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 mama 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 add, [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 was 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 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 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
003loving. Um it's definitely welcoming. >> The teachers the most about the school. Yeah. In my experience is pretty good. I don't have any complaints. >> Okay. 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 [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,
004[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 was 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 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
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 in Morning's pretty good. I don't have any complaints. Okay. 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 >> good evening everyone and
006to our listeners that are streaming we welcome you to our Tuesday July 15th 2025 regular school board meeting. Um, can we stand for the pledge? Can we acknowledge the flag? >> 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 for all. >> Thank you. Can we remain standing for a minute? I'm sorry. Uh I can't hear you. >> Oh, in memory of those that have passed among us, our school family. Uh just a silent moment to recognize and remember those uh our deceased uh school city family members just for a moment, please. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are we ready for roll call? Roll call. Uh, Trustee Candelera >> present. >> Trustee Stanford present.
007Trusty Spencer >> present. >> Trusty Guerrera >> present. >> Trusty Blake King present. We have a quorum and we can move forward. Mr. Selenus. >> Good evening everyone. Good evening trustees. First on our agenda is our financial presentation from Daniel Dalton. >> Good evening. >> Can you hear me on here? Okay. Good evening school board and superintendent. Um so this new and improved report is uh consisted of uh you know the financial position of the district across the major operating and the grant funds for the first half of fiscal year 2025. Um it compares beginning balances, year-to- date receipts, expenditures, and ending balance. Thank you for switching to that first slide. So on this first slide here you you'll see the breakdown that we typically see with education debt service operations rainy day and self-
008insurance and then the title funds listed below. Um all of the major operational funds have maintained or increased their balances which truly indicates a uh strong financial health and controlled spending across the district with the federal grants. Most of these uh almost all of these are um showing a negative balance but this is as I've mentioned in previous months this is due to reimbursement. Uh these funds are operating on a reimbursement timing and so every time we spend something we request a reimbursement from that. >> So let's move on to >> before we switch slides can I ask a question on this first one? >> Sure thing. I love the changes in the slides. So, I really appreciate that. Can we add one more column to this first um set of graphs if possible just
009to show like you know when they show arrows whether it's gone up, stayed the same or gone down. So, it'll be really obvious when you look at it where which direction the dollars are going. Of course, not on that second one because you can't really do it for that one. >> That's a that's a great idea. Yeah. >> Thank you. So moving on to the next slide. This is this this slide represents the monthly ins and outs of uh from January through June in the education fund. We anticipate this fund to end the year with a cash balance of $18.1 million. While this fund does remain solvent right now and as as you can see in this chart, um the margin narrows in future years due to several assumptions including a potential decline in in
010state tuition, potential potential decline in um district enrollment, anything such as that. And then also the o increase in overall costs of goods and services which is a natural inflationary um inflationary impact. Are there any questions on this slide? Nothing. Okay. >> Well, I do have one. >> Okay. >> I looked at these earlier and didn't think of these things, but could we possibly get a yearto date on that one? One more bar that just gives a year to date. >> So it would encompass January through June. >> Oh, so like a total column. Yes. Yes, I can include that for next month. Yes. >> Thank you. Okay. Moving on to the operations fund. Again, this represents the ins and outs. We anticipate to end the year in this fund with a balance of $14.4
011million with its current spend. While the annual cash flow represents a surplus for calendar year 2025, future property tax caps and circuit breakers will lead to a significant loss for school districts across the entire state, not just Hammond schools. Um so Senate enrolled act one will also create further revenue limitations leading to reduced property tax uh revenues just in general. Um and then and then finally on that operations fund new legislation requires a portion of the property tax levy to be shared with local charter schools. This amounts to roughly 250,000 for Hammond the school city of Hammond. And that that portion has already been distributed as of our June distribution which we received last month. All right, moving on to the budget versus actual slide. This extrapolates the June 30 expenditures in the education debt
