001with 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] ask 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 him Central is definitely the students the people you know all the people I met uh since I've been here cuz I moved here from uh middle school so like the people have been great I made a lot of memories since freshman year uh my year all the years you know some days you gonna have days where like you don't want to come but like like the days I
002come 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 good there's never any like problems or nothing and it's always like Good Vibes everybody's like [Music] I like the people okay 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 teacher the most about the school yeah tell my experience that Mor's pretty good I don't have any complaints okay the atmosphere is good here and there's
003there's good people here because um when she teaches it like actually makes me want to actually try the things she teaches cuz of the way she she does it uh so like inspiring to me go Nation Let's Ride [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] ask 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
004him Central was definitely the students the people you know all the people I met uh since I've been here cuz I moved here from uh middle school so like the people have been great I made a lot of memories since freshman year uh sou my 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 good there's never any like problems or nothing and it's always like Good Vibes everybody like [Music] I like the people okay I like the community
005I 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 teacher is the most about the school yeah I think my experience that Mor's 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 of the way she she does it is uh so like inspiring to me go Nation Let's Ride [Music] I love the school um the students are like really nice um the teachers they really positive and yeah like the teachers at
006my 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] ask 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 him Central was definitely the students the people you know all the people I met uh since I've been here cuz I moved here from uh middle school so like the people have been great I made a lot of memories since freshman year uh sou my year all the years you know some days you going to have days where like you don't
007want 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 is it on okay we are on what an impresses audience give yourselves a big round of applause good evening and welcome to Good evening everyone those listening via streaming welcome to the school City of Hammond Tuesday March 4th 2025 regular board meeting um our first order of business is call to order with our Pledge of Allegiance and once we stand I'm asking you to remain standing as we use it at a moment of silence for the tragedy we had within our school City Family pledge allegiance Al toag the United States of America and
008to the republ for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all remain standing please for a moment of silence thank you very much roll call trusty Guera present trusty Spencer present truste Stanford present trusty candelera present trusty Blake King five present we have a quarum our board meeting can begin superintendent read first up tonight um trusty Blake King is recognition and presentation from some of our students um first up will be Harden elementary school and that tonight they'll be recognizing the student artwork welcome Harding thank you good evening president Blake King trustees and welcome superintendent Reed my name is April Grisham I am a proud teacher at Harding Elementary um I have been in school City for 34 years however if you count me being a kindergartener here it is
009a lot of years um thank you for inviting us um early birds that watch the news in the morning um know who Tracy Butler is and she has a little program called the weather Sketchers and it is a morning thing at my house and I watch it all the time and last year I decided to try it out and we sent some pictures in and two of my kids I'll give a little shout out since they're not here from last year um Adriana MZ and Carlos SOS were picked last year so two and I sent the whole class again and this time six of them were recognized and put on TV [Music] so I managed to wake up and get videotape of everybody even if the parents some of them missed it but um I'd
010like to introduce Carlos um Lopez Carlos from Stand they haven't sent the original artwork back to us yet because I did not scan everything I sent the artwork off they are going to send it back to us so we will get you some original copies but Carlos was on on Monday the 17th at 6:30 in the morning congratulations Carlos and Miss Tatiana Burns was on Thursday 2:20 at 5:30 in the morning um plian Cummings was on come on up plian on Friday 221 at 5:30 in the morning this is Miss Leilani Flores she was on TV her artwork was on TV Tuesday the 25th at 6 30 Miss Haley Hendrick Haley Joy thank you very much Wednesday the 26th um at 5:30 and then Amilia come on up Amilia Martina she was on TV on
011Friday the 28th at 6:30 so thank you for having us and um I just want to give another quick shout out i t you could see there's trees in all of these and as a a kid at Kenwood school back in the day I had an art teacher who taught us how to do these trees and so um I had an opportunity to teach these guys how to make the trees and as Cheryl Huen thw if you're listening or out there um she was our art teacher at Kenwood and I've been drawing trees like this for a lot of years but thank you very much let's give them all a big standing ovation can we take a photo Channel 7 News how impressive We're Going Global everybody don't you think so Channel 7 News turn
012[Applause] all right so superintendent Reed what's next next up is hes Elementary School Black History Month performance so welcome hes Elementary let's give him a round of applause good evening superintendent Reed Board of Trustees um tonight we'd like to honor some of our hes Hawks a couple of you actually came to our presentation so we thank you for that but our school took on the role of doing black history program um the students came in before school after school dedicated their time um so we'd like to thank the parents for that as well but not to steal a thunder I'd like to invite Mr CJ Stout to the board so that he can start talking about our presentation and our students please come up as [Applause] well yay [Applause] so we had like she said
