001[music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Sean. >> Oh, father. Don't know what it was. [clears throat] Good evening. Welcome to our regular school board meeting, Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. Uh call to order. Those that can stand, let's stand and honor our flag. I pledge alg to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it
002stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> Thank you. Roll call. Trusty Guierra, >> present. >> Trusty Stanford, >> present. >> Trustee Candelera, >> present. >> Trustee Blake King, present. Uh, one absent, four present. We do have a quorum. Uh, Mr. Selenus. >> Thank you, Trustee. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to tonight's school board meeting at >> We're having technical difficulties. >> Oh, you need a recess? >> Yeah. >> Uh, excuse us. We need a fivem minute recess. Do I have a motion? >> Madam President, >> Trustee, >> I have a motion that we take a five-minute recess. All >> in favor say I. Second. I'd have it recess. >> Technical difficulties. >> No problem. >> There's some technical difficulties. We'll be right back. Hold [laughter] on. Oh,
003well, >> it's not on you. >> Okay, [laughter] >> one more time. >> It's off again. >> Oh, good evening. Okay, there we are. Good evening. Thank you for your patience. Uh, we just had a minor media glitch. Uh, Mr. Selenus, please. >> All right. Good evening again, everyone, and thank you for being here this evening. This evening, we are going to start uh our meeting with uh a recognition of our high school student athletes. So, at this time, I would like to call Mr. Chris Moore, our athletic director at Hammond Central High School. Also acknowledging their principal, uh Miss Tika Harrison, who's also in attendance. Mr. Moore, uh if you could please join us to the podium. >> [applause] >> Thank you trustees, Madame President, Superintendent Selenus, appreciate you guys for having us. Um,
004if if you see back there, we have Principal Harrison and I brought some kids along just to again uh recognize their accomplishments, their success, uh, not just on the court. Now, if you see, I I put on there our our student athletes, and that's truly what they are, and and we're definitely >> beyond proud of them. We wish them the best of luck. I have a lot of seniors out there. I do have a junior, but I also have a couple of staff I want to just make a mention of as well. So again, thanks for having us. And our first one is that our wolf go back one our Wolf athletes are our student athletes again. Yes, we are in competition. Uh yes, we are for academics, but we do have a lot of
005other activities and I just want to include that. I I was scrambling with some good quality pictures. So, that's what I I had up there. But, uh ROC, I have a number of students, including one back there that excels in football, but he's also one of the leaders of ROC. The one gentleman holding the the flag, he's not here tonight, but he is also a student athlete. Uh the the guys up top were my basketball team. They did student service. I'm sorry. uh community service at the uh Mount Zion down the street. Uh we went down there, we took a group of them. Coach Boyette was there and myself and uh we helped serve Thanksgiving dinner. So again, I just want to give them a a moment of recognition for what they do, not just
006on the court, but in in the community as well. So our next one, I think I have some wrestlers up there, and they're in the audience, too. I would like to call them down, but I have three gentlemen that are academic all state for wrestling. So, we want to bring them down here. And then I have one gentleman also that uh JV Butler who was our sectional champion last year and I wanted to make sure he got recognized as well. But the three gentlemen there for academic all state, just so you know, that the qualifications was a minimum of a 3.5 GPA. >> Wow. >> So, again, we have two seniors. Uh, we have Joel Barrera I want to bring up and David Dandridge and Cole Owens Corba. Come on up, guys. [applause] >> So,
007if you didn't note also on that presentation, uh, Joel and Cole actually were two of our semi-state qualifiers. Just missed out on going to state and David just missed out on going to semi-state in the regional. So again, >> wow, >> we have two academic or all three academic all state right here. [cheering] [applause] >> And then Javon, you come up here with them as well. We'll take some pictures. Uh but again, I also have on my next slide [applause] On the next slide, I wanted to recognize our swim team. And I invited our coaches. I think our our ladies head coaches here with us. But again, I just wanted to make a quick note that our swim program has just improved tremendously. >> And that is in the pool. They broke on the guy's
008side every single school record we have. >> Wow. >> Every single one. They had a 15-1 record. Uh they're again they they didn't make it, their coach didn't make it, but they just had just a tremendous season. I wanted to make sure that we acknowledge them for that. Uh Coach Long that that leads the the boys there. He was voted by the sectional coaches as the coach of the year. So it was a great honor uh for us there in in the pool and we look forward to you know for more to come. The girls had a great season as well. The record wasn't as great but they set a ton. I think it was five or six. Again, there's only 12 or 13 events. Coach could correct me on that. There's only 12 or
00913 events, and they set five themselves this year. So, they had a wonderful, uh, season. And then I also included, uh, a lady that's dear to me, uh, Coach Sue Matson. So, I wanted to bring her up. Uh, Coach Sue is actually retiring this year, so I wanted to bring her up and have her moment as well. [applause] >> [laughter] >> Thank you. It's been a long 29 years, but it's been I'm so grateful to have a new pool and you can see the results. So, I'm and I only had five girls this year and they took it to the extreme and and the boys, they did great and it's it's been a pleasure coaching them through the years and and seeing kids of my kids I coached before. It's been a lot of fun.
