Board Meeting March 19, 2024

001[Music] l [Music] for [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] o [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] he [Music] a [Music] [Laughter] [Music] oh [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] [Laughter] [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] l [Music] he [Music] good evening everyone and welcome to the regular meeting of the School City of Hammond for March 19th can we all please face the flag for the pledge IED aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right roll call trusty Blake King we're here trusty Spencer present trusty Murphy present trusty candeleria present let the record reflect that all five trustees are in uh attendance um superintendent Miller we'll move on to the public hearing for

002Appropriations yes I'd like to um introduce our CFO Eric Hertz to lead the public hearing good evening uh president Miller superintendent Miller and School Board uh tonight uh you have a resolution before you uh resolution 2324 number 15 uh providing for adjustments and Appropriations uh this is an additional appropriation for the 23 school year to ensure that the board approved budget amount matches the budget order increasing uh the line item for our uh 0300 School operations fund and the uh 0200 Debt Service fund uh those two funds uh went over and you have the resolution uh before you uh at this time um this would be a public hearing so you would have to allow public comment on that additional appropriation okay um superintendent Miller is there anything else you'd like to add um just

003that you didn't have to sign up but if the public comment is for this just about is just for this additional appropriation at this time can we speak yeah I I don't see why not a question all right um is there anyone here that would like to make a comment on on this particular item this item alone please go ahead and come to the mic again it's just on the Appropriations adjustment sure hi I am abil Bodner uh born and raised in Hammond all three of my children are ATT at Morton Elementary School I would like to know where um everybody that has any parents that have schools that go to the school system that are in Jeopardy where can we access your guys' financial documents statements your fiscal quarterly reports and where this money

004is being allocated to I think that's the purpose of my attent of wanting to see that so I can go through that myself great uh and where [Applause] those just the one more statement I appreciate um what has done for my kids I have an old all ma'am ma'am it's only about yeah just about the Appropriations part um and I most likely will be escalating this to the Department of Education as I have family in those facets so I want to make you guys privy to that so thank you for giving me time to speak and um I do have your guys' information I appreciate you giving me the time all right thank you is there anyone else that would like to speak on Appropriations anyone else all right hearing nothing else on that uh

005from the public on Appropriations Mr CTS is there any no I was just thinking the public was done so uh based upon the public hearing uh and the public comment I'd recommend the board approve an additional appropriation of $150,000 to The 0200 Debt Service fund and an additional appropriation of $228,000 to the 0300 School operations fund all right uh do I have a motion for this item yeah um so public comment can only be when it's your turn at the microphone um we don't it's there's no back and forth I I know Miss but but if you're going to talk from the audience we're never going to get our business said um so board docs you might want to take a look at board docs uh all of our public documents are available there it's

006linked from off of the school city of Hammond's website um you can take a look at it there but I'm not going to take any other questions from the audience and I'm going to ask you to please reframe um from conversation all right we're going to move on so do we um have a motion Madame President I move for the approval of resolution 23 24-15 appropriation adjustments as presented all right is there a a second for this item second right we have a motion and a second for the approval of the Appropriations uh adjustment um is there any questions from the board Madam president question trusty Blake King I was hoping before this Perhaps it is my fault I should have asked Mr kurs to more or less explain this a little better so under

007my question uh my question would be the $157,000 is coming from what fund to this fund and then the $228,000 could you just explain how we're moving this money from what what is the name of the fund we're moving it from to and just better explain that I appreciate it Mr CTS uh this is not a transfer this is an additional appropriation okay uh so in our debt service fund which is where we pay the bond holders for uh School construction and major School Renovations that fund had an additional need of $150,000 to close out the 2023 school year beyond the budget order that was approved uh the uh 228,000 in the school operations fund uh which is the fund that we pay for utilities General Insurance maintenance custodial school bus drivers that fund had

008uh needed an additional appropriation of $228,000 there's no transfers no moving money between funds so this was was this a result of our state board of accounts review or how did we come about this uh this is a result that those funds had additional needs uh to meet the expenditures and to timely pay our our bills and employees well as a school board trustee I um I appreciate those comments I'm really not clear but we've done this before and um thank you very much Madam president trusty Murphy just to add some clarity so every year we approve a budget correct correct so if we have expenditures above what is budgeted we have to do these additional Appropriations correct right so that's all this is correct right thank you right other questions from trustees thank you