012service and operations fund compared to what was truly budgeted. So you you you might ask yourself, why is this an important slide to look over? Well, um, each year the district has to send a budget down state for their approval, and we have to be able to have enough cash in our in our accounts to be able to fund that budget. So, for the education fund in particular, you'll see that we budgeted $80 million and we've spent just about 39.9 million, roughly 50% of it, which means we have about 50% remaining through the end of the year. That's a really good track to be on. 50% budgeted, 50% uh 50% of the budget was spent, 50% remaining. That's a good track. Um the operations fund, you'll see that's in a little bit of a healthier
013position because we've only spent what is that 43% of the budget. We have 40 57% remaining. So the district ultimately has demonstrated strong fiscal management through the first half of 2025. I would like to see that continued through the second half of 2025 and moving forward. If there are any questions related to any additional questions related to how this document is formatted for next month, I would be happy to. >> And of course if you have any um ideas how we can maintain this, we will. Yes, ma'am. >> We will certainly entertain that as well. >> Certainly. >> Wow. >> Attention to cash flow and obviously reimbursements from those federal grant funds will be of key essence. >> Thank you. This is very easy to follow. I appreciate we appreciate it. >> And we will
014incorporate your recommendations for next month. >> Thank you. >> Are there any questions? Thank you very much. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Selenus. >> Thank you, Mr. Dalton. Very much appreciated. Next, we're moving on to our first period of public expression. Trusty Stanford. >> All right. First public expression speaker, Cindy Murphy. I'll be speaking on the personnel report and the financial presentation. The personnel report that was approved last time was very saddening with the people that left and this one is just as bad. Seeing the people that have left and going on, who have started here, done their years, got up into administration. Um, it's a huge loss for Hammond. The other thing I see is that we will not be starting Morton High School with a physics teacher. Did we get a physics teacher
015for Hammond Central? Did we get the advanced math teacher for Hammond Central? I've been checking the personnel reports today. We have students that want to go to college and they need these. We have students that want to go to our armed forces academy like the Air Force Academy. They don't have these classes or you're going to do online learning. It's not the best thing for them. The other thing I want to do is bring your attention to the last page, additional duties. Part of this was done incorrectly. I was there at the meeting with the state board of accounts when we had to add this on. The point of doing this is that to let you know how much money that someone is getting, not their daily rate. So you can't just put down 175.
016You need to say how many days times 175 and the amount they were being paid totally from that starting point to now. Not that I disagree. I think it's a little low. probably needs more money than that considering all the duties they have to do. But you've got at least two items on here that were done incorrectly and they need to be fixed hopefully on the next personnel report. The financial report, you really dumbed it down. This milk toast financial presentation is a travesty. You cannot possibly make any fiscal decisions on this. Peter Miller, if he was still in charge, would be telling you, "How can you possibly strip all the information you need to do good fiscal decisions?" There's no comparison with last year. I actually pulled the other one up. Um the cash
017balances, transfers to ed from education to operations. This is ridiculous for something to do like that. And where is the discussion? We all seen it in the news. They're holding your federal funds for next month. How are you going to take care of that? Are you going to just let it hit the education fund? You've already at the last meeting, we were told we're going to be moving these salaries into the federal funds. So, I hope you get a much better financial report that actually gives you good data instead of this flashy thing that I guess nobody else wants. Next speaker, Dr. Spang Spangenberg. So, I think that the point of what we just saw as a financial presentation was less about you guys only limiting yourself to that pool of data or presentation of
018data in order to make decisions and was instead more about trying to help clarify the presentation of data in a way that the public could understand. Now, I'm still of the opinion we should still include all the regular stuff on the back end that it's pulled from. I do have some thoughts about your suggestions that maybe would probably take up too much time on this mic. Um, but I think some of it still I'm still a fan of like an interpretive I I like I like the summary portion. I I would see what was presented as a summary, but I also feel like having an interpretive guide to the thing as a whole, which is like boilerplate that people can understand so that they can go from summary to actual uh overview and actually dig
