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 [Music] add, 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 loving.
003Um it's definitely welcoming. The teachers the most about the school. Yeah. To 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. Go 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 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 [Music] ask,
004my 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 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
005for 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. 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 [Music] Hey everyone,
006welcome to our April 15th 2025 regular board meeting. Uh we're so delighted to see so many out and we so appreciate each and every one of you. We would like for you to first stand for the pledge of allegiance and our own Iran Elementary School will lead us in our pledge of allegiance. [Music] I aliance 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. [Music] Woo! [Applause] Beautiful. Thank you very much for that. Before we go into our uh recognition and presentation, I would like to roll. Okay, we'll do roll call. Roll call. Trustee present. Trusty uh Kelly Spencer. Trustee Stanford present. Trusty Candelier present. Trusty Blake King present. Five all accounted for. We do have
007a quorum. Thank you. uh superintendent I mean for that. Okay. Before we go into our recognition, I would like to recognize April as autism awareness month. And this is in honor of all of our awesome adults and children who are living with autism. And if there are any activities that the students are doing in honor of this month, please let the board know and we will be present. Thank you very much. Now at this time we are going under number two on our agenda recognition and presentation. Irvin Elementary School Mariachi Club. Woo. We have presenting principal Jackie Ruiz and assistant principal Mr. David Pazini on behalf of Bourbing Elementary School. Wow. We are going to say it in Spanish and then in English as well. Buenas no Blake King directiva is superintendent Reed. Good evening
008Trustee Blake King, board trustees and superintendent Reed. Irving Elementary School and Paris Pime. Thank you for inviting us this evening. Without further ado, we would like to present in their first public appearance the Irving Elementary Mariachi Choir. Wow. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I got you [Music] I say when I lose your Where am I? [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh my god. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] I am all [Music] I lose your heart. Woo! Woo! [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Oh, we [Music] [Applause] all just [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Yeah. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Glor [Music] [Applause] [Music] Woo. Give their name. Would like to um give you a gift and present you. [Applause]
009Thank you. Oh my goodness. Make it up the stairs. Thank you so much. Thank you from Maria. [Applause] So much [Applause] The minute is a little Oh, Mr. Can we give the Irving Mariachi Club another round of applause? Absolutely. Yes, our director. Go right ahead. Hi, my name is Christina Sanchez [Applause] from Thank you. Um, my name is Christina Sanchez. I'm at Irvine Elementary. This is our Mariachi Choir. We're so proud of them. We just started in November with two members and now we're at 16. Wow. So, we're loving it. Um, much gracias. Our parents are the most important for us. So, thank you so much for supporting the kiddos and um, thank you. Good night. Thank you. Wow. [Applause] Absolutely incredible. That's all I got to say. This is why this is what it's
010all about. Showcasing our students. So, are we ready for B Edison Elementary School highlights? [Applause] Good evening, uh, board president Blake King, our, uh, school board trustees, Mr. Selenas. I I just want to acknowledge how lucky we are, um, to be able to experience such talent with the kids, and how excited I am that I get to spend the next 10 minutes bragging about Edison Elementary School. Um, there are a few things that we do want to talk about today. Um, first of all, I'm Adam White. I'm the principal at Edison Elementary School and my absolute fearless sidekick here, Stephanie Kovachic, is my assistant principal. All right. Um, the first thing we do we want to do is um recognize our Mayor Commission on Disabilities award recipient. Um, so to brag about her amazing students,
011I'm going to welcome uh Miss Lyanna Wel. [Applause] If Miss Wel students can come up [Music] [Laughter] [Music] here. Okay. Good evening members of the board. I'm excited to share some wonderful news from our classroom. Our students participated in the Mayor's Disabilities Awards Breakfast, Art Showdown, an annual event that celebrates inclusion, creativity, and community. This year's theme was Happy Indiana, and each student in our class was encouraged to create an original piece of art reflecting what brings them joy in our state. We had five students enter the art showdown. Christian Garcia, Christis, Demetrius Britman, Anthony Thompson, and Lehan Walker. Their [Applause] creative their creative and heartfelt submissions reflected a unique perspective of of what makes them happy. Leese Walker was chosen by the mayor's commission as the winner of the art contest and his art
012was imprinted on the cover of the program for the awards breakfast. Our class also attended the breakfast on March 20th where our students artwork was displayed and later showcased in the city of Hammond public buildings. This art project sparked something wonderful in our classroom. It helped students find their voices through visual expression and became the stepping stone for an even bigger accomplishment. Writing and publishing their very own class book through Student Treasures Publishing. Each student contributed original writing and illustrations and we are proudly publishing and selling copies of the book allowing families and friends to celebrate their work. The entire process from creating art artwork to becoming published authors has built confidence, pride, and a strong sense of community among our students. Thank you for supporting opportunities that allow our students to shine both in
013the classroom and out in the community. [Applause] May just stay there for a second. Let me get my little picture here. Okay, there you are. Mr. White, you can get in there as well. You don't mind? Okay, everybody. Okay, there we go. Big smile. Oh, love this. Thank you so much. May I ask how can we purchase that? How can we purchase that book? Oh, it was it was a program. It's a pamphlet. Oh, it's a pamphlet. Okay. Um and then we've also gifted um the school board larger copies of their artwork here um to continue to display the wonderful talents of our students. So, we're going to have to find a way. We're going to have to fill up all these walls eventually. Thank you so much for adding such a delightful portion to
014our building. Wrong way. Um, if we can invite our science Olympia team up, [Applause] [Music] um, our wonderful science Olympiad team, uh, led by our third grade teacher, uh, Mrs. Lindseay Highmith, uh, we just competed, um, this past weekend at, um, a science Olympiad competition. So, we wanted to to share their journey and the results with you. Great. Thank you so much for having us tonight. Um, so yeah, we competed on Saturday and I have a couple of my amazing team members here. This is Emily and Joseph. Um, so I'm going to just go through the events that we placed if that's okay. Um, so first place we placed uh first place in mouse trap, which Joseph was first place for mousetrap vehicle. Yeah. We also placed first for starry star night and that was
015students had to kind of practice all of the um information about space so they had to know everything about space and we got first place for that as well. Um we placed second place in canraer no bones about it and tree ID. So, um, the students had to create a can racer that had to go a certain amount of distance and I believe it was the gym. Um, so we placed second in that. Um, no bones about it. The students had to know all of the bones of the body. So, we placed second for that. And then tree ID, which this blew my mind because this was amazing. We also placed second for tree ID. They had to know um certain trees and their leaves um which was really amazing. Yes. I wouldn't be able
016to do that. And then third place uh was barge building where the students had to build um a little boat made out of foil and they had to put items in the boat and it was not able to sink. So we placed third place for that. And then we also placed third place for structures which Emily was part of structures. Um, and I believe they had to use straw. Was it straws and pins that you had to use? So, they had to build a structure made out of just straws and pins. Um, and so they placed third for that as well. Um, and then we also played placed third overall in the whole competition. So, we were able to bring a trophy back to our school. So, all right. Thank you. Thank you so much.
