001Okay. Well, it's me and yours. Have you killed her yet? [Music] So, spotlight this evening. Uh Michelle's leading off a group of uh fine individuals like that. And if you want to go ahead and start, introduce yourselves and and then as you go, it's probably better if you either go up to the mic or grab the mic uh or stand around the mic. We'll see. Yeah, there you go. You'll look good like the choir. If you guys go. I am Amy Goris, Stephanie Williams, and Kate Washurn. And I am Michelle Hower, the rees literacy coach. And um schools are always looking for ways to get better and improve things. So Dr. Hannah gave us this idea. How about we do some 2-hour delays because previously 7:35 to 7:55 were our PD times and it's just
002not enough time. by the time you get started talking, your time is up. So, we are able to get creative and use some monthly 2hour delays to um take care of a lot of PD that we wanted to do. So the EES equitable education solutions came in and identified three areas where Rosville really wanted to grow. So the first one was literacy, STEM, and college career readiness. So there we're going to talk about tonight how those twohour delays have impacted academics and achievement. You ready? Mhm. different subject areas and then it also supports the implementation of researchbased teaching practices. So, I'm sure everybody's heard about the science of reading. Um, it's the new buzzword and when you start something new, you have to find a way to teach everyone. So that's kind of what we've
003been doing. So the members of our teams STEM and career readiness leadership team is led by Mr. Hammonds, our administrator. Shan Dunn is representing middle school, high school, and Stephanie Williams for the elementary. our literacy team. Uh Chad Dennison is our administrator, Mason Morrison for the middle school, high school, and myself for elementary. And then our climate and culture leadership team, Mike Fagens is our administrator, Kate Washburn is for middle school, high school, and Amy Goris is for the elementary. So, we also brought in some professional development leaders um as part of the Indiana literacy cadre. I have been bombarded with professional development. So, I've been passing that off to the staff this year um and did a few professional developments with our K through five staff. Melissa Gil from Wabash Valley came in and
004she focused on our upper grades middle school high school training. And then also in January for K to 12, Kevin Dill came in as the behavior specialist and just kind of did a training on what do we do with students? We're getting students that maybe we've never dealt with before. And so he had some really great ideas for teachers on how to work with those students and how to really um help them deal with maybe trauma that they've had at home or um just lots of other situations that we've never ran into before. Okay. So part of our two-hour delay schedule, um this is going to be an outline kind of of how each month was broken up. Also know that throughout those two hours, sometimes we had random other meetings. It's like, "Hey, Mr.
005Dennis, need to see us for this quick 15 minutes here or there." But these are the highlights of each month and how the two-hour delays were utilized. So, um, this year the state was still deciding and we had to decide as a school corporation what state testing we were going to use and how we were going to use that data to to move our instruction along. and we decided to go with NWA until the state kind of pushed us towards their um iLearn checkpoints is is what we're going to be pushing towards this next year. So, we needed training on that. That was brand new for a lot of us. Some of us had used it um in another school corporation. Um but we all needed that. So, that took a large chunk of that
006first semester. It was a lot of analyzing data. It was training on how to use the online platform, how to give the test, um the purpose of the test. So you'll see um NWA kind of trickled in some of that most um of those two-hour delays a lot that first semester um PLC meetings that is literally the three groups that she just went over. Um we kind of met just to say hey are we on track for this school year? Are we going to be meeting our goals? Um and so we kind of met a little bit. The second steps that you see there in October that is more the emotional um well-beings of our students. And so that was some training um with guidance um about an online program that we had that we
007started utilizing this year. Um KPA begins um you can kind of just see like an outline of how I guess I won't go through all of it, but you can kind of just see some of the things were just maybe 6 through 12. You know, there's some things that elementary already had established, so we didn't need some of that training. So we utilized it more for the high school, middle school. Um, and so you can kind of see that. Maybe if we keep moving and if we have questions on any of those, we can explain too. Um, you can see there we have in the Kevin Dill. Um, he he did an online thing for us. Um, you can see that PD in there as well. PD is just professional development. Just a reminder, another
008acronym in education. Um, part of I feel like more this year was more of the science of reading. it was a heavy focus on the science of reading. Um when we spoke with Stephanie um her group that was more of STEM that we already got established with STEM the year before. So this was just making sure we were rolling it out and utilizing it the way it was supposed to be. So you won't see as much STEM in there, but you will see more heavy science of reading professional development. And then Kate is going to talk about here in a little bit the KPA3 which is more the culture, the more of the horizontal and vertical alignment. that is going to be more of our focus for next year. So you won't see that as