019into it themselves and lo learn those skills is very important. whether it's our parents, our teachers, administrators, or even our students who might have an interest one day in learning about how to do financial things. Like it's important when you're an educational institution to promote education, I think, but kind of a stretch goal, I admit. Um I feel like we had the same personnel report twice, more or less, and I think that was because there were errors that were being trained to correct it or something and then it came back and maybe not all of them were corrected. But I still do not understand like if I have enough time in the day and if somebody gave me like six weeks, I'd have enough time in the day to like see that there were errors,
020I would be like presenting those like four weeks in. I would not be like, "Oh, there were still errors." Um because what are you going to do about them now? Um I really hope I I also think that something that needs to be clarified. I do understand that the last personnel report and maybe it's this one that has the errors. I don't even know. It was hard to follow. Um, but the last personnel report, um, I think that there were two people that were hired on, one for federal funds, one for data, and then I saw theou from Mazi. And I think it's really important, especially given the size and scope of thatou, to discuss, are we replicating services at this point? Like what what are the people that you just hired supposed to have
021responsibility for? What is Mazi supposed to be doing? Is it complimementaryary or is it going to be either duplication of service or is it going to be people stepping on each other's toes? And do we really need that extra expenditure or that full amount of that extra expenditure or could we put that money maybe somebody somewhere else? Thanks. Next speaker and last speaker, Wanda Picket. Good evening. I'm on the pucket. My main concern is this. Why we harping on last year and what we need to be focusing on this year. We got a brand new school board. That mess that the old school board had going on, leave that there. Don't bring it here. We don't want to hear that. We want we worrying about what going on now with our school system. Now another
022question. We had a great person over there at Edgars. The parents loved him to death cuz he was doing what he was supposed to do and y'all took him away from Edgars. Yes, I know when y'all moved him and where he at. He over there at Edison now. Now, now y'all know when the parents get over there to Edgars, they going to want to know what happened to him. They got attached to him cuz he was walking the ground doing what he was supposed to do inside the building everywhere. Can y'all please bring him back over there? We don't want him going over there. We need him as Edgars. Get there in the morning, the first place you going to see him walking the ground inside the building, the bathroom, checking the whole building out.
023We need somebody like him in all these schools. So please bring him back over there to Edgars and don't send him to Ed. Let somebody else go to Edison. Leave him at Edgars. Please allow and I know what's going on. Okay, we going to get out here and we going to campaign. We going to keep this board just like it is. I don't need a new board. Whatever going on with you, don't think you getting back on this board cuz it ain't going to happen. Now y'all did a thing, but did y'all pray for us? Do a silent prayer for Missy's sister. She lost her sister. Do a silent prayer for her. Missy, my heart go out to you, baby. Take it one day at a time cuz I know how you feel cuz I
024lost mine too. It going to get easy as it go but every day you going to think about her. That's all I got to say. >> Thank you. That ends the first session. >> Mr. Selena, >> the next item is unfinished business and there is no unfinished business at this evening. The next item is the approval of the minutes. >> Trustees, do I hear do we want to take them individually or all together? Our minutes >> probably do the executive sessions together and then the school board itself. >> Do I hear a motion? Madam President, >> Trusty Spencer, >> I move for the approval of the executive session minutes from June 17th and June 18th, 2025. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second that we approve the executive session minutes for June 17,
0252025 and June 18, 2025. All in favor? Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Eyes have it. Do I have an approval for Cat? >> Madam President, >> Trusty Spencer, >> I move for the approval of school board meeting minutes June 18th, 2025. >> Second. >> It's been moved to properly second for the approval of the school board minute meeting minutes for June 18, 2025. >> Are there any questions? Are we ready to vote? >> Yes. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Eyes have it. Thank you very much, Mr. The next agenda item is the consent agenda. >> Trustees, do I hear a motion? >> Madame President, >> Madam Trustee Candelier, >> I move for the approval of the consent agenda items A through E as