013we had about 30 um kids that were able to participate their parents let them come after school before school um to rehearse with us um and we had such a great time I I I was glad to be able to instill some of the things um that was instilled Into Me growing Up by people like Miss Covington at Maywood um I see Miss Hampton my fourth grade teacher um and so we sang um we did a skate called through the years and we U at the end we sang um We Are the World um so we had a great time and here are just a few of our students I'm I'm going to let Nathan come and um read his part come on what you do you know he got to play LeBron James yes
014where oh M okay boy well you might be to go gymnastics B to go I'm considered to go basketball argue with Mama that's right King James is building LeBron James that is I was the youngest player to be drafted first overall by the NBA scored 40 points in a game and get a triple double in the playoffs I've been to 20 NBA All-Star games won the NBA Finals MVP four times and more I was the first I am the first active NBA player to have a n to have a Networth over 1 billion and even opening a school in my hometown to help risk students received the most important thing ever a quality education [Applause] wo okay so we are going to sing a little bit of We Are the World and we encourage you
015all to join in [Music] there comes a time when we heat a certain call when the world must come together as [Music] one there are people dying oh and it's time to lend a hand to life the greatest gift of all and we can go on pretending day by day that someone somewhere we soon make a change and we are all a part of God's great big family and the truth you know love is all we need we are the we are the children children we are the ones who make a brighter so let's start giving for make a better day just you and [Music] me wow wow that was amazing thank you very much principal Rico thank you and Mr Clyde style and to our incredible singers the song is so AF propo We
016Are the World takes us way back quiny Jones wow that was awesome superintendent Reed trusty Blake King next up we have Jefferson Elementary School coming before us with an update and some recognition GI Jefferson Elementary at school a round of applause everybody all right if I could get my three uh sa uh contest winners to come uh walk on up with your report that would be great oh look at this and uh the first thing um just bringing them up here so they're ready to go we did have a small presentation um so the first thing I want to talk a little bit about is the actual student of the month breakfast that we have every month at uh Jefferson Elementary this was a tradition that we started at uh Morton Elementary and then Dr
017Eisman was so gracious to kind of um ask and allow us to continue it here at Jefferson Elementary so we are super thankful for that and each month we choose uh one student from every classroom who embodies the character trait of the month that student is invited to a uh breakfast with their parents second Tuesday of every month around 9:30 um we oftentimes have vendors from the community come in to support as well last month we had books brushes and bands uh come in to recruit because they do have some great programs for kids in Hammond um we'd also uh enjoy just a little bit of fellowship and a little bit of um uh camaraderie it's a great time for the the teachers students and parents all to mingle and some of these students have
018even earned that recognition let's go ahead and give them one more round of applause and you can see just a few more um pictures just from our our breakfast the kids do a great job and we are very very uh thankful and and grateful for that moving forward uh we did a building wide U Black History Month essay contest we left it open-ended for each teacher so that they could apply it to the curriculum however they see fit um and we have three fantastic winners would you like me to transition over here all right you guys come on this way here and then you're going to right here in the middle here make sure theic perfect for you okay out and they are here to share some of their work we had members of the
019student council and some other student groups uh walk our hallway everything was completely student Le um and they actually helped us vote and determine who is going to be the actual sa winner so so our first reader is going to be S Barker she is a fifth grader from Miss Maguire's class let's go ahead and give her some support before she reads her awesome awesome essay hi my name is good even good evening my name is s Barker and today I'm going to be reading the biography of Simone bios Simone Aran bios Owens was born on March 14th 1997 she is 27 years old when Simone was only 2 years old she and her siblings were taken away from their drug addicted mother and placed in foster care she was adopted by her grandfather and
020his wife when biles was on a preschool field trip at the age of six she was introduced to gymnastics she was spotted by a coach named Amy Borman she then trained at that same gym for 11 years by age 11 she was at level 5 m gymnastics she quickly progressed through the levels after years of training in 2016 Simone went to the Olympics in Rio bios won four gold medals all around Vault and floor exercise she spent the year of 2020 during covid training at her Houston gym in the same year she met and began dating NFL player Jonathan Owens the 20120 Olympics had to be held back due to covid it was rescheduled to July bies won team silver and balance beam bronze but bios is most remembered at those games for starting a
021worldwide conversation after withdrawing from several finals to prioritize her Mental Health on February 14th 2022 bios announced that Owen had proposed to her and she said the easiest yes in return on April 21st 20123 Simone wedded Jonathan in a Houston Texas courthouse following their 14-month engagement the couple also had a destination wedding and the [Applause] end why do we celebrate Black History Month we celebrate Black History Month to honor to honor all the African-Americans in the United States and and all the African and all the black people who fought who fought for our rights and for us to go to the same schools and and go on the same buses mhm and people did not like the the black people at all people had to go to different schools too we honor these black African-Americans