009thank all right we've had a motion we have a second we've had discussion on this item uh we're going to go ahead and we're going to call the RO uh trusty Blake King yes truste Spencer yes truste Murphy yes truste candeleria yes and trusty Miller is a yes so that item is going to pass Five Z Madame President trusty Murphy I move to amend the agenda to add resolution 23 24-16 under new business as item K all right I have a motion is there a second to add this resolution second a motion and I have a second to add this resolution um any discussion on adding this Madame President trusty Murphy this resolution provides dates for the corrective action plan and for any reduction in forc all right so um we have a motion we

010have a second we've had some discussion all in favor of adding this item to the agenda signify by saying I I I all right we're going to add that to the end of our agenda we're going to move on now to recognitions and presentations superintendent Miller uh trustees U I'm going to again call Mr CTS for the February Financial presentation all right good evening again this is the uh financial report report for the School City of Hammond uh as of February 29th next so this is our summary page next uh calling your attention to our uh balances without tax or tuition anticipation loans um you can see our education fund is at as of the end of February was at $869,500 11 without our tuition anticipation uh alone uh the operating referendum fund has a

011negative balance of 50773 67 without uh a tax anticipation warrant and our debt service fund has a negative balance of 4,744 1835 um the referendum Debt Service fund has a balance of $18 in 15 and our operations fund has a balance of $ 3,978 $78,500 and the rainy day fund has a balance of 3,385 18365 this is actually our self Insurance Fund is now up to uh a balance of 1,168 252 84 uh with that uh self-insurance fund we have significantly increased the employer contributions uh to ensure that fund remains uh solvent uh if you look back at the beginning of the year that fund was down to $4,000 next Madam president trusty Murphy if you could explain a little bit more on debt service so that only gets paid out twice a year correct

012correct so we are still going to get more funds coming from the county before we have to pay out again so before we make a payment to the to the bond holders um we would receive a distribution of the property tax payment so uh our next payments are due at the end of June and by the end of June we'll receive a distribution from the Lake County uh treasur and auditor's office and do you expect at that time that fund should be in the black after we make the payment it'll it'll probably be close to zero uh but we did make that protected tax waiver transfer and so we may find ourselves short if you remember in the resolution that we approved for that protected tax waiver transfer um we did have a provision to

013make a temporary loan so um as this fund finishes this year the the shortfall will be made up in 2025 thank you um and so I mentioned the Self Insurance Fund looking at the uh cash balances uh the board has established targeted cash balances um with our primary or key funds and I list the target balances and the actual balances and it does show that you know we we've made we've made some progress towards uh having a cash balance with that protected tax waiver and that movement of the money initially into the operations fund the board then established the rainy day fund and we moved it from operations into rainy day um however uh there's there's obviously a lot of forward progress that we need to do and much of that uh needs to occur

014as a result of reducing our uh our spending and operational costs next uh this is just uh pointing out we do still have uh an outstanding loan from the education fund to the The Group Health Insurance Fund of 925,000 with with this balance I anticipate that uh this will be paid back in March so all the loans to the group health insurance fund will have been repaid um there still continues to be an outstanding uh temporary loan of $2,194 38 that will not be repaid and that loan will I'll create a res resolution to make that a permanent transfer that was for the pension Debt Service fund that fund has fulfilled its its role of paying for the uh Bond issuance that went to uh buy down uh it was really buying down liabilities that

015we had to uh teacher employees from many years ago uh at the bottom then we review our Esser funds so our Esser funds are um fully encumbered and committed uh the committed includes uh items of payroll for employees that are part of there because we don't have a purchase order process that applies to salaries and then there's uh some ongoing construction activities with air quality uh that remain to be finished those originally were supposed to be finished last year but due to delays in uh in the receipt of equipment uh those projects weren't done next uh this is now looking at the the detailed information by fund really uh if you look in the lower right you'll see the highlighted section this shows the actual fund balance and then it shows the uh reduced amount