009much in that second semester meetings there. So all right uh benefits Stephanie. Oh thank you. All right. Um so you can see of course the benefits of giving the time to actually meet like she mentioned Michelle mentioned before how having 20 minutes you barely get started and it's time to move on to something else. And I just realized with like KPA1 last school year we would meet from like 7:15 to 7:55 or whatever and we would get some things accomplished but it seemed like when we had some time during the 2-hour delays we got more accomplished. It seemed like everyone was more alert and like wanting to get things accomplished at that point in time. Um so that was just one observation I had just as looking at my KPA. Um, and with KPA12, um,
010or KPA1 as well, we are looking at career readiness stuff, which Sheen is already kind of pushing through. And so that's why Amy was saying you don't see that kind of through the calendar, but there is a career online explorer that she's been using and she's going to utilize K12 hopefully um, next year, too. So there's a lot coming next year, but the benefits were just so great just to have the time and to actually get good things accomplished and to have that PD time. So, okay. So, what's next? Um, you see the we're going to continue with the science of reading, improving that, strengthening that across uh 6 through 12 and um working on those literacy practices. We're going to continue with uh professional development to make sure our teachers are ready and um
011headed in the right direction for this uh KPA strengthening of our our whole school system. Um and the big focus especially uh in KPA3 is working on the vertical alignment. So we've done a lot with horizontal. So that's like across the grade level like we're all doing the same thing. Vertical is like we're going to look at K to 12 like what are we doing? uh as an English teacher, like what are we doing in second grade that's helping them to work towards passing the SAT and English in 12th grade? You in 11th grade, I guess. Um and so we're going to work and focus a lot on that in math, in English, in science across the across the board. Um, and then we're going to continue to look at the data that we've been
012gathering with in NWA with a horizon testing, the data that we get with a with iLearn also and making sure that we as teachers are growing and helping our students to grow. Um, and that we're going to keep working on the Indiana Career Explorer that we've already established um, and just continue to make Rosville a great school. So, thank you very much. So, we just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to have the twohour delays and help the teachers grow, which in turn helps our students to become better. So, thank you. Thank you. Do you have any questions for the group? Just just kind of throw that out there. I just have one question. So, the NWA training that you did, did you say that that's getting replaced by iLearn? We're still we're waiting
013on the state and funding at the moment. So that has not been unless it happened this week. It has not been determined yet what the state is going to approve. We went with the WA because it was going to be something that we could use in our building specifically. It is a consolidation. It was a benefit for all of us. For me to look at and you know for my fourth graders and for Kate to be like, oh my juniors, we have the same program. We can look at the same standards. We can see that scaffolding that we need. and that's what we were looking for. So whether that will be funded, we don't know, but we're it's looking like we're going to use more of what the state is pushing out, which is more
014strictly the ilearn checkpoints. Um, in the past, we only used to test in the spring, and now with the checkpoints, they're wanting us to test in the fall, in the winter, and in the spring. And you can kind of keep track of your kids. It's the same type of progression, if that makes sense. Will the iLearn program be able to give you that visibility that you we hope. So I will give Chad the high five on this because a lot of schools did not hear them clearly and they basically were the guinea pigs for what the test was going to be. So, starting next year, the iLearn test will be adaptive, meaning that if a first grader takes a question and they do really well on it, then it might bump up the level a
015little bit. And if they get the next question correct, it keeps going until between going up and down, it finds that student's true level. And that's what people thought the learn was going to be this year, and it was not. It was just straight questions. So a lot of schools who held off didn't have that beginning of the year benchmark to know have our kids grown over the year and with NWA we did have that information. So we're going to keep it again for next year anyway till we see okay what's the state going to do. Yeah. And then Kim the second step is what we worked on last year in the committee right? Is that the healthy communities? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that is. Yeah. And that did not roll out into the high
016school. Did middle school get that? Middle school. Yes. But we're waiting on the high school roll out. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Everybody all the hard work. Appreciate it. You're more than welcome to stay, but I know how you guys are. It's up to you. But it's a trend now. See, it only takes one. So, next, uh, we have a special presentation. Um, Josh Jan. Yeah, that's why I didn't do it for Beard. So, if you want to give us a little background information what Beard does. Yep. Yep. So, um, I work for Robert W. Beard. Um, we are municipal bond underwriters. Um, so we work with schools across the state when you decide you want to do a project. So back in 2018, we worked on your the high school
017project here. I guess the full school project where the glass came in. Um, and we provide the funding for that project. Um, so what we do is we look at your budget, um, your property taxes and we basically try to structure these projects, um, within the constraints of the your your tax rate and what you can afford. um and then try to go out and get get the lowest interest rate possible for the school. Um does that make sense? Um so we're kind of like a mortgage broker in a way that if you want to come to me, you wouldn't come to me. You would go to a mortgage broker and they would provide you the funding and you would want the the lowest interest rate possible and they would give you the the money