026presented. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second that we approve the consent agenda items A through E. Are there any questions? Yes, >> trusty um Stanford. >> All right, I'm going to read the accounts payable docket register. Accounts payable voucher register dated July 15, 2025 consists of 360 pages. For claims, the total is 4,273 938.86. For payroll, the total is $4,224,57563. >> Are there any more questions? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppos? >> I. >> Any oppose? Eyes have it. Motion carried. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Selenus. >> The next item is new business. Okay, trustees. Uh, item A is approval of the acting superintendent agreement. Do I hear a motion? >> Madam President, >> trustee Spencer, >> I move for the approval of the acting superintendent agreement. >>
027Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly. Second. Are there any questions, trustees? But I think we have to make it retroactive till July 1st. Can we can amend that movement? >> So should I amend my >> Yeah, amen. Amend your motion. >> Is that correct? >> Well, no, because the contract is retroactive. We're able to approve. >> Okay. >> It is the the only thing I would recommend is that you the motion be to approve and ratify. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, I amend my motion to approve and ratify the acting superintendent agreement. >> Okay. Do I need a second for that? Second. >> It's been moved and properly second that we uh approve and ratify um acting superintendent uh contract agreement. All in favor say
028I. >> I. >> Oppose. Eyes have it. Thank you. >> Mr. Selenus. >> The next item on the new business is the approval of the renaming of Morton Elementary School. >> Could you expound on that, please? >> Yes, I'd be happy to. So, uh, Mortyn Elementary School was a named as an elementary school and this year we renamed it the Morton Early Learning Center. The reason for the renaming is so that it will now be listed under the Department of Education as the Early Learning Center for the School City of Hammond, which will have an impact on reporting of our students and that is the reason for the renaming. There is a process that the superintendent will have to go through uh pending board approval. >> And how long is that process? Uh, it should
029be done by August 31st. >> Thank you. >> We've heard discussion. Are we ready to vote? >> Yes. >> Do you hear a motion, >> Madam President? >> Trusty Spencer. >> I move for the approval of the renaming of Morton Elementary School. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second of the approval of the renaming of Morton Elementary School. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Eyes have it. Thank you. Item item C. Mr. Sel, >> the next item is the approval of recognition of the clerical association as a unit of the Hammond Teachers Federation. >> Thank you. Do I hear a motion? >> Madam President, >> Trusty Candela, >> I move for the approval of the recognition of the Clerical Association as a unit
030of the Hammond Teachers Federation as presented. >> Second. Do I hear a second? >> Second. It's been moved and properly second for the approval of the recognition of the clerical association as a unit of the Hammond Teachers Federation. Any questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Eyes have it. Thank you, >> Mr. Selenas. The >> next item is the approval of cancellation of a teaching contract of Scott Stes and Selena Bradley effective at the end of the 2425 school year. Do >> I hear a motion? I haven't done this before. Am I just supposed to read this? >> Oh, mad. I move >> to approve the cancellation of the teaching contract of Scott Stessie and Selena Bradley effective the end of 2425 school year. >> Is there a second? >> Second. It's
031been moved and properly second for the approval of cancellation of the teaching contract of Scott Stell and Selena Bradley effective the end of the 2024 2025 school year. Any questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Eyes have it. Thank you, >> Mr. Selenas. >> The next item is the approval of the contract extension with Mazy Education and School City of Hammond. Do I hear a motion? >> Can Can he explain the question? Okay. >> Go ahead. However you want to do it. >> Can you I'll give us an explanation first before >> Yes, I'd be happy to. >> Thank you, sir. >> So, just so that everyone is aware, um, this entire school year, we had a contract with Mazy Education because we did not have leadership in the Department of
032Federal Programs. That contract is going to be extended through the end of September. Um, and at the end of that extension, our new director, Allison Lenso, will assume 100% uh operations and leadership in that department. So, that contract is not going to overlap the entire school year as we now have a federal programs director. It is only going to be in place through the transitional month of September while we make sure that we are in compliance with all federal and state guidelines. At that point, uh, Allison Lindo will assume all responsibilities for the program and all federal grants. Thank you. Can I have Can I get a motion? >> Madam President, >> Trusty Spencer, >> I move for the approval of the contract extension with Mazi Education. >> Do I have a second? >> Second.