017Appreciate it. Thank you. Um, I I I can't miss this opportunity right now. Um, because while we we have a celebrity here in our midst, Miss Lindseay Highmith is Edison's hero in education for this school year. Um, so if you'll humor me for for just one second and I'm going to try to make her cry. Um, so, uh, it is with deep pride and profound gratitude that I stand before you tonight to celebrate somebody who embodies the very heart of education. Um, and that is Edison's own hero, Mrs. Lindseay Highmith. In every school, there are teachers who shine, especially at Edison. But there are those uh, rare souls whose light is so strong, it warms every single corner of the building. It inspires every child it touches and it reminds us all why we chose
018this path. Lindsay Highmith is one of those rare souls. When you walk into her classroom, you feel it immediately. The joy, the safety, the possibility. Her students known that they are seen, they are heard, and they are deeply cared for. They don't just learn, they thrive in her classroom. She doesn't just teach lessons. She builds confidence, courage, and character. Lindsay brings passion to the work that goes far beyond that textbook. She has a gift for reaching every learner, meeting them where they are, and guiding them towards who they are meant to be. Whether it's coming in early to help struggling readers, organizing classroom projects that make learning come alive, or offering encouragement to students that just somehow always happen at just that right moment. Mhm. She does it with a heart full of love and
019a spirit that never quits. What makes her a hero is not just her talent, but her unwavering belief that every child matters. She shows up every single day with that belief leading her. Mrs. Highmith reminds us that teaching is not just a job, it's a calling. And because of her, Edison is not just a school, but she's made it a home for so many. Tonight, we honor her publicly, rightfully, not just for what she does, but who she is. She's a teacher. She's a mentor. She's a light. And she gets to be our Edison hero. Wow. Congratulations. And because of her leadership, we have such a wonderful science Olympiad team. We are so proud of you guys. So proud of you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. [Laughter] Oh, we have one more
020final thing. There we go. Um, so tomorrow and Thursday Edison is putting on our spring music program. Um, so I wanted to show off more talent in our building and uh introduce our our great and wonderful music teacher, Mrs. Tyerek. Um, who is here with just a very small portion of our students. Um, it is uh Miss Janica's fourth grade class who are going to entertain us all uh with the rainbow connection. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] So [Music] amazing things we might see. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I call my name. [Music] I heard it too many times to something supposed to be. Someday we'll find the rainbow. [Music] Woo! Oh Jesus. Thank you, Mr.
021White. And I'll give you another plug for your music program, which will be April 16th and 17th, the day the crayons quit. What a theme. Thank you so very much, Mr. White and your team. Excellent. Okay, our the next agenda item, Franklin Elementary School, College and Career Expo. Mrs. [Applause] Greyhart. Good evening, uh, President Blake King, School Board of Trustees, Mr. Selenus. Um, here with me tonight, I have our core team from the College and Career Expo. My name is Regina Groher. from the principal at Franklin Elementary. I have Nicole Partane, our media parah, Christina Maldonado from Purdue Northwest, and Amanda King from the ACC. So, we're going to be highlighting some items from our event and telling you a little bit about it. Um, our career expo started with the purpose of showing students
022various college and careers and helping students to work on employability skills and interview skills as early as sixth grade. Now they have to start choosing career paths as early as seventh grade. So we figured what a great idea to start them in elementary figuring out what they might want to be when they grow up. This started with an idea from our school counselor. Um her name was Jackie. She's uh no longer employed with the district due to cuts and Nicole Partain here. They were both instrumental in starting this um event in 2020. Our event was literally the week before the world shut down and COVID. It was about 10 vendors and just Franklin Elementary. just our kiddos went. Then we were virtual for a year. Then we kind of took a break and then Nicole
023came to me and was like, "Hey, I got a real cool idea. What if we invite all of Hammond and like get all these vendors and see what we can do?" I'm like, "Let's do it." So, it has grown into 65 plus vendors every year for the last 3 years. Um, all of the Hammond Elementary sixth grades have been invited and for the last two years, all of the elementary schools have also attended. So, it's become a wonderful event for our students that we could not do with this wonderful team here. So, first I'm going to introduce Christina Maldonado from Purdue Northwest. They help us not only plan the event, they help us get some of our vendors, help with a lot of the donations. Um, and I'm going to turn it over to Christina
024and let her talk before I introduce everybody else. Good evening. Uh, once again, my name is Christina Maldonado. I am one of the assistant directors for undergraduate admissions at Purdue University Northwest and I focus specifically on parents community and early education outreach. Um I just want to take a minute on behalf of the admissions office at Purdue Northwest. I wanted to emphasize our genuine gratitude for the partnership that we have with the school city of Hammond and especially with Franklin Elementary School for the work on this college and career expo that we partner with annually. Um it was always a pleasure. It's always a pleasure to work with this team of educators at Franklin and the Hammond Area Career Center who share the same vision and the same passion to create meaningful opportunities for students
025um of our community. We fully believe in the importance of early education um of early education outreach and supporting initiatives that allow young students to be exposed to positive post-secary pathways prior to them reaching high school. The Franklin College and Career Expo fits directly into the mission of our division of enrollment management and student affairs, which is to inspire young minds, empower the journey of graduation, and ignite the future with pride. We are very proud to be a partner of the School City of Hammond, a resource to the Hammond community, and an annual sponsor of this event. Thank you. Woo. Thank you. So along with being the co-creator of the event, I also use our library time at Franklin to talk about our students about their academic career. I start with elementary school, middle, high,
026the ACC, and then college. We talk about important terminology like GPA, what a scholarship is, tuition, and majors. and I have a presentation that I follow, but I also keep it very open so that they feel comfortable asking any questions that they may have. Uh, then we talk about our careers and I have them take a small interest survey through the Indiana Career Explorer and through that it gives them some options that might be good ideas for them. We then talk about important knowledge, skills, and education they may need for those future careers. So with all of this, it hopefully prepares them to have really meaningful conversations with the people that they meet at the expo. Um, this year I also partnered with Junior Achievement for the first time and I'm using their junior achievement
027metaversity program. So it has an online component that's like a little city that they can explore and we also have a paper workbook that helps them kind of learn more about the career pathways and the career clusters. So all in all, this whole event came from a place where of wanting to give our students opportunities that would get them thinking about their futures now. And I'm so happy that it's expanded to what it is. I also want to mention with our partnership with Purdue, um Christine and I talk a lot about some of the challenges in Hammond and at Franklin and she's also put me in contact with some awesome people at Purdue that have now come in to help our students with some other tasks. So those partnerships just keep building on top of
