001All right, I like to welcome everyone to this Thursday meeting the MSD Mount Vernon Board of School Trustees. Anything to start off with? Uh Get right into it. Do you want to start off with the achievement on this page or do you want to We can wait till superintendent. Let's do that. Let's wait till superintendent. All right, we will uh begin with a recognition of delegations. Uh persons wishing to be recognized to speak on any agenda item or to be heard as part of the section of the agenda dealing with delegations or citizens comments or to identify themselves by name and the point on the agenda where they wish to be recognized. Do we have anybody that Saying none, we will we will move on. We have a recommendation that we would like to We
002are super proud of our Marrs comments. They were recognized in Indianapolis at the state capital on April 8th this year for outstanding reading achievement. Marrs Elementary School had a pass rate of 98.2 on the 2026 IREAD test which surpassed the state goal. So, they've had pretty consistent scores of nearly every single school passing and we still have a couple more shots at it. So, we're pretty confident that they're going to get very close to 100% passing this year. So, that's exciting. So, we want to congratulate them and the teachers that work there. We know they work really hard to achieve that. Absolutely. All right, uh under recommended actions, we have some routine matters. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. You want to take those all together? >> Yes, we can take A, B, and C. Okay,
003so we have enclosed the minutes from the April 6th, um 2026 meeting as well as uh vouchers and electronic transfers. And then our financial statement for March which is also enclosed. All right. Is there a motion to approve the minutes from the April 6th, 2026 meeting as prepared or as corrected? And is there a motion to authorize payments of payroll checks 408571 through 408950, voucher checks 147627 through 1477 21 and electronic transfers ET003416 through ET003424 as recommended, voided payroll and voucher checks not listed on the vouchers listing in the above sequences are not approved for payment by this action. And is there a motion to accept the financial statement for March 31st, 2026 and file it for audit? So moved. Second. Made by Mr. Williams, seconded by Ms. Butler. Is there any comments, questions, or
004concerns? Saying none, we will move to the vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed same sign. Those matters Uh unfinished business, uh we have uh looks like some personnel issues. We have uh this is the time of year, tis the season. People are going out and coming in. So, bear with me as I read this list. Um Heather Allen, the following employees have resigned. Heather Allen, cheerleading sponsor, is going to get a 1/3 stipend um at the high school. Did I say that right? >> 1/3 >> She's resigning 1/3 of a show routine 2/3, right? Did I say that right? Okay. We are bringing on a few new cheer cheer coaches here. Justin Fischer as strength coach half stipend at the high school. Ashton Foresley, strength coach half stipend at the high
005school. Carrie Kemp, special ed teacher at the high school effective at the end of the 25-26 school year. Caitlyn Lamar, teacher's assistant at the special for special ed in the high school effective at the end of the 25-26 school year. Doug Novsek, head coach for boys basketball at the high school. Charles Cypher, sixth grade girls basketball uh half stipend. Brett Snodgrass, strength coach quarter stipend at the high school. Riley Snodgrass, strength coach quarter stipend at the high school. Guy Weaver Jr., student council sponsor at the junior high. And Hannah Winninger, assistant girls uh coach for basketball at the high school. Selective list. Uh is there a motion to accept the resignations effective immediately unless otherwise indicated from the list as read by Dr. Stute. So moved. Second. Made by Mr. Isaac, seconded by Ms. Bessesi.
006Is there any comments, questions, or concerns? Saying none, we'll move to the vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed same sign. Motion carries. All right, now we're going to hire some people. >> going to place some people. So, first we're going to we recommend Amber Allen, cheerleading sponsor 2/3 stipend at the high school. Robin Duncan as our head coach for boys basketball at the high school. Brad Higginson, strength coach at the high school. Sarah Jordan, speech language pathologist at West. Caitlyn Lamar, sixth grade teacher at the junior high. Morgan Rieger, science teacher at the junior high. And Trina Sauls, cheerleading sponsor 2/3 sponsor at the high school. Do we have a motion to confirm the employment from the list above? So moved. Second. Motion is made by Ms. Butler, seconded by Mr.