033>> It's been moved and properly second for the approval of the contract extension with Mazi Education LLC. Any questions? All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any oppose? Eyes have it. Thank you, Mr. Selenas. The next item is the approval of the Head Start agreement for the 2526 school year. >> Do I hear a motion? >> Madam President, >> Trusty Kendall, >> I move for the approval of the Head Start agreement 2025 2026 as presented. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second for the approval of contract extension with Mi Education LLC. >> Head Start. >> Oh, Head Start. Oh my god, my eyes. Approval of the Head Start agreement 2025 to 2026. Are there any questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any
034opposed? Eyes have it. Thank you, Mr. Selenas. >> The next item is theou approval between Fair Haven Rape Crisis Center in the school city of Hammond. >> Do I hear a motion? Madame President, >> Trusty Stanford. >> I move for the approval of theou with Fair Haven Rape Crisis Center. >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second for the approval of theou with Fair Haven Rape Crisis Center. Are there any questions? Are there any questions? All in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Eyes have it. Thank you. Mr. Selenus, >> the next item is the approval of the MOU between Purdue University and Morton High School. >> Do I hear a motion? >> Madam President, >> Trusty Kendall, >> I move for the approval of theou between Purdue University and Morton
035High School as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> It's been moved and properly second for the approval of theou between Purdue University and Morton High School. Mr. Selena, are there any questions? May I ask Mr. Le, could you explain this? >> Yes, I'd be happy to. So, thisou is between Morton High School and Purdue University. It will expand access to dual credit opportunities for our high school students, allowing them to earn both high school and college credits simultaneously. This not only accelerates college readiness and reduces the overall cost of higher education for our families, but also empowers students to experience rigorous academic coursework within a supportive school environment. Do we anticipate this uh program be offered as as Hammond central as well? >> We do and I will make sure that happens
036as well. >> Thank you very much. Any more questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Eyes have it. Thank you. Mr. Selenus, >> the next item is the approval of theou between Purdue University Northwest and the school city of Hammond. >> You want to explain that? >> Sure. So, this basically has to do with our student teachers. PNW the firstou was Purdue University and this is uh Purdue University Northwest. So this one will place teacher candidates in our school city of Hammond schools for clinical experiences and apprentice apprenticeships prior to lenture. This initiative enhances classroom instruction by integrating fresh researchbased strategies while providing school city of Hammond students with additional support. It also helps build a sustainable educator pipeline ensuring that students benefit from a diverse and wellprepared future teaching workforce.
037So, we are very excited to uh host our new teachers that will be joining us in the near future here in Hammond. >> Is this something new, Mr. Selenus? >> Excuse me. >> Is this something new or is this a continuation? >> Uh, no. We've had student teachers from H before student teachers at this particular program. Okay. >> Okay. You do I hear a motion? >> Madam President, >> Trusty Caneler, >> I move for the approval of theou between Purdue University Northwest and the school city of Hammond as presented. There >> a second. Second. >> It's been moved and properly second for the approval of the MOU between Purdue University Northwest and the school city of Hammond. Are there any questions? >> Any questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Eyes
038have it. Upcoming board meetings. Our next board meeting, Tuesday, August 5th, our executive session and a special board meeting. And on August 19th is an executive session and our regular school board meeting. Um, and our schoolboard meetings during the summer are subject to change. So those are our upcoming meetings and tomorrow we'll be not a meeting but we'll be uh hosting our WJO spot. It starts at 900 a.m. So, please listen and uh we have a good time uh uplifting our students and our administrators and our community. Thank you very much. >> I think I think we are missing one here. The um executive session we added at the end of July, didn't we add >> 29th? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Yeah. Is that the consens? Yeah, the 29th. Okay. Thank you. Because it wasn't
039added. August 29th executive session. >> July >> I mean August >> July 29th, right? Y'all help me. Executive session only. Thank you. Thank you for that. I forgot about that. >> Okay, Mr. Selenus. >> Our next item is public expression second period on general matters. Trusty Stanford. >> All right. Our first speaker is Mary Morardi. I'm speaking on behalf of uh Hammond Teachers Federation and Mr. Gigas. I would like to thank the board for approving the recognition of the clerical association as a unit of Hammond Teachers Federation. >> Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Next speaker, Cindy Murphy. Another item on the personnel report was the person that you had h changed to do PR is no longer doing it. I hope you reconsider that move. They were doing a really good job. I know people