022because they sacrificed themselves woo hello good afternoon my name is Louise and I want to read you about Catherine Johnson Boom guess who my famous africanamerican was Catherine Johnson did you know she was born in 18 1918 in West Virginia and she was famous of her work at Nasa the most interesting thing about Katherine Johnson is she won the President's the [Music] president meow learning about Catherine Johnson was amazing I think Katherine Johnson was a smart girl [Applause] woman God oh my goodness oh boy oh wow wo woo woo all right way to go fantastic job all right thank you so much oh wow you guys did a great job and that wraps up the uh Jefferson updates thank you for the opportunity absolutely thank you you another group of hidden figures my Lord okay
023superintendent Reed trusty Blake King next up we have a performance of The Little Shop of Horrors everybody give them a round of applause W oh my [Applause] goodness Papa good evening superintendent Reed uh president Blake King and members of the school board my name is Melissa brard and I am the director of the Hammond arts and Performance Academy also known as Hapa um also here tonight is Miss Cheryl swy the assistant haa director bag there um yeah it's a privilege to speak with you today about one of the most vital parts of our school Community the arts program the Arts provide more than just an outlet for creativity they help Foster discipline teamwork and problem solving skills they offer our students the chance to express themselves in ways that go beyond the classroom building confidence
024and giving them tools they can carry with them throughout their lives whether through Visual Arts like you see behind you and last month as well Music Theater or dance haa gives students the opportunity to shine and explore their talents in a supportive environment these programs not only enrich our acad mic curriculum but they also unite our community and offer an invaluable opportunity for our students to grow and connect with one another tonight we're excited to showcase the incredible Talent of our students with a performance of skid row from the musical Little Shop of Horrors for those unfamiliar Little Shop of Horrors is a quirky and dark com uh comedic story about Seymour Seymour okay a shy down on his luck florist who discovers a mysterious plant that seems to have a taste for blood as
025the plant named Audrey 2 grows and demands more nourishment Seymour finds himself trapped in a moral dilemma the show Blends humor heart in a bit of horror in a way that has captured audien's imagination for years our students have worked tirelessly on this performance and we are thrilled to share their hard work and dedication with you this evening uh if you enjoy tonight's preview we invite you to join us for the full performance of Little Shop of Horrors running next weekend March 14th through 16th at Bon High School it promises to be a spectacular show wow so without further Ado please enjoy the performance led by our show's director Mr Roco aella over there and Mr Daniel wolf our assistant director Miss Aaron Bernard is back there as well she's our [Applause] choreographer and I'll
026let the kids take it away for a moment wow take it [Music] away alarm goes off it seven and you start up town you put in your eight hours for the powers that have always been sing it show till it's 5 p.m. then you go down where the folks are broke downtown where your Life's a joke down where you buy your token you go home to skin roll home to SK yes you go down where the Caps don't stop down where the mood isop down where the H FL in theow down on SK [Music] Ro up youer to a million JS up your Messengers and Mail Room clerks eating all your lunches at the hot dog courts the buses take your money and they break your PS up to you to a million disinfecto on
027bathroom FL morning tribulation afternoon Cur and 5:00 [Music] is where the guys are trips downtown where they rip your slips downtown where relationships are no go down on skid road down on [Music] [Applause] skin down on skin BR down on PO oh my life I've always been poor I keep asking God what I'm for and he tells me G I'm not sure sweep that floor kid oh I started life as an orphan a child of the street here on skro he took me in gave me shelter a bed crust of bread and a job treats me like dirt calls me a slob which I am so I live down that's your home addess you live down where your life's a mess you live where depressions just at is gr someone show me a way to
028get out of here cuz I constantly pray I'll get out of here please won't somebody say I'll get out of here someone r or I'll right here show me how and I will I'll get out of here I'll start climbing uphill and get out of here someone tell me I still could get out of here someone tell Lady Luck that I'm stuck here sh me SW to get out of here the gun of get out of here and get out do I don't know to get out SK but a hell of a lot to get out SK people tell me there's not a way out believe me I got to get scar [Applause] thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you very much oh my goodness excellent excellent thank you awesome so again
029Little Shop of hores is uh next weekend Friday March 14th at 700 p.m. Saturday March 15th at 7 p.m. Sunday March 16th at 2: p.m. uh you can pre- purchase tickets and get more information at our website Hammond apa.com um we also have a few of these posters still I'll leave them on the table um yeah so come see the show okay thank you so much thank you what a wonderful pre-show everybody get your tickets get your tickets now what an incredible pre-show thank you very much boy so impressive my my goodness gra you guys did a Wonder superintendent read trusty Blake King next up we have the Hammond Education Foundation natural helpers initiative welcome thank you you guys gave me a tough show to follow um good evening Madame President Schoolboard trustees superintendent Reed
