001[Music] I love the school. Um, the students are like really nice. Um the teachers they really positive and yeah like the teachers at my old school I never asked questions with my teachers and now at this school since my mom went here. So I basically know all the teachers that's here. So now I can express to what I'm feeling and what I need to ask, [Music] my friends, you know. Yeah. Cuz you know the education is pretty good. The the teachers are great, you know, but my friends is the best part. I like most about H Central is definitely the students, the people, you know, all the people I met uh since I've been here cuz I moved here uh middle school. So like the people have been great. I made a lot of memories
002since freshman year, uh sophomore year, all the years. You know, some days you going to have days where like you going to come, but like like the days I come like it get funner and funner as like I get in the older grade. But it's not it's not easy but like when you do what you got to do it become easy. So it's really just chill for me. >> It's good. There's never any like problems or nothing and it's always like good vibes. Everybody's like chill. [Music] I like the people. I like the community. I would definitely say it's fun. It's definitely creative. Like, you definitely don't know what you're going to get coming through the door every day. In a in a good way, though. Um um I would say it's safe. It's loving.
003Um it's definitely welcoming. >> The teachers the most about the school. Yeah. My experience in Morn's pretty good. I don't have any complaints. atmosphere is good here and there's there's good people here because um when she teaches it like actually makes me want to actually try the things she teaches cuz the way she she does it is uh so like inspiring to me nation let's rock Hey, [Music] I love the school. Um the students are like really nice. Um the teachers they really positive and yeah like the teachers in my old school I never ask questions with my teachers. And now at this school since my mom went here so I basically know all the teachers that's here. So now I can express to what I'm feeling and what I need to ask, [Music] my
004friends, you know. Yeah, cuz you know the education is pretty good. The the teachers are great, you know, but my friends is the best part. I like most about HM Central is definitely the students, the people, you know, all the people I met uh since I've been here cuz I moved here on uh middle school. So like the people have been great. I made a lot of memories since freshman year, uh sophomore year, all the years. You know, some days you going to have days where like you don't want to come, but like like the days I come like it get funner and funner as like I get in the older grade, but it's not it's not easy, but like when you do what you got to do, it become easy. So, it's really just
005chill for me. >> Good. There's never any like problems or nothing and it's always like good vibes. Everybody's like chill. [Music] I like the people. I like the community. I would definitely say it's fun. It's definitely creative. Like, you definitely don't know what you're going to get coming through the door every day. In a in a good way, though. Um um I would say it's safe. It's loving. Um it's definitely welcoming. >> The teachers the most about the school. Yeah. Say my experience is pretty good. I don't have any complaints. Okay. The atmosphere is good here and there's there's good people here because um when she teaches it like actually makes me want to actually try the things she teaches cuz the way she she does it is uh so like inspiring to me. >>
006Go Nation, let's rock. [Music] I love the school. Um the students are like really nice. Um the teachers they really positive and yeah like the teachers at my old school I never ask questions with my teachers. And now at this school since my mom went here so I basically know all the teachers that's here. So now I can express to what I'm feeling and what I need to ask, [Music] my friends, you know. Yeah, cuz you know the education is pretty good. The the teachers are great, you know, but my friends is the best part. I like most about H Central is definitely the students, the people, you know, all the people I met uh since I've been here cuz I moved here uh middle school. So like the people have been great. I made
007a lot of memories since freshman year, uh sophomore year, all the years. You know, some days you going to have days where like you going to come, but like like the days I come like it get funner and funner as like I get in the older grade. But it's not it's not easy but like when you do what you got to do it become easy. So it's really just chill for me. >> It's good. There's never any like problems or nothing and it's always like good vibes. Everybody's like chill. [Music] I like the people. I like the community. I would definitely say it's fun. It's definitely creative. Like, you definitely don't know what you're going to get coming through the door every day. In a in a good way, though. Good evening. Uh welcome to
008our September 30th, 2025 public works session school city of Hammond. And to our the folks watching uh live, we welcome you as well. So, uh we'll first have um stand up for we have a roll call to order. I did that. Now, we're uh let's prepare ourselves for our pledge allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice >> and justice for all. >> Thank you. Roll call. Trusty Guerrara >> present. >> Trustee Stanford >> present. >> Trusty Candella >> present. >> Trusty Blake King present. Mr. Selenas, we have a quorum and we can move forward. Thank you. >> Good evening, members of the community, uh, staff and schoolboard trustees. This evening, we are
009going to have Mr. Daniel Dalton who will be presenting our proposed 2026 budget for the school city of Hammond. Mr. Dalton, >> thank you superintendent and good evening board members. Every single year, the school district is required to adopt or hold a public hearing and then an adoption meeting to approve the budget for the next fiscal calendar year. Um, so this evening I have prepared a couple of slides that depict the specific information related to our uh Hammond School Corporation budget. So, if you wouldn't mind going to the next page, please. I know it is small text and these are all printouts directly from our uh Indiana Gateway website. Thank you. All right. So, our public hearing is scheduled for October 7th and our adoption meeting is scheduled for October 21st. Tonight, we're just discussing
010um we're do holding a workshop to kind of go over some of the specific items. As you can see about a third or maybe halfway down the page, the estimated school operations maximum levy is set to 17,561,000. That is a 4% increase based on our 2025 maximum uh property tax levy. And so what I've done here under the operations fund, which is the only fund that is allowable within the uh maximum levy calculation, is I've just t taken a um slight increase over that 17.5 >> in order to kind of ensure that we get to our maximum levy as a school district, right? >> So that we can pay we can pay direct for um you know operation operational fund expenditures within the debt service fund. You'll see our budget estimate there, 14.8 million. Our
011levy in that column three, 15.6 million. You'll see under the re referendum debt fund, our lev or budget of 8.1 million and our levy of $8.5 million. Education, we have a budget of $80 million. And because this fund is almost entirely funded by the basic grant tuition, ADM uh tuition, there is no property tax levy applied against that. >> Okay. >> And then operations, as I discussed, we have a $30 million budget request and $17.7 million for a property tax levy. The culmination of all of this, you can see in the far right column where it shows the levy percentage difference. So in that debt service fund, we're looking at a levy percentage difference of -14.8% from 2025. This means we're paying down our debt, so we don't have to ask for as much money,