040who got emails um about the upcoming function that we're going to be having at Hammond Central because she knows what she was doing, but now she's going to be just an executive assistant. I want to go for another item that was missing from the financial report that was the projected cash flows. So, I put the query before you last time and I said, "All right, what about the projected monies? Have you counted in the ADM that has been steadily dropping over the years?" And now all of a sudden that report is also gone. That's another report that needs to be brought back so that the public knows what is going to be happening. Then I want to bring back to the last board meeting. So a bunch of board policy got approved and a bunch
041didn't mostly the uh phone policy and the attendance policy. And that was really disappointing not to hear any discussion. That's what special meetings are for. public work session. Why did you pull it? So, this has been pending and discussed for a year now. Nobody likes those policies. Nobody. But you all swore an oath to uphold the laws and the constitution of the state of Indiana and the United States government. And whether you like the laws that they passed, you still have to go and do board policy that reflects that. Who wants to turn students over to the juvenile justice center because they didn't have their attendance is poor? Nobody wants to do that. But you still have to p the policy in there because it's your job. It is your oath that you took when
042you became an elected official. But along with going and doing that type of thing is that you can work for solutions like was talked about last year. Let's go talk to Bernie Carter. Let's go talk to Judge Stefaniac. Let's go talk to East Chicago and Gary because our three districts are going to be hurt the worst when it comes to this. Just because we have to do policy for stuff we don't want to do doesn't mean we can't work on things because the next thing that needs to happen is the code of conduct. It's not in there. When are you going to update the conduct that reflects the new attendance policy? Parents need to know that. You can't do it months from now and all of a sudden you're like, "So sorry, so sad." But
043because your student didn't do the attendance, now we're turning them over to the juvenile justice system. They need to know next month when school starts. Please go do your job. Shouldn't have done yours. >> Next speaker, Mary Ellen Slays. >> Oh, Mary Ellen Slazic. Every time I come to meet the personnel report, I feel very sad because nearly every time when I read the report, I see one of my kids teachers on the list that has resigned. And this today was no different. I know I can't name names, but I'll say the teacher that has resigned did work themselves up to administration when they were a teacher at Hammond High. My younger daughter, my youngest one, had this particular person for a teacher. They were outstanding. They were one of the best teachers in the
044Hammond schools and they're gone along with many others that we should have retained that this board should have fought to retain because now we don't have enough teachers for all the classes the kids need. And we don't have the specialization for our kids that they need for pursuing their further education or going into the service or just for life. This is sad. Our kids are hurting because of this. And there's no excuse for this. Like I said, I'm really sad. When I seen that that name, I had to call my daughter at work and tell her that one of her favorite teachers of all time and a very good teacher is no longer with him in schools. We can't afford for this exodus to go on any longer because it's not good for our children's
045education. I am glad that when my kids were in school, things were still a little bit more stable. But now I got grandchildren in the school and I don't know how two of them are being straight A students right now with all the obstacles they've had to overcome and one of them was their school being shuttered and having go to a different school. It breaks my heart when I see teachers leave. It breaks my heart when I see students sad that their favorite educator is going a person that inspired them and taught them. This is wrong and it's got to change. I don't know why all these teachers are leaving and we've lost so many good ones. Are things that bad? Is it that hostile work environment? I don't know. And one thing I got
046to bring up is the leaks that's been talked about. Well, whoever has been saying that there's leaks, that's a form of a leak, too. So, take it for what it's worth. Thank you. >> Next speaker, Dr. Spangenberg. So, I have a random idea. Maybe kind of like what we've done for or what we're starting to do, what we're starting to get our legs under for the financial report. Maybe we can do something like that for the personnel report. some kind of like flow chart thing because I feel like it's very easy for people to maybe get a weird impression somehow. Like maybe they just only read certain page. I I don't even know. It's easy to do when it's a bunch of words, right? Like we don't all have the focus we wish we did.