010So, thank you for your support and and I really appreciate um Ad Moore because he's been the backbone behind us as well. So, and also Principal Harrison, she's been very supportive, too. So, thank you all very much. I'm going to miss it, but [laughter] thank you. [applause and cheering] >> Thank you. >> Enjoy. You deserve it. You deserve it. You do. [applause] >> Thank you. >> Enjoy. >> [laughter] >> Elsa. >> Okay. And then along with our swim team, I brought a couple of our student athletes that have committed or signed to go on to the next level. Uh we do have a a rush here in the spring of of late sneiges and late decision makers. Uh but I did bring three that are pretty committed. So I have them here, but if you
011see on the screen there, we have two girls basketball players that were committed. We had a signing, I should say, uh in our in our cafeteria during the season. And then we have another gentleman for football here that uh will be having a signing uh once he wants to bring his buddies along because again, like I [laughter] said, in the in the spring, they all they kind of all want to do it together at the same time. So, we did have the the ladies at the same time. So, again, I wanted to bring them out. But, we do have a girls basketball player, India Hudson, who signed to go to and play at Howard University. [cheering] Woo! [applause] My love. >> Yay. Where is she? [applause] >> So, H.B.CU in Washington DC, she is signed
012on to play there >> and continue her education. >> Uh, Leila Hart, she's signed to play basketball and and further her education at Lake Michigan College in Michigan. So, come on up. Woo! [applause and cheering] >> And then lastly, we brought senior Christopher Harris. He's going to play football at Roosevelt next year. >> Wow. [applause] >> Incredible. >> That's great. Great. Great. >> Thank you. [laughter] So again, yeah, we could sit here. I know we have a time limit, but we could talk all about each of each of these. I have stories uh for each of them. They're they're great kids. Uh they they really do hard and they they excel for us on the court and on the field or where wherever they're at. But they are actually good kids as well. So that's
013what we are very proud of. So we wish them the best of luck. They did a great job. Uh our our last one, I wanted to also just kind of put a a note out there that we have won in other sports uh conference champions. So I wanted to make sure I gave them their due uh from this particular season. So we did have cross country and the boys and girls both win our conference titles this year. >> Uh swimming on on the the boys I I'm not sure about the girls side, but the boys for sure. I think the girls uh but girls volleyball as well. And then wrestling, we won conference titles. So again, I just want to acknowledge them at this time. >> Excellent. Wow. [applause] [applause] >> And then our last
014slide. >> We know her. [laughter] >> She's a celebrity. >> Yeah. So our our last slide is for our graduate last year uh Tina. So, the Hammond Hall of Fame has a distinguished student athlete every year that they they offer one one male, one female student in the city um of all of our of our public schools, but they also include Hass and Bishop Null as well. So, we all submit a candidate and Telina is the winner of the Anderson Peter Peterson Distinguished Student Athlete Award. So, she will she will not be there next week because she's currently in the Naval Academy. I think she has leave in a couple of weeks. So, we'll honor her at the at a boys volleyball game later on, but next week is the official award at the at
015the Hammond Sports Hall of Fame. >> It will be there. >> So, >> yeah. Now, again, also just a quick note too on the Hammond Sports Hall of Fame. Uh not a part of Hammond Central, but a a longtime educator for the school city of Hammond. We do have uh being inducted this year. I just want to give him a quick shout out. But Dave Sakowski, longtime educator for Hammond, is going to be inducted as well along with obviously four other very good athletes and and coaches. So I just want to give him a quick note. >> All right. >> So [applause] >> yeah, on behalf of uh Hammond Central, myself and Miss Harrison, uh thank you for this time of acknowledgement. If we have any questions, we'll happily answer. But again, thank you guys
016for acknowledging us tonight. Thank you. We definitely need a a photo op. Hello. >> If we could have our student athletes uh take a stand out here so we can take our photos and anybody in the community >> and our PR person, Mrs. Weekes, will definitely have this on our website so everybody can see. And uh again, we are so extremely proud of these young folks and and he expressed not only athletic but academic as well. And that is so very important in this culture. Thank you. I'll come. Smile like you love each other. Welcome. [applause] [laughter] >> Wow. [clears throat] >> Mr. Selenas >> once again uh Ad Moore, thank you so much for your leadership, coaches and student athletes. Uh he made a very good point that it's not it's not exactly easy