018for the house. So um that's quick background. Dr. Hannah, Mandy and I met back in January or February. It seemed It's crazy it's been that long, but um and he wanted me to come in and give a general overview of where the school's at. Um kind of their debt profile and then I also, you know, with the changes with Senate Bill one, I want to give some some direction. So, this is fresh just to where okay to where things are headed and I'll give you a general overview. Um but flipping over to TA really quick. Um there are two types of debts um for Indiana schools that that are really common. There's one called a direct debt and an indirect debt. Uh the the school is obligated to pay both. Um it's still a debt
019and you have to pay the people who are giving your money like anything else. But um what is a general obligation bond? Um these bonds are quicker to get done. Um they're cheaper and they also typically get a slightly better interest rate um in the bond market. And that is just because every single state out there uses general obligation bonds. So, when you tell an investor, we're doing a geo bond, they're like, "Oh, I know exactly what that is. I'll give you a better interest rate because I I don't need a ton of time to digest it." The other one is a called a lease bond. Um, for schools, they're called first mortgage bonds. The school has two of those. Um, these are probably more common in Indiana than than general obligation bonds, just because
020Indiana statute um can be senseless sometimes. Um, and all these are is it's basically you're leasing property to a to a building corporation. The building corporation is making payments on for the the school corporation. And so that there's a lease between a building corporation, which a building corporation is is more or less just a shell company of the of the school corporation. So in total the school has uh in par amount has 840,000 outstanding and then for their lease debt they have 15 uh million outstanding and why this is important um for the general obligation bonds is the the statute sets a debt limit which we have in the bottom here and that is basically how many general obligation bonds you can issue. It's not how much debt you can issue just general obligation bonds.
021So that's calculated as the school's assessed valuation. You divide that by three and then take 2% of that. And since the school has 840,000 general obligation bonds outstanding, Rosville schools could issue approximately 1.6 million in general obligation bonds if they wanted to. Is that clear? Perfect. Um, next slide. Uh this is some general information here, but I want to give a background of where uh the school's tax rate has been over the last 10 to 11 years. Um so it's, you know, it's kind of hung around the 75 to$110 range over the years. Um and it went up after the school did the this this project outside. I think it was around $20 million. Um went up and then it went up again because I think you did another general obligation bond. Um, but it's
022come down and this will get into my Senate Bill One discussions, but it's come down because assessed valuations have gone up significantly throughout the state. Um, so Rossville has had in some years over 10% assessed valuation growth. Um, and so when that happens, if your AV goes up and you do nothing, you don't issue any debt, your tax rate goes down. So it doesn't mean that you know your citizens are paying less taxes. It just means the total tax rate on the community um decreases. So a lot of schools the state over the last few years have seen this 10% AV growth. Schools are able to grow their operations by 4%. That's the state limit. You can grow that by 4% year-over-year. And so to make up for that additional 6% a lot of them
023have been issuing debt to maintain a level overall tax rate. That's pretty common throughout the state. Does that make sense? Okay. So then this is another u just kind of graph here of where Rossville is in comparison to some of the neighboring schools. Um so I put the Clinton County and Carol County schools in there since Rosville is um part of both. Um but Rosville does have the second lowest tax rate um out of all the other county schools. And um so I think kind of going into a little bit of a Senate Bill one discussion. So what's happening and what has happened, the governor signed this bill is he is giving a $300 credit to all homeowners. So if you have a homestead, um you're going to get a $300 credit on your property
024tax bill. Um that's never been done before. And so that is going to be a loss to a lot of schools and cities and towns throughout the state. And another thing that's happening is he's phasing in deductions for two two and 3% properties, but mainly it's 2% properties. So 2% properties are your farmsteads, uh, rental properties, and multifamily complexes. A lot of people in my industry have been discussing the 2% deductions. It's phasing up to 34% in 2031. 2031. Yeah, 2031. Um, and that's going to make a pretty big impact on on schools throughout the state. um mainly because uh and you know I think the the farmers in a lot of cases um there's there's been a big argument um that there the farmers are paying a huge amount of taxes on some of
025their land but the rental properties and the multifamilies which how much people are raising rents on people I just didn't people think that there's possibility that that could change in the future but as of right now that that's that's what's happening so with these deductions schools and cities and towns across the state are going going to see very limited if not negative growth in assessed valuation. At least that's the prediction. It might not happen as much for 2026, but when these deductions get bigger over time, assess valuation, these communities going to go down most likely. So when that happens, it cuts into the amount of funding that schools can do for projects because if your assessed valuation's decreasing, that means your tax rate, it's inverse relationship. Your tax rate is going to increase over time.