030and everyone present here today um we thank you for the opportunity to be before you my name is roxan oror I'm the executive director for the Hammond Education Foundation uh I'm here to today to talk a little bit about the foundation and one of the very special programs that we run currently first the Hammond Education Foundation has been a supporter of the Hammond Public Schools since 1983 we work diligently to provide resources to students and teachers throughout the district 100% of our funding is reinvested back in the district some of the initiatives we support our our natural helper program this program supports student intern inter personal engagement through funding of a weekend training program for the students who participate our Anor grants provide teachers with Innovative provide teachers with funding for Innovative programs that cannot
031normally be funded under classroom budgets we have a scholarship program as well that we provide to graduating high school seniors from both Hammond Central and Morton new this year we are providing students with a vocational scholarship as well for those who are wishing to not invest in that two to four year college we are providing them with funding to go to Beauty School to get their Trucking license to do whatever vocation they feel they're ready to jump into additionally we have set up a transportation fund that is being used by the College and Career coordinators to ensure that students have the transportation to get to College fairs to go to leadership conferences it's a vital initiatives to make sure our children are experienced the world around them but of course we are here for one
032reason to celebrate our natural helper program which is part of Hammond Central and Morton High School the mission of this initiative is to support the social emotional development of our students through a group training program designed to instill empathy compassion camaraderie and a commitment to community HF began supporting this program back in 2002 and since then we have supported approximately two 500 students and invested over $54,000 in these students success and wellbeing HF has not done this alone we have had generous support from many donors such as Chris Ford a graduate of gavit high school the first five classes of gavit high school Hammond Community Corp Hammond gaming commission and old National Bank I'd also like to take an opportunity to introduce a couple of board members that I have here with me today we
033have Jeremy Hicks who is president of the HF board if you can give away and we have Ron Guiles from Old National Bank so this training that the student students participate in um is student Le so the students who have gone through the program provide the training to the next class um I'd like to invite Ed clay Mr kayek and Miss Graves who are the School City of Hammond sponsors at Hammond Central and Morton to introduce these students from the rainbow staff and introduce anyone who was able to to attend this evening I'd also like them to give us insights into the initiative at their schools how it's being used and what successes are there thank you uh this year's uh rainbow staff consisted uh at Hammond Central consisted of uh toena SOS Diego araga
034Victor Marquez Natasha marer Veronica Patricio Angelina weer Angelina wheeler Isabella Bachelor Diamond Boer Jasmine brutin Eric Campos Christopher Leon marabel Perez and Brian Ruiz from Morton from from Morton we have Jolie Alvarez Jada Johnson white anniah langmeier Caitlyn Perez Samir Ponty Lopez Angelo Lopez who was here in green and um Riley Sanders some of the uh uh rainbow staff were also members of haa that you just saw perform and they're already back on the bus um but uh um the uh the rainbow staff uh does an incredible amount of work uh with this program uh our first rainbow staff we actually sent to uh in 2004 we sent students uh from Clark High School to the retreat at uh valarezo high school and Chesterton High School in order to go on the weekend uh once
035we started the weekend then we were able to gain rainbow staffs from uh each of the groups so the students are um are brought into the program actually by their peers they have to be known as a natural Helper and uh these um um uh these Retreats that we do every year uh and and and the process that we go through we like to bring back to the building in some form or another uh in most cases that comes in pure mediation uh and the rainbow staffs are involved uh in that uh in both of the in in both of our buildings and um each each of the weekends is is unique to to itself uh while Dana and I uh both lead the program at Morton and Hammond Central uh we do have other
036key uh people with us um in both of the buildings and uh we bring new teachers along every time for instance probably and and and the new teachers that we bring along uh as chaperon are suggested by uh the rainbow staff uh so every year the rainbow staff uh asks some other teachers to go for instance probably about 15 years ago Mr Verda uh you were asked to uh attend one of the weekends um and just several teachers have have participated and um uh throughout the time and and and we try to bring that great energy back to both of the buildings all right well natural helpers for me it was a great experience that I have went through and I got like so many new friends out of it and created stronger bonds with
037the people I have already knew and I can't really say too much because I want to let people go on this trip who been inv Ed to experience it for themselves because it's just that wonderful over trip that I want to keep going but I can't this is my last year but I just it's just a really great experience that I feel like it should be funded more and that yeah that's what it I'll just talk briefly we are very lucky to have this program in our schools it is a true culture Builder it lets our kids put their phones down and look at each other face to face and engage and have wonderful leadership opportunities and communication building opportunities it's a wonderful program that was from I believe Mr clayr is the one who
038well there you are who brought it here but then I know I came from um gavet and there were many teachers there who cultivated the pro the program there and when I transferred to Borton I knew we needed this program our kids needed this program the environment needed needed it and it really is a Difference Maker so I'm grateful for the support from the HF thank you thank [Applause] you well thank you for your time and I hope to be back here soon to talk about some of our other initiatives in detail and um have a great evening thank you thank you this has been a tremendous uh moment for scus Hammond we're here to Showcase what is good what is bright what what feels good and we're going to continue this and by the