017being a both a an athlete and a student and with those GPA that we heard, you know, we've got some leaders that are going to be making school of hem look very good once they enter the world. So once again, congratulations to you and to your families, student athletes. Thank you very much. [applause] All right, we're going to keep it going. Uh we're going to uh invite Mr. uh Chef Jack Velasquez who's going to be talking to us a little bit about our ACC culinary program and our ACF chefs of Northwest Indiana. Chef Velasquez. [applause] Good evening, President Blake King, members of the board of school trustees, superintendent Selenus, and community members. I would also like to recognize our director of the Hammond Area Career Center, Mr. Jeremy Hicks, president of the AC Chefs, sorry,
018Chefs of Northwest Indiana, Gabriado, and Chairman Jim Gallaghan. >> [laughter] >> Thank you, Jack. >> All right. >> Hello, everyone. How we doing? >> All right. >> Okay. Uh my first time being over here, so uh um I just wanted to uh uh tell Jack thanks for uh inviting me to come out today. Um, so we are chefs and uh I don't know if you guys know this, but we have a chef's organization in northwest Indiana. Uh, we cover Lake, Porter, Leaport counties. Uh, we go down to Jasper, Newton, too also. And, um, we have a chapter that's been in the area for 30 years this year. >> Um, so we're selling 30 years. Um, I'm the chairman of the board right now. And um throughout the years we've kind of uh evolved a little
019bit and uh uh just recently we've done a lot of fundraisers and uh so we have a lot of things that we do during the year that we raise funds and uh one of our things with the ACF the ACF is also a national organization. It goes state to um east coast, west coast and north and south also. So there's 170 chapters, but in our chapter uh we we run uh certain events during the year and then we we uh gather funds and one of our things is about education. Uh we want to educate the the younger uh students u because we need the students to understand what's going on. So and we want to uh promote them to uh um take our place when we're gone. I mean so that's the biggest thing. and
020the restaurant business, you know, is quite big. So, um, and I just wanted to let you know, too, I'm the one of the chefs at Velparezo University and, uh, been there for 15 years. Um, I've been a member of this chapter for 30 years. Um, so we do a lot of things and we want to give back to the community and the students. Um, so at this time, um, I want to present a check, uh, to the Hammond Area Career Center and Chef Jack for, uh, $1,500. [applause] >> So, here's our big check for you guys. And, [laughter] uh, it's we like to do this. We've done this for quite a few other programs, culinary programs in the in the count uh the threecount area. There we go. [laughter] [applause] Okay, Jack. So, I'd like
021to talk a little bit about the program and then afterward we could take a picture with the students. >> Okay. >> Thank you so much. First, I want to say how appreciative of all the support you all have given me. the community. It's very unwavering of all the love that um I get from everyone. I can never give it back to what I've received. These students mean so much to uh to me that um I love coming to work. I' I've there's only so many jobs in my career and uh that's the reason I do so much. I mean, look at this screen here. Look at what we do with these students here. It's I cannot talk how much I am so proud of these students. I'll talk about a few. Um well, it's not
022even a few. If I kept going, it'll it'll go a long time. I'll have probably 10 papers here. [laughter] Um there's a part of the email that I would like to read off that um some of the board would know what I'm talking about. And I I it's a quote. There is a quote in the PDC that many well may walk past but I stop and read each time I see it. A mediocre teacher tells a mediocre teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates the great teacher inspires. William Arthur Ward. What keeps me up at night is one question. Who will replace us? who will step up as the next leaders in our community, in our region. That's what I think about all the time with the students. >> Who will step up? >> So, some
023of the um events we've done throughout the year for with the students is uh beyond the chefs. This was uh with Frank Murvan uh the ACF chefs in Northwest Indiana and um all the leaders that we had different chapters presidents that were there. I had uh Marco and George that talked in front of everyone. Really proud of them. During that event, we also had uh to start off the the year Bacon and Pastry Forum. They collaborated with chef David Woodri and helped prepare meals for guests. And u the chef there that we prepared with that we met at the time is on team USA and recently we found out he's going to come and talk to the program. >> Wow. >> So I'm very excited about that. In Indianapolis we helped out the ACF chefs
024of of their chapter at the French market. They did French cuisine, oyster, rockerfeller, kiche, ratatouille, and uh in a live professional environment. We also did uh taste of the farm, which was our biggest event with the ACF chefs, our chapter, with more than 20 professional chefs, participated with students that they witnessed firsthand the power of farm-to-table sourcing and community collaboration. And thank you all for the board for being there. I truly appreciate it. For the second year in a row, we part participated with uh Libby and their showroom and a Michelin starred chef restaurant, Esme. George also was able to stage there at a Michelin starred restaurant. Very proud of him. Uh and our first student that we had to stage on a Michelin restaurant at Beyond the Kitchen, which I talked about. Um they