016to reflect the in this case a tuition anticipation warrant that's repayable in December and then it shows you the balance that I've already reported on uh this is the education fund uh the next page has our um referendum operating fund so you know this fund also has a tax anticipation warrant however without that tax anticipation warrant this fund is is in the negative uh and will receive its next distribution in funds uh it'll have a tax advance in uh towards the end of May and then it will have a final settlement uh in June so this fund really receives money um two times a year with the spring settlement that settles the uh property taxes received uh in the first installment and then another one that occurs in December M Mr Kurt so this is

017really a case of the checks in the mail kind of thing like yeah I mean it's just not here yet and we know it's coming it's just not here yet you know as I as I look at these funds you know the key thing to remember is we we operate unfortunately with a very very limited cash balance m and uh with several other things that I'll talk about later in my presentation it's it's a significant conern concern of mine uh the administrations as well as I assume the boards uh the referendum uh Debt Service fund is at18 $108 again it will receive a distribution uh with the spring settlement by the end of June and immediately uh after receiving that distribution then we make a payment to the bond holders The Debt Service fund 0200

018again that that fund is a is lower than what it should be or lower than what it could be had we not transferred the money under the protected tax waiver however if we left the funds in The Debt Service fund It could only be used for debt by moving that money into the rainy day fund it gives the board the flexib ability to use it to deal with other contingencies or emergencies that the school May face and again with our limited cash balance and really no reserves um based upon the size of our operation uh it was prudent to move that into the rainy day fund so it has flexibility to meet other non-debt service needs but again there may be a need to take some of that money out of rainy day temporarily back

019into The Debt Service fund until that fund recovers so we were eligible for a protected tax waiver um and that's due to the amount of money that we lose because of circuit breakers uh so tax cap credits to taxpayers end up being a loss of funding to the school so that circuit breaker reduces the income to the school because of the amount that we are impacted by the tax cap credits uh we are allowed to to make this transaction um under a very set of specific circumstances and that's how we funded the rainy day fund so this is not a recurring type of thing that we can do it's something that uh if the Indiana General Assembly allows that law to continue that we could probably do every three or every four years and again

020my recommendation is that we really use it to build up that rainy day fund uh to meet unforeseen surface cumstances and then support having a improved cash balance uh the last page is our operations fund uh one more one more all right so you see our operations fund uh the operations fund uh with with the tax anticipation warrant has a balance of uh 6,778 without the tax anticipation warrant it has a balance of 3,978 $ 5910 so that provides kind of the detail reports uh of of our funds the next slide this is uh really our end of month cash balances so uh as of the end of February um we we do have a uh positive cash balance however it's down about 1.5 million from the cash balance at the end of January so

021you know it's important to look at the cash balances just to remind everyone that March is a three- pay month so this month when I present the end of March figures at the April meeting you will see a significant increase in spending because we have three payrolls that occur next so I I really have not presented often or much about self Insurance although we talk about the balances so I wanted to include a budget variance report uh for the board because our self- Insurance Fund has become um become a significant financial burden on the district next as we look at our uh School City of ham Hammond self Insurance Fund the plan ran for the calendar year 2023 at 132% or about 5 .5 million over our expected spend for our medical cost and prescription

022costs uh we had 68 large claims those are claims that are over $75,000 uh in health care costs uh and that's up from 40 in 2021 so our large claims range from a minimum of 75,000 up to a high of 737,000 we have 15 claims that were over 225 ,000 uh $225,000 is where we have a stop loss that kicks in and begins to to reinsure and cover those higher cost claims that are over 225,000 any claims that are under that 225,000 those are paid for by our fund next page so this is a you know this is a very busy chart next um you know the the biggest piece the look at is it talks about our uh actual Total Medical and RX costs at 22,721 the expected had been 17,700 again that's that

023132% over over budget uh or over $5 million more than we expected um at the top right of this form it shows our uh number of high cost claimants so in 2021 we had 40 in 2022 it went up to 55 and in 2023 we are up to 68 so it's a very concerning Trend with our high high cost claims uh there's other data on this chart that that you can look at if you have any particular questions or I'll keep moving any questions from the board no all right uh next slide so this really just looks at our overall um medical and prescription plan uh so it really shows you that you know our medical claims accounted for about 68% of the plans spend so those are those are the doctors those are the