012right? Our long-term debt obligations. The referendum debt fund, we're asking for a 4% increase, which is standard uh based on the state maximum levy growth quotient, and then also operations 5%. Moving forward, I will see if I can get this to work this way. Let me go to this debt worksheet here. So, this may be an informative page for everyone. This is a current a listing of all of our um long-term debt obligations showing all of our debts from 201 12 through 2021. Um, and that also includes our outstanding common school loans. That line 15 right there kind of right in the middle of the page says here's $14.8 million that is due in 2026. So that is the amount we are levying for so we can make those debt payments next year. Then on
013the next page, the one 2018 referendum capital fund bond has an outstand has a debt obligation of $8.1 million in 2026. And that is exactly what we are budgeting towards and levying against so that we can make that obligation. Are there any questions so far? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Moving forward, this is the budget form one, which is a line by line estimate of every single appropriated line item that we uh will ask the state to approve. So, you can see the first couple lines are just for the debt service fund, which as I just discussed amounts to $14.8 million. The next couple lines are for the referendum debt fund, which amount to $8.1 million. And then moving forward down below, you'll see a portion of the education fund where we're showing salaries and benefits.
014Um, a couple of supplies, professional services. This fund is broken down by regular programs, special programs, support services, community services, non-program costs, a couple of departments all jammed into one fund where we just make expenditures to those individual departments. And so what we've done is budgeted $80 million in total for this education fund, which is the same exact budget as 2025. Now, the reason we are I I am proposing this is because uh through June 30th of 2025, we had spent just under 50% of that $80 million budget. And so it's um my recommendation that we kind of hold hold standard with that in order to maintain our future cash flow. Same same goes for the operations fund. I'll scroll down a couple different things. The operations fund is mainly administrative staff, um central office,
015service direction, transportation, um a whole lot of capital outlay like um you know building and and maintenance. We have held this budget at $30 million and similar to the education fund through June 30th we had spent just about 50% of that entire budget. And so it' be my recommendation to the board that um if it's your discretion that we maintain this budget so in future years we can have a standard cash flow that doesn't eat into cash reserves and lets us have a positive cash balance moving forward. Okay, I will flip down to one last comment here, the last page of this document where where this is called the form 4B and inside of the Indiana Gateway website. You'll be able to find this information after it is submitted post budget approval. What we are
016doing is we're saying here here's the June 30th cash balance in this operations fund, which is $20.9 million. Here are what we expect here are the property taxes that we expect to receive in December of 2025. Some additional revenues. And then line nine right there is what our anticipated cash balance is at the end of this calendar year. In order for us to build out our 2026 budget, we had to have that prior information. So, by saying we anticipate ending 2025 with $15.5 million in the operations fund, plugging in our $17.7 million property tax levy, anticipating our property tax cap impact, which um as many of you may know, circuit breakers uh are kind of a big influence right now as it relates to Senate Enrolled Act One and and new state legislation that has
017increased substantially. So, we've plugged in an estimate of $7.1 million for our property tax cap impact, certain additional uh miscellaneous revenues amounting to 15.9 million. At the end of the day, we're asking for $30 million of our budget and a total operating balance of 10 roughly 10.9 million. So, with that, I would be happy to take any questions. Are there any questions of the board? None. >> Any other superintendent? >> No questions. Only thing I might share with the public, since I've been on this board, I've never been provided this kind of information prior to the public hearing. Um, it can be uh overwhelming to look at, but it does explain to me as a board me member what has happened over the years. And I appreciate um your firm for sharing this with the
018public. We're trying to be as transparent as possible. regarding our funding and this report certainly does that for the public and for the board and I hope folks you know if you have any questions don't ask me ask Mr. >> but I'm quite pleased uh with the explanations that you have provided so if that's it >> Mr. Selenas >> Mr. Dson, thank you very much for that um honest and transparent uh picture of our finances. I do want the community to remember that today was purpose was to share an initial presentation of our finances. We are going to have a public hearing on October 7th of the proposed budget and then on October 21st we will formally adopt the budget. Today was simply just to share the information with the public so that everyone understands
019what it is that we'll be proposing to adopt on the 21st. So thank you very much Mr. Del. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Before I move forward, um just want to give a shout out and thank you to Miss Reena Han. I understand she was out in front welcoming everyone uh at the front desk. So, thank you, Miss Raina, for that. >> Thank you. >> Um I think we were a little short staffed today and Miss Reena stepped in at the front desk. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Appreciate that very much. Um before we uh end our meeting, we're going to move on to our second presentation. I'm going to call Mr. Hicks, our director of secondary education, who's going to talk to us a little bit about our school counseling program here
020within the school city of Hammond. Welcome, Mr. Hicks. [Music] So, thank you, uh, President uh Blake King, uh, board of trustees, Superintendent Selenas. So I am here today to give a school counseling update uh on this 30th day of September. But what I wanted to share is where we start our capacity building uh begins with what a school counselor does. >> Uh so I can remember having fond memories of uh my school counselor in high school uh Mr. Capanda that led me and it was uh through those conversations of of course taking and uh what things entailed that I was able to have a good good experience uh within high school and I I want to say in those times uh which would have been the mid90s that role has evolved to what we know
021as school counselors today. Uh so back in the day as we say back in the day they were guidance counselors. It was the guidance department and that's some of the language that there's been a strong push with our national entity ASA American school counselor associations that has wanted to stamp out that word of guidance because it has the the role has evolved tremendously and we have professional school counselors in our district. So, uh, it is something that, um, we want to make sure that we have a general understanding of what a school counselor does because it's not just fixing a schedule. It's not just working with mandated state testing. It's not just uh, when a student has an issue or a problem, we shove them off to the school counselor. It is more than that.