025also were able to wear their belts they won at a chili cookoff from last year. Very proud of them. We also hosted for the first day international chef's day which was huge huge uh for our area. This is the first time that I know of in our region that that was uh put on. We had welcoming students from Scott Middle School and Edgars Middle School into our kitchens to meet chefs, farmers, and mentors. We [clears throat] had our JOTC promotional dinner. Marked our first uh plated dinner in years and also uh George Lopez ran the full service on his own. I just made sure everything ran well that day. >> So that was phenomenal work and I'm very happy that I teamed up with Major Bonds with that partnership and I'm looking forward to do
026any dinners with him that he would like to do and thank you for being there too for the support. We had um Skills USA regionals competition here at the area career center. We have six students total going down state. Marco Campo placed second in culinary arts. George Lopez third in culinary arts. Rachel Sheiline placed third in bacon and pastry and Satali Anelles placed fourth in bacon and pastry. We have two students that have a buy in restaurant services. They will represent an area career center in April coming up. Marco was recognized at the on stage at the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute um as a FedEx student leadership panel. Students attended the Gordon Food Service show to explore industry renovation and innovation and workplace pathways. And uh recently, which is a huge one for the
027for our program, we're invited back to the second year in a row. We made 700 artisal rolls, three compound butters, and help raise over $200,000 for the community. >> Wow. [clears throat and cough] >> Before I close, I wanted to thank Chef Bev for the program. You helped a lot the moment you walked in the classroom and elevated our program immediately. I'm appreciative of you. Thank you. And uh especially the ACF chefs chapter for um all the connections you've done with uh that you've uh helped our program with. There's three things I tell my students that define me. Heart, passion, and grit. and I challenge them to find their three because one day they're going to replace us as leaders and when that day comes I want them to be ready. Thank you. >> Absolutely.
028>> All right. Thank [applause] you. Thank you. >> So, you're going to bring up your students? >> Yes. >> We're going to take a And did you mention that you fed the wizards? >> Yes, we did. Well, I didn't mention [laughter] it, but we did feed them. >> I mean, come on now. It was class. I mean it was the the oh the ser the china the settings I was just I thought I was at some hotel in New York City, Chicago anywhere. It was fabulous. >> They took plenty of that home with them. >> Okay. [laughter] Right. >> Just class act. You guys are a class act. >> So we could have our culinary students come up to the stage for a picture. Um also our chef guests in the audience, Mr. Hicks as
029well. We'll get everybody a shot. Okay. Somebody want to hold the check? >> And then Charlie scoop like uh as center as possible. >> Go to the left about five steps. Jack did fail to mention that u our chef's organization is celebrating our 30th year and we're having our chef's gala on March 15th this month this year at Blue Chip Casino. And if you guys want to come see Chef Jack and he'll forward you the invitation. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Sounds like a winner. >> It's going to be a lot of fun. >> Thank you, Sarah. >> Thank you again. [applause] >> Okay. All right, our next agenda item is our first period of public expression. Trustee Stanford. >> All right, we have one speaker, Dr. Michaela, >> come on down. >> Good
030evening. It's delightful as usual to see how many of our kids are doing well and and how invested our instructors and our other staff are in the welfare of our kids. Um I also I've started to try to pay a little bit more attention since we had brought up hiring previously to the payroll as occurs on our consent agenda on a regular basis. And I've noticed something that I can't really figure out on my own based on the public data. And there's two sources for this public data. One is what you submit to the state, which occurs around November 3rd of every year. Um, and the other of which is like what we see submitted to the agenda for these meetings. And it seems like overall our payroll kind of like period to period doesn't
031shift that much. And so I just basically did like what what I would call kind of like a a spot sampling. So I looked at the last 5 years and I kind of looked at okay like right around this time like either on this exact date as close to as I could get whatever that most recent payroll was what was that amount? And so for tonight we have um I guess it's 2,693,000 and and some odd and it's about the same for last year which is again 2,66. The year before that 2,98 the year before that was um 3 million and a half almost year before that was about 3 million. year before that was about three million. And this is just like a kind of just like a a spot sample. So every every