026And so if you want to do a project, you'd have to raise it above the level that it might already be going, which is going to be a little bit of a challenge. So I think schools are going to have to be very smart about when they issue debt. they're have to be very thoughtful in the process um and and work with people who are able to look at their full structure and be like we're gonna we're gonna create something that is going to be very flexible and to not put the school in a situation where you're going to have a massive tax rate increase. One thing I do want to say about the tax rate increase, I know people go crazy when I say there could be a tax rate increase. Um, with these
027credits that people are getting in the homeowners, even if there's a tax rate increase, it doesn't mean people are going to pay more in property taxes because a lot of homeowners throughout the state, this happened in 2009, um, they're at a 1% cap. So the all with all the overlapping units, it's it's likely that all of those homeowners are still going to be at their 1% total rate. So they if you ended up raising your tax rate, it's more than likely going to be um the 2% properties and businesses that make up for some of those shortfall in taxes. So, you know, even if if your tax rate does go up a bit, um it's probably not going to fall on your on your homeowners because they're already going to receive a credit. They're going
028to pay less in taxes this year than than they previously had. So, they're going to be able to make up for some of that. Does that make sense? Okay, next page. Um, and this kind of goes into it. So, this gives you kind of a background from 22 to 26, a quick estimate of of what this could look like. So, I show in 2022 was a 1.08 8 um just under a $123 84 cents is 24 and 77 cents is 25 and this is what I was saying that your assessed valuations gone grown 5% 18% 13% 13% when that happens and you can only grow your operating funds by 4% your tax rate goes down and that's just what you've seen over the last four years and what I've explained here is that um in
0292026 um I did not show any growth in assessed valuation I did show a 4% growth in your operating funds. That is recommendable. With inflation, um, you know, needs increasing, you need to continue to grow your operating funds. Even if that means we hold off on any project for a year, continue to grow your operating funds. Um, those are the resources that teachers need. So, I'd continue to grow those. But it does show that, you know, the total tax rate of the school would go up by about 2 cents. Now, as I said earlier, that doesn't mean that your homeowners are going to be paying a lot more taxes. They are getting a credit. Um, it just means over time that assessed valuations might not grow as fast they h they have been in the
030past. So, next page is kind of an overlay of the capacity of the school corporation. So, I did not assume any growth and assessed valuation in this um and I show all your outstanding bonds. the 2011 which have since paid off, the 2018 um the 2021 and the uh 2021 ad forum bonds and the 2021 geo bonds and then on the right one I have your potential capacity. So this is showing that um just a flat debt service tax rate through time of 36 cents and Rosville schools if you were to issue all of your debt service capacity today you could issue about $6 million in projects trying and that would get close to maintaining your current overall tax rate. Now, that's probably going to change as as as these deductions wear in, but it
031also continues to go up as as you pay off some of these debt obligations. So, it's kind of a it's a work it's a working paper and these things change every single year. So, um you know, you you reassess where your tax rates are and and you change this every single year and and give updated projections. Um but you know, obviously I I show this as in like maxing out your whole entire capacity. um that is not an unless you really needed to do it, that's not really an advisable approach. Um that's like me telling you that to go buy as big of a house as you can, like that's not an advisable approach. So, but as a starting point, that's the the max that I that you could really borrow maintaining the the current
032overall tax rate. Any questions? So the talk a little bit about the uh uh 40 cent mark. Yes, absolutely. So this has been a change over the last couple years. This this one has not changed. Um so it used to be that schools would be automatic controlled project if their debt service tax rate was over 40 cents. So Rosville schools is at 36 cents right now. So m no matter the size of the bond um it'd be a controlled project if you're over cents. So I'm working on um a bond right now with worked on a couple bonds with Beach Grove Schools they have in the in the 70s it's even if they did $500,000 borrowing they would have to do a controlled project for that just because of where their tax rate is. If
033you're over 80 cents it is a automatic referendum. So that's something to know that you know actually it was 80 cents last year and now they phase that down to even 70 cents. So if you're over 70 cents you have to automatically go to referendum. So that's something to think about as you know you digest projects and needs for the school that we're going to want to maintain structures that that keep you under that that 70 cents threshold because you really you you want to try to avoid referendum if you can. It's it's just really really expensive. Um and then the other one is the 40 cents threshold. Um is is also going to be more expensive. So that's just to require two public hearings. Um there's a lot more documents. Um people can petition