039way uh we're going to be promoting PE you know we're going to get our promotions out there to draw our students back so there's a thousand one reasons why people should attend school City of Hammond give yourselves a big round of applause superintendent Reed yes ma'am next on the agenda um is public expression first period thank you um the first person on the list for public expression limited to items on the agenda is Anita Cox okay good evening trustees in superintendent Reed I feel like I'm going to be a Debbie Downer um but I'm speaking truth to power here my name is Anita Cox I'm a teacher at Hammond Central and a Hammond teachers Federation member and my points will address accounts payable and teacher contract this week schools Across the Nation participated in actions
040to protect our public schools and protect our kids public schools are facing devastating cuts and it's time that our community comes together in our action to raise awareness about these cuts at both the state and federal level please join teachers outside of schools on Thursday before school together in unity and commitment to protect our schools we planned on doing it today but the rain was just too heavy um we are going to meet outside our school buildings about 15 minutes before school starts and simply an act of solidarity not in an act of protest but that we are all in this together um please support your teachers as they walk into school together in solidarity to protect our kids and protect our livelihoods more importantly contact our lawm makers please contact legislators like representative house
041sler and tell him how these Cuts have hurt our kids and our community he's going to tell you that this these cuts are going to be amended to be so much less but as I told him and I hope you tell him too the discussion about how much more our schools need to be functional and attract and retain high quality teachers and end the shooter uh shortage of teachers should be the conversation not any Cuts we can't stand lose $5 let 5 million um one more important point that is critical to the function um of our school boards is um SB 287 I ask that you please contact UM the house of elections in a portion committee representative Wesco tomorrow morning and tell him you do not support SB 287 which calls for par partisan
042School Board elections and please also let our know our representative Jackson know as well the number to call is 1 800 382 9841 and I hope that our community attends one of our um before school solidarity events on Thursday and more importantly makes the necessary phone call so that we can pay those bills and protect our kids thanks for listening thank you very important next Community speaker Reena Horan good evening I just wanted to say thank you first of all this is the first time I've smiled this much at a Schoolboard meeting in a really long time I am I am just I have Goosebumps from the activities that we had this evening it was just so wonderful and I just wanted to come up here and say thank you we are all working together
043you can see that we're all working together everybody is getting along a staff teachers School Board it's so refreshing thank you thank you thank you next speaker Dr Michaela bleber Dr Michaela spangenberg Gary education Coalition um to segue off of that yeah this was delightful it's delightful to watch students be able to speak to the student the experiences they're enriching their lives it's wonderful to see so many building administrators here tonight many of whom I've never had the pleasure of meeting unfortunately but um it's just delightful all all around uh to segue off of what a prior speaker was talking about in terms of the funding to keep our schools going and things like that uh Indiana Coalition for public education has also asked people to uh put in some phone calls between now and
044tomorrow afternoon regarding uh the Senate bill one which is the budget um to make sure that we still have funding for public education without all these beautiful things may not be possible I know a young person up here spoke to the need for increased and continuing funding um and I will be trying to put that out in some of the parent groups tonight as well um and certainly standing in in solidarity with the teachers and their action as well um I was curious about I don't think I had ever seen a teacher's contract and a consent agenda but I was curious about like what that was just looking at it on on the agenda of course on our end we can't even really see anything except it's on there but hopefully good news since we're
045not hearing anything other than that and uh thank you thank you next speaker is Wanda Pucket [Music] I am W to bucket and I'm sitting here looking oh y'all look so nice sitting back here if anybody I don't have to take no pictures my mouth is big enough to talk I'm glad to see everybody's came out Miss PL to represent direct your to represent B School parents sitting at home you got the building administrate out it's time for y'all to come out we need to work together this is team effort number one I'm going work on trying to get these good teachers back we don't we we losing our teachers we need them back Lord knows our kids need help in order to get the help we need y'all need to get up come out
046and support these teachers y'all want to sit at home with that popcorn with that Pepsi that hot dog or polish or whatever y'all want to eat and call yel sitting back watching the show you ain't going to be getting no more shows you are coming out to represent your children these is your' babies I can't do this by myself I'm asking I'm pleading every parent grandparent uncles aunties come out to a school board meeting support your children your children see y'all at a meeting oh we can't do that we got to get oursel together at school Mama might be told something when she show up at a school board meeting Believe Me Take A Village to raise our kids cuz I had a village to help me raise my too and my mama had a