032year around this time, what's weird though is that according to the state, we have like like three4s of the employees that we did previously. So like over the that 5-year period, we have I mean maybe I was a little conservative. uh we have 28% actually closer to 29% of the employees we once had. So as much as I'm also the person who's like oh should we be making new positions I'm also concerned when we have many less employees but our payroll still seems to be the same. I mean, and and what I will do on my end is go through and actually sum up all of the payroll and see how does that measure up to what we're we're actually seeing and in the state submitted data because according to the state submitted data, we're
033spending like 61 million this this past year. Thank you. >> Thank you. That ends first session, Mr. Selenas. Our next agenda item is unfinished and there is unfinished business and there is no unfinished business this evening. So we will move on to the consent agenda. >> Trustees, [clears throat] before us we have our consent agenda, items A through F. What's your pleasure? Do I have a motion? >> Madam President, >> Trusty Caneler, >> I move for the approval of items A through F as presented. [clears throat] >> Second. It's been moved and properly seconded by Trusty Stanford that we approve the consent agenda items A through F. Are there any questions? I'd like to read the accounts payable docket register. >> Go ahead. >> Accounts payable voucher register dated March 3rd, 2026 consists of 160
034pages. Claims total 2,520,9009 9444. Total payroll 2,693,250.93. >> Thank you, Trusty Stanford. And I would also would like to note as we did at our last school board meeting, we are closely uh looking at our donations and we are certainly appreciative to those that are donating to our school and for our students and all kinds of things. And at some point, we will be at acknowledging all of our donors. We've heard the question. Are we ready to vote? All in favor say I. I >> I >> Any opposed? Eyes have it. Motion carried. Thank you, >> Mr. Selenus. >> Our next agenda item is new business. >> Item A, uh, the approval of the HF Acorn grants for the area Career Center. Mr. Selena, could you just give us just a little u little information
035on that one, please? >> Sure. So, uh, we recommend tonight that our school board of trustees approve our, uh, Hammond Education Foundation Acorn grants for our ACC. Uh, we have an amount of $1,700 for our HOSA leadership conference and also $1,500 for our survival life house, which we are very excited. Uh, Mr. Hicks and his um, department have revived that for our students. And I'd like to mention that we are running our Survivor Life House with our students and um, in in two of our programs at the ACC. So, it's student lid. >> Thank you. >> Are we ready to vote? Do uh can I get a mo motion? >> Madame President, >> Trusty Candelera, >> I move for the approval of item A, the approval of the HF acorn grants for the area career
036center as presented. >> A second, please. >> Second. >> It's been moved and probably second that for the approval of the HF ACORN grant for the area career center. Are there any questions? Any questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Eyes have it. Motion carried. Item B, approval of theou between Ball State University and Morton High School. Mr. Selenus, please. Thisou is to help students uh be able to earn both high school diplomas and college credits. And so we're asking for the board to please approve theou between Morton High School and Ball State University. >> Do I hear a motion? >> Madam President, >> Trusty Caneler, >> I move for the approval of theou between Ball State University and Morton High School as presented. >> Get a second. Second. >> It's
037been moved and properly seconded by Trusty Guerrero for the approval of theou between Ball State University and Morton High School. Are there any questions? Any questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Eyes have it. Motion carried. Item C, approval of theou between Scoo City of Hammond and Geminis Corporation preschool diagnostics. Mr. Selenus. >> This is also a second anotherou between uh school city of Hammond and Geminis Corporation. And this is to help with our uh earliest learners in Head Start to identify our students um with any types of referral services that they would need at a very early age. >> Thank you, Mr. Telenus. May I have a motion? >> Madame President, >> Trusty Candera, >> I move for the approval of theou between school city of Hammond and Geminis
038Corporation preschool diagnostics as presented. >> May I have a second? >> Second. It's been moved and properly seconded by Trusty Guara for the approval of the MOU between school city of Hammond and Geminis Corporation preschool diagnostics. All in [clears throat] favor are there any questions? Any questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Eyes have it. Motion carried. Thank you. Item D, approval of the agreement with Pittney Bose. >> Mr. Senz, >> sure. So, this agreement um is so that we could have a our renewal of a lease with our current postage machine here at the district office. We uh initially worked with a company called Quadant and we are not going to continue that um um agreement. So, we're asking to be approved to work with Pittney Bose. >> Thank you.