024hospitals those are the health care providers that have been paid uh 20% of our plan uh went to prescriptions um so about 4.6 million and then the other category has a breakout to detail that that's about 12% of the plan um the the stoploss uh insurance that we purchased to deal with those claims that are over 25 225,000 that premium is uh basically a million dollars uh but for this year that that's gone up because we hit the insurance company spent more than a million dollars on those claims so insurance companies aren't in the business to lose money so when your claims are high your renewal premium is high um so that's the and that's the one that's marked ISL ISL stands for individual stop loss that deals with individual people that are insured by

025our plan uh the ASL which is just about $75,000 that's the aggregate stoploss so at a certain point if our plan has um a significant amount of claims that stop loss also then would kick in to kind of manage some of those costs um the 1.2 million uh that says HSA fund that's the amount of money that uh the School City of Hammond has contributed to our employees hsas um and it's really part of our insurance cost um The $64,000 in there that's the consulting fee that our insurance Consulting KS and the ASO is is Etna fee to manage the claims to get the discounts to negotiate the contracts with the health care providers and and do those things so um when you look at it that's about 2% of our overall spend so I

026think this is a pretty you know illustrative look at how we're spending money and how our plan is spending money uh to provide Insurance to our employees and their dependents any questions on this one any questions from the board for Mr kurts as it relats to to either the financial report or the insurance update just to thank you I mean this is really detailed I'm not done yet I'm going next next slide so these are some of my uh fiscal reminders next next so fiscal reminder number one we are experiencing and have been experiencing declining enrollment next fisal reminder number two our federal covid-19 stimulus funding is ending hold up just fell is it a lady it's an adult it's an adult yeah uh we're going to take a brief uh recess while we [Music]

027uh [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] a [Laughter] [Music] oh [Music] l [Music] n [Music] he [Music] a [Music] [Laughter] [Music] okay um sorry about that uh we are uh back uh I want to give Mr CTS an opportunity to finish his presentation and I think we were on the fiscal reminders all right so FIS fiscal reminder number one was uh School City of Hammond's declining enrollment um we have the ending of the federal covid stimulus funding uh we have the non-renewal of the operating referendum and then the fourth one uh which is new for this month month is really talking about our health Self Insurance Fund uh so on the on the reminder for the declining enrollment the School City of Hammond uh H the school city of Hammond's area has a declining population community

028we have declining School Aids children uh in our community and our families have choices for their education uh this looks at our declining enrollment we've talked about this before and you know since 2016 we've lost about 25 students uh with the enrollment decline um the the you know this this has an impact of about $20 million a year uh at today's support levels so we do have a fiscal cliff that we're facing in in several areas so the next fiscal reminder really is the loss of the covid stimulus funding that ends in September you know we have about on an annualized basis about $ 6.57 million in annual Personnel costs and this funding ends in September so there's really you know this cost has to either go away or be uh covered somewhere else within

029the budget our next fiscal cliff that that we have to face is the non-renewal of the school operating referendum on November 7th the voters did not vote to approve renewing and extending the 2017 School operating referendum at the same 44 cents per $100 net assessed value rate um this is a loss of $15 million annually in school funding that begins immediately in 2015 uh that 2025 I'm sorry 2025 that there's really no replacement revenue for this so it results in the need to cut $15 million in in spending Madam president trusty Murphy is it possible for the district to go for another referendum uh the district could pursue a referendum uh in the November 5th uh 2024 election uh however it would require uh the community to gather signatures and have a petition to authorize

030it what do those petitions do uh the the board would likely have to have those petitions uh being collected as soon as May and would need to have those petitions in I would think in June it's 500 correct I I don't know off the top of my head that number sounds familiar but I before I say take that to the bank I'd want to verify it was but are they have to be registered voters so sometimes you get some nuances in there you have to get more um trusty B uh could we get the exact information on that and have it published somewhere so that we'll get that collected how about we add it to the next report well before the next report well but but add it okay thank you I'm sorry Mr cson