028one another which has been fantastic. Amanda King from the ACC here has been instrumental in having all of just about all of the ACC programs or a good majority of them at our expo which is wonderful because we have now the high school kids teaching the elementary kids about some of their careers. Some of them are actually former Franklin students. So that's always fun to see. She helps find some of our donations that we need to support the event. Um whether it's to help run it or um providing food for the vendors for their breakfast and lunch. And the ACC students also made our wonderful expo shirts that we have on. So, we are very proud of them for all their hard work. And in just a few minutes, you're going to see a video
029that was done for this board meeting that was done by the ACC radio and broadcasting program. So, the students actually made the video. Our vendors had a lot of wonderful things to say just as we were packing up the career expo. When's the next date? When are you doing this next year? And I always tell them, well, I can wait for the SE calendar and then I'll let you know. As soon as I send out that email, within less than a minute, I get responses. Yes, we're in. Yes, we're in. When are you doing this again? So, our community is very excited and being there with the kids. Some of the things that they had to say about our expo from this year were that they were very impressed of how polite all of our
030students were saying please and thank you approaching the v the the vendor's booths and asking very thoughtful questions and almost in an interview fashion. So kudos to all of our sixth grade teachers um across the district for preparing them ahead of time so they knew what kind of questions to ask and uh use some of the terminology that Miss Partain stated. We saw that across the district. So that was really amazing. Another one was they were very impressed with more kids have thought about college than they thought. They didn't realize at this young age so many of them would have already thought about those types of things. And lastly, we would like to thank some of our vendors. So the top ones are all people that donated um mostly um or they did donate but
031through Purdue Northwest ACC and Nicole Partain finding these wonderful donors. We would like to send a special thank you to our own technology department, transportation custodians and teamsters because we could not do this event without them. They are super instrumental. Transportation is amazing at getting those kids the whole district back and forth in one day to Franklin Elementary for a field trip. Bringing a 100 tables plus and extra chairs to Franklin and our technology department for making sure we have everything we need. So, the vendors have uh electricity. We have our safe visitor badges scanned and all all the things we need. They're all fantastic. Our Franklin Student Council and staff helped stuffed all the bags. Students when they entered got a goodie bag with um a pencil from the ACC which was donated. Um
032some Albanese candy and a map for them to ask questions to the vendors. And our students also helped that morning and some parent volunteers with getting vendors to their tables, parking and all of those sorts of things. And finally, our ACC radio and broadcast team are Robert Casiano, Austin McKim, and Naomi Herrera were the ones that made the following video. Okay. Career Expo started about 5 years ago with our school counselor who we no longer have. Um but 5 years ago she came to me and she was like, "This sounds like a crazy idea, but what if we had a career fair for elementary school?" And I was like, "Yeah, that sounds great. I think that they need that exposure at the elementary school level so that they're not going into high school blind. Um,
033so we started off with about 10 tables in our gym and it has grown to approximately 70 in the last 5 years. [Music] So we really hope to tell these all the kids that first of all to dream big that there are so many options for them in the future after high school that high school diploma is not the end it's just the beginning. uh we want them to know that there are so many positive pathways for them and we think that it's important that we start young and that we don't wait till high school to deliver that message because sometimes it could be far too late once students are in high school to start thinking about what they want to be when they grow up. So that's really the message that we hope to
034[Music] convey. Hope for me that the kids take away that they can dream big. No dream is too small. They can achieve whatever goal they want. And to see what opportunities while we want them to dream big, they don't have to go very far. There's so many opportunities right here in Northwest Indiana that they might not know even know exist because they're not exposed to it. So, I hope seeing that exposure sparks some interest in future careers for them. And I hope that they realize that their opportunities are endless once they leave high school. I want them to know that, you know, most kids when they think about careers, they think doctor, lawyer, police officer, teacher, that those are awesome careers, but there's so much more for them to look forward to. And that if
035they hone in to their hobbies and their interests, they can do something that they truly love. [Music] That's all we have. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next presenter is Hammond Central. Good news. We need everyone to howl with us. How now you're officially a Hammond Wolf. Good evening, Trustee Blake King, school board members, Mr. Selenus. Um, I am uh, Miss Harrison, the principal who is proud to serve as principal of Hammond Central High School. Tonight, I am honored with Mr. Denko aka Wolfie. honored to share some of our good news and begin to tell the story of Hammond Central, a story marked by both challenges and triumphs, but above all, one of resilience and greatness. I am truly excited to share this journey with you and appreciate your
036time and attention as we highlight the progress, pride, and potential within our school community. That's me. I would like to begin by thanking my admin team and staff for all that they do to keep Hammond Central running smoothly. I have a fantastic team. I love my students and they are the reason why I come to work every single day. on our agenda. Our agenda tonight, I want to highlight some of our good news in academics, arts, athletics, and amazing teachers. I would like to start with two of our amazing PLTW teachers. Miss Pramik, could you please come up front with your student, Jasmine Brutin? And Mr. Buckner, could you please come up front with your student, Alexis Ruiz? And you're going to hear a little bit from our students. Okay. Hi, I'm Miss Pramik. I
037have been with Hammond for 18.6 years. I'm also a product of Hammond. I graduated Clark High School in 1995. So, you are seeing the epitome of what School City Hammond can do. Today, I did bring my thirdyear senior. She's been in my program for three years. Her name is Jasmine and she's here to present PLTW Biomedical. All right. Good evening. My name is Jasmine Brutin and I am a senior at Hammond Central. I would like to briefly speak about the project lead the way program which is in its fourth year at Hammond Central. Miss Prumik has worked very hard to receive her certifications. Speaking with her, she worked through three summers to gain 280 hours of certifications to teach each of her three courses. Being an aid, I have had firsthand assisting her with setting
038up and dismantling numerous labs. These can often take days to complete. She often stays past her contract hours, working late to write worksheets, translate them into Spanish, create virtual content for her Morton students, set up breakdown lab activities, and complete assessments. The demands on her are overwhelming and for that she should have greater compensation. Throughout my time in the PLTW program with Miss Promeik, I've had the opportunity to explore the three fascinating courses, anatomy, physiology, biomedical science, and medical interventions. In anatomy and physiology, I learned about the structures of the human body and how everything works together, which deepened my appreciation for the complexity of life. In in biomedical science course, I learned about different careers in medicine and forensic science while also participating in various labs that helped us understand real world medical challenges.