034for referendum. I mean it's just it gets more complicated. Um it's going to be more expensive on the attorney side because they're going to have to have many public hearings, more documents. It's going to be more work. Um, so I think that's one thing to consider that if you know if Rossville had a need um that was really important that if if your ads go down, so if your assess valuation goes down over time, it could potentially push you over the 40 cents. So that's something to think about that, you know, if you're over 40 cents, you're going to have to do a controlled project and it will be we do them all the time. It's not like trying to scare you, but it's just it's cheaper to do just a regular non-controlled general obligation
035bond. You didn't talk about the general obligation bond limit. Yeah. So, that was on the one of the first page that I showed you that um was your assessed valuation divided by three times. 02. So, that's how many of the general obligation bonds you can issue. And as I said, it's it's cheaper. Um it's quicker and you get better interest rates. And the school right now can issue up to 1.6 million general obligation bonds. So part of the reason that we did the track the way we did was to we we just the board just approved 200 212 228 I think 228,000 for track resurfacing over rainy day and the idea was on my part was to leave that cap capacity open because I foresee come 2028 20 starting maybe 26 that's too quick uh
03626 27 7. We have heating and air for the auditorium. You have may have some roof projects and then you've got u probably new laptops u because that'll take the edge of our um our seed devices and that'll be a chunk. So yeah. And you know it's going to be interesting to talk about tax rates with with communities across the states. I think um and you'll see it in your communities and your counties that I think schools are going to raise their tax rates because the it just they're going to be receiving less money because of these credits that have been given to the homeowners and so the only way to make up some of that money is to to raise taxes and or raise the tax rate. Um, cities and towns, they're in a
037different situation because Senate Bill one gave them an allowance to raise local income taxes communities and we foresee many of them doing that um to make up for these credits that they would have otherwise received. Um, but schools are I think many schools throughout the state are going to be looking to raise their their total tax rate to to make up for some of their funding that they're they're losing. So the estimate I seen was about 153,000 loss in the next three years equal. Um Frankfurt for example, they do fairly well the first two years is the half million dollars the third year that they would lose. The other thing that impacts Frankfurt more so than us is the circuit breaker. Yep. So So the circuit breaker is um as I this happened 2009. So
038if you are an owner of your your home and you live there as your primary residence, you can only pay 1% of the assessed valuation of your property in taxes. Um so the circuit breaker was what capped that back in 2009 that you can only pay 1% of the value of your home in taxes and everything that's above that is considered just lost revenue and it's called circuit breaker. So everything that you know if your tax rate is 1.5 and you can only pay 1% on your home then that difference there is is what circuit breaker is and that's just lost revenues that that are not collected. Um probably about eight or seven around seven or eight I believe I thought I thought it was 11 somewhere in the low teens. I looked at it
039recently because I was interested to know that if what kind of strategies we could look at because and I want to see because I have worked with Frankfurt schools before and they have different situation circuit breakers 1.2 basically is what they it's it's big for that size school and the other thing is you might talk about circuit breakers it's not just what we do so if the county builds a building that's in there as well. Yes. And so for the city of Frankfurt, if the city builds something, that's in there as well. Yes. So, you know, if the county builds a new courthouse and they plan to pay for it with property taxes, that still is on your resident's tax bills. So, there's all these overlapping units that have their own tax rates. So, Rossvilles
040is that, you know, 77 cents and then the county has another one. And those all those add up to this overlapping unit rate and it's typically in the in the twos and so you have homeowners that can only pay 1% of the property and the overall tax rates in the twos there's a huge loss. Um so Rossville is not nearly as high which is why they don't have as big of a circuit breaker loss. Um but there is still going to be now loss with the circuit breaker which is minimal here but there'll be the credit loss. There's going to be two kind of types of losses there. Um next page here um is an overview of the school's rating. Um so when not every time um sometimes you can do do bonds as non-rated
041but a lot of times you'll go to what's called it's standard and poor. It's a big company. They uh do bond credit ratings and it's very similar to we all have credit cards and your credit card company gives you a credit score and it's basically saying how will how likely are you to pay pay me back and that's pretty much what S&P is telling you is is they are this likely to to pay you back and they give you a rating on that. So it starts with a with an institutional framework um and the the state rates out as a three. So they're double A+ with the state framework and then S&P has um five different categories that they look at um to rate the school. So your economy is adequate um which is very
042common. Um financial performance and reserves and liquidity is strong and very strong. That's a testament to the school. That's the really the only thing on here that you can um that you have control over in the past. Management's adequate. Um, and debt liabilities is weak. I want to talk about both those really quick. Management, and I told Dr. Hannah and Manny this in our meeting together, that management has nothing to do with how good of a superintendent, Dr. Han is. It does not, that is not what it means. It means um how forward are forward-looking are you in your budget? What kind of policies has the school board adopted, which we can talk about? Um, and do you have long-term debt capital plans that you can show S&P to be like, we see these needs