031one more question like a but a referendum like a renewal of the referendum itself it doesn't it doesn't fix all the shortfalls it does it won't cover everything yeah so you know an operating referendum doesn't doesn't uh prevent the need to adjust your enrollment capacity by your schools uh it delays it so you can't make up loss enrollment a loss of enrollment just through a referendum so but what was the point you need to adjust the the capacity the number of classrooms the the schools based upon the enrollment that we actually have at least that's my opinion I'm sure other people have different opinions my concern is our ability to pay for it Madam president so the next fiscal C I'm sorry trusty Blake King so are you suggesting that had the referendum passed we

032still would have gone through a this corrective action plan are you suggesting that I would say that we would still have to correct things just not to the scale and the speed that we're having do be on us um I don't know that's a that's a question for for those officials the $15 million uh loss of the operating referendum is a is it's the largest single factor that we're having to face but regardless of what if the voters had decided to renew the referendum we would have still had to deal with the covid dollars uh and that funding ending some of those uh covid dollars may have been able to move into the operating referendum and then we still have have the uh adverse Financial condition of our self Insurance Fund so so the last

033fiscal clip that that I wanted to remind you about is our health self-insurance fund is experiencing a significant cost escalation the plan ran 5.5 million or 132% overexp expected uh in our medical and prescription claims in 20123 we had a 45% increase in large claims those are claims over 75,000 uh with 18% or 18 people that had large claims going from 40 in 2021 up to 68 in 2023 so when we look at when we look at these fiscal reminders um that are in front of us we have you know $7 million in Esser funds we have $15 million with the non-renewal of the referendum we have $5.5 million uh with the health self-insurance fund so we really have an annualized impact of about 27 27 and a half million dollars that we have to

034face as a economic reality um to ensure that we can continue to meet our obligations uh this is a slide that I had shared last month um so with it's looking at our finances as they would occur or be without corrective action so those are the those are the lines that are deep diving into the negative when we're in the negative we cannot pay our bills we can't pay our payroll we can't we can't we can't function um so you know even with the corrective action which are the is the small blip up for 2024 it's really it's really kind of a a very small margin of safety uh in 2025 you know we will have to continue to make corrective actions so you know we can't we can't do status quo we have to

035we have to take proactive measures to reduce our spending so mam president trusty Murphy can we go back to your graph please um I was reviewing this earlier and I realized there's something I didn't understand okay so even if say we pass a referendum in November we're still going to be in the red we're still going to have to do things um because I was looking at the different things and then someone explained to me another way so that is actually worse so we can go we can get together as a community we can go and renew this referendum and maybe the cuts won't be as bad for next year but we still have all the rest of this and I think that's one of the things that needs to be um explained better here

036that even with winning the referendum either last year or if we happened to do it in November we still would have had to do the corrective actors plan we still would have to make Cuts in 2025 and you know what should be added to this for 2025 that's when you explain to us the loss of local property tax dollars which is going to be affecting this too and I don't know if you built that into that yet or you're waiting for 25 because I know that that's makes things worse also there is uh and honestly I because I've been working on the other things I there is legislation to require the sharing of the school operations fund with Charter Schools based upon Hammond students attending those Charter Schools the same language that applied to the

037referendum funding funding were the money followed the student so that that is that is potentially another adverse impact that is not calculated into here because I'm not sure the final outcome of that legislation as we stand here right now thank you uh that that concludes uh well I mean this is just reaffirming the message we have to implement significant Cuts uh fiscal corrective actions to avoid A disruption uh of services and and avoid disrupting our uh ongoing School operations these Cuts will reduce Personnel 90% of really what we spend goes to salaries and benefits there's no way to cut our cost without having to cut people and it it's sad and it's unfortunate and it's not something that I want to do but you know we have a responsibility to continue to ensure that the

038operations function uh this is going to affect the services that we offer to our students it's going to impact the families that we serve and it's really going to impact all areas of the School City of Hammond operations so um this is hopefully a consistent message that I've been giving some of these are duplicate slides that I've shown before but I feel like it's important enough that uh I need to re address it and talk about it again okay are there any questions from the board for Mr CTS on his financial report any additional questions all right hearing none thank you very much Mr CS thank you trusty candeleria public expression first period limited to items on the agenda First Community member is going to be Mr Buck served yes I filed a lawsuit against