022Our school counselors are very well-rounded. They are professional entities. They hold advanced degrees. And I think with that that is the part that gets missed in the general public where um it really is a specialty um not to um you know all of our educators and stakeholders are very very important but I think just the dynamics of not understanding the true role of uh what they bring to the table in the face of education I think that's where our our story where we want to share. So, school counseling uh is not something new. It's over a hundred years old. And what I did share is some linkable uh clicks. If you um are able to upload the presentation, there are some links that are from uh what's the ASKA National Model um fourth edition of
0232019 is the latest that we can find um online. Uh but it gives you a little bit of a history and background of school counseling. So it was shaped by various economic and social uh educational forces and by the work of many individuals. So it's a collaborative of many professionals that have guided what the school counselor role entails today. So uh if you enjoy reading um as we do as I do uh please be sure to check out and you can download a brief overview of the history of uh school counseling. So we also have a representative uh testimonial to present on what it looks like in the face of our schools. So this is just a snapshot. Uh we have many um great and awesome school counselors within our school district that I believe
024we believe that we are privileged to have. So I would first like to introduce our principal of Charles and Scott Middle School of Scott Middle School uh principal Jen Riceertz. Oh, >> good evening. I would like to take a moment >> Oops, wrong way. to introduce um Scott Middle School's counselors. We have Miss Denise Poland who has been in the school city of Hammond for 18 plus years. Um she has a plethora of experience at both the middle school and high school level as well as Miss Jamie Shaspberger. She has been with the school city for 13 years and I have worked with both for at least 13 years um because we were all together at Gavit and then we've uh moved to Scott Middle School. So I would like to introduce them. I'd like
025to thank them for all the work they do day in and day out. Uh they really are the backbone of our building and we rely heavily on their expertise. Um so thank you and I'd like to have them come up now. >> Hi, good evening. Thanks for having us. This one. Yeah. So a little bit about what we do. Um as you can see on the slide, it says school. So we're school counselors. The first part about school is we deal with academics. So we help students achieve success, whatever that might look like for each student. We realize they're individuals. Success does not look like the same for every student. Uh they learn to set goals, good study habits, get good grades for uh each of them to the best of their ability, attendance, staying
026organized. They have seven classes. So we get the seventh graders are coming from elementary school. So they come from maybe switching one or two classes. They're switching for seven. They have four minutes to get from here to there. They have lockers. So, a lot of change when it comes to seventh grade. Uh we support students with IEPs and 504 plans. So, the counseling part, so that was the school part. The counseling part, a variety of things pertaining to mental health, career, future planning, uh peer relations, family relations, a lot of different things. We operate within the tiers one and tiers, tier one and tier two of the multi-ter systems of support to support all students. Tier three, we do a little bit about a little bit with that, but we also refer out to Infinity
027Counseling, Regional Mental Health, various doctors and therapists, and also the Indiana Department of Child Services and also crisis referrals if those arise. So, like I said, about seventh grade. So, you're taking a uh one school at Scott and you're coming from at least four different elementary schools. >> Um, so one student is merging with three other with students from three other schools. That's a lot to get used to. So they're quadrupling their their peer peer group. So they have a lot of freedom. They're going from class to class, one end of the building to the other. Uh complications can arise as you could imagine. So they have um different friends, old friends, new friends, students from out of the district coming in, stress, and of course the lovely word hormones. Yes. So we see a
028lot of growing up between August 14th, 15th, whatever, whenever the first day of schools to about now, October. So they do a lot of growing up and then you have the eighth graders who are like the leaders of the building and they're trying to do that and navigate different situations. We're getting them ready for high school. We're doing presentations kind of credits. What do you want to be? All of that. And then in the words of a middle school student, things can get messy. So we get to know them by working with them individually, small groups. We do classroom visits. We just did the seventh grade classroom today. Peer mediations, a lot of peer mediations. We go to open houses. We go to STEM nights, we go to dances, and then we do hall duty.