047Um so maybe we could even just have like a flowchart. We could even have it for the year as a whole. We could have it year-to- date. we could have a whole thing just to even provide context and break it down by things like retirement, whatever, whatever. Because to me, I feel like when we get to the point where we're interpreting just documents like that, first of all, it's hard to do. And of course, we should still just have the personnel report as is with that. But I also feel like unless I'm hearing teachers come up here, and I'm sure that there's teachers somewhere some who need more support. There's always more support needed. But unless like there's teachers coming up here literally saying, "This is terrible. I can't stand this. Things are completely out
048of whack." Like we did for the last several years. I don't know why we're moving toward doom and gloom. Everybody's leaving. Everybody hates everything. Everything's terrible. like I don't understand how we got there. If it's true, then I expect it to be substantiated. And that's the thing is that we can only deal with the data in front of us and we either publicly have data or we don't. So case in point, you can learn a lot about people who, for instance, maybe claim that they have some great insight into a process of something when they come up here and make comments about who is and who isn't involved in this that or the other thing, who has a job, who doesn't, etc. Because it's like, have you considered googling? >> Because sure, you could say,
049well, this person's no longer over this, and if they did, they'd really disapprove of everything. Are you sure that that person's not there? Like, how did you arrive at that? Is it because you heard a rumor that somebody else is in some other job and then you just went whole hog in a direction? But furthermore, that same logic then applies to how people don't understand how the law works because word policy can never supersede or the absence of it never supersedes the law. You can't infer from a lack of a policy that the law is not being followed. And if you want to go to that point, that's a conversation to have with Bernard Carter. Um, but there are plenty of things that they're looking at in terms of that. Thank you. >> All right,
050last speaker, Wanda Pucket. Got it right this time. Now, y'all talking about the board policy? Let's talk. Those policies was put in place last year by the old board members when we was trying to get it table and they was trying to push all that stuff through before the new board took over. We can't fault this board what's going on. But can y'all come up with new policy? Come up. Every year it's supposed to be new policy. Come up with some new policy. That way can't nobody saying this is X Y and Z. Let's get our own policy in order every year. Come adopt new add on take out cuz we going to need these policy with our kids going back to school in August. Now, that longevity, did we pass that so that bus
051can be out there on the 13th of August picking our kids up so they can go back to school? Cuz I'm pushing my eyes out the house. I know more parents are going to do the same thing cuz we can't wait. Now, let's get behind these teachers. Y'all know why these teachers leave. The old boys forced these teachers out last year. The new board didn't. Let's get behind these teachers and start supporting these teachers and stop tearing these teachers down. They got their hands full dealing with our kids cuz our kids can be a handful. The A's got their hands full too. Bus monitor do too. Bus driver do too. Bus got to pull to the side of the road to make sure this XYZ is sitting down and the seat belts on the belt.
052seat belts on the bus. Put them in the seat belts. Get some daddies get involved with these kids at school. Let the daddies be out there when the kids first day back to school. Be out there greeting the kids back to school. Let's get something going on so the kids can feel great. Encourage them. Get that education. Be a mentor. You have fathers, uncles out there, them young man's gonna step up to the plate. They gonna turn everything around cuz they see we got adults behind them pushing them. >> Thank you. >> That ends second session, >> Mr. Selenus. Before we end our meeting, I do have a few announcements that I would like to share with the community. Uh, I would first like to recognize um Mrs. Marilyn Hampton in the audience. She's going
053to be our new supervisor of student services. Miss Marilyn Hampton, she comes to us from uh Burns Hicks and is going to do an excellent job in that role. and we look forward to um the way she's going to support our students and make sure that our students and our parents have all the answers that they need in in that office. I want to start off by reminding everyone that tomorrow we are four weeks away from the first day of school. >> Four weeks. Four weeks away from the first day of school. We are going to welcome over 9,000 beautiful faces in four weeks. Okay? And the reason our kids come back every year is because we have outstanding vocational programs, our HPA Academy for the performing arts, high quality early learning programs. You can
054be 18, you can be four years old, any time, any age in between, and we will take you and we will educate you. We have early college advanced placement courses. We have a dual language immersion. So, if you're interested in learning a new language at the age of five, Hammond's the place to be. And we have, as we've seen in our couple of uh prior board meetings, top tier athletics. We have students going all the way to state. >> So, there is a reason why people keep coming back to Hammond because we know what we're doing. We love our kids and the teachers who are with us love our kids. And what I will say about that is that there are times where people do need a change. And so, career-wise, what they do is