039May [clears throat] I have a motion? >> Madam President, >> Trusty Canera, >> I move for the approval of the agreement with Pittney Bose as presented. >> A second, please. >> Second. It's been moved and properly seconded by Trusty Kierra for the approval of the agreement with Pittney Bose. Are there any questions? Any questions? All in favor say I. I. >> Any oppose? Eyes have it. Motion carried. The next item is our upcoming board meetings. And I do have that in front of me. Schoolboard meetings, Tuesday, March 3rd. Executive session. Tuesday, March 3rd, our schoolboard meeting at 6 PM administration center. Tuesday, March 17th, executive session, 5:15. Tuesday, March um 17th, a regular schoolboard meeting at 6 p.m. And on Tuesday, March 24th, a public works session, 5:30 p.m. Administration Center. And at that public
040works session, uh [clears throat] we will be providing what we're calling our state of the city, state of the school address. of forclusive Hammond regarding our finances and and things of that nature. So you probably want to attend and on every third Wednesday uh we do have our WJO School City Hammond show. So I don't think we have anything scheduled yet. So please call an Mrs. Lopez if you wish to be showcased in any kind of way. students, teachers, custodians, any everything that's good going on with school city ham and we want to certainly showcase it. So, please contact Mrs. Lopez. That concludes our calendar uh for the month. Mr. Senzas, >> our next agenda item is our second period of public expression for general matters. Trusty Stanford. >> All right. First speaker, Anita Cox.
041Good evening, superintendent and trustees. My name is Anita Cox. I am a proud member of the Hammond Teachers Federation and a teacher at Hammond Central. I wanted to make sure that you are aware of a problem that many students, I'm sorry, many high schools, teachers and administrators have um at high school. We have asked that the school start time be moved to a later time for next school year. Uh we have brought this topic up at both building and district discussion meetings, but we have yet to hear any further discussion on this matter and time is ticking. I spoke here several months ago about the problems with the 7:15 start time in the late buses. Buses are still late every day. Every day. If a student misses 9 minutes of my class, they miss 20%
042of my class. If they miss 15 minutes, they move lose over 30 minutes um 30% of the class. Since January 6th, in my first hour, students have accumulated 392 absences and 234 tardies. Those same students dramatically improve their attendance for second period, which starts at 8:05. Those same students reduced their absences by 118 and 28 fewer tardies for second period. I beg of you to solve this problem so we can improve learning and working conditions and restore and elevate our schools. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Thank you. [applause] >> Second speaker, Linda Randall. Linda Randolph, 4437 Alder, East Chicago. I just wanted to thank the administrative, staff, and students for the outstanding black history displays and activities during the month of February. It was just a joy to visit the buildings and
043observe that. I want to let the uh second and third grade staff and students know we're praying for much success on the IE test and want to encourage the parents to make sure students go to bed early and just to encourage them to do their very best. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Next speaker, Arianne Taylor. Did I say that right? >> Oh, thank you. Good evening all. Good evening Hammond trustees and everyone back here. [laughter] My name is Arian Taylor and I am now the new president of the Hammond Alumni Association, formerly known as the Alum Cats. I'm here to speak on scholarships, scholarship application. Morton, Hammond Central, and the area career center. It doesn't matter what school you go to in the area career center because it is a Hammond educational center.
044I have plenty of applications here. They've all been passed out. So, I am begging you all these kids that just left with all the about to go to college. Perfect. I wish they were still here. Yes, >> we are begging practically to give away this money. [laughter] We are practically begging come take this money >> as long as the kids qualify as long as these as long as they follow all the you know qualifications >> the money is most likely theirs. But we're we're going to take the top students. >> Gotcha. >> As you know and then also um we have plenty of we have plenty of money in the bank to give away. So, we we got to start giving this money away. Also, fundraising. This is how we're making our money. We have
045our most profitable fundraiser that we do every year, which is the golf outing. I don't know who plays golf, but I'm pretty sure there's some golfers in here or somebody that knows some golfers. But, but this this is how these kids are getting the money. this is how they're they're they're generate this is how we're generating our money to give to them. >> So the this this golf outing is very profitable. It's fun. Um it's at Wicker Park. We have it every single year and you know we are looking for volunteers. We are looking for people to join because these are your kids that we're we're trying to give this money to you know. So, if anybody want to be a part of the Hammond Alumni Association, see me after the meeting. Uh, we have
046a meeting every first Monday of the month. So, I mean, thank you. But we we're we're begging to give away this money and we're begging y'all to get y'all kids to sign up. [laughter] >> When is the golf outing? >> The golf outing is this year's July 11th at Wicker Park. And who do we contact for volunteer if any if we can find volunteers? >> Uh you could either contact me or or or Jeff Kobe and you could also contact uh Miss Leslie here. >> Oh, we know you. [laughter] >> We know you both. >> What we're going to do, our PR uh director, Mrs. Weeks, get with her. We'll get it on our website. And not only your scholarship, we probably need to do a little more promotion of all the scholarships that are
047available because there are several folks uh the folks uh folks are giving out scholarships. The Hammond Hispanic community are giving out scholarships. So, uh we got to make sure these students are are aware of all [clears throat] of this money that's available. So, Mrs. Weekes, please help us get that word out on the website, Parent Square, whatever it takes because again, it's sad the money is just sitting there, you know, and and you know, we're not utilizing. Yes, ma'am. One more thing. Anybody here from Morton? >> Okay, Mr. Hicks, I do have that donation that we were trying to give to the makers. I do have it on me. It's not a big check, but it's a small one. [laughter] >> So, we want to make sure that they get that check today. >> Okay.