039you all good evening good [Applause] evening and the reason I filed the lawsuit because you all keep telling me what I can and cannot say stepping on my right to freedom of speech you cannot do that and I told you you couldn't but you didn't think no one would challenge you at a federal court I will I was suspended for 30 days because of freedom of speech Lisa Miller you suspended me for 30 I'm recording so that I can have my own proof when I go to the court room you said I told super Miller superintendent Miller that I wasn't his I'm not his I'm nobody's and that is freedom of speech while you would looking in the archives for that did you find that half a million dollars that's what you said should have

040been looking for in the archives second you say I calleda you to take a recess you lied you took that recess because you didn't want Miss King to speak you took a recess don't say I caused it you lied then you turn around and say I overs spoke you you were wrong what did you say at the last meeting you told the young lady we can't comment on public uh expression but you tried to do it on me when I called that attention to your attorney and your attorney told you to be quiet because you were wrong you were upset and so you suspended me for 30 days because of freedom of speech you did it because I don't know who you think you are up there you're an elected official just like the other

041board members you cannot silence your critics this is not Russia and you're not pu you cannot silence your critics you may not like what I say but you can't tell me I can't say it so you you can't stand in the heat get out the kitchen it gets hot in the kitchen and if you can't stand in the heat get out but you will not tell me that I don't have a right to freedom of speech in here none of you board members would tell me that I would like to see you tell a federal judge that I don't have a right to freedom of speech and as far as that referendum if it takes your time is up Sir okay Madam do we need to remind them what this period of public expression is

042for on agenda it is on agenda items only um but since that was directed at me I we're going to just go with it um but the first round of public participation is on agenda items only Madam president trusty Blake King oh go ahead sor will we get a copy of whatever he just handed attorney Conrad sure can we get that like soon sooner than later sure please no problem want to just go make a copy yes all right let let's get back to public participation on agenda items only next Community member April bradner I don't know if allow um if you can tie it to one of the items in the agenda it it has to be related to the agenda if you want to talk just free form that's second round of public

043uh uh participation yeah on second round okay good no problem all right thank you next Community member is going to be Veronica PTO it it was on this screen okay um Mr Tucker can you check on that for us please yeah we'll reset that is it showing on the main monitor here Mr Tucker no the it's like two Meo looks like it's on see a backl on it did you get it we got it all right okay Mr Tucker let me know when you're ready okay all right my name is Veronica PTO I a proud Morton graduate and one of 8% of Latinas in the US that hold a master's degree I am a biologist a lifetime Hammond resident and I teach dual credit biology at Borton high school because of my credentials um I'm

044here to speak on the school board's ablest and classes policy regarding public expression during the co 19 pandemic School seity of Hammond proved it was able to accommodate those stakeholders who were physically unable to attend meetings some of those individuals were not able-bodied but some were like me a single mom of a toddler on a teacher's salary I cannot afford a sitter to come to every meeting to speak the alternative is you hear him Babble until we leave um especially if the these proposed Insurance increases take effect I depend on the written public expression to have my voice heard and I know I'm not the only stakeholder I shouldn't be here I should be finishing the bedtime routine with my toddler but we haven't been home yet today and that time is extended when the

045meeting goes later than what's expected but also when it doesn't start on time and it's 15 minutes late in addition to waiting for a 30 minute Financial presentation that we hear every month I voted for this board I regret more than half of those votes eliminating the written expression has limited the pool of voices that you hear from not just teachers but also Hammond paying ta Hammond taxpayers like myself we're a working District we're a title one District we have over 2100 single parent households in our district where 81% of those are single moms like myself happy women's history month thank [Applause] you next Community member Riley Sanders okay okay did you sign in for a second second session um we'll we'll allow you to sign in for second session if you got the wrong