039along with medical interventions which allowed me to explore different diseases and their treatments, gaining insight into how medical technologies and procedures help improve patient outcomes. The program has grown from graduating five students last year to approximately 28 students this year. This is an outstanding achievement. Miss Prumik has created a sense of community with her students throughout the years and cares about them wholeheartedly. She cares about her students and we care about Miss Prummit. These courses have all sparked her students passion for science and because of them the majority of us plan to major in the careers we have studied and researched. Many of us will be going to college to chase our dreams as Miss Promeik has encouraged us to do so. Thank you for your time. Very good. Good evening, U Mr. Buckner. Uh,
040this is my third year at Hammond Central. Um, I brought with you uh or brought with me Alexis uh Ruiz. She is uh in her first year of the engineering program uh for project lead the way. Um I'll let you tell uh let her tell you a little bit about it. So hello everyone. My name is Alexis Ree and I will tell you why engineering class is like so fun and Mr. Buckner has made it even much more fun. Right. So engineering in itself is you see you create an idea in your head. Mhm. But to see it in real life is something different. So first you create a sketch an idea and then we have Fusion 360 which allows us to create it through a 3D um software modeling and then finally you can
041see it through a 3D printer in real life. It's fascinating to watch your create your ideas come to life whether it's a simple keychain or even a custom part. And that what makes this class so much more fun and interesting is. And for my final exam, he told us to create a c a puzzle cube. Mhm. A 3x3x3. And it was entirely for us to create. How will this puzzle piece go? I worked late nights on it. And this is I gave in the board numbers on a puzzle [Laughter] cube. As much as it it's probably a little difficult to a lot a lot it was quite difficult to make but with Mr. Buckner here he has shown me how to create it. Yeah, I didn't know. So, uh, she wanted to create and give
042you guys all a copy of her final exam. So, this was her special unique design. She came up with it. She figured out the, uh, the pattern to solve it. Um, every student was tasked with creating a 3x3 cube. Like she said, um, they all had to have a minimum of six pieces. So, you will see that they all had six pieces there. So, everyone's unique design came up with everyone's unique design. It was it was literally uh it was it was people banging heads against walls. It was pretty funny. They they got pretty frustrated with it. Um but in the end it was it was a it was a success and it was fun to see uh that light bulb come on with them and and actually when they got to hold their final
043exam in their hand uh when they were looking at it on a piece of paper designing it and in the end they had it in their hand 3D printed um the smiles on their faces was just amazing. So thank you for your time. Wish us luck. Thank you so much for the Thank you. Thank you for the challenge. Okay. Right. Definitely a challenge. To continue, I would like to talk about our early college program. Our early college program is definitely expanding. Um we have lots of students who are taking dual credit classes. And I am very proud to say that this year, listen to this, 25 of our graduating seniors will obtain the IC, which is the Indiana College Corps. And that means that they in high school have completed 30 college credit hours for
044free. For free. And collectively when we start thinking about the fees and tuition for school, I'm sure that they are are not spending or we've saved them probably a half a million dollars with with everything in the way uh college costs now. So I want to say thank you to Mrs. Castillo for working very very hard to keep the program going at Hammond Central. And I want to say thank you to my early college teachers because without them going the extra mile to become dual credit credentialed, we would not have an early college program. So I definitely appreciate my teachers for that. Great. As you all were walking in, I know you heard that great music being played and my student voice, her beautiful, beautiful voice singing. That was our very own rock band. Okay,
045so I wanted to get you guys hyped as you guys were coming into the presentation tonight. They are phenomenal. Mr. Acres is an awesome teacher. He was out there with the students. He's awesome like all my other Happa teachers. Um I have personally been in his classroom and I have seen him take students from what is this instrument to rocking out with his band during his performances. So that man has a lot of musical talent and I wouldn't be able to do it but he is and he makes our students great. So I do want to say our students have learned a lot, performed a lot, competed and won a lot and visited colleges um throughout the years to help enhance their skills. Also cuz you know at Hammond Central we just have a whole
046lot of great news. Our students, 37 of our students and some of our teachers went to Europe over the spring break and had Yep. Say it. Uh-huh. Yep. Clock that. Clock that T. Yes, they definitely went to Europe over spring break and had an amazing time. They visited Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. Um, at Hammond Central, we want our students to be well-rounded and well traveled. Next, I will ask for Ad Moore. could you please come up and give us some of those athletic highlights at Hammond Central, please? Thank you, Miss Harrison. Good evening, board. I am Chris Moore. I have the honor of serving as the athletic director at Hammond Central. And as you see, we have a number of athletic accomplishments want to highlight and thanks for showing up. Uh, one here in
047particular, I didn't see him walk in. Uh but one here in particular, we had uh actually two of our wolves were um qualifiers for the state tournament. Uh one is Diana Hernandez. I don't think she was able to make it today, but this was the inaugural year for the girls wrestling uh state tournament. She qualified. And then we had our first other Wolf, Elijah Carter, senior that qualified. So here's Elijah Carter. [Applause] [Laughter] Yeah, that's right. Thank you. Yeah, I remember we had him on WJ OB. Yeah. Yeah, you had him and Diana on WJ OB. That was awesome. Uh I think I have some more people back there. I'm not sure. I didn't see him either, but uh if you draw your attention up there, we have, you know, a couple highlights that we
048wanted to point out besides him. We had a sectional champion. Javon Butler's up there. Uh, and then we had our first ever girls basketball sectional title as well. And I did have the team here. I thought they were back there. We might have lost them. Uh, but yes, we definitely had them. But just a couple other highlights I wanted to to make mention. But again, just with the girls basketball, that was their first title. Coach Howard uh Kimmel was here. Uh but she definitely wanted to say thank you for all the support. We did see you guys at our you made the trip over to Crown Point. A couple you made the trip out to uh what was that? Leaport we were at. Yeah. So thank you for that. We do appreciate it. Uh but
049other than that, you know, student athletes is what we we do here, right? We don't just do athletes. The student part is very important. So we are actually very honored that nine of our top 20 were student athletes, varsity athletes. So we just want to give them acknowledgement as well. And just a couple quick names, uh, in football, we had Anthony Hinton. He was academic all state. Uh, we had a volleyball player signed to go to South Suburban College, senior Nvea Gibbson. Another football player signed to go to Tri University, Greg Dodson. Um, and we have an uh, I want to say about four or five other students that are deciding right now where they want to go for for college, but we should have some more signings here coming up. So, we'll we'll definitely
050post that on our Twitter accounts and our Facebook page. Uh, besides wrestling and girls basketball, um, we did have a couple of individual honors within uh, basketball as well. I want to highlight India Hutchinson and Marcus Browder, both on our basketball team scored a thousand points in their career this year. Uh and along with a number of other accomplishments, you know, we we still have the spring to go to finish up. We should have more, but again, I don't want to take too much of your time. You see some of the pictures there. We're just definitely honored for the support and we'll keep it up. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you, ABmore. Much appreciated. All right. We're going to move along. scholarships and commitments. Mr. um Mr. Moore already gave you a couple
051of the commitments. I will not go through all the scholarships, but I have a student right now who's been offered $88,000 to go to school. So, I'm just so I I I don't even have any words for that amount of money to be offered, but she truly deserves it. But we have a she's going to Notre Dame. Um and we do have a slide full of scholarships and they keep coming in. We have some amazing educators who probably didn't know they were in this live presentation, but here they are. Um, they're not the only unsung they're not the only unsung heroes in the building, but I'm just going to highlight three of them. Um, Miss Brown, she's been selected for the Teach Plus Indiana Fellowship, one of 14 teachers across the state of Indiana. Um,
052and it's a teacher leadership program that ch trains teachers to advocate for educational policies. Mrs. Castillo, she was a finalist for the Northwest Indiana Influential Women's Award in 2024 and she keeps our early college program afloat. Uh, Mrs. Tuks, she is new to teaching. Um, but she was highlighted on Matterof fact with Solo Dad O'Brien. Um, they came and filmed her in our school. Um, and she discussed the plight of special education teachers. She's new to the profession, but she is definitely great with our students and a and a heartfelt um asset to us. We have a few things that are upcoming at HC. So, we've been talking with representatives because we're trying to get Special Olympics at Hammond Central. So, we were too late in the talks this year. So, hopefully we can get