029I mean, that's a good way to get to know the students as passing time, greeting them in the morning, sending them off on their way to the afternoon, and they could see us kind of in a more casual, not in our offices, and just different environments where we can just see the students and they could see us in a different way. Thank you. Hi. Um, okay. So, some of the other things that we do, we we're noticing a lot more peer mediation this year, especially with our seventh graders because they're learning how to um help their skills, their emotions, um learning their own coping skills. And a lot of the seventh graders and some of the eighth graders are even coming to us on their own now and asking for us to do a peer
030mediation with them, which is a great life skill. It's showing that they're growing, they're learning, and they're understanding their own feelings and things like that. Um, we talk to them a lot about their future because we are getting them ready for high school. Even the seventh graders we talk to about what they want to be when they grow up, what they want to major in college, do they want to go into the trades, are they going to get a job, are they going into military, all the different aspects of that. So, we like um Miss Poland said, we met with all the seventh graders today in the classrooms and did presentations and talked to them about a lot of that. We have a lot of help from outside um sources as well. Junior Achievement comes
031in and meets with the students. Trio comes in once a month and meets with our students as well. Um, we're lucky that we have career classes this year in both seventh and eighth grade, which is good. And the eighth grade one is actually worth a high school credit. So, we stress the importance of passing the classes, getting them used to that high school rigor and things like that. Um, we love going into the classrooms, meeting with the students, talking with the teachers. Um we have a lot of guest speakers that come in. We go on field trips and then we of course do the 21st century scholarship which is a big deal for our students to help them um with paying for college. Um we like to talk to our students and help them manage
032their own emotions and skills and remembering, you know, that they might fail at something one time, but if they keep trying, they can learn from that. They can grow. Um we work on their areas that are maybe not as strong. We give them a purpose and we just help them understand a lot about themselves. And I think that's one of my favorite parts is working with the students and watching them grow from one age to the next, one grade level to the next. Um, and these these these little kids are fun. We were in high school for 10 years and you know, we loved our high school students, but these middle schoolers are a lot of fun. They have they have a lot of personality. They keep us on our toes. Yes. um >> we
033uh don't have a lot of time to just sit, you know, and maybe do the computer part of our job because we are always with a student. You know, they come to visit us. Um we are learning to love hugs from students because middle schoolers love to give hugs. So, they come and talk to us a lot. And um you know, it's nice that building that bond, I think, with the younger students is so much more exciting in a way than when we were with the high school students because they're fun. They want to talk to us. They tell us these things. They share things with us, you know, and we learn the ins and out about what's going on with all the students in the building. Yes. Who's dating who? Who doesn't like who
034this week? >> Yeah. So, middle school has been a lot of fun. Last year was our first year back in the middle school. So, we were like navigating it ourselves. And this year has just, you know, we've seen a huge growth in those seventh graders that are now eighth graders. Um we have a fantastic administration that is helping us and we have a huge um support um system within our building. Our teachers are fabulous. So we are we truly are one big family within um our building. >> You see the eighth graders come back. >> Yes. They they walk past because they're at Morton. So they walk past and they still say hi to us and they still give us hugs and they're excited to see us just as much. So it's nice that we've
035built those relationships with the students. >> And it was twin day for home. So yes, it was twin days. >> Yeah. >> Question. >> I'll we can save them to the end. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> And at the end we want to invite um all of our representatives from the secondary. Uh we also have u administrators and school counselor in attendance. Um, so why this matters and and part of our goal for tonight is just to really give a perspective and build capacity within our community. Uh, we often get phone calls of um, I didn't know this or I wish I would have known or what's this date or what is this about. So this is part of that community initiative of building capacity meaning we're developing our community and and empowering uh,
036knowledge is power as we all know. So why this matters? So there's a growing uh number of student needs as we said social media that is in the mix of middle school hormones and and let me tell you um you know friends best friends of today are enemies tomorrow and friends by the end of the day. Uh there's limited funding and that's just it is the nature of where where we're at. It it's been the nature of what it has been and there's a lot of touch tough choices that have to be made. So a lot of the information and a lot of the uh things that school counselors do, they inform us, they build our data, they give us that uh scope of what's happening within our landscape of our buildings. So school counselors
037are highly trained uh yet they're often underutilized. So things that are more uh data entry or things that would be um you know less skill set um there's a need for that. but also they are very high capacity uh individuals. Uh counselors connect safety, wellness and graduation success. And that's something that I think it is one of the most critical things that I love to advocate for school counselors being handinand as a personal experience even in undergrad. I can remember Mr. Gildersleeve was awesome and he was just that safe face that I knew to schedule classes that I didn't even know were even in existence. uh it it definitely um led to uh success. So one quick quick question that we should ask all of ourselves uh whatever role we hold as far as a
038stakeholder in the school city of Hammond are we maximizing their impact? Mhm. >> So the role of the school counselor, they are M's level trained in mental health, academics, and career readiness. And this is borrowed from I will acknowledge this slide deck um is uh in part um transcribed from a Indiana Department of Education uh presentation that was most recent uh with a few uh edits. Not guidance counselors. not guidance counselors of the past. Today's counselors, they lead prevention and intervention efforts. They support academic, career, and student wellness. And that's a new term that the state has uh recommended, student wellness, uh student wellness development. And that could lead sometimes just a as we me as was mentioned a hug. It could be an ear, it could be did you hear about this great opportunity