043coming up for the school? Uh, here's what it looks like on our debt profile, which would be this graph. Um, and and it doesn't raise our taxes. Um, we can afford it and to to prove that out to them. Some of these um debt or the the management policies at the schoolboard level, um, I'd recommend looking at them. Um, one would be like a reserves and liquidity policy. It would be just a basically a onepage document that we could bring in um and you would just approve it and it basically asks that the administration maintain a certain level of reserves for the school. Um I already looked they already do it anyway. So it should be just basically saying that you know Dr. Hannah and Mandy are going to attempt um and and have a
044goal of maintaining this level of reserves. Typically, it's between like 8 to 15% of total revenues, which is your already there, I'm pretty sure. So, that's that's one of them. Another one's debt management policy where you basically just um adopt a another one-page document that kind of gives a procedure for um mitigating risk and kind of the thought that you need to go through when you're thinking about doing a project. Um the debt capital plan, I would help you work on that. We do that as part of our underwriting process. I like to know um what other projects you have coming up in the future so I can build in the flexibility to be able to do another one for you. Um so it doesn't jack up your tax rate or if like a you
045have to have some flexibility because what happens if a roof breaks and then you come to me and say, Josh, I need a million dollars for a roof. I'm going to be like, well, you're going to have to raise taxes now. So you have to build in some flexibility for the school to to for things to happen. Um, last one is debt and liabilities. I looked at this again actually this week and I left it here because this is what the last rating report said, but I think it's probably adequate now since bonds paid off since 2021. Um, but um, and I footnoted this. This includes all the overlapping debt. So similar to overlapping tax rates um how the your citizens are paying like the county's debt obligations they would also consider all of those
046debt obligations and all the overlapping units like the county and the town and if you know part of it Frankfurt is part all of those overlapping units can come onto your tax role. So they'll look at that as part of your um debt outstanding and that would be your your debt liability score. So you have very little control over that. And to be honest with you, most schools throughout the state have a very weak debt liability score. I was just in talking with Lawrence Township schools. They might have more debt capacity any other school in the state and theirs is probably very weak. So that's very common. Um last thing here is I want to bring this to your attention. Um, these are this is a um it's called a refunding, but it's really just
047a refinance. Um, this cannot happen till 2027, but I wanted to just put on your radar since I was here. This would be a refinance of your 2018 bonds. Um, this is not a savings level yet that I would tell you to to move forward. This is at like in between 1.5 to 2% savings. I typically like to be over two and a half and preferably 3% savings. Um, but if the school were to refinance the 2018 bonds under current market rates, um, it'd be about 127,000 in p or present value savings. Um, if you were, and that includes underwriting fees and other costs issuance from attorneys and everybody else. So, um, again, you can't do this yet. It's not until 2027 when the bonds are callable. Um, but it's something I'll be reaching out
048to and letting you know if it's an opportunity you should be looking at. Um, really quickly here, um, just a market update. I just wanted to provide this for you. Um, rates have been all over the place this year. Um, especially because inflation's still pretty high. Um, the the, uh, tariffs from Washington DC have kind of thrown a loop and what people could think the economy could be in the next year or two. Um, just a lot of uncertainty out there really. Um so and I'm sure you've seen the stock market people are just waiting to see if you know if this onshoring thing is going to happen or not. So um there's just been volatility out there but I think we're starting to see um some pretty decent interest rates. There's been good participation
049for investors for bonds. So it's it's gotten much better. It was really really bad in like January, February and March which you probably saw in your stock counts. So it's it's the same thing in the bond market. Um, and then the last page is here is just um kind of an executive summary of all the the services that we provide as an underwriter. U many of which I've already discussed. And then you just have an overview page and then um signature transaction page which as I said we've worked on the 2018 bonds um for the school and then we've worked with um some other nearby communities including Clint County and and Frankfurt schools last year. So, I know I threw a lot of information at you. Um, but are there any any preliminary questions? Real
050quick, talk about the difference between you and Ice Miller. Ice, not ice miller. And Brock or Baker and Tilly? Baker and Tilly. Yes. So, um, there's really it's like a kind of like three-legged stool when you do municipal bonds. There's a bond council. They basically provide a legal opinion. Um they say that the bonds that the school corporation is issuing are taxexempt obligations. Um so they're not, you know, taxful. They're lower interest rates. Um it's better borrowing for for municipalities and schools. Um the next one's a municipal adviser. Um the school in the past used Thurbert Brock and I think it's been Lonnie and Mike Thurber, right? Okay. Um and they are kind of like a financial advisor. They help with some of the feasibility um and they kind of help with some of the