053it off the ground next year. Um because we want welltraveled students, we're going to Spain in 2026. Um so I want to thank Mrs. Robless for leading the charge on planning this experience for our students and staff. Um and we have a new partnership with Franciscan Dyer. Um I know everyone has heard the words mental health, but come and work in a school and just really see what our students are going through. And so we need those partnerships to help support them. Uh so we have a new partnership coming with Franciscan Dyer to help our students with their mental health. Before I end, I would like to highlight the teachers who are here in the audience from Hammond Central. Could you please stand? Staff, support staff, teachers, students, and some refuse to stand, but they
054are here and I truly support you guys coming tonight um to to you know give support. You you just see at 6:00 p.m. and beyond they still support our students and what we do at Hammond Central and I am truly grateful for them. So, I want to say I hope that you have enjoyed our good news and I hope that you will take this information that you've learned about Hammond Central and spread the good news across the community. Absolutely. [Applause] Wow. A tremendous thank you to all of our presenters, Irvin, Edison, Franklin, and Hammond Central. This is what it's all about, restoration and elevation. And you have certainly warmed our hearts with each and every one of your presentations. We'll give you a couple of minutes for those that want to walk out and we'll
055prepare ourselves for our next uh and last presentation. Be safe going home. Thank you. Our next presentation, financial presentation. All right. Good evening, uh, school board members and, um, Daniel Dalton with Senator Dalton Municipal Adviserss. Can you hear me? Yes. Should I wait a moment? just, [Applause] you know, with the rock band out in the lobby and the mariachi choir and the fourth grade choir, it's going to be hard for me to captivate you. Well, you going to show us how we can keep them. I got the money. We always put you in a tough spot. Okay, I'll go ahead and get started then. So, I'm here to to give a brief presentation on just the activity through March 31st, 2025. Um, you're used to this document. Um, on the top left box, you'll see
056we break down the cash balances for the education fund, the debt service fund, the referendum debt service fund, the operations fund, rainy day, and then self- insurance. And then we provide a comparison of the last three months to what it looked like back last year, last calendar year for 2024. Moving on down this this page, you'll see that we list out the percent of the budget that has been spent for both the education fund and the operations fund through March. So you'll see education, we've spent about 22% of the budget for the operations fund. We spent just roughly 25% of the budget and that that's on track with okay 100%. If it's the end of March, that's 25% of the year. So, we're we're on we're on track. Off to the right side there, you'll
057see we have adjusted some of these target cash balances to reflect a 30% target cash reserve, which is just a slight increase from what we had previously. Um, for the education fund, we increased that to $24 million. As you can see, our current cash is 16 roughly $16.5 million. So, there's a negative variance that we can, you know, work to achieve, work to strive towards. Um, in the operations fund, you'll see that we have a target of $9 million and our current cash is 16.5. um rainy day, we do not have a target there, but that's that's a fund where we we invest into it or there there really is no need for to establish a target cash balance for that specific fund. Self- insurance, we establish a target and I spoke with um your
058self- insurance broker this week regarding what he thought the right target cash reserve should be for self insurance. We both agreed $4 million was a good number. So that's a good target for us to to strive for this this calendar year. Now moving on, uh you'll see I listed out the total total cash of all the funds. And then we also list out what the January, February, March transfers from the education to the operations funds fund were and again we're in line with 14 or 15% transfer from education operations. All right. Uh, moving on to the next page. Do I have a clicker? Thank you. All right. So, here's a listing of all of the title funds as as requested last month, which includes title one, title two, title three, title four, and all the
059various calendar or calendar or school years. Apologies. And so, that's where they sit today through March. And then off to the right there is where we are listing the total amount awarded for each of those grants as we had discussed last month when I was here. So based on that, Madame President, do you have any questions for me or do does any of the board members have a question for me on this on this final? Any questions board members? Trusty? No. No, sir. Go. You can keep going. Okay. Uh that that actually concludes my report. I will not flip through this the rest of the summary pages because that is a reiteration of what I just flipped through. It is um basic just a breakdown of the monthby-month cash flow of each of the various
060funds. But if you do have a question on some of that detail, I am happy to dive into that. And what is our balance? Total cash total cash balance. Yes. So on that first page, total cash balance of all of the funds, 42,536,87922. [Music] Gotcha. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I'm good. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Mhm. [Applause] Is that the cont Mr. Cinder? Are you okay? Good evening, Carl Cinder. I know you've asked me to come just to give you a brief update on what's happening in the general assembly. And as we all know, there's been a lot of activity uh down in Indianapolis. And as of Friday, Senate Bill One has been approved by both houses. And a quick summary of that is it's really giving um homeowners, property
061taxpayers relief uh from taxes. Um and the detriment is our schools as well as local units of government. I guess if there is a silver lining in all of this, um, some of these changes in our property tax system will be phased in over the next five or six years. Um, LSA legislative services put out a report that shows the impact to all units of government and all schools. As we're talking with some of our colleagues throughout the state, we're not sure that because the bill was just approved on Friday. Gotcha. We're not sure that the estimates that they're listing here are really accurate yet. There's a lot of moving pieces as I mentioned in these bills. Like for example, they're um taking away the homestead deduction over a period of years, but there's going
062to be an increase in the supplemental deduction that's actually going to lower assessed values and that will cause a shortfall in revenues to the schools. Now, the report from LSA does come out and show that for the next two years, we'll have an increase in in overall property tax revenues of 3.6 million in 26, um 1.4 million in 27, but then it starts to go down in 28 of at least 3 million. Again, I'd be rather cautious of this, I think, as we'll see. one, does our governor sign the bill? I would expect that he will. Um, so just we have some time to kind of work on projecting cash balances. We have some time to kind of plan for what these cuts might be in years three, four, and five uh down the road.
063And we're going to need to be prepared for this. Um, some other things to be um, also on your radar is we're going to have to be sharing some of our operations revenue with our charter schools um, over a certain threshold. I think the last I heard was if they had more than 100 students, right? Um, we'll be losing our portions of our operating levies. Um there'll be if we ever decide to do another referendum, it will be in a general election year in November. And there are certain other restrictions on issuing general obligation bonds. So, I know there's also um going to be offering local units of government, counties, cities, um fire protection territories ability to um put uh increase the local option income tax, but there's no provision for schools. So again, we'll
064see how all this shakes out and maybe at a future meeting um between ISPA and ourselves, we can maybe give you some further clarification, but just wanted you to hear a little bit about what's happening down in Indianapolis these days and um we at least have some time to get ready for it. Thank you. Any questions from the board? I know we have have already asked you to start working on our cash flows and forecast for the next two or three years. So based on what you said today, I'm sure the numbers have probably changed since you've been working on it. So um it's increasingly important that we, you know, get that so that we can review and know exactly what we can spend and what we can't. We have to be ex I won't
065say frugal, but we have to be cautious because again um I'll just throw this out here. Uh Superintendent Reed and I did meet the new um due web director. We did a sum zoom call. So keeping that in mind, we are we're not so much under their watch, but they're basically are watching us, but not technically. So we have to be extremely careful as we move forward. And I thank you for that. So, I know it. Do you know how soon we'll probably get those projections or cash flows or are you just going to wait until you know I know maybe by your next meeting we can maybe I'm not but again I'm not sure we're going to have digested everything that's happening here in Senate Bill one but at least we can start working