039for students at the university? that's right across the street from where you live or down the block. >> Uh and definitely partner with administrators to align goals. And this is something that is truly when you have that synergy and leverage of great things happening within the school, it's no coincidence that you will see the administrators and school counselors working simultaneously handinand. So why a comprehensive school counseling program? And not only do we think that it is a great thing to have, but also there's a lot of research that shows there's the benefit of having a comprehensive school counseling program. So it involves students, it involves parents, teachers, school counselors, administrators, the community, and also businesses. So when you have those layers in place, it's like we talk about there's a table. If you have a
040table and it has four legs and there's a leg missing, it's not going to stand as strong as you have four. Increase it with two levels of support and now you have six legs to a table. It's going to be a lot stronger. So the comprehensive model can be mirrored as something that they work in tandem. They don't work in isolation. It is something that builds the student wellness of the whole child. So did you know and this is the fun fact. So did you know and did we know that on a state level and this goes with that restoration and elevation mantra >> we were elevated. We are elevated and we're looking to restore that greatness and put it back in our perspective that we are great. We are great as a school counseling
041community. So, did you know on a state level that we were able to achieve and be recognized as a comprehensive school counseling program in reflection of the state's eyes? >> So, carrying the torch to student success is a uh distinction and it's an honor that not every school earns. And traditionally a lot of the uh communities that we live in, the community that we live in, it is a very rare case that we have such schools and such communities achieve these honors. So we do have schools within our district that have earned carrying the torch student success. So in the award year 2223, Charles and Scott Middle School, uh Morton High School um earned that was a bronze bronze level. Morton High School 2223 and also the gold level of 2324. So if you think
042that was some big news and if you thought that was great at the state level, on a national level, yes, on a national level, we were able to achieve a comprehensive school counseling program recognition. And this is a pretty big deal. So when you talk about, you know, the Super Bowl of the NFL, the World Series, this would be equivalent to the school counseling world of that World Series Super Bowl championship. So guess what? Did you know that we have three currently ramp schools in the school city of Hammond? So if you can see in the audience or if you see the presentation those schools are schools that we stand out. Charles and Scott Middle School Hammond >> Morton High School Hammond Hammond Central High School Hammond and look at the company that we are
043in. So, if you uh peruse to the American School Counselor Association website for those that are online or those in the audience, if you look at current ramp schools, there's a map of the United States of America. If you click on Indiana, the box in the blue pops up and our schools in Hammond, Indiana representing the school city of Hammond are there. And it's something let me tell you it is not just a process where you say you do it and it's done. It takes time. >> So let me tell you it takes time being involved with as a just a outside looking in as a member as a participant as a uh just really supporter and advocate for this process. It is something that when you do the good work, it takes a year,
044it takes two years even to be able to develop a submission for it. So this is something that takes time to develop. You have to uh do certain things which are the best practices that we feel um that the American School Counselor Association feels that will build the best possible results and student success. So I'm going to let that marinate for a while or I'll click to the next slide. So, the Indiana Department of Education. So, as we gave you a glimpse of the role of the school counselor, give you a snapshot of what's happening in our district. Uh, we will say that the Indiana Department of Education has launched a new diploma. So, if you have not heard a lot of the talk back in the day was common core, core 40, we have
045our own diploma. That was a lot of the talk in Indiana. Well, now we have a new diploma. We have a new diploma that we will be under. So the freshman of this year they are under the guidelines of the new diploma and the requirements have uh changed. So if you look at the slide presentation that's a snapshot of the actual uh statute that has been passed for the new diploma. It's it's three slides of many uh or three snapshots of many. But if you look at the lefth hand tile uh there's sever several bullet points that are from the IDOE. So, if you Google IDOE new diploma, you'll get to a landing page and you probably will see bullet points. Final diploma rule, the new Indiana diploma graphic, Indiana's readiness seals, uh providing students
046a direct path to their future. So, this is something that it it is referred to as something that's going to be here for the long haul. uh it is something that it is geared as there's been a lot of uh research and study and trips to Switzerland to see the Swiss model of how um vocational learning or CTE learning or how the the new diploma requirement would fit into the new day of education. So it's something that we have to start to embrace and learn because the days of us not knowing as a community they they just cannot happen. we have to empower ourselves. So, Indiana's new diploma and pathway requirements. So, K12 kindergarten through 12 uh career development alignment. So, students are to explore, engage, and experience across all grade levels. Early awareness is
047one thing that has been buil big um early awareness. It's never too early to learn about what the requirements are. individual student planning. How are students developing and what is the plan of action and how will they go from point A to point B? Datadriven uh identification of needs. So tracking student achievement, tracking students attendance, career interest, and a lot of our statutes, if you notice, a lot of what we're dealing with is a lot of things in policy and statute that have pushed the agenda of the new diploma. Uh so it targets supports for graduation pathways and seals. So Indiana's new diploma and pathway requirements, the opportunity and access gap so ensures that all students, not just a few, have the opportunities for advanced coursework, work-based learning, and service experiences. So a lot of