048>> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. [applause] Next speaker, Wanda Picket. >> Good evening. >> I'm one pocket. Now, y'all got me started today. Let me get y'all off of transportation. Y'all is not driving them school buses. Y'all is not the aid on the bus. Those buses get stopped by trains. They get boxed in. And y'all worrying about them kids. They going to get those kids there safely. Notify the school. Let them know how far down you are. Those are the procedures. worry about those kids getting there in one piece and about not being late. They going to be late regardless of what. If you get caught by a long train, sometime the train pull up there and stop. So you can't go around. If you if the bus blocked in, they got to
049sit there. Yes, they going kids going to be late getting to their class. Call the head to the school and let them know we are going to be running a little late. X Y and Z. Please don't start worrying about them kids being late. Worry about them kids getting to school on on time safely. Y'all giving them bus driver headache. Our kids is enough for them to worry about. Do y'all ever wonder how stressed the bus driver be every day, five days a week, dealing with our hard-headed kids? Yeah, I said it cuz I got kids ride the bus myself. They don't want to sit out on the bus. They want to let the window down. They want to jump over the seat. That's distracting the bus driver. So, stop complaining about those bus drivers
050getting those kids to school late. Principal, work with the teacher about those kids being late. Explain to them that we is in a city where trains do run on these tracks. You got the one over there by the post office. You got the one over there by the renaissance. I have been blocked in boxed in for about an hour and a half. When you got one running over there by the post office and the one running by Renaissance, you boxed in, you can't go nowhere. Everywhere we go now, we going to be boxed in by them trains. So lay off the bus drivers. They dealing with our kids. That's all I got to say. >> Thank you, Wanda. Thank you, Wanda. [applause] >> Next speaker, Dr. Michaela. >> Good evening again. So, uh science, psychology,
051the data, the research has long supported uh later start times for for high schoolers. I mean for kids in general uh but particularly high school kids. Uh there are a lot of restrictions that you know school districts face because the state you know kind of wants to nickel and dime people on instructional time and if you have early dismissal or you have something else all of these things like there there's some very real logistical reasons that you don't want to have to either penalize a child um you know have them you know miss instructional time or you know kind of like create kind of an environment within the classroom where you have people you know coming in late or anything like that. So I I definitely want to echo uh the sentiment that [clears throat]
052hopefully uh later start times, you know, it would be great for here, it would be great for anywhere, but I think school city of Hammond has the potential to be a leader in areas, you know, and and really pioneer things like this. Um, to continue some of what I was saying from before, um, when you have the these kind of issues of documentation, because at the end of the day, um, pretty much every state website, what they're going to tell you is the responsibility of documentation rests on the taxing unit. And that also means when you have your SPOA audit, we see all the data be before SPOA even thinks about your audit. And then once they're looking at it, they do look at what's uploaded. They look at what's accurate. They're looking at what
053matches what. Uh because things like your annual report, they do matter. Um that's publicly accessible, but it's also there for them to utilize for those purposes as well. And so when we have kind of just these discrepancies where you know years in the past we were in the 80,000s close to 90,000 in terms of just payroll and now we're right around 60 and we had a funding floor issue last year I believe. Um I didn't see a notice now so hopefully that didn't happen again. Um, we should have heard as of January, I believe. But, uh, that essentially kind of brings up the question of like why does our our payroll still seem still still seem to be in the same place? You know, if we have so fewer employees, you know, are our teachers
054seeing that? Because if we had a funding floor issue previously, then the answer is probably no. Thanks. >> Thank you. That ends second session. Mr. Selenus. Oh, >> Mr. Selenus. Sorry. >> I'm I'm sorry. Go. I wasn't paying attention. Go ahead. >> I'm finished. I'm finished. We're done. >> Mr. Selenus. >> Good evening everyone. Um, my superintendent reports this evening are as follows. We have lots of celebrations and also lots of updates to share with the community. So, as we begin the month of March, we recognize several important observances that reflect our continued commitment to supporting our students here in the school city of Hammond. Uh we are celebrating our uh school social workers with school social worker week and we thank our school social workers for the compassion, advocacy, and daily support they provide