066on what we do know and um so it may be another month yet but u give us a little bit of time and we'll try and get those um these put together. They're going to be everchanging. So, and it was that other report we had talked about. You know, folks have still been asking about this forensic audit and now we know we can't afford it. We're going to talking to you. We can call it something else. You know, we're not right. So, uh it's more or less an overview because the Hammond Times did do the report on all of the esser and two monies. It's already posted. You know, we know I've seen the pie chart the percentages of money that was spent from Hammond and the gray area and that the gray area is
067what concerned me. So, he has that as well. So, at some point, uh, Mr. Cinder and their company will be putting that together for us. Not a forensic audit, but it's basically a report showing us exactly where the money went. then it'll be up to the administrators and educators to see whether or not that money was used for the loss of learning or as the uh reasons why it was you know given to us in the first place. So he is also working on that for the public that keeps asking about the forensic audit there won't be any but it'll be the same thing but we we calling it something else correct thank you Mr. S. All right thank you. Okay, next. Public expression first period. What time is it? 71. Okay. Our first speaker,
068Cindy Murphy. Cindy Murphy. Uh my comments will be all on the financial presentation tonight. People just got their property tax bills and they want to thank tens of thousands of homeowners, landlords, and businesses are thanking persons on this board because they made sure that the referendum and 23 failed. They're also thanking the members of this board who actively last year even though we had a whole bunch of people out getting signatures that made sure that the vote never came up so was back on the ballot last November and then unfortunately we hear it has to wait for another general election. So it's not going to happen this year. So when you're looking at the financial report here, so debt service is act at a negative 5 million. It should be explained how we can do
069that and that's on the float monies, but that's not my job. The referendum dollars you got left 431,000. Of course, that runs out by June. Where are you going to put those people who are getting paid on those dollars? Right now with this financial report, you're seeing the cash balances slowly deteriorate because the property owners here in Hammond just got a $15 million cut in their property taxes. The school board no longer gets that $15 million and counting. So that's going to cause you some problems. As you just said, that Senate bill passed. One of the things that's missing in these reports, February ADM came out. How many students did we lose? What is the fiscal impact? We didn't hear that. That's always been part of our financial reports, but we didn't hear it this
070year. And by the way, talking to teachers from other districts, a lot of good stuff comes up at test tournaments. Other districts do not allow them to graduate early. This is something that we should be looking into. So they make those CLA kids take at least one to two classes, do the full senior year, and either they're aids at the elementary schools, they bust them over there, or they can be aids at the high school. That's a great idea by keeping those dollars in the district, and we don't lose that loss of money to the next coming year. We're sending out bonuses right now for getting new teachers and we need to be doing that because I was talking to a parent this week and she said her kid's signing up for the ACC for
071next year, but there's no guarantee that there will be a capstone for his senior year. This is already this is what Hammond is known about is our area career center. and we see the amazing stuff that happened at Franklin, but if we don't have those two-year programs and we don't have the teachers up there, what are our kids going to do? So, this is running out of time. Well, I guess I ain't got time to go finish this until the next period. Thank you. Our next speaker, Mr. Buck. Wow. Good evening, board. Good evening. I am delighted to see a new board. I I really am. I just was able to make it out for the first time this year. I be so busy. You know, 7:00 is midnight at my house. So, I get
072in, shower, eat, that's it. But as far as the referendum, someone said we didn't get it passed because board members up there is glad it didn't pass. Well, it didn't get passed because the people didn't trust the last board member with it. They were abusing the money as far as my opinion is because I don't see the former superintendent driving that Cadillac that we were paying for anymore. Wasting money. That's why the referendum did not get passed. The people didn't trust the last board with the money. Yes, the state is doing us an injustice as far as the school system, but we gonna make it through because if we have a board, and I believe we do, that's really for our children. We're going to make it through. All that other board was about the
073garbage and all the hiccups out of, but we're going to make it through. I've been praying for you guys that you guys do this thing and get it right for the best interest of our children and not our friends and our community and bring this school system back and and I believe you all can do that and that's why we elected you. We needed something that one that said kid first. kids first personal agenda. That's that's later, but kids first. And so I I appreciate that and I'll just continue to pray that this board makes it happen. And if something that I can do to help you all, let me know. Have a blessing. Thank you. Thank you. Last speaker on the list, Wanda Pucket. [Applause] Y'all know who I am. I'm on the pocket.
074Let me say I'm proud of y'all. What y'all doing? It's the first time first year we have students actually coming out showing us they talent what they are learning in school. We need to do this every meeting. Now second of all that sign in bonus if that going to include the pair professionals the teachers that's already stuck there. Hear me out because I got a a baby. She in one of y'all special needs class. They need pair of professionals in there. She calls me every day when she get out of school. Grandma, grandma, grandma, she keep me informed on what she learning in school, what's going on and everything. Now we need par professional. If that money is going to include some of those par profofessional and the teachers that stuck with y'all and riding
075this out or is it just going to be for the newcomers? I rather for y'all to take it and split it 50/50. put it inside the school and as well as some of them newcomers cuz those teachers in there, we know I know what they going through cuz you hear the kids in the neighborhood talking. Listen to your kids parents cuz your kids is telling you the truth. Our teachers is catching it. Now it's time for the parents to get up and bag the teachers up. I'm coming every day, every meeting, and I'mma bag these teachers up as well as the parents. And I need the parents to get behind me. Let's bag these teachers up and get some parents in the room. And if you ain't have a background check yet, get one so
076you can be able to go inside of a classroom and help out. If you don't know how to deal with a dis autistic child, get training. You can get training on learning how to handle a dis. We all need help. We all need to jump on and come on board and help cuz ain't no one teacher in no classroom going to be able to do it by herself. And that's the truth. Get some parents in them classroom or either train some of these parents after they do their background check. Go to county. I ain't said go to no one Ricky Dinka. Go to county cuz county going to give you the all 50 state. So we know you coming back clean and get that background check so you can be in that classroom with those
077kids to help them teachers out and get your training cuz this is getting out of hand. Now, I can come out of retirement if you want me to. Thank you. [Applause] Oh, Jesus. The next agenda item is under unfinished business. Uh, can I have a motion to tableclusive ham in partnership with Kelly Education? Madam President, um, Trustee, I move that we table our unfinished business, the partnership with Kelly Education. We are still waiting on some documents and some answers regarding this, and I just don't feel like I'm ready to make a vote on this yet. So, I'm going to ask that we table it. Second. It's been moved and properly second that we table the school city of Hammond partnership with Kelly Education. Question. I just might add we're tableabling it to our first May
078uh meeting. Uh we'll add that to the to the motion. Would you do you mind amending your motion to say that to our first meeting in May? Thank you. Yes. So I move that we table partnership with Kelly Services to our first regular schoolboard meeting in May. Okay. Can I get a second? Second. Okay. Okay, it's been moved and properly second that we will table the school city in partnership with Kelly Education to our first meeting in May. Um, all in favor say I. I oppose. None. Eyes have it. Thank you. Uh, minutes approval. Um, do we want to do them all or are we going to take them one by one? You think we could we could probably break them up. Executive sessions. Um, can I have a motion to approve the executive session
079minutes of March 4th and the regular schoolboard minutes of March 4th? No. Break them up. The executive sessions together. Okay. Okay. I got you. I got I'm sorry. Help me. Thank you. Well, team got Okay, let's start over again. May I need a motion to approve uh executive sessions for March 4th, 11th, and 18th? Madam President, uh, Trustee Kendall, I move for the approval of items A, B, and C, which are approvals of the executive session minutes March 4th, 2025, March 11th, 2025, and March 18th, 2025 as presented. Do I hear a second? Second. It's been moved and properly second that we approve uh A, B, and C under minutes under our um under minutes. All in favor say any questions? No questions. No discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Eyes have it.