007Williams. Any comments, questions, or concerns? >> Is the I noticed Amber Allen is 2/3 and Heather's 2/3. Is it two different positions or should be one and just be a third? Uh there's actually two full positions. So, there's a another one down at the bottom, Trina. Uh so, there's 6/3 total. Okay. Okay. That makes sense. >> Clear as mud, huh? All right. Thank you. I think we should say there's three people. It's a little easier. Yeah. We Our cheerleaders are going to be taken care of. Yes, they are. Good. Thank you. As they should be. Yes, they should. They do a wonderful job. Are there uh comments, questions? All right, saying none, we'll move to the vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed same sign. Motion carries. Welcome aboard to our new
008people. And we have a retirement. >> We do. Uh Karen Upshaw, elementary teacher at Farmersville, is going to retire effective at the end of the 25-26 school year after 32 years of service. So, she's dedicated a long time. I know this was a not an easy decision for her, but uh when you know, you know. So, we are we are super happy for her and wish her the best of luck. All right. Is there a motion to accept the intent to retire from Karen Upshaw? So moved. Second. Is made by Mr. Isaac, seconded by Ms. Bessesi. Any comments, questions, or concerns? Uh we wish her our best and I think everybody has signed. Tell her when she after she gets her taste retirement over, she can come back and sub for us. Make sure you
009nice well wishes here. Any other comments, questions? Saying none, we'll move to the vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed same sign. And the motion carries. And we have a request for unpaid leave of absence. Heather Fields, maintenance at the junior high, is requesting an unpaid leave of absence from April 2nd through May 29th, 2026. And is there a motion to approve an unpaid leave of absence as requested by Heather Fields? So moved. Go ahead. Second. All right. Motion is made by Ms. Bessesi, seconded by Mr. Williams. Any comments, questions, or concerns? Saying none, we'll move to the vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed same sign. Motion carries. And we have a lot of educational meetings. We do. Way longer than our resignations, but that's good. This is
010good news. We have a lot of training in store. Yes. Um so, to start off, Dustin Murray will attend the middle school Pack 80 meeting in Huntingburg on April 8th, 2026. Athletics will pay the expenses. Ashley Nichols will attend the IASBO Transportation Conference in Plainfield. Um she actually attended that already. I'm sorry, we talked about that previously. April 15th through the 16th um was a great conference that she did attend. Whitney Martins uh went to the CAP orientation at USI and that just happened um this week. Charles Alderman to attend IBCA Clinic in Fortville, Indiana on April 23rd and 24th. Athletic to pay expenses. Kino McCloud to attend the BPA National Leadership Conference in Nashville on May 6th through the 10th, 2026 and Indiana BPA will pay those expenses. Audrey Magee to attend with students
011the BPA National Conference in Nashville on May 7th through the 9th. BPA to pay expenses. Holly Hatter will attend the TLE core cohort in Noblesville, Indiana on May 7th, 2026. Alicia Schmidt to attend with students the state dairy judging at Purdue University on June 12th, 2026 and FFA will cover those expenses. And Alicia will also be going to the CASE Robotics and Automation in St. Cloud, Minnesota on June 23rd, 2026. And CASE Grant will pay those expenses. Okay. As you indicated, the first three had prior approval. We're just bringing that up. >> Yeah, our since our meeting fell funny, those requests came in at a odd time. Right. Okay, is there a motion to approve a resolution for the personnel listed to attend the educational meetings as listed? So moved. Second. Is made by Mr.