055to our students. This is also National School Breakfast Week. We appreciate our cafeteria staff who ensures students begin each day with nutritious meals that fuel learning and success. And we also are recognizing developmental disabilities awareness month and we reaffirm our commitment to our inclusion and energy ensuring every student feels valued, supported and empowered. And I think we definitely saw that during the month of April uh February and we look forward to continuing that this month. This is also uh celebrated uh read across America week and many of us had the opportunity to read in our classrooms this week and some of us will be reading later on this week as well. A special shout out to Miss Stall's kindergarten class at Burns Hicks for warmly welcoming me into their classroom this week. And we had
056several other districts uh and building leaders who also read to our students uh this week. Congratulations again to Mr. Major Bonds, Commander Okample, and our Hammond Central Gerald TC for hosting the inaugural color guard competition against East Chicago Central High School. We also want to thank EC Central's Gerald TC for participating in what was a tremendous display of leadership and discipline. But in the end, Hammond Central was victorious with much pride and we say thank you to our students. [applause] Um again, we we have um we have some really outstanding students who's displayed leadership at the event. Uh also want to say thank you to Ad Moore and our student athletes for being with us this evening. We commend you for your dedication in the classrooms and also on the field. Thank you for representing
057Hammond with excellence. Also, once again, thank you to Chef Jack Velasquez for his dedication to our students and continued growth of our culinary program. Thank you also to Mr. Marcus Williams for his advocacy for our students and for sharing valuable opportunities with them as well. Uh Mrs. Randolph alluded to this. Thank you, Mrs. Randolph, for your support. As we enter uh our state testing season, we are starting with i3 and our SAT assessments. We'd like to remind students again to make sure their Chromebooks are charged nightly, get a good night's sleep, eat a healthy breakfast, or arrive to school on time so that you can eat at school and perform your best. And also to our families at home, we thank you for providing a safe, supportive, and caring environment at home, especially during testing
058season. Your partnership makes a tremendous difference in helping our students feel prepared, confident, and ready to succeed. This Saturday, March 7th, we have our parent university hosted by Purdue University Northwest at 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Hammond campus campus. So, if anyone is interested, uh, parent university is this Saturday at Purdue University Northwest. Our college expo March 12th is at Franklin Elementary from 9:30 to 1:30. And also on March 13th, it is a synchronous e-learning day and also the end of the third grading period. So we are getting ready to begin our fourth and final grading period of the school year. Our HPA production for Peter Pan is March 19th and 20th at Morton High School. And of course, spring break March 30th through April 6th for all our schools. And finally, believe
059it or not, it is time to spring forward one hour this Sunday. >> [laughter] >> March 8. As we move into daylight savings time, I thought it'd be important to mention that because we didn't want people to wake up Monday morning and say, "Whoops, forgot to move my clock." So, again, on Sunday, he needs to spring forward one hour. So, >> came fast. >> I see all the shocked faces in the audience. Yes, it's that time already. So, that means spring's around the corner. Those will conclude my announcements. Thank you. >> Oh, wow. >> Thank you, Mr. Selenas. Are there any board reports? Any board reports? Board reports. I just simply want to echo uh the sentiment regarding our Black History Month. We had 100% participation. The schools, I tell you, every school, they had
060door uh prizes for the door decorations and uh everybody had something different. at Lincoln. They had the the live museum and a literacy program at the same time, which I thought was very clever. Uh any six takes every school and we just broke our necks. We split ourselves up. I think we all were able to be represented in every school this year and we certainly appreciate you and we're looking forward for for all of our cultural month months to uh celebrate and it was a fun time, a good time, a a time of reflection. So, let's keep up this restoration and elevation. Uh, you know, we're we got a few hiccups along the way, but we're certainly here to fix them as we go along. So, those are my uh comments. And yes, parents, please
061prepare your children. Continue to love on them, hug on them. You know, we just want these test scores to go skyrocketing. And I know they can. I know they will because we have worked so hard. I see you, Reena. You have worked so hard and and I know we're going to get some incredible results out there. all of our principles. You have done so well. And Dr. Eisman, thank you for your uh your assistance with all of our principles and getting things, you know, in the right direction and just keep moving forward. We appreciate all of our principles, our paraprofessionals. We just Jack Jack Chef, you know, it's amazing. I didn't know anything about this program until two years ago. Shameful. They've been at ACC for seven years doing all those wonderful things. Didn't have
062a clue. When we went to the uh Lakeshore Chamber dinner, he was being honored. We went to support him. I didn't know who he was, but it has been a beautiful uh marriage ever since. You agree, Jack Chef? We have had a ball with these young folks cooking and competing and just doing so many marvelous things for our community. That's it. That's a wrap. Anything else? >> Meeting adjourned. I do a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Meeting adjourn. Thanks everybody. Be safe.