048the dialogue and discussion in our state level meetings and our local meetings has been okay, so we're students are freshman now. by the time they get to be junior and seniors, instead of a portion of students that are vying for internships, work-based learning experiences, we're going to have all students in the state vying for that. >> So, there has been dialogue in that, how do we track it? How do we do it? What is the playbook? And as they say, we are kind of building the plane as we're flying it. This is going to be something that uh we are going to be pilots um before we know it. So collaboration with administrators and teachers and this is something that is important. Administrators and teachers um align counseling services with district graduation initiatives. So the
049new diploma and you you see the the wording and the language align counseling services, school counselors uh facilitate communication between families, educators and community partners. You can see how those ask a model best practices, community, educators, families, capacity building, advisory councils engage stakeholders. So there's advisory councils that are in the ASCA model that they that they hold. There's advisory councils in the CT world that they want to see what the community whether it's business whether it's uh ministerial whether it's community whether it's parents teachers um PTAs uh CTSOs it it's going to take a group effort and then professional development for staff on connecting counseling services to diploma success so it's something that it is new it is newer for many of us uh but at the same time it is something that is achievable
050for us to really get a good handle. Uh and some people say, you know, there's the mantra, as soon as we get good at something, it changes. >> So, this is one of those things where we can't get wrapped up into those things. We just have to be aware that we know what what's going to happen and we prepare for that. So, if you look at the next graphic, the one on the left, the black and white, that's something that you've probably seen throughout the years. And this was something that there was great dialogue when it came out. Core 40. What is core 40? What about a general diploma? What about honors diploma? Core 40 was a lot of our language and it it's really ingrained in what we talk about when we talk about
051high school graduation and diplomas. So, if you look at the next graphic, they did a nice and and this has somewhat evolved. There's some added wording and some of the uh things that are online. There's different versions by maybe a bullet point or an added word here and there. uh but mo what's most recently available is on your right. So they give a graphic of the comparison of what the core 40 entails and also what the future diploma entails. And if you look at a lot of the descriptions >> as it sinks in and as you settle in the amount of English credits remain the same eight credits but it opens up into different categories. there's more description and and options two credits English nine uh one credit communications of focus course and five additional
052English credits. So, as you get, you know, 8 to 8, six to seven, there's an increase in math. But if you look at the types of math, >> two credits in algebra 1, what that would look like, if you were a student, when you come in, typically your freshman year, you would take algebra 1 A in the fall, algebra 1B in the spring, and that fills one of your requirements. And a lot of people refer to it as uh you check a box, you cross it out, you do a bingo sheet. There's a lot of jargon, a lot of tools that our school counselors use, administrators use, as our community uses, but we would essentially cross that out. If you're typically possibly a sophomore or or junior, you may have your geometry, geometry A, geometry
053B, algebra 2, algebra 2, 2 A, 2 B. This is a a course that a lot of our students it it's a huge hurdle. If you look at the credits for math on the new diploma, there's seven. So there's an additional credit six compared to seven uh but two credits of algebra 1, one credit of personal finance and four additional math credits. So it opens up possibilities of what can be taken. So I would say this one perspective would be that the new diploma is it looks like it's more but at the same token it may open up a few more opportunities where it's not so prescriptive as what we are currently under. So we really won't know the impact of it until we really get into the weeds of it. Uh but when you
054look at it for face value and you say 40 credits now I have to earn 42. >> Mhm. where that could be something that you know, yes, it's 42, but there's a lot of other things. If you look at um personalized electives, six credits, so we're almost at the bottom of that that chart, six credits, and the new diploma allows for 12 credits. So, it's almost double for those personalized uh electives. And if you look at traditionally and typically, there's a note at the bottom that your high school students have the opportunity to earn approximately 60 credits. And that's something that would be if you're a traditional student and you earn 15 credits per year times four years, that would equal 60 chances to earn 40 or 42 credits. So this is another comparison um
055on on the u on the right of the new diploma. But one thing that has come um under discussion is are the honor seals. So the honor seals are something that um some think of it as it replace the academic honors diploma or it might be a diploma where you earn a pathway in a certain uh category or career field. So one thing that the state has been stressing is there's three ways that they want students to finish in a sense and continue. So they want students to either finish an enrollment in higher ed. So enrollment would be going to college, university, higher ed, post-secary. Employment, those are our students that go into the job force into the workforce or enlistment. Those are our students that are into the military and services. So, those are
056the three life or career avenues that the state is pushing for our students to have a clear plan and they push the the timeline. So, it's not just, you know, I'm a freshman. I come in day one. Um, it's before that. It's before they get to high school. Students are expected to hit the ground running. So this is where you know the parents, the community, educational stakeholders, this is our beating of the drum that we have to be aware of this. >> It's never too early. It's never too early. If your student is able to hear, listen, walk, talk, that is the right time to start letting our students know what the future entails. So the new diploma, our earning credits for 2526 are are listed. Um blueprint for success, the readiness skills are listed
057as well. So one thing that that is just a snapshot and an example. So this is one perspective as uh one of our colleagues had shared you know sometimes it's it's the computer work sometimes it's the the the listening like the listening time that that's can get extensive uh but one thing that is out there so for those of us that have ever taken a course or anything um even gone through modules of of short training and sessions you see like a tracker and you can say all right um one out four um sessions done. I just need three more to go. You can do that as a user and see like what what you have to do as a student in higher ed. You can see how many credit hours that you're going to