080Do I hear a motion to approve the schoolboard minutes, regular schoolboard minutes of March 4th and March 18th? Madame President, Trustee Canera, I move for the approval of items D and E, the approval of school board meeting minutes March 4th, 2025 and March 18th, 2025 as presented. We have a second. Second. It's been moved and properly second that we approve the schoolboard minutes of March 4th and 18, items D and E under minutes. Any questions, discussion? All in favor say I. I oppose. Eyes have motion carried. Um consent agenda. Um do I hear a motion to approve our consent agenda? Madame President, Trusty Kendalla, I move for the approval of the consent agenda items A through F as presented. Do I hear a second? Second. It's been moved and properly second that we approve the
081consent agenda from A to F. Um any any discussion? I will read the accounts payable dodge docket register. Trusty Stanford. Accounts payable voucher register dated April 15, 2025 consisting of $391 pages 1,13239 for claims total and 2,435 197.10 total for payroll. Thank you. Are there any other discussions or questions on our consent agenda? Are we ready to vote? All in favor favor say I. I oppose. Abstain. Eyes have it. One abstension. Thank you very much for the record. Okay. Under new business, Mr. Selenus. Other new business, we are asking for the approval of the memorandum of understanding between Ball State University and Morton High School. Do you want to explain it just a little bit? Um, this is a a um memorandum of understanding between Morton High School and Ball State to continue our uh
082dual credit uh Chinese program classes for the high school. Thank you, Mr. Selenus. You're welcome. Do I have a motion? Madame President, Trusty Kennelera, I move for the approval of theou between Ball State University and Morton High School as presented. We have a second. Second. It's been moved and properly second for the approval of theou between Ball State University and Morton High School. Are we ready to vote? All in favor say I. Opposed? Eyes have it. Thank you, Mr. Selenus. Next is the approval of bid award for school board attorney the name or for the record what does it do then me do you have to she has to do what she has to give the name you announce the law firm you announce the law firm it's public comment on Wait a minute. Wait
083a minute. So, she just reads that. Okay. Okay. The the contract amount is that what you're saying? Yeah. The law firm. Oh, the law Okay. Okay. The law firm for the record is U. Harris Law Firm and um that's it. Okay. Is that okay? Is that it? Thank you. We're learning up here. Okay. The the law firm is Harris Law Firm. Okay. Um what's the pleasure of the board? Do we hear a motion? Madam President, Trustee Spencer, I move for the approval of bid award for schoolboard attorney with Harris Law Firm. Do I hear a second? Second. It's been moved and probably second for the approval of the bid award for schoolboard attorney uh Harris Law Firm. Any discussion? Madame President, can I request a roll call vote on this matter, please? Absolutely. Any other
084discussion? Roll call vote. Trustee uh is Trusty Guerrera? No. Trusty Spencer? Yes. Trusty Stanford? Yes. Trusty Candella? No. Trusty Blake King, yes. Eyes have it, three and two. Welcome aboard. Um, Mr. Attorney Harris. Um, Mr. Selenos. Next is the approval of the contract with Mrs. Linda Randolph who will be providing technical instructional support to all of our schools in school city of Hammond. Thank you. Can do I hear a motion of approval of contract for Miss Linda Randolph? Madam President, Trustee Kendalla, I move for the approval of the contract with Linda Randolph as presented. Do I hear a second? Second. It's been moved and properly second for the approval of the contract with Linda Randolph. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? Ready to vote. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Eyes have it. Welcome
085aboard, Mrs. Randolph. Thank you so much for your service, past and present. All right. Our calendar for the year um Tuesday, May 6, executive session and regular board meeting, May 6. We might have to change this date because it conflicts with a very important regional meeting that we must attend on the same date. So we you you all will get notified with the proper timing of when we will have that one. The other one will be Tuesday May 20th executive session and regular board meeting on May 20th as well. 5:15 for executive session and 6 pm for our minute for our regular school board meeting. That's that. Okay. Uh, next on the agenda is our public expression second period. First community speaker, Cindy Murphy, Cindy Murphy, um, Edison Science Olympiad. Wow. I hope you have
086all the kids from Hammond at a later uh meeting so we can see what they did. Especially mousetrap racer. It's not good on the carpets but maybe on the steps here. It is so much fun. Ultra barge building takes some water. Maybe you can't do it. Um structure is the same thing because those are weightbearing things. So how does this tie into what PLTW we heard out earlier? This is teachers stepping out of the box and giving 110% to our kids. And we need science olympiad in every single school. It didn't happen this year, but this is rebuilding. Remember elevate and restoration. We need science olympiad in every single school. And the time to be asking teachers or even lay coaches is now. Send the word out. because it was a teacher that got Team
087Hammond Robotics all excited, that got the PLTW kids all excited and taking those classes. And it all starts in elementary school. Now, I want to go back to the last meeting. And I said a four-letter word, and it was hope. And I really love the presentation at the last board meeting. Excuse me. But what I'm not seeing is who's going to be our next superintendent. We still have an interim. The community wants to know because the uncertainty of not having a superintendent in place falls through everything else. You need a CFO. There was a blood bath at the beginning of the year, which we're going to see by June 30th. Other people losing leaving the district. And you need a superintendent in place so that person can say, "We have stability here in Hammond. we
088have stability so come here come work for us and so by not having that person in place it doesn't give us the stability to go attract the people to come work here so and the other thing I want to say is this would be your first black female superintendent it's time for Hammond to break the ceiling to pound that ceiling into grass so it can never be put together again this is a momentous occasion that we should be celebrating instead of not hearing about it and it's up to the board. So if it comes to the contract, we know that the state wants everybody to come and give comments to it is to back your new superintendent. Let them lead. The super the school board needs to sit back and let the superintendent lead with
089the vision, mission, and strategic plan already in place. So, I hope you guys are going to do the hard work and we get someone in place here soon so we can start replacing all the people that's going to be lost by June 30th. Thank you. Thank you. Next community speaker, Vanessa Veins. Thank you. Good evening and happy Tuesday. Um, just want to start off. I am on your side. Um, I am wishing you the best. Um, I'm excited that you're up there. However, I got to drop the ball. I would like to talk about the color copier situation. On Monday, March 31st, I learned that I would no longer be able to make colored copies. I understand that we're on a budget and that there are things that need to be cut, but I am
090asking that this decision be brought back to the table to be re-examined and discussed with primary teacher input as soon as possible. I'm a kindergarten teacher and I would really like to have access to a color copier to continue creating reading and math centers in my classroom for my children. These centers are used to provide practice, enrichment, small groupoup instruction, and reteing. They reinforce the standards that are being taught in the classroom and are an intricral part to the kindergarten curriculum. Color is critical in kindergarten. Color motivates, encourages creativity, stimulates interest, captures the attention of young students, and aids in focusing and concentration with the little ones. In fact, studies suggest that color aids in emotional development, stimulates the brain, supports cognitive development, and enhances academic performance. also color guides and age children who are
091non-readers with tracking. Diverse learners, LDP students, and special education students are also dependent on visual cues in color. Instead of eliminating the use of color copies altogether, why not put a limit on our key card? Then you can monitor and track who's using the most color copies. I understand that color copies I I'm sorry. I know the color copier is being abused by some teachers who make multiple classroom sets of worksheets in color on a daily basis. And when that's done, that is very expensive and wasteful. And I truly understand your stance and position. But why punish us all? I am using color to create reading and math centers and stations. These centers are used to enhance the learning environment and reach all learners at different levels throughout the school year. Most primary teachers are