012Isaac, seconded by Ms. Butler. Do we have comments, questions, or concerns in the matter? Saying none, we'll move to the vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed same sign. And that motion pass. And we have some use of facilities for summer camps. Is that right? We are bringing forward additional summer camps and you can see those regarding the a plan summer skills camp for 2026. Coaches have been conducting these camps for several years. They were are responsible for conducting the camp as well as for setting and collecting fees, advertising of the camp, etc. The fees collected by the presenters go directly to them and from these fees pay for expenses plus any salaries involved. The district does not charge for the use of facilities. Is there a motion to approve the use
013of facilities for the summer camp for 2026 as recommended? So moved. Second. Made by Mr. Williams, seconded by Mrs. Bessie. Comments or questions? Uh Do they uh There's no There's no security issue that they have to deal with as far as having somebody here or anything like that? No, we've encountered that. Okay. Any other questions? Seeing none, we'll move to the vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed same sign and the motion carries. And uh we have an instructional work day waiver. So we've enclosed a resolution um for you all to review and we will uh submit this resolution to the IDOE so that we have flexibility um to proceed with professional development days. We are required to reply to apply for a flexibility waiver so that we can um really target
014professional development in the half-day setting. So we That's a multi-year type of approval so you submit about every 3 years so that you can add that into your school calendar. So once we pass the resolution then we can apply for that with the IDOE. Is there a motion to adopt a resolution approving the submission of an instructional day waiver application? So moved. Second. Made by Mr. Buller, seconded by Mr. Isaac. Any com- questions or concerns? Seeing none, we'll move to the vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed same sign and the motion carries. All right, uh we've come down for two uh information and proposals. We'll give everybody a last chance uh if anybody wants to speak. We really tried to engage our audience. All right, uh St. Paula? Oh, okay. Not Not
015even anything for Lois, maybe? Okay. All right. Okay. Uh uh we'll move on to non-staff communications and reports. Okay, so um really I don't have anything for that but um I do have some information I'd like to share, some awards that you all received. We can talk about that. So our board was recognized um at a commendable level at the ISBA dinner on Monday evening. So congratulations, that's awesome. And we also had several individual recognitions so our president Greg received exemplary recognition. Uh Mark Isaac received exemplary recognition and um Kendra, you received advanced level two. And Brian, you received commendable recognition. So we know that that's from participation and being involved in board meetings and different professional developments that are offered to the board. So um Britney, we know you've earned it. >> [laughter] >>
016This time next year we're going to be reading your name too. It's based on points so when you participate you get the points so uh we'll get there next year but um not for lack of participation because you do participate so but congratulations and we as a district, on behalf of the district, appreciate everything you do for us. So thank you. Thanks for staying on top of everything. All right, uh we have a informational item on self-insurance fund. Yep. Uh there's We've included the uh the report in there and it continues to be healthy and we just got back from a conference with our captive and all their financial information uh looks great. Uh so we have no reason for concern and actually a few opportunities that we think could improve our benefits and actually
017help us maybe save a little bit more money too. So And I need to thank Courtney for going along and being my tutor the whole time because she is well versed in all the terminology and I am not so >> [laughter] >> so it made it very interesting. Yeah. And probably eye-opening of how well we are doing, I would assume. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, well and with a lot of the a lot of the groups there implementing a lot of the same programs that we are so they're seeing some of the same success that that we do. So it it was good to get some confirmation from other groups and we're one of just a few K-12 schools that are that are in that captive so we we've kind of gotten in there early and uh
018seen seen a lot of success with it. And I think it was great because we also learned about opportunities for that we can do for our staff, learning education opportunities for their health and wellness and things that really will promote a better way of life. So that's kind of nice to know that there are options out there. All right. Good. Uh any questions from board members that you hold the that you want to acknowledge any Nothing? Okay. >> think so. Well, I'll tell you what, if you want to take us on out with uh future business and uh some important dates that we want to announce. Sure. So our next few meeting dates will be May 4th at 5:30, May 18th at 5:30 and June 1st at 5:30. We're going to try not to do
019any more of this Thursday business. Keep them on Mondays. Um and they're all here. As we know, uh we have some other things going on. Saturday, April 25th, this Saturday is our prom from 8:00 to 11:00 so we're excited always excited to see pictures from that. Um on Monday, May 4th, we have our senior honors night at the PAC at 6:00 p.m. Sunday, May 17th, we have our back to school orient- um at the PAC at 6:00 p.m. Thursday, May 21st is our last day for students. Friday, May 22nd is the end of school staff meeting. We will host a uh breakfast in the cafeteria at 8:00 a.m. And Friday, May 22nd is our 2026 high school graduation. So Not long away. Some of our moms are gearing up for that, right, Cathy? It seemed
020Yeah. It flew by. >> Moving right along, yes. Um We don't have any topics for future agendas to present and we did enclose um some course proposals for you. Included It included a prime math course um that would be taught a uh after algebra two that we would like to get approved. Also life science which would prepare our students for biology and chemistry and then American culture through film history. So it's where the intersection of history and cinema take place. So always looking for new opportunities for our kids. Yes, absolutely. All right. And that's all. All right. We have nothing else for this evening. Now we do have an executive session if the board members would stick around, please, and uh