047village to help raise eight girl girls so don't you know I know about a village so we all need to come together let's get this Village together now before it's too late we are losing our young babies get to know your neighbors talk to your neighbors you need a ride if you know your neighbor your neighbor might not okay I give your kid a ride back and forth to school let's come together as a village that's all I got to [Applause] thank you and that ends the first session of public expression thank you trusty Stanford superintendent Reed next up is um there is no unfinished business um trusty Blake King so it's the approval of the minutes trustees what's your pleasure uh in approving executive session meetings minutes from January 7th January 11th 18 21st
048January 25th January 28th February 4th February 18th executive session minutes what your pleasure was everyone present for all the meetings those days have to be done present for every meeting you want to do it individually no no no no just was everyone present for every meeting okay was everybody present for every meeting I wasn't so I'll obain he yes it's we just have to pull out that one the we could do do you want to do it individually no no okay which one was it do you know Anna go ahead okay go ahead do I hear a motion president likeing sorry madam president I make a motion to approve the meeting uh minutes A through 8 as presented do a second second any discussion discussion discussion all in favor say I I oppose abstain abstain
049motion carried thank you superintendent Reed next up we have a consent agenda trusty BL King trustees uh consent agenda a through uh G what's your pleasure mam president trusty Spen sir I move for the approval of consent agenda items a through G second it's been moved and properly second that we approve the consent agenda a through G is there a discussion yes I will read the accounts payable docket register thank you dated March 4th 2025 consisting of60 Pages total claims 1, 215,000 $ 76215 total payroll 2,669 29898 is there any more discussion any more discussion are we ready to vote all in favor say I I oppose abstain eyes have abstain okay uh motion carried thank you very much superintendent Reed yes president Blake King next up is new business okay I have two separate
050new business okay what's your Russ a recommendation superintendent Reed on um for the extracurricular account dormant fund transfer request um I would like to request that the board approve this fund transfer for Edgar's middle school thank you superintendent R what the pleasure of the board m president Madam I mean Super trustee candelier I move for the uh approval of the extracurricular account dormant fund transfer request for Edgar's middle school has presented I second it's been moved and properly second for the approval of the extracurricular account dormant fund transfer request from Edgar's Middle School all in favor say I discuss any discussion no discussion all in favor say I I I oppose AB motion Carri thank you superintendent Reed next up there's a calendar um for the upcoming board meetings would you like to read that
051for us trusty BL K okay the upcoming um board uh meetings is will be Tuesday March 18th will we will have an executive session at 5:15 p.m. at the administration Center and the same day Tuesday 18th we have our regular school board meeting want to add week yeah and we've already asked Anna to add next week which is the what's the day 11 11th 11th the 11th uh we are scheduling a meeting uh an executive session meeting uh March 11th here at the administration building at 5:30 pm. it will be posted immediately so that covers our calendar of events and I'll just I always add to this our uh every third Wednesday of the month we we are on wjob at 905 promoting School City of Hammond so again any principals uh teachers custodians whomever
052if you want to promote something just let the superintendent and Anna know and we'll get you on that um on the station we've had a lot of fun with that so far have we not very good so that concludes our uh calendar superintendent um read next up we will have our public expression for the second period trusty Blake King all right first speaker for public expression session two is Cindy Murphy Cindy Murphy um I want to ask again are you guys going to do surveys this month to the parents the teachers about the bell times it has been a lot of parents telling me they're not getting the extracurricular that we used to have in our elementary schools and some of our middle schools aren't doing it either a lot of teachers I've talked to
053they especially in elementary they didn't like when we started the elementary students and we had the survey and it was close we now have almost a full year date data we need to do this again because before you know it school is going to be out and the one of the things the extracurriculars do for our students is it brings the Wonder in our moments one of the best professional developments I ever went to was a superintendent from Kentucky came up here and he says every single week a student should come home and tell his parents guess what I learned today and it was so cool that's what the extracurricular acad mics do our teachers don't have time because of all the pressure that put on by the state of the things they have to
054teach in the school day but with extracurricular academics a child can come home I learned Scholars mate today and I beat them in three moves hey my mous trap car it went down the whole hallway in Legos we worked through traction and we went through wheels and we figured out which one is best engineering wonder and a the next thing I want to say where's the data we haven't had the data on the student testing since last September and that was last year's data where is the data for this year where's the winter data where's the fall data and what are the administration going back to and saying hey these are the midyear shifts we're doing because we looked at the data the public needs to know maybe you all have looked at it maybe
055you know but the public doesn't that's something that needs to come out to the public and in December and parts of November we heard a lot let the next board take care of it so I'm here to remind you again policy now that we're in March you have policy that's now a year old that still hasn't been approved now the grammar police that used to be me has gone through that policy because unfortunately there's a lot of missing commas and semicolons and the whole bit but you need to get down to it that's one of your statutory duties you have three statutory duties and one of them is board policy so you now have policy that's a year old that needs to be reviewed and approved because you're way out of date the attendance policy