092not printing colored classroom sets, but one laminated center as such. And here's one example. The only time I'm printing a classroom set is when I am printing birthday certificates, academic achievement words, um I ready certificates in reading and math. Otherwise, it is one copy in color on a piece of card stock which is provided by me and laminated by me. Thank you, Mrs. Allowing teachers act. Are we done? We're done. Well, certainly uh uh our administrators hear your concern and it will not fall on deaf ears. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Next community speaker, Mr. Buck. Oh boy. Hello again. I heard someone say they heard the word hope in the last meeting. And I hope that hope stands for help our people elevate because that's what our children need. We need to elevate
093our children. I hope that's the hope they're talking about. Then they say, "Well, teachers are going to be leaving. The last board ran them away. They mistreated them on the contract. They mistreated them on their insurance and now they want to come up here and say teachers are leaving. You ran them away. You know what you did. Don't be trying to put it on this board. Those teachers was gone before this board got here. They were walking out the door while you were mistreating them. And then to say, "Let the superintendent run the school, not the board." Didn't say that four years ago. You had a puppet. You act like the I I believe the superintendent was afraid of you because as nasty as you were to everyone that came up here, I can only
094imagine how you would treat him behind closed doors. So quit quit trying to blame everything on this board. This board is going to get it together. And you wonder why that the other board fell apart. Because God don't bless mess. That's why it fell apart. But if you are God-fearing people, things done God's way has God support. I don't care what the state do. If God say it's going to happen, you going to make it. You going to make it. That Bible ain't never said depend on man. Nowhere. They tell you, "Don't depend on man. Cast all your cares upon me." God will see this through. If you're doing the right thing, watch God bless it. Have a great day. Thank you. Our last second session speaker is Wanda Pucket. Jesus. I'm not even going
095to introduce myself now. Y'all talk about a puppet on the string. We had one on the board. Had a puppet on the string. Was dancing whenever they say dance. Jump whenever they say jump. When the teachers come and ask for help, they didn't want to listen. They was on their knees begging for help, but she act like she was the superintendent. Instead of letting the superintendent run the board, they caused the problem. Ran all our good teachers away, staff members away. We trying to get them back. I hope ain't nobody campaigning for the seats up there cuz you won't get them long as I got breath in my body. Cuz I don't mind about sitting at home on the phone. I can call everybody in East Hammond. North Hammer, South Ham, West Ham, whatever you
096want me to call and campaign for them because you would not get back on this board to tear it down. We got our students coming out representing the school city of Hammond and representing Hammond. We don't need nobody tearing Hammond down again. We hold our head up proud, not looking down on them. We got reckless school board members act more professional than the regular school board we had before. They sitting up there. Look, look how proud they sitting up there. You can tell we got a bunch of educators up there. Look at them. Smile, ladies and gentlemen. Put that smile on your face. Y'all ain't got to sit up there and look frown like y'all was last year. I like to see that frown. Y'all ain't tensed up. I'm missing my two buddies over there
097where they at. I know Easter's coming up, so they might be with their family. So, I see y'all later at the next board meeting. Y'all know who I'm talking about. Now, Mr. attorney. I hope you come in and do the right thing with this board. Don't let nobody get all up in your ear. Do your investigation. Talk directly to me. Uh Mr. I'm just being honest with you. I know you don't sit back and watch the board before it see me up here. I'm just being honest with you. But I like you so far. And when you do wrong, I'm going to tell you when you're wrong. And when you're right, I'm going to tell you when you're right. These is our babies. Mrs. Clark, director, comments to me, please. I'm looking at everybody. Everybody.
098We need to get together and do something better for these teachers. Ain't no one teacher got no business in no classroom having kids by herself. State giving y'all money for them special need kids. Where money at? It's for they need. It's for they pair. whatever they need. Where it at? Some of them students supposed to have a one-on-one pair. I know I got my I got autistic grandb babies. Okay. And I can go by I can say it. I can go by what they would say. I'm speaking on my own. Thank you very much. Okay. I'm speaking on my own. Yes, ma'am. Some of the IEP said appear oneonone. Thank you, Mrs. Plunkin. Okay, I heard Miss Pucket say she's coming out of retirement. I did my best. We are now under reports. Um, Mr.
099Selen, do you have anything on behalf of the superintendent? I do. On behalf of Superintendent Reed, I'd like to um acknowledge a few of our buildings. First and foremost, the area Career Center. The Hammond Area Career Center celebrated the achievements of 106 students who completed competed in the 2025 Indiana Skills USA state competition on April 12th. Students placed in the top three uh across 15 categories earning silver and bronze in areas like EMT, video production, and mechnics. Gold medalists will advance to the national competition in Atlanta, Georgia this June. Congratulations to all of our students at the ACC. Woo! at Franklin Elementary. I'd like to welcome and congratulate all of our science olympia teams uh who earned first place at the Hammond competition for the fourth year in a row. Congratulations to Franklin Elementary School
100at Irving. Kudos to all Irving uh elementary students who participated in the science olympiad at Mortyn High School. and Irving would like to send a shout out to all of the parents for their support. Very good. And last but not least, Scott Middle School. Scott Middle School will host a Star Wars STEM night on April 30th from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. Families are invited to enjoy hands-on themed activities like a death star drone course, galaxy slime, and a lightsaber LED cards. It's free for all Scott Middle School families. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any board announcements? Oh, someone what's what? Did she sign in? I don't think we can. What's the consensus? What's the I just don't recall. Well, we don't want to. I mean, we're going to have to table that. We have
101to sign in. We do have administrative guidelines and once we do it for one, you know, we are expected to do it for others. We appreciate that. But come back, come after the meeting and let us know what it's about and then we can do get it out there. Is that fair? Thank you. Okay. Um any board announcements among any board members? I would just like to say a couple of things. Um, Reena Han left a little early, but I just want to share that all of her kids wrote me cards and when I'm feeling down, I read them. They've drawn pictures of me. These are the cutest things that I have ever seen. So, I just want to thank them again. And whenever I need a pickme up, I read these cards again. A
102I would also like to leave a thought with everyone. As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. How do we rebuild connections in our community to nurture and guide our children to success to embrace our families to create an overall sense of humanity? How do we focus on working together for the elevation of our children to continue to share new ideas to provide the highest education possible for our kids? They really are our future and it is up to all of us to ensure they become educated, responsible, productive members of society. This is the responsibility of everyone in our community and we must work together to achieve this goal. Our children depend on us to do so. Thank you very much for that. Any other announcements? I would just like to
103announce we will be on WJB tomorrow 9:05 a.m. Uh we will be showcasing and congratulating part of our robotics team. uh first deans list finalist was Molina M and she will be going to Houston, Texas to compete. So give her a big round of applause and we're going to showcase hers tomorrow on WJO. Also, thank you for the Skill USA competition. Uh we're going to we're going to ask Mr. Hicks to come to he will be part of our show tomorrow as well to highlight many of the students um that participated in that Indian in Indianapolis this past weekend. And finally, I would just like to thank the uh junior ROTC Major Bonds and Sergeant Share. He presented myself and Superintendent Reed with some incredible Where did I put it? Oh Jesus. Oh, that Well,
104they made of they carved them themselves. Where is Oh my god. Did I throw it away? Well, anyway, I would just like to thank them publicly for uh presenting us with those awards that they were literally hand engraved and uh for attending the military ball and we had a ball. Mrs. Harris, she was there and we just had a grand time with those children. So, uh that concludes my announcements. So, please listen to WJB 9:05 a.m. tomorrow. Any other business? We have a motion to adjurnn. So, move. Second. Second.