is expected and encouraged. This is something I talked about last year at the gifted conference to scaffold grading to give automatic 80s to kids who are meeting grade level standards. This is something that several of our classes are doing. I know third grade does it. I know I do it where if you're meeting the grade level, your kid gets an automatic B and then they can only go up from there. So it encourages them to take risks onto higher level things. So then once they know you care about them, they have to value what they do. And this is oftentimes the biggest struggle is getting kids to see the value in the assignment. So for

093our high ability kids, it usually comes down to how can the world be a better place and how does what you're doing impact you in the future. So this might be stuff like having them anticipate obstacles that are going to come up and set very explicit goals that are small and short term. We have to combat pessimistic thinking and emphasize a growth mindset. For high ability kids, this means create progress tracking charts where they can see their growth over time and they themselves are tracking it. Celebrating very small achievements and whenever they make a mistake seeing it as a learning opportunity that it's something that naturally happens when you learn new things and not as something we penalize you for. So then there were two different sets of goal setting framework. There was the step

094approach which is small tasks in a very timeoriented area with an energized approach and visible progress. So again they're tracking it and it's very real time like maybe every two or three days they can see how they've been growing. And then the whoop method which is one that also affects um in therapy or for your social de emotional development where you have a kid make a wish for a desired outcome and go ahead and anticipate an obstacle that they're going to have to plan around. So many times we make our goal, right? And we even know this as adults and part of our goal setting isn't assuming an obstacle comes in our way and how are we going to plan around that. So this is really good for our kids to learn, hey, there is

095going to be an obstacle. What do I think it's most likely going to be and how can I plan for it? And then um the big one is that achievement is not fixed that we have to provide individual support. So not just for our special ed kiddos, but our high ability kiddos as well that they require individual support. and that we can motivate in many different ways. So, thank you again for letting this go. There's tons more of that and it does directly impact the classrooms here. >> You guys seldom go off script, but um I want to echo something Mrs. Garlock said that this board might not get everything right all the time, but um we uh we invest in the teachers and we invest back in the school and um it's not we

096don't show it that much, but it's going on behind the scenes and I want to be sure everybody understands that. >> Um the next item is um are you finished, Dr. Okay, next uh next item is the PTSO report. Okay, so um we finally got the Frost Buddy cups delivered from our fundraiser. That took quite a bit longer than what we anticipated, but we finally got those out. Um we're going to be doing candygrams again this year for Valentine's Day for the students. And then we have these upcoming events. We'll have another Eagle Days in the high school on the 13th of February. We're going to have another parent perk up on March 6th. And then we're going to do donuts with a grown-up again on March 14th. And then we'll have our paint night

097slash silent auction dinner on April 17th. Um, and then lastly, we have our next PTSO meeting in the library on February 17th as well. >> Short report. Okay, there's nobody sign up for the first public comments. So, the next item is number 11, approve Georgia Brumley as egg teacher. Did I have a motion and second to approve? >> I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second. Who wants it? Done. >> Let's all do it. Okay. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. >> And before we move on, we've got Miss Brumley over here. Another proud Lanesville alum. Uh, welcome. Welcome back. Is there a any anything you want to say? And before you leave, can we get a picture of you with the

098five board members? Miss Brown, do you mind taking that picture? Come on up, Miss Brumley. >> You guys got to get up. >> They're here. We take the picture. >> Yeah. No, we do. >> Absolutely. We need to stretch our legs. Okay. Miss Brumley, you going to wear that suit every day? >> Probably not. >> As we go down the list, we'll see some more alumni. Okay. Next item is approve the resignation of Shelby Adams as agriculture teacher. Good. I have a motion and second to approve. >> I make a motion that we accept the resignation of Shelby a teacher and thank her for the time that she spent here in service of our kids. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign.

099Motion passes. accept the resignation as Cheyenne Hamill as elementary instructional assistant. Could I have a motion and second to approve? I'll make the motion we accept the resignation of Miss Haml's elementary instructional assistant. >> Second. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Same sign. Motion passes. accept the resignation of Kelly Winslow as the elementary instructional assistant. Could I have a motion and a second to approve? >> I make a motion that we accept the resignation of K's Elementary Instruction System. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Okay, we got a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> I just want to make one statement for me before we vote on that. Thank thank these ladies for their service. They've been they've done a nice job

100and u I I know Cheyenne pretty well and have I met Kelly not too long ago. Seem like good good people and we appreciate their service. So just want to say that >> Kelly stepped in last year for fifth grade. >> Yeah. >> So >> um Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Miss Stiler, can you make a note where it's Kelly Winslow ke L Y? >> Okay, thank you. >> Okay, number 15. Approve Macy Parr as elementary instructional assistant. Could I have a motion and second to approve? >> I'll make a motion to approve Macy Parr as elementary instructional assistant. >> Second. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. >> That is another Lanesville

101graduate. >> Uh approve Amber Bower as elementary instructional assistant. Could I have a motion and second to approve? >> I'll make a motion we approve Amber Bower as elementary. >> I'll second. >> Okay, I've got a motion in a second. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Approve Kelly Zip as part-time cafeteria worker. Could I have a motion and second to approve? >> I'll make the motion we approve Zip as part-time cafeteria worker. >> I'll second. >> I've got a motion and a second. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. >> Mr. President, can we put 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 together >> and make a motion? Okay, >> I'll do I'll do it.