056and the state law you were supposed to already Implement stuff and change the student handbook hadn't happened because you haven't done your policy thank you thank you next speaker Linda Randol good evening I just wanted to take this opportunity to publicly welcome superintendent Reed to School City of Hammond and to just to say thank you thank you thank you for accepting the challenge and I want to remind everybody of uh what I believe Luke 12:48 tells us to whom much is given much as required and God has been good to all of us and so we must work together and do the best we can on behalf of the children in Hammond thank you thank you next speaker Jeremy Hicks good evening Madame President uh board members superintendent Reed on Saturday February 22nd this is
057a followup uh Saturday February 22nd for the first time in the at the hamary career center uh we hosted a health fair in conjunction with health Visions Midwest uh while celebrating black history month so the overall attendance was approximately 115 individuals and the hope the hope is to make it an annual event uh with February 28th 2026 February 28 2026 as a tentative save the date for next year and we also would like to invite you all everyone in uh the audience or online or anybody uh that has a certain interest the College and Career expo at Franklin Elementary School uh will happen once again on this Thursday that's next week March 13th 2025 from the hours of 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. also the Hammond Area Career Center will be inducting students into the
058National Technical Honor Society on Wednesday March 19th 2025 at 6 p.m. at the ACC Auditorium and over 100 students will be inducted into the nths and we also want to wish the team Hammond 71 robotics good luck at the cook District event on March 14th and 15th Lafayette District event March 21st through the 23rd and the state competition to happen April 3rd through the 5th and we also would like to wish our Hammond Area Career Center CTE District number two students uh good luck at the skills USA Indiana State leadership and skills conference to take place April 11th through the 12th in Indianapolis Indiana the HOSA State leadership conference and competition April 14th to the 16th and then Lastly lastly as a reminder so students in Hammond listen up the window to complete the ACCC
059online and all students so all students we want you to be aware that the deadline window will be coming to a close and that is next Friday March 14th being the last day to request to enroll so we welcome all students to apply we want to give this great opportunity that we have at the Hammond Area Career Center Center to our students in our community so thank you thank you very much thank you next speaker Dr Michaela spangberg Dr Michaela spangenberg oh Spang spangberg more spangenberg span Spang SPD I'll get it soon lat it's okay hopefully I can get those 10 seconds back thoughti um Dr Michaela spanberg Gary education Coalition um I find it interesting that I just heard somebody get up here and reference the statutory responsibilities of the board from a pamphlet
060about running about for for a school board which was put out by isba is opposed to actual statute there's a lesson to be learned in that right you need to actually look at statute the roles and responsibility of a school boarder numerous likewise when somebody says something like oh these things are a year old or things like that if they themselves left those things for five 10 years prior to that I mean it's the definition of passing the buck at that point um which is egregious because we're talking about extracurriculars we've seen a beautiful snapshot of extracurriculars in our school here tonight which makes me wonder if we're acting like there's some kind of lack of extracurriculars did other people also sit through the same meeting I just sat through I'm not sure um but
061I think I I always think that it's good to hear constructive feedback from parents from students from teachers from people who have a real investment in the school um from community members from you know Faith Community folks whoever and the difference is community constructive criticism is about how do we build together to make it better not oh I'm going to get up on here and just say things about things um to make things sound terrible even though things are great um but I always do think it's interesting to site your source and to recognize who you're quoting when you get up on the mic so I guess maybe that was somebody's way of announcing their candidacies sometime in the future since that's where that came from um but since we're on this topic um I
062do still strongly encourage the board to consider approving their agendas at the beginning of meetings in part because like then that helps Orient the rest of us it's also part of Robert's Rules of procedure that is in your bylaws all of that so that we know like if there's not a financial report why is that happening like if there's something that needs to be changed like things need to be dealt with item by item instead of all together things like that can be done really easily right at the beginning I'm a huge fan of it I I I miss my days of sitting on boards thank you thank you thank you our last speaker is Wanda Pucket I ain't got to introduce myself now people used to sit on the board I ain't up there
063no more I guess they want to get back on the board long as I got breath in my Bo that won't happen cuz I'm going to get out and campaign for anybody that want to run come run this is a great board we is not sitting up in here until No 9 and 10:00 at night y'all come in y'all handing y'all business y'all getting it done and we getting out of here that's what count the first time I ever seen him sitting up there more relaxed since this new board tuck over before he was sitting up there just as tense scared to open up his mouth he come in on everything not of s voting yes no I mean go ahead on I love it this a brand new you and I love it I'm
064sorry I got to call it like it is I love it and for this administrator back here y'all doing an excellent job with our schools they now whether y'all know it or not that stand out testing started yesterday they going all the way up to the 14th re I know I got two kids in school now grandbabies in school so don't say you don't know about the testing cuz I know so the hand books don't try to put the school board down I love what they doing and I love this great administrator back here behind me it ain't no more crying you keep up the good work ain't nobody in your ear telling you what to do you vote like you want to vote I just love all y'all now have a nice day [Applause]
065thank you that concludes second session of public expression superintendent Reed thank you for all your public Expressions Superion read next up are board announcements but I would like to ask permission of the board to speak any announcements for she can go first oh of course I'm sorry so I just wanted to take a minute to thank you all um for so warmly welcoming me here and um teachers I just got to give my hats off to the teachers in the back um our Union teachers there are some wonderful people they have gone above and beyond letting me know when I need information letting me know what stone to turn over and the things that they need and um it is a it's awesome I appreciate you all for welcoming me so warmly I get the
066hugs and I get gifts and I got some warm fuzzy socks for Valentine's Day Lord knows I love fuzzy socks um so on another note my principles um I asked you all I put out the call and you answered and I appreciate that our conversations are our conversations but you all know where I stand I'm with you and we're in this work together um we are one band One sound and that's just what it is we all are here to do the work and to make sure that our kids have access to high quality teaching and learning and that is it that's our job and we're going to do that so for those of you that see that they're good things going on there are great things going on um you may not see me
067as much as you possibly want to but that's because I'm over here in front of a board and we're actually making plans to do what we need to do for our staff and our students here in School City of Hammond and last but not least freaking Frack my partners in crying look I I do not know where I would be if I would have made it these last 3 weeks without you too um I really appreciate [Laughter] you um I found I walked into Hammond and I found a bunch of absolutely brilliant people I found a community that loves their children you love your community you love each other and you have so gracious L loved me and for that I love you back um and so I just look forward to continuing to do
068the work and even though I might get on my board's nerves a little bit I love y'all too I appreciate each and every last one of you for supporting me and everything and Missy knows that I don't eat and so she feeds me well and so with that I just wanted you all to know that we're here to do the work of kids and we're going to do it together um and next year here this time we'll have a different conversation and so thank you all and welcome to the journey W thank you so much for that superintendent Reed we certainly appreciate you and we know as you and this board We inherited and I'll say that again we inherited a mess and we're trying to fix somebody else's mess so give us some time
069we're working on it diligently it's not going to happen overnight but when I see administrators at a school board meeting I've been on this board six years I've never seen it like this and I appreciate you superintendent Reed for giving them the reason to be here are there any other announcements from the other board members I would just like to say that it is also wonderful when we walked out here and saw this room with all the seats filled and it's wonderful to see the administrators I don't I don't think I have I have ever I ever expected to see you all here together so it's a beautiful thing any other board members yeah I just want to say a couple things real quick um first of all thank you to everyone who is here
070who was here who's been with us through this entire Journey we are finally on the upswing and we are we are trying like trusty Blake King has said to restore and Elevate so everyone that is with us on this journey I am so beyond grateful for you all uh to also it's kind of been said a few times walking out here and when we saw all of these building principles and administrators this is beautiful and I cannot thank you all you have long days I know this is an extra long day for you so for you to make this time for us I I I'm very very appreciative and on a final note I really oh Anita left Miss Cox left um we all really need to do our part in fight for public education
071I know Miss Cox said um the phone number that we can call we have very limited time I know many of us have already been calling our legislators we need to kill these bills we need to fight for public education thank you thank you and I just in closing I just want to give a tremendous shout out thanks to all of the principls and their teachers and staff that participated and our Black History Month celebrations and song skits dance poems historical door decorations the board is forever grateful and I'm glad I can tell you personally thank you so very much uh March is women's history month and we have a ton of women to celebrate so let's get on that uh special recognition to Chef Jack K vquez vquez he was honored and we were
072present to see him being honored at the Lakes Shore Chamber teacher of the year award Chef Jack Bell congratulations we were all able to attend the robotics team 71 open house and what an incredible open house that was woo their robot was absolutely Whimsical and breathtaking and these students built it from the first bolt 7 feet in the air doing all kinds of Feats and they will be competing shortly at down state so we got to give them a head up understand I testing started today with our elementary students we know we got to hug our kids love them parents if you're out there if you listen to her hug these babies and get them ready for these tests because the laws have changed and we don't want those laws to change on School City
073of Hammond and uh so that's all I have to saying thank you very much it's 7:18 p.m. do I hear an adjournment so moov second move I youed to use this