055they look for other opportunities. Perhaps it's time for them to go find another place to teach. And there's nothing wrong with that. But by the same token, what we do is we welcome a whole new generation of teachers. We teach them, we grow them, we love them, we support them. And eventually, they'll be sitting in these seats 25 years later like Mr. Selena is sitting in this seat 25 years later cuz we don't give up. We don't leave. We stay here. We just stay here. So with that, what I'm going to say is that guess what? We've got our back to school supply list on social media. So, if anybody's looking for themselves, the lists are out for all of our elementary schools and our secondary schools. And we're going to welcome all of our
056community back at the back to school event on Thursday, Jan uh July 31st at Hammond Central from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. We'll also be giving away school supplies at that event as well as backpacks at that event as well. And we also have uh registration going on at that event as well. We have our freshman orientation taking place at Mortyn High School on August 5th from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. And then we also have freshman orientation at Hammond Central on August 5th from 9 to 11:00 a.m. uh at uh our high school. Now, we also have to remind our community that on the first day of school, it is a half day. It is an early release, which means that on the first day of school, parents, boys and girls, high school, you're going
057to come to school. you'll dismiss at 12:15. Middle school, you'll dismiss at 1:00 p.m. And elementary, you'll dismiss at 1:45. So, guess what? On the first day of school, you come, you meet your teachers, drop off your supplies, and you are early release. And that is our first professional development day for our teachers. So, we have a very, very exciting professional development schedule for our teachers. We have 36 early release days this year, which means we can get a lot done and we can grow our professionals in a very, very meaningful way. With that, I want to thank the board for extending uh my contract and I look forward to all the work that I'm going to be doing with this amazing team here at the district and we are going to be just fine
058because we are 10 times better. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Trusty King. >> Uh the agenda calls for any reports or observations from the board. Any board trust? Go ahead. >> I just want to make one statement report. I don't know what you want to call it. in the nature of keeping our district on a high positive note. It was brought up a few times tonight about the resignations on our personal report. I want to go on record and say we have six resignations on our personnel report for this month. Six in the summer is a very low number for any district, especially a district of our size. So, I just don't want, you know, that that I don't know. I I just don't want the negativity to
059go out into the community that we have all these resations. We have six on this personnel report. In add in addition to that, of those six, only three are teachers. The summer months are when teachers make their decisions to move districts. So, we are looking excellent when we talk about those numbers. We have 13 recommendations for employment which 10 of those are teachers. So I just need I I just wanted to end on that positive note. >> Thank you Trustee Spencer. Any other comments, reports from board members? I just want to quickly report that I did attend uh the American Library Association conference in uh Philadelphia uh a couple of weeks ago and uh I serve on the board of the Hammond Public Library with Camaro Weeks and uh while at this conference I ran
060into this author and uh and this particular book this book is inclusive of everybody. body uh our exceptional learners, our special needs students. I was so impressed with this book and the students that surrounded her promoting this book. I have a photo with her in this book and I put it on Facebook and and uh a teacher wanted this book and that's the response I wanted because as as long as I've been a guest reader for school city of Hammond, I've never read for our special learners and I definitely want to read this extraordinary book to our special learners. This is what we do as board members. We seek out the best to bring out the best. And I would encourage everyone out there, you are a living walking billboard for school city of Hammond.
061It is up to everyone in who has a seat in this room to promote, encourage, and be that walking billboard for our students. We have excellent programs since we've been on this board. We are a team. You don't see what we're doing behind the doors. You don't see what we're doing. We're working our butts off coming up with ideas and programs together as a team because we love these kids. So, I defy anybody to continue all this negativity, especially those and you know, we inherited a mess from the previous administration and board. And it's going to take time and patience and love and integrity to bring this district back and this board will. We will do that. So this book I welcome anybody who wants me to read it to their exceptional learners. I'd be
062proud to do that. Thank you very much. Well, is there anything else on our agenda? Do I hear a motion for adjournment? >> I move to adjourn. Second >> meeting and adjourn. I get to use this thing.