051um the approval process with ICE Miller and then I'm an underwriter. So my job is to structure the debt and at the end of the day our job is to provide the the financing for the school. So the school says that um they need $ 1.5 million. I'm my job is to go find the lowest lowest borrowing rate for the school under the current structure and that that we have. So, um, that's the kind of the three people that are typically involved. So, next month we have Baker and Ty. Baker and Tilly. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Nice to meet you all. Thank you. My contact information is also on the front if anybody has any questions. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. public comment. Do you have any at this time open up
052for public comment? I did not receive any slips. So we will move on. First item on the agenda is approval of minutes consideration claims and payroll. April 8th was the last regular scheduled meeting. Board members received packets and that also the bund the fund and bank reports supplied. I move we approve the minutes, claims, and payrolls as presented. Second. It's been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes, claims, and payrolls as presented. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Next item on the agenda is personnel items, consideration retirement. Mr. Fagens is forward thinking and has submitted his resignation or his retirement notice effective January 23rd, 2026. Um, apparently he is eligible come December and uh I talked him into
053staying until January. Tried to talk him into staying longer but he wouldn't do it. So um that's that's up for consideration. Also is uh personnel resignations. Hannah Do submitted her resignation as the ACT teacher and FFA sponsor effective end of the school year. Eric Toronto has submitted her resignation as Clinton County joint services psychologist effective at the end of the school year. And Evan North submitted his resignation as far as the boys soccer head coach. U currently appointments. Uh Amanda Mullen, assistant track and field coach. Uh, boys baseball volunteer, Reed Douglas. Um, volleyball, Kelsey Hall, volunteer assistant. Uh, Mrs. Hall, uh, our assistant principal is recommending Brent Tonsia as a homebound teacher for the two students from May 9th through the end of the school year. Uh, each student receive one hour of instruction per
054week. Uh, and Mr. Tanon will compensate at his currently hourly rate. Mr. Dennis is recommending Miss Shell Hower as an instructor for the extended school year services as determined by a case conference committee for a fifth grade student. She provide instruction from May 27th through July 28th, 2025. And again, that's compensated on a base salary uh hourly rate. And Mr. Dennison is recommending summer school for third graders who did not pass I read three and for second graders who are at risk of not passing during the third their third grade year. Summer school sessions held weeks of uh May 27th through the 30th and June 2nd through the to the 6th. Each teacher will deliver one and a half hours of instruction with a half hour for prep totaling two hours per day. Kim Zinc
055will work eight hours the week of the 27th 20 uh 27th May 27th through the 30th at hourly rate 3517 per hour. Michelle Hower worked 10 hours week of 2nd the 2nd through the 6th at her rate 45.98 per hour. In the past uh they we were allowed to use title one funds for compensation. However, due to regulations we're no longer able to do that. Recommending approval. Susan Suzanne Evans who's our director of joint services special education co-op is recommending Kylie Terry for the Clinton County Joint Services Administrative Assistance position. that will fill u Gabby's position. Miss Terry would be compensated as per the handbook for classified staff administrative assistant to the director of exceptional needs and we'll begin our duties on May 27th. Uh Suzanne Evans is recommending Shelby Sultz for the Clinton County
056Joint Service School Psychologist position. Uh 193day contract with a salary of 85,000 and her duties will begin July 1. and our director of exceptional needs, Clinton County Joint Services, recommending Kathleen McGee for the position of death, heart of hearing, and blind, low vision impaired teacher. Uh, as an employee, Clinton County Joint Service serve all the member schools of uh, Clinton County Joint Services. She'll be 190day contract, annual salary of 82,000. Contract will begin July 1, 2025. And you also have with it the job description, uh her employee handbook, her contract, and her recommendation. And those are the personnel items have for this evening. I move we approve personnel items as presented. Second. It's been properly moved in a second to approve the personnel items as presented. Is there any discussion? The only thing I would
057say is Dr. Kenny, you said read Douglas for baseball. It says basketball. Basketball. Sorry. That's okay. Does it say basketball? It does. It says basketball on it. He's a baseball player. So, he is a baseball and a basketball player. Anybody else? Okay. Hearing none, let's uh signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Uh consideration policy update. Um we work with NES school boards association uh their services pro provide comprehensive policy program in collaboration uh with them and I have a few policies for update and uh there will be more coming because uh Bren and I went to a meeting last night in school boards where they reviewed the changes in the law and I see some policies coming out of that. So section two first read 204 204 superintendent retirement resignation