058uh to obtain. You can see the green line and say, "All right, I only have two more classes to go and then it's it's graduation time." Or if you have to take a arts and humanities and you have to take a math course, you can see what boxes you're filling. if you do games and you can like kind of feel like you know you get what I'm saying. So the example is there's ways to do things a little bit easier and this is not the end all be all but I just wanted to give a perspective. >> So manually manually is a process that our school counselors manually they audit a transcript. They would look at grades. They look at grades and they determine, okay, you filled all these boxes. Check, check, check. You need
059this. Well, with anything, you can imagine that would be time consuming. And with anything that's human, you can realize some human air to it. There's, you know, after 40 of those in in a short time span, you can imagine you start seeing double and triple. Uh but there is resources that are out there that can just ease ease a little bit of that confusion and and decrease the room for error. So this is pathways one program that we previously were able to use u and it'll give a a print out or a snapshot of what the teacher what the um student has completed and what's to come. And this is something that you know this again this is not the end all beall. I don't work for pathways. I'm not committed to any but I
060just want to give perspective of there's um easier ways to do things. So dates and deadlines and this is something that you know as our school counselors come up uh they might have some additional but dates and deadlines the federal student aid website I took a snapshot and this is you scroll to Indiana and these are important dates. So, if you did not know, uh, students can apply for FAFSA or financial aid. And really, they sent out a memo today from Commission of Higher Ed saying like touting the early presentation, early availability of of federal financial aid applications. So, that's something that we have to make sure our community is aware that it is out there. Students, we encourage you to apply. And as a student that you know went to higher ed, was expected
061not to go to higher ed, it's something that you never know what you qualify for. Apply for it. Even if your parent says we're not going to get anything, we don't want loans or don't apply. You never know. You may qualify for grants. The thing is we have to inform ourselves what's out there. That's one one aspect. Financial aid, FAFSA, dates and deadlines. scholarships.com is a resource that has scholarships in the area, local universities, nationwide. Our students, as we have, you know, recognized and bragged about, our students are not just remaining in state, which is okay as well, but they're going nationwide. They're going abroad. These resources are out there. And especially with technology, it's it's at our fingertips. So, um, these are some of the scholarships, some of the deadlines, but this is just
062for the point of there's resources out there in scholarships. There's resources out there at our fingertips, but we really have to put ourselves out there and have your elevator pitch ready, students. You have your personal statement ready, students. We have everything in order so that way when we're called upon, it's not an issue. We are prepared for it. Dates and deadlines. And this is something through um local legislation that one of our legislators really saw the need that there was a barrier of students leaving 21st century or or uh higher education funding on the table because there were so many barriers that students would have to have to jump through and it was a coordinated effort through they were relying on parents and some parents they they they are not okay with giving information to
063anyone about their finances. is they're not okay with releasing this because you know Mr. Hicks said so like it's it's not it it was a thing. So now our students they automatically get opted into they enroll uh they do have to do some uh modules and things uh to fulfill the requirements but this is a huge one that a lot of our students in our community may qualify for and they may not be aware of. So this is a early thing. So if you see um on the um middle school would be the time June 30th would be um as it says the deadline June 30th of the eligible students 8th grade school year. So as we see that trend of starting earlier 8th grade we're already talking about college. So dates and deadlines and
064this is something that I wasn't able to locate the uh the most recent app but this is something that I really really want to get out there to our Hammond community. We have collegebound within our school city. Um the school city does have access to this being within Hammond. Uh but collegebound offers great opportunities for our students and community. And the thing that really gets students in the bind is they wait till the last minute, meaning >> the year is almost over and they say, "By the way, oh, I forgot to do this." So students, we really have to make sure that you're aware of this. families, we have to make sure that you're aware of this that there's a great opportunity there that a lot of our students participate, they get their tuition paid
065for, they give back to the community, and it's an overall good experience. So, uh, we would encourage everybody to look at the city of Hammond's website. It's go Hammond, uh, to look at, you know, updates for collegebound. So, this is where I retrieved the information from, uh, but definitely it is something that has been a great resource for our community, families, and students. So finally finally I do want to call up our uh school state of Hammond um secondary stakeholders um up so we can uh just recognize and and celebrate uh share anything introduce and put a name with face if uh out there in the public uh some of us may not know um our administrators or school counselors yet but I definitely did want to give the opportunity. >> Thank you sir. Good
066evening, Madam President, board of trustees, superintendent Selenus, and immediate Hammond community. I am Dr. Johnny Goodlo Jr., president, principal. >> Might as well be president. >> I get it. >> Of the castle that we know as Edgars Middle School. I am joined by our lead counselor, Miss Jacqueline Smith. I want to take this opportunity to thank her and Mr. Ross for the awesome job that they do to support our students. But I also want to take this time to shamelessly plug our STEMtober night on October the 14th at 5:00 pm at the castle where we will be uh highlighting our Title One STEM night. Uh the maker space will be open. There'll be coding, there will be drones flying and a lot of action going on and I'll be presenting more about Title One to
067our families and community stakeholders. So you all are invited to join us October 14th at the castle 5:00 p.m. >> You say at the castle? >> Absolutely. >> Wow, you've changed it. I love it. >> He's the president, so he has >> Oh, you can press. You can do that. >> Oh, wow. At the castle. We got the We got the house. >> Got the mansion and the castle. >> Mansion and the house. >> The Edgar's night. The castle. Yeah. >> Okay. I love it. >> Thank you. Dr. Good. You want to say >> Hi. Good evening. I'm Jacqueline Smith, a seventh grade counselor at Edgars Middle School, and it's a delight to work with the students as well as what Scott Middle School was stating, we love our students. We're in the classrooms. Uh