102Okay, I'll make the motion that we accept Lana Wright, Reagan Hogget, David Brown, Maddox Miller, Shawn Mlan as substitute teachers. Of course, Shawn Mlan is going to be a midbriver and monitor for preschool special needs route as well for Shawn Mlan. So, we'll add that on to his and I'll make the motion to accept those as as substitutes. >> I've got a motion for uh 181 19 20 21 and 22. Uh could I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? >> If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Uh number 23, approve posting for a high school instructional assistant. Could I have a motion and second to approve? >> I'll make the motion to approve the posting for high school instructional assistant. >> Second that

103motion. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Approve resolution for quarterly transfer transfers from education to operations for the 2026 school year. >> And this is something we do every January. Um, and we go through once a quarter and transfer money from education to operations. We kind of talked about that briefly, but every January we uh need to do the same resolution. Uh, some corporations do it monthly, some do it um >> twice a year, some do it once a year, we do it quarterly. >> Is this your percentage uh the 15 max on this? Are you going max on this one? >> 15. Are you going >> where we're probably going to at least start the year off and see where we

104sit? financially mid year. >> All right. >> Could I have a motion and second to approve? >> I'll make the motion to approve uh quarterly transfers from education to operations for the 26 operating year. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. >> Okay. Approve corporation treasurer to pay claims weekly for the year 2026. >> Is this something different when I asked that question? It's different, Dustin. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Just Please. Thank you. Okay. I can't remember. Do I have a motion on this? >> I'll make a motion to approve the corporation treasur pay claims weekly for 2026. >> Can I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. I. >>

105Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Okay. Approve per resolution for bus drivers. Dr. Apple. >> And I've got something if you want to pass that down, but we we discussed this last time. And what it is, like we discussed, we've got uh now corporation bus drivers in the past that that we didn't, but then also now picking up different routes um or working different jobs. Uh and so when I first came to Lanesville, all of our routes were contract drivers. And so we even had people running a route as a contract driver and still running a proster bus. Uh and so you pay from two different pots like that. as we are are transitioning into more and more corporation drivers and then putting on now looking for two special ed routes. Uh and then we have

106a corporation driver that's also doing um study hall for us. And so we've got a situation now that we haven't had in the past where these people earn retirement and this resolution is to make sure that that we pay um that retirement for them because now they are finally eligible. >> So the first two pages are examples and then the last two pages are the actual schedule. >> Uh I believe so. Yes. I don't have one sit in front of me. the Pierce. >> Yes. >> But again, this is one more one more good thing for our employees. Uh, and one of the hardest places to find employees is in transportation. Uh, and so retirement is a is a good good thing if they qualify for it. So I would ask you to uh approve

107this. And you work with Carrie on these numbers? >> Yes. >> Carrie put a lot of work in it uh for a lot of weeks and months. >> Okay. Can I have a motion and a second to approve the Perth for bus drivers? >> I'll make a motion to approve Perf resolution for bus drivers. >> Could I have a second? >> I'll second. Go ahead. Nice. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. >> Okay. Discuss 28. >> Okay. >> Sorry, I'm getting your space. >> Um, okay. Uh, discuss travel hotel policy updates. >> Yeah. And really all this is um like when the ladies were talking about going to conferences um the way that the the current travel policy is um

108it doesn't in some instances puts the tip back on and the tax back on the employee. Uh and so what this allows us to do is take it like Dustin is 30 $30 for dinner. Uh, and so instead of that hard stop $30, it's okay, your meal might be $30, but then we also will allow to pay the for us to reimburse on the tax and the tip. >> And that's really the only only difference. Correct. Dustin shouldn't shouldn't penalize the employee for that. But I managed to get one under 180, didn't I? Go up tomorrow. >> Okay. Can I >> technical question? Is this a change in current policy? >> Will it require second reading? >> Not it's an internal policy. >> Okay. >> Uh not a board policy. >> A procedure whatever procedure

109policy that makes Thank you. >> Okay. Number 27. Um okay. So we discussed that. Sorry. So number eight, approve travel policy updates. Did I have a motion and second to approve? >> We're approving what you told us on the change. Got it. I'll I'll make a motion we approve. >> Yeah. You emailed it last week. >> I'll make the motion we we approve it. >> Okay. Can I get a second? >> I'll second it. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Appoint LCSC board member to the Harrison County Youth Advocacy Advocacy Center board of directors. Term runs through December 2027. Yeah, it's a two-year term and currently Mr. Lynn serves on that. Uh it's really important and this is the alternative school. Uh