058and it's been revised. Uh 3420 resignation of employees has been revised. Uh the retirement school employees that's a new policy 3421 reduction in force is 3700 that's just been reviewed and transfer students uh 4018 has been updated. Uh that was after discussion with our school attorney Michelle Cooper this morning. Um second read possession of firearms and school property has been revised. Police relations is a new policy. Virtual education program revised and civil and deform policy was also uh is a new policy. So those are the policies for consideration for first and second read tonight. Would move we accept the policy items as presented. Second been properly moved and second to accept the policy items I presented. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor. In favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. Same
059sign. It's catching. Uh, additional appropriation. and the public afforded the opportunity to be heard concerning additional appropriation to the 2025 rainy day fund $45,000. Uh the additional appropriation was advertised in the times in Carol County comment on June uh on April 16th, 2025 time set aside for public comment. Um it's not a change in the amount of money we've received. This is the authority to spend. So the money was there already. Uh we've got the rainy day project coming up. This extra 45 help cover things. So, okay, at this time we'll set aside time for public testimony for additional appropriation. So, if anybody wants to speak on that. Okay. Hearing none, we'll close that part of the meeting. Donation for a financial item, Pitts, donated $75 to the Rosville FFA. I move we approve financial
060items as presented. Second and properly moved and seconded to approve the financial items as presented. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Mr. uh items uh a memorandum of understanding with the learn academy. It's a partnership between Wildcat Creek Career Cooperative, IvyTech, and Indiana, MAC, IMAC, uh and local industry. program is a two-year program where students attend classes their junior year, four days a week, and one day they're in industry. Their senior year, they attend classes one day a week and four four days in industry. Um, students can earn dual credit through IvyTech while gaining valuable work-based learning experience and this is a cooperative program for the four county schools. bus use. Uh Clinton County Special Olympics Committee has requested transportation to
061and from the state summer games held in Indiana State University, Terode, Indiana. Um and I'm requesting uh securing a driver to transport the teams and use of the bus on Thursday, June 5th, and they'll go back and pick them up on June 8th. We've done this before for them. Uh they they finance the driver and pay for the fuel. So, um, summer camps, uh, more miscellaneous items, basketball boys basketball, May 27th through the 30th, uh, grades K5. Wrestling the June 23rd through the 26th, 7th through 12. Middle school volleyball, grades five through eight. Uh incoming u to be determined. Tennis June 9th through the 12th uh grades 1 to eight. Dance to be determined. Uh high school students and girls basketball to be determined when uh grades 1 through six. fundraisers. Board policy requires all
062fundraising activities be approved by the building principal and thereafter a list of proposed schedule is forward to the board for action requesting approval of that list uh by the board for next school year. And then uh the 2526 curriculum guide for Rossville High School. Uh the guide provides information concerning the curriculum in grades 9 through 12 and information about specific courses contained within the curriculum. The information provides guides for students to select from an array of four-year high school programs. It helps students understand the content of the course approved by the Indiana Department of Education. The course content description utilized uh are developed by the IDOE and I'm recommending approval of that item. And those are the miscellaneous items for this evening. I move we approve the miscellaneous items as presented. Second. It's been properly
063moved and seconded to approve the miscellaneous items as presented. Is there any discussion? Hearing no none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Field trips FFA livestock judging on April the 15th. Went to Lafayette FFA or Culture Team, whatever that is. I went to the Faler. Sixth grade Shades Park. Uh went to Wavelin. Eighth grade went to the zoo today. Life skills is headed to the zoo on the 13th in Lafayette and the fifth grade camp column on the 14th of May. Um the conference or more field trips um AP Environ is headed to Clinton County Landfill in Frankfurt on the 14th of May. FFA Holiday World on um the 27th of May. Boys basketball, this is an overnighter. uh the corn in Indiana um on June
06417th through the 19th and then the FFA to Indiana pork and beef tents at state fairgrounds in August 7th conferences that's in Chad Bolton Tommy Delingham current trends in swatting bomb threats trafficking and assaults that's in Crown Point that was on the 21st did you go no we stay huh we couldn't go Okay, they didn't go. Never mind. Chad Dennis, Michelle Hower, five leadership behaviors that raise student achievement in Lafayette on the 2nd of May. Dustin Chad Bolt and Nancy Cochland uh are headed to Indiana Power School High School in Noblesville June 10th and 11th. And Kate Washburn on July 8th through the 11th is headed to uh AP TIP AP Summer Institute in Indianapolis. That's it. So, our next board meeting will be Tuesday, June the 3. We're back over there, right? We'll be
065back. Back over in the library. Somebody give me a motion to end it. Make a motion we turn the meeting. Second. Move and second to the meeting. Those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries.