00130. >> Yeah. >> All right. Good evening everyone. If everybody can stand please, we will go ahead and call our meeting the school board trustees uh to order and we will start out with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the thank you guys for coming on this warm balmy day compared to yesterday not. So, um, at this time, if there's any persons wishing to be recognized to speak on any agenda item or to be heard as part of this section of the agenda dealing with delegations or citizens comments or identify themselves by name and point on the agenda where they wish to be recognized and you got those, Kathy. Okay. All right. So we will start this meeting out with project hearing and second preliminary determination hearing. And so pursuant to IC20-26-7 before
002a school corporation spends more than a million dollars of bond proceeds to build, repair, or alter a school building. It must hold a public hearing. At such hearing, the potential value of the project to the to the school board. You got that? Thank you. Okay. To the school corporation community will be explained. Additionally, pursuant to Indiana code 6-1.1-20 before a school corporation enters into a lease and/or issue bonds for the construction or renovation of a school building resulting in total cost in excess of certain thresholds or due to a school corporation debt service fund tax rate. It must hold two public hearings. on his preliminary determination to do so. So, this hearing will be open for the public. So, we will the next item on the agenda here is to hold the project and a
003second. This is our second preliminary determination hearing on the proposed project. Again, if you are interested in speaking at the hearing, please make sure you have signed sign signed in on the sheet at the back of the room, which should be include your name and address. After a presentation by the administration and its adviserss, there will be opportunity for the public to make comments about the project. At the hearing, we will ask that each person limit their comments to three minutes and that the topic be limited to the proposed project under consideration. The notice of preliminary determination hearing was published as legally required. The first preliminary determination hearing was held on March 2nd, 2026. At this time, I will ask that Bo Harris explain the purpose of this hearing. >> Thank you. Just to uh
004reiterate what Mr. Isaac said uh pursuant to Indiana code 20-26-7-37 before a school corporation may spend more than a million dollars to build, repair, or alter a school building that will be financed by a lease or bonds, it must hold a public hearing at which explanations of the potential value of the project to the school corporation and community are given. Similarly, pursuant to Indiana code 6-1.1-20-3.1, a school corporation must hold two public hearings and adopt a resolution to preliminarily determine to issue bonds or inter lease for project which has a total project cost in excess of a non-controlled project or if the school corporation has a debt service fund tax rate above a certain amount. These public hearings and the adoption of resolutions are the very beginning of the legal process. These resolutions establish the
005maximum financial terms for the project or for the proposed project. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. Uh can we now hear from you regarding a process of determining and communicating a project to the community and a need for the project? >> Yep. So, I'll try and keep it brief because we we talked about at the last school board meeting. Um really there's there's two major projects that we're looking to undertake. Um and again, we're at the very early stages of this. Uh the first is a two-story facility between our junior high and high school. Uh which would be a new weight room facility on the first floor uh along with locker rooms. And then on the second floor there would be more of a open space uh potentially for cardio space and then also a wrestling
006room that has room for two mats in it. Uh this would help um not only modernize our current uh weight room and give us more room in the school for for different uh classes uh for a multi-purpose space, but then also our wrestling program is is growing uh exponentially right now. And so we really want to take care of that program and uh kind of nourish that and keep that momentum going because uh it it they're running out of space quickly. So um that would be that project. The second project uh is renovations to Hedges Elementary School. Uh if you're from this community, you know that that was an active elementary school up until uh time frame, right around that time. Uh and uh since then it's kind of taken shape for a couple different
007things. Uh it houses our uh IT department and then our special ed department, administrative department along with like our psychologist and um a room for evaluations. Um outside of that, it also houses our our records. Um and then uh community groups. So Parks and Wreck has been a big uh lease holder uh since early on in the process. Uh and then along with some other community groups like our food pantry and um family matters different groups have been in and out over the years. Um the the cost of maintaining that building has over the years grown uh where we've reached a point where we're putting a lot of money into uh the infrastructure of the building uh roofing projects each year uh that go into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, we um made
008the determination that our administrative office is in a position where it's not ADA accessible and so we would really like to utilize the facility that we already own in order to accommodate that need. Um along with that, we would look to move um potentially uh alternative school uh potentially preschool in the future and some other programming over into that building to to get full use out of the entire building. Um it kind of works out timewise. We mentioned parks and wreck. They um are in the process of getting a new facility. Uh so hopefully the timelines match up there, but we'll be in communication with all the different lease holders that we currently have and have already talked to some of them and uh assured them that we'll be open and transparent with how this
009moves forward. Um as far as just some specifics, um we always need gym space. We don't picture that specific area of the gym being anything other than a gym. Uh we we want to keep that open and able to to use that. We're building uh you know a new uh wrestling facility because we don't have enough space uh currently. So uh that's one of the areas that we want to make sure we keep uh keep going. Um and so with that, that's kind of where we are. Um, as far as the other funds, there's some smaller projects that we we may consider, uh, depending on where bids come in. Uh, but ultimately, um, our our goal is to not put an increased burden on taxpayers with with these projects. >> Thank you for that update.
010We appreciate that. Uh at this time we will now hear from Jeff Hammond from Baker Tilly our municipal advisor about how the proposed project will be financed as well as information about the effect on the typical project taxpayer. Thank you. Wait, print. Go. No. >> [clears throat] >> That's all Ready? increase. Thank you. Wait. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, at this time we will now open for uh to a public hearing. Remember, if you'd like to speak, please sign in on the sheet which is located in the back of the room. As I mentioned earlier, we ask that you state your name and address, limit your comments to the proposed project and financing, and keep any comments to three minutes, and avoid being repetitive if possible. May I now have the sign-in sheet,
011please? Okay. All right. First uh person asking to speak is Willie Clark. Mr. Clark, Right. Cool. We're program. Keep it. Come on. Yeah. Yep. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Clark. Appreciate your comments. Uh, we have Noah Gordon next. See the school. Are you talking about in the the whack >> or the the wait room? So, and I think I think you hit on it. Supervision is the is the key there. Like we we we design our facilities and we want our facilities to be used as much as possible while also still being responsible with uh you know making sure that a kid doesn't do something that is is not the smartest. So, uh as long as we can maintain supervision, we want we want the buildings to be used as much as possible. It's
012window. Yeah. Well, right now we're still in the super early stages of of designing all this stuff and figuring out how exactly things are going to look and work. We don't want to make any promises either way right now just because, you know, we don't want to say something that we can't fulfill later on. So, as as we get further on into the process and kind of get plans finalized, we'll have a lot more hearings and uh information sharing here that we'll we'll keep you guys updated as we go and transparent. But I wish I could give you a more direct answer, but I don't I don't want to say either way and then have to change change direction, you know, later on. But uh we are, as we mentioned, this is like the first
013step out of I'm not even sure how many steps there are, but uh very early on in in the process. This just gets us basically able to even talk about doing projects like this. So that that's the purpose of these meetings. So we're still quite a ways off from being able to share plans and designs because because we we don't have those finalized yet. So >> we will keep that constant communication flow though with the the pe the individuals and the programs that are in hedges currently and then as we move through we'll make sure to maintain that. >> And I do I do want to say just just for public record anyone who has a lease currently like I don't want them to worry about like us leaving early like like we we we
014will not be breaking those leases early. I think right now the the latest one extends into February of 2027. So, I I just want them to feel confident that we're we're not gonna break those leases early, that we'll we'll keep keep those >> Thank you very much for your questions. Much appreciated. Uh is there anyone else out there who'd like to speak at this time? >> Okay, with that, thank you all who participated in the hearing. We appreciate your time and interest in the projects and future of our community. Please note that this is the first step in the legal process. The board will continue to work with administration and its professionals to look for the efficiencies to conserve tax dollars while meeting our educational needs. At this time, I would like to call on
015Josh with ICE Miller if you could go through and summarize the upcoming project resolutions that we need to look at. first. Okay. Good. Any questions? The last resolution is the reimbursement resolution. That resolution um satisfies the federal tax requirement that the school corporation in order for you to um be able to reimburse yourself with bond proceeds for any project costs you may incur before the bonds are issued and you actually receive the bond the money. um you're able to reimburse yourself um for those costs, but in order to do so, you first must officially declare your inent to reimburse, which is what this resolution does. Right. >> Um, so essentially it's just a reservation of rights. Um, you're stating that if and when you do have project costs that you incur before you actually receive
016the bond proceeds, when you receive the bond proceeds, you may or probably will reimburse yourself for those costs. So sometimes there's a long lead time on equipment, you know, HVAC, that sort of thing. We always have pools adopt this right off the bat. Um, just to make sure they are able to reimburse. Any questions on this? >> Any questions on any of the >> I did not any other board members. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Okay. So, [clears throat] at this time, appreciate everybody's comments tonight, everybody's explanations. We will take an action on these three resolutions that were just explained at a later point in the meeting. At this point, if there are no other comments, we will adjourn this hearing. Okay, meeting a journal. All right, we will get
017into the normal copy of our meeting and if we can take routine matters A, B, and C. So, we are presenting you with the minutes from the March 2nd, 2026 meeting, as well as um vouchers and electronic transfers that have been enclosed and our financial statement from February um February 28, 2026 as of that date. >> Okay. Thank you. At this time, I accept a a motion to approve the minutes of March 2nd, 2026 meeting as prepared. Authorized payment of payroll checks through 408194, voucher checks 147445 through 147528, and electronic transfers ET 3397 through ET3403 as recommended. Void of payroll and voucher checks not listed on the voucher listing in the above sequences are not approved for payment by this action. And finally to accept the financial statements for the February 28th, 2026 and file
018it for audit. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. We had a motion by Mr. Williams, second by Miss Butler. Any discussion? Okay. With uh Mr. uh participating virtually, we will do a roll call. Uh Miss Bessie, >> yes. Miss Butler. >> Yes. >> Mr. Isaac votes yes. Mr. Oath. >> Mr. Williams? >> Yes. >> Okay. Motion carries. >> We had no unfinished business. Under new business uh personnel, we have some resignations. >> We do. The following employees have resigned. Megan Harot, cheerleading sponsor for the high school. Tad Mitchell, assistant coach for the football at junior high. Chelsea Timmons, food services at the high school. and Seth Wolf, assistant girls uh soccer coach at the high school. >> Okay. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to accept the resinations as listed by
019Dr. Stewart, affected immediately unless otherwise indicated from the list above. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion by Mr. Vessie, second by Miss Butler. Any additional questions, comments? Okay, seeing none, we'll do roll call again. Miss Bessie, >> yes. >> Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Mr. Isaac, vote yes. Mr. O, >> yes. >> Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> And now we have some employment recommendations. >> We are ready to get our uh boys soccer team going. We are recommending Xavier Angel for the assistant coach for boys soccer at the high school and Oluatabi Alabi. Oho as our head coach for the boys soccer at the high school. Okay, >> we're gonna call him Coach Toby. >> Okay, there we go. [laughter] At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to
020confirm the employment as those listed by Dr. Stur. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Butler, seconded by Mr. Williams. Any additional questions, comments? Okay. Seeing none, roll call vote. Miss Pessie, >> yes. Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Mr. Isaac votes yes. Mr. O. >> Mr. O. Sorry, Mr. Williams. >> Yes. >> Okay, motion carries. >> And we have a non-paid leave of absence. >> We do. Mrs. Kim Ripple, um, a teacher assistant at at West is requesting a non-paid leave of absence from March 19th, 2026 to the end of the school year. >> Okay. Like to entertain a motion to approve the non-paid leave of absence request as noted by Dr. Stewart. So moved. >> Second. >> Motion made by Miss Bessie, second by Miss Butler. Any questions, comments? >> Okay.
021Seeing none, roll call. Miss Bessie, >> yes. >> Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Mr. Isaac vote yes. Mr. O. >> Mr. Williams? >> Yes. >> Okay. Motion carries. >> And looks like we got just a couple educational meetings to talk about. >> We do. Mr. Timothy Smith will attend with students the junior academic invitational at North Posey Junior High on April 8th. Michael Landers to attend with students the Skills USA welding state competition in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 10th, 2026. And FFA will pay expenses. Alicia Schmidt who with to attend with students the state small engines contest in Crawford'sville, Indiana on April 24th, 2026. FFA will pay expenses and Mr. Smith will also attend uh the junior academic area Super Bowl at Tel City Junior High on May 2nd, 2026. >> Looks like everybody's very
022busy. This time, I'd like to entertain a motion to adopt a resolution permitting personnel listed by Dr. Stewart to attend the educational meetings noted above. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Made by Mr. Williams, second by Miss Bessie. Any questions, comments? Seeing n roll call. Miss Bessie, >> yes. >> Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Mr. Isaac votes yes. Mr. O. >> Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> Okay, motion carries. And now we are getting the part of the meeting that we talked during our hearing process of the three resolutions that Ice Miller had explained to us. So, uh, you want to take that away, Mr. Harris? >> Yep. So uh the project resolution and then closes the resolution establishing the estimated cost of the project, the tax impact, and then the timing of the impact. >>
023This time I'd like to entertain a motion to adopt the project resolution establishing the estimated cost of the projects, the tax impact, and the timing of the impact. >> So moved. We'll second. >> You're second. Yeah. Okay. Miss Pessie and seconded by Miss Butler. Okay. Any additional questions from our explanation that we just heard? Okay. With that, we will do roll call uh with Mr. O participating virtually. We will use his as abstension. Okay. At this time, Miss Bessie, >> yes. >> Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Mr. Isaac votes yes. Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> Okay. Motion carries. Now, we'll move on to the preliminary determination resolution. >> Yep. So the second one uh sets the maximum term of the lease. Uh the lease rental, annual debt service levy, and then the annual debt service
024rate. Um other information in there includes estimated principal amount, interest rates, total interest cost, current debt service levy and rate and estimated increases of the same and a statement of the purpose of the bonds lease are also required. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. This time I'd like to entertain a motion to adopt a preliminary determination resolution. So moved. >> Second. >> A motion by Mr. Williams, second by Miss Bessie. Any additional questions, comments? Okay, seeing none, we'll do a roll call. Miss Pessie, >> yes. >> Miss Beller, >> yes. >> Mr. Isac votes yes. Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> Motion carries. And now we are on the third resolution that we just spoke about, the reimbursement resolution. >> Yep. So this one uh this just says if we have any preliminary preliminary costs related to
025the project prior to receiving the bond proceeds uh we reserve the ability to be reimbursed from those bond proceeds after the >> thank you Mr. Harris. This time I'd like to entertain a motion to adopt the res reimbursement resolution. >> So moved >> second by Miss Butler seconded by Mr. Williams. Any additional discussion, comments? >> Seeing none with roll call vote. Miss Bessie, >> yes. >> Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Mr. Isaac, vote yes. Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> Motion carries. And we have non-resident student transfer parameters. By law, school corporations are required to annually establish student capacity that includes resident and non-resident student transfers and to establish a deadline to receive requests to transfer into the school corporation. >> Okay. This time I'd like to entertain a motion to designate for the 2627 school
026year total student capacity including resident and non-resident student transfers to be 240 students per grade level and August 13, 2026 as a date by which the request to transfer into the school corporation must be received. >> So moved. >> Second. We have a motion by Miss Bak B specsi second by Metler. Any additional questions, comments. >> Are you able to override any of those or is that set in stone? Like if we had 241 students that wanted to transfer >> we have that problem. >> Yeah, I do. Yeah, but well in particular the date I guess is what I want to ask. Would you be able to okay something after that? >> We typically do accept transfers like throughout the entire school year. So there are different circumstances that help us guide those decisions. >>
027Okay. >> We prefer it to be by August 13th so we can work on staffing. >> Okay. We got a motion. Second and discussion. Roll call. Miss >> Yes. >> Miss Butler? >> Yes. >> Mr. Isaac both yes. Mr. O. >> Mr. Williams. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. and test plots. >> The Mount Vernon High School agriculture program will be incorporating test plots as a part of its program again this year. We are commending I'm sorry. Yes, we are commending entering into lease agreements with Archer Daniels Midland Incorporated and Ports of Indiana. The leases remain the same as last year and you can see the enclosed leases. >> Okay. This time I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the te test plot lease agreements with Archer Daniels Midland Inc. and Ports of Indiana as
028recommended. >> So moved. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mr. Williams, second by Miss Butler. And I mean these leases, as far as I know, have been going forever. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Okay. All right. This time we'll do roll call vote. Miss Bessie, >> yes. >> Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Mr. Isaac votes yes. Mr. Oath. >> Mr. Williams? >> Yes. >> Motion carries. And now we are down to a resolution approving appointment of building corporation directors. >> So this just happens to kind of coincidentally uh be this time of year uh with our lease board. So, every three years is required that the board appoint members to the Mount Vernon of Posey County Multi-School Building Corporation. Uh we had a couple people who uh wanted to to drop off at the
029end of their term. So, we'll have see a couple new names on here, but uh we are recommending the board appoint Lauren Evans, James Don Julian, Beth McFaden Higgins, Bob Stimple, and Mike Wheaten to this holding corporation. >> Great. Thank you. This time I'd like to entertain a motion to adopt a resolution appointing Lauren Evans, James Don Julian, Beth McFatten Higgins, Bob Stimple, and Mike Wheaton to the Mount Vernon of Posey County Multischool Building Corporation for a three-year term expiring on March 15, 2029 as recommended. >> So moved. Second >> laid by Miss Bessie, second by Miss Butler. Any comments, questions? Okay. >> Seeing none, roll call vote. Miss Bessie, >> yes. >> Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Mr. Isaac, vote yes. Mr. O. Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> Right. Motion carries. All right. Now,
030time for any additional comments from our delegation, citizens comments. Does anybody have any comments? Lois, you're normal. >> Okay, >> it's been the same. >> Yeah, >> we'd like to know if someone's g if the students are going to transfer with us just by that date. Yeah. to get students settled in. >> We accept students all year long. >> That is correct. There normally is three. Uh but we are in the process of purchasing uh one of those uh pieces of land. So um if that goes through then there we would not have a need to continue that lease because we would own that propert. Well, so our actually so our next meeting is in April um pretty early April I think the first or second Monday second Monday of April and so uh we
031will um inform them of those projects but they won't have any action to take on anything doing with that it it's still from the previous bond is what what they will uh be taking action on, you could say. And then uh but u definitely by the next meeting they'll hopefully they'll have plenty to talk about. All >> [laughter] >> right. >> We actually met today. Um he's he's we're we're moving along on it. Um trying to he's trying to determine an end date for it. So, he's wrapping up projects and um they're hoping to get it secure so they can work on the inside. >> Not the end of the school year. No, it potentially could be by the end of the summer, but that would be pushing it. So, um we haven't officially made
032that our target date yet. Okay. >> Thank you, Lois. Anybody else have any questions, comments? So, they're going to do it. They're going to do it in portions. They're going to close. Now, I haven't we haven't met with them yet, so don't hold me to this, but I believe they're going to close the portion closest to Fourth Street first and do that end and then do the second part. Initially, we thought it was all going to happen during the summer, but I think it's going to happen until October now. It's going to run through October. So, but they're going to do it in section so that we can still access our our garage. >> Thank you, Paula. All right, there's no other questions. Uh, Dr. Stewart, any non-staff communication reports? >> We've included our self-
033insurance fund report, a fuel adjustment charge chart, sorry, our kindergarten roundup is coming April 1st. So, all of our elementary schools will host that um at a specific time. We've had that advertised, so we hope we'll have a lot of kindergarten families come and check out our buildings. We also want to thank the Elks Lodge. They made a very generous school lunch donation to us. So, we always appreciate that. And Mount Pleasant General Baptist Church also made a school lunch donation that we are very thankful for. So that does help our students who carry balances that maybe um are not qualifying for free and reduced launch but do need the support. Um it helps a lot. So we thank them for that. >> Okay. Thank you. And self- insurance fund. Dr. >> Looks looks good.
034Well, we're early in the year so it always looks good early in the year. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Dr. Stewart, will you take us the rest of the way out? >> Yes. So, we have meetings coming up um Monday, April 6th at 5:30 and then we are meeting on Thursday, April 23rd um for our second meeting of the month due to some different conflicts that we have. And then Monday, May 4th at 5:30, we will meet all here at same place. We also have tomorrow night um we invite all of our eighth graders to come out and check out our high school starting at 6 PM in the high school cafeteria. So, this is anyone who's interested in being a freshman Wildcat, want them to come and check out our school. We are looking
035forward to spring break next week, March 23rd through the 27th. We do not have school on April 3rd unless we get a ton of snow, which be 70 Friday. We could get snow next week. We don't know. Um hopefully not. We're also out on April 6th with uh no school the Monday after Easter. Thursday, April 23rd is our National Honor Society induction in the pack at 11:00 a.m. And um you have been given school calendars to review um for the upcoming school years, but there will be an adjustment on that. We will be doing professional development days differently than what we've done in the past. They're still allocated on the days, but we'll once we have that all figured out, we'll make sure and share that information. So, we have been doing an early release
036day. We probably will not continue doing it that way, but we will make sure we give ample of time for families to make adjustments when we finalize that. >> Okay, thank you very much. >> With that, we will adjourn and thank you for all for coming and your comments. Virgin