068it's just wonderful to see the transition and how they start in August and where they are at the end of the school year and making good choices and a lot of the things that we say we see that there are they've retained. So also we have been in the classes this week. Um we've been talking about preparing for your future and beyond and going diligently over transcripts calculating your GPA and talking about the importance of starting early. We don't want to start once you start high school. So they know a lot of key terms. They're really proud of them. Uh Mr. Ross and I also had the opportunity last week to attend a really amazing workshop. It was called agilities where we're training to um basically uh learn about jobs and to take that back
069to the schools and share with our college career teachers and their students to identify their strengths and there's 10 agilityities and they will learn how to express themselves, write better resumes and know their strengths and also improve their weaknesses. So it was really pretty beneficial and that's it. >> Thank you. >> So we can answer any questions. Uh before we depart, we do want to take a photo if that's okay. Um we we would really be honored >> in our newsletter. >> Do we have any >> the only com any comments from the board trustees? >> I just truly want to thank uh Mr. Selenas in the administration for uh having this presentation done on our counselors. I happened to attend you know we were all at the Atlanta school board association fall conference and
070I attended the workshop on counselors and I got a little nervous and I shared it with Mr. Selenus and uh he indicated well we'll just put something together so that our parents and everybody involved could understand you know and I had never you know I've been on this board seven years and I'm learning more this year than I've ever learned about this district. The jewels and the gems that we have in this district and we're not showcasing them. So, I appreciate you counselors and I know your your your work is hard and and and to have your education a master's degree, you know, you're not messing around, you know, so we know you're giving our kids the best. And to the parents that are listening, and I said this to Mr. Selene, I am tired
071of these excuses. I I get it every year before graduation. My child's not graduating. I know he has such and such and such and such. And then, you know, you got to get involved. And Mr. Selena's mentioned this bingo thing. Now, I know it's a new It's old school language, but people get that that bingo game. Parents can put that on a refrigerator in their car and their Bible. It It should be We'll have our PR person to to explore how we're just going to mark it. Bingo. So, you will know a week before graduation that you are going to graduate. We've had kids that come to graduations with their caps and gowns and have been turned around and that's disheartening. We got to do better in that. So parents review this board meeting, share
072it with the other parents and if we have to do a workshop, Mr. Selenas, for our parents to get on board and everybody get on board because this is the bedrock. >> Graduation, that's the key. the number of students we graduate. That's that's our joy. That's our joy and these young folks help us do it. Thank you very much. That's all I have to say. >> Thank you. >> So, we'll get a photo. >> Oh, we have to get up, don't we? >> Yeah, I need to get up. Bones. >> Let's move those bones. ritual. Jesus Thank you. >> So, what's next, Mr. Selenus? >> Well, first and foremost, I want to thank Mr. Hicks for that comprehensive um >> information. Thank you very much for again we we we cannot assume that the community
073knows this information right we have to be explicit and again all of us including myself are learning whether we're using terms that are outdated from bingo to pathways at the end of the day I'm very encouraged to hear that the conversations are taking place early with our kids and again we hope that this will also trickle down to elementary students because it's never too young it's never too early to start talking about their future but to our counselors again thank you very much for all that you we recognize you and we appreciate you very much. So, thank you very much with that. Um, our next agenda item is public expression uh for the evening. Trustee Stanford. Thank you. First speaker for public expression is Dr. Michaela. Good evening. Um, so but before I get started
074on on budget related stuff regarding the school counseling presentation, I think it's really important to say it early, often as constantly as possible. If you are possibly interested in 21st century scholar stuff and it's not just um college, it's also trade school. It's funding for basically anything. One really important thing you have to remember that you have to do to qualify is to complete your FAFSA. And in the state of Indiana, we have about 60% of kids, including about 60% of our 21st century scholars and about 60% this district too that actually complete that FAFSA. If you don't complete that FAFSA, it creates a lot of headaches and you don't want to lose funding that you could use for something down the line. Um, so looking at I'm I'm first of all, thank you so
075much for having a public works session on the budget. I think it's so important especially because you know we're we're still trying to get our sea legs here. Um I'm a little concerned again as I said previously about the hiring trend that's happening. It's not a hiring trend, it's a creating new positions trend. So this year we have created and this is positions that are not tied directly to enrollment um and that are not covered completely by title funds 35 positions. Um let me just kind of illustrate the trend thus. In January we created one. In March we created one. In May we created two. All of those were education fund. June we created four from education fund two from operations. In July we created five. All from education fund. Although one of them might
076be miscatategorized. I'm not sure is actually a new position that was created. Um there was one more in July. Um actually so that that's a total of six. It was across two meetings. Um in August we created a grand total of 11. Um and it looks like the vast majority of those were from education fund. One of them was not listed in terms of the fund. Um then we had this month it looks like nine. So over time, for some reason, seemingly without board approval, because I mean, like I've looked at many of your minutes before, I' i've seen positions created, we're just having positions created that we may not be able to fund. Um because we may lose because of a six decrease 6% decrease in enrollment. Our tuition support, which would have gone
077up 2%, is actually possibly going to go down about 4%. And that's like $3.2 $2 million. So, let's not do that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh. >> Um, is Wanda Pucket here? She's signed up and I don't see her. >> So, that concludes public expression. >> Next item is adjournment. Do >> you hear a motion? So moved >> second motion minute adjourn meeting ajourn. Thank you very much everyone.