110it's really important for us to have representation on that board especially now. Um county is no longer funding it. And so the school corporations are having to pick up that tab and so it's really important for us to have a voice on that board. Like I said, Mr. Lind has served in that capacity for the past two years. And it's been eye opening. Could I have a motion or a motion or a nomination? I guess >> I nominate Ryan Lon to continue his wonderful service on that board. >> If you want to do that, Ryan Lyn, >> he'll take it. So that's easy. >> Okay, >> we're going to let your eyes open a little bit more, Ryan, for another another term. >> Yeah, funding is going to be interesting. Um, could I have a

111or motion a second to approve myself for the >> You have You got a motion. I'll second it. >> Yeah. Well, we'll second. >> We'll second it. Okay. We want >> Okay. Uh, all in favor? >> I oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Uh, second reading of the board compensation policy. >> And I've I've got that here again. Um, would you guys like me to read the full? >> I haven't seen anything on any changes. >> Everybody knows what it says. >> Last month. Yeah, >> correct. Okay. >> Approve the new board compensation policy number 31. >> That's the one we did. >> Could I have a motion and second to approve? >> We'll make the motion we approve the board compensation policy. >> I'll second. Okay. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say

112I. Oppose. Same sign. >> Motion passes. >> Here's that resolution, Mr. L. >> Okay, we're almost finished. Number 32, approve disposal of four vacuum cleaners and eight chairs per Matthew Crawford. I have a motion and second to approve. I'll make a motion to approve the disposal of the vacuum cleaners and the chairs. >> I second pass. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Number 33. Could I have a motion? >> Can we do all those together as well? >> We're going to do them all together. >> Yeah. >> Tim, you want to name everybody? >> Uh, go ahead. I'll do it. Uh, okay. I make a motion for the following coaches for the 2627 school year. Dane Carter as boys golf coach. Michael Sosmore

113as high school girls tennis coach. James Powers as volunteer tennis coach. Zack Robinson as varsity girls tennis assistant coach. Felicia Shepard as junior high girls tennis coach. Jack Coffer as volunteer tennis coach. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Approve the following fundraiser. FFA will be selling Florida fresh strawberries and Amish jam and jelly. FFA will be selling Lanesville FFA t-shirts. Could I have a motion and second to approve? >> Make a motion we approve those fundraisers you just mentioned. >> I have a second. >> I'll second. >> Can I discuss real quick? You know what's going on with that? That's you now. So, welcome to Agg. Okay. Here you go. You couple of fundraisers. All right. You're used to that. You

114were part of fundraisers when you were in FFA, so it's no big, just so you know. Okay, that's enough. I'm done. Okay, go ahead. We'll vote. >> Was that a second? >> We got a second. Second. >> Okay. Sorry. Uh, any discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. >> Okay. The last item before German is number 35, additional public comments. And Chrissy Dodie has written her name down. >> All right. Well, you guys know me by now. I think it's three months. So, um, good evening. Um, I'm here tonight on behalf of pair professionals of Plainsville. We want to start by thanking you all for the recent raises. Your commitment to comparable pay to other school corporations in the area was noticed and appreciated by all.

115Can you hear me? Mhm. >> Um, we also want to clarify that we have never come before the board asking for more money and our plea to be recognized is and never has been about pay. We are sharing these thoughts because pairs work care deeply for our students, our school, and we the work we do each day. Many pairs provide steady familiar support for students who benefit from consistency and trusting relationships. Our concerns are centered on communication, consistency, support, and appropriate protections, not compensation. At times, paras may be re reassigned or asked to take on additional responsibilities with limited notice, explanation, training, or clarity. When changes occur without enough preparation, or shared understanding, it can create challenges for both staff and students. Our hope is for a partnership focused on working together rather than disagreement.

116The intention would be for the board and the Paris to jointly and thoughtfully determine what this would look like and how it would function. The goal is open communication, shared understanding, and clear expectations that support everyone involved. A union would provide a consistent and professional way for parents to ask questions, share concerns, and receive guidance. We believe this structure can help strengthen communication and consistency, which ultimately benefits our students. As Paris, we are committed to this district and supporting our student success. Many of us remain in these roles because of the meaningful relationships that we have built with our students and with our staff. Again, we appreciate the raise and we want to reiterate that this conversation has never been about money. This is about partnership, mutual respect, and ensuring parents feel supported and protected

117as they do important work. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your continued support of our school. We hope to see recognition on the February schoolboard agenda. I'll be here again. >> Miss Dody, do you mind if I ask a question or two real quick? >> Sure. Um, I reached out to the superintendent association trying to to figure out where this is and the only people that responded were I think three corporations up up in the region up around Chicago. Uh, everybody else said no, they don't. Do you know of anybody in that area that we can talk to? >> Greater Clark. >> Okay. Greater Clark. Yeah, there are a lot of bus driver. >> Thank you. Any more additional comments? >> One more. >> Go Hoosiers. >> They win. >> They already won.

118>> I know. I want to rub that in. I'm okay with it. We have a football team now for God's sakes. >> Okay. Can I have a motion and second to approve adjournment? >> I'll make a motion we adjourn this meeting. >> I'll second it. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? I. >> I. >> All oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. >> Sign. Thank you.