046one okay item for a second okay uh trusty candelero I'll move you over all right next Community member leet monz good evening good evening Schoolboard today um on the in reference to the financial crisis report um loss of enrollment um more choices for schools to parents I where um I want to share that I believe that these are the after effects of consolidation of schools choices like charter schools and such um consolidation is not helping public education s our funding that was always set to end and that was temporary and all states were made aware that covid funding was temporary Therefore your financial budget needed to be more more managed as far as the operating referendum um I understand that there are some trustees on here that are pushing it and I am thankful for

047the trustee today that asked questions on budgeting and funding because had most trustees that have been working here asked questions on F on funding we wouldn't be in this financial situation so let's see more questions being asked on where the funds are coming from and going and I see that two are doing an amazing job here thank you so much for helping Community thank you thank you next Community member Louis gekas good evening good evening Madame President trustees my name is Ludas Hammond teachers Federation you can find me at 5930 hman Avenue um I'm here before you this evening to uh let you know that midday today we received an email about the 2425 school calendar we were under the impression all along that that was going to be negotiated through a process after negotiations

048would take place but apparently uh that's not happening and they're telling us that it doesn't require ire your approval and I find that very disappointing quite honestly because in the past it did require your approval so I don't know what has happened and while code and whatever else excuses they gave you uh that's not taking place I I see this evening too that the Kelly Services uh contract is up and I'm I'm I'm thinking the int not up but uh for Renewal and I'm thinking you're going to consider that please know that the Hamond Federation is um not in favor of that Kelly [Applause] Service Kelly Services has not provided the services that they promised uh we have some concerns about the behavior of some of those uh subs and we respectfully ask that you

049set that aside given to the current circumstances the financial circumstances that we're in and finally uh I just want to um Express the teacher's disappointment that Administration instead of answering questions on their own hired a public relations attorney uh or PR person I'm not quite sure exactly what the title is there to formulate first of all questions and then answers to those questions and uh we just quite honestly we view it as exactly what it is it's propaganda for the top three administrators in this building to push the message that they feel should be pushed through incredibly disappointing Madam president thank you thank you [Applause] sir that concludes everyone written in for session of public expression okay that takes us on two uh minutes um I I'm I'm sorry um the guidelines for public participation

050no it's okay but the just so everybody knows the guidelines for public participation are over on the the signin table so you could grab one of those okay thank you uh no we can't all right um we'll move on to the approval of minutes um I would accept a motion for the approval of all the executive session minutes uh together that would be for February 1st 6 20th and 27th do I have a motion for that Madam president truste Spencer I motion for the approval of the executive session minutes from February 1st February 6th February 20th and February 27 second I have a motion I have a second is there any discussion on this item any discussion on this item hearing none all in favor please signify by saying I I I anyone opposed no

051all right so that vote went for one all right we'll move on to item e under the minutes that's the approval of the regular board meeting minutes from February 20th i' accept a motion for that Madame President Spencer I motion for the approval of the school board meeting minutes from February 20th 2024 second a motion I have a second is there any discussion on this item any discussion on this item hearing none all in favor please signify by saying I I anyone opposed okay that one went 5- Z move on to the consent agenda I'd accept a motion for the approval of the consent agenda Madame President trustee Mur I move for the approval of the consent agenda with items a through f as presented second a motion and I have a second for the

052consent agenda is there any discussion on this item question uh trusty blinking uh I would like to read into record the accounts payable docket register for March 19 2024 our claims total 6, 857,921 roll totaled 6,449 10806 additionally I would like to I have a question on the Personnel report can't hear you can you get close to the mic I'll get closer to yeah so maybe drag it towards you I have a question regarding the uh on the Personnel report a reassignment could somebody explain that to me what is a reassignment uh superintendent Miller typically that's where where someone is is in either different position or different location does does it require excuse me does it require um a signature by the employee I mean is that person made aware how is that person made

053aware of that they're they've been reassigned in in almost every case there's a it's not a surprise there's a conversation I matter of I don't know of a case where someone didn't know that they were reassigned there's a there's a conversation typically that's a human resources function Mr ver would be the one to have that conversation I see it's happening a lot and I'm just trying to figure out what's what's going on there well one one thing I can mention is that we haven't filled a lot of POS positions in a long time so sometimes we do reassign people to balance out the the Staffing rather than hiring someone new thank you I would like to read into record our executive summary uh we had 18 um certified resignations and eight no eight certified resignations

054and eight classified resignations we have uh 11 certified approved leave of absences and 10 classifi approve leaves of absences and additionally we have um the the reassignment and retirements we have seven certified retirements and four classified retirements uh additionally under the consent agenda the I would like to read into record the um inl of sub dollar amount for this period was a total of um it's 12 Pages let me Zoom down here just for the record uh 30 $2,210 that's it regarding that's all all right thank you is there any other discussion on this item any other discussion uh hearing none all in favor please signify by saying I I anyone opposed abstain all right we have four in favor and one [Music] exstension all right we're going to move on now to new business

055trustees uh the first item is the approval of the early literacy achievement Grant um Indiana Department of Education um through house enrolled act 101223 provided additional funding uh for uh schools that were embracing the science of reading initiative and it does require that the board approve it Michelle or Mrs Reese anything you want to add about that yes sorry about that it took me a while to click you click on um yes uh this is a grant that we do not apply for it was immediately just provided to us and we received notification of it um I do ask that the board allow us flexibility um in the sense that I've gotten a couple emails with us needing to investigate something further on the amounts um but we will make those Corrections in April the

056money has to be spent by April 1st so we've been working on this for quite a while to make sure we have the accurate information I want to make sure everybody gets paid that's due to be paid but I do need the board to act on it tonight so that I can go ahead and get that all delivered by April 1 what she means by flexibility is that if we do substantiate someone who's not on the list is on the list it it may slightly lower the amount for everyone to include that additional person is that why we don't see any amounts at all the amounts are on the Personnel report okay yeah but Madam president Tracy Blake King but does this grant help our students at all in the area of reading is that

057it is provided directly to teachers that influenced um the reading um gains that we the ID is identified um within our Corporation and this is based on last year's not this current school year does that answer your question trust Bas so School the schools that we know desperately need you know where the literacy the test scores weren't where they needed to be are those schools going to be the ones selected to the license or how how how is this how are you administering this it's just a stien for teachers trusty Blake King it's just additional money for teachers that's it oh and we don't know how um the money was generated how much why we got the money so just money to fill into our lab okay does that make sense I got it doesn't

058share that in the idoe communications but but it was specifically for uh teachers that participated in the science and reading participated in Reading okay to help with the reading gains as um shown in I three so it's a s then okay all right um do I have a motion for this item mam president trusty Spencer I motion for the approval of the early literacy achievement Grant second all right uh motion by uh trusty Spencer seconded by uh trusty Blake king um we've had some discussion already uh is there any further discussion on this item any further discussion on this item hearing none all in favor please signify by saying I I I anyone opposed all right sounds like 5- Z going to move on to Item B now trustees I'm recommending the approval of the

059Indiana bar Foundation mock trial diversity initiative Grant in the amount of $2,500 to help support our mock trial teams at our high schools all right do I have a motion for this item Madam president Trust candel I move for the approval of the Indiana bar Foundation mock trial diversity initiative Grant as presented second a motion and I have a second is there any discussion on this item any discussion on this item all right hearing none all in favor please signify by saying I I anyone opposed okay this I'm hearing 5 Z there as well item C trustees at the last Public Work session uh we presented the middle school and high school course description guides and those updates so anyone who wants to learn more can review that Public Work session but they are for

060your consideration tonight all right do I have a motion for this item Madame President trusty Murphy I move for the approval of middle school and high school course description guides as presented second a motion I have a second is there any discussion on this item Madame President trusty Blake King my concern is regarding the um the high school course description guide when it comes to the career paths um considering what could possibly happen regarding our corrective action plan in terms of a career path and when I'm looking at haa haa uh it's confusing so could someone explain to me exactly what's going to happen I mean if we're going to approve this as is the program would would would move forward as is so I either we uh table it because I'm I'm looking at

061uh when it when it talks about it starts on page 89 um the career path and I'm hearing from students that the the path as far as they've been told by their counselors is no longer there but reading this document it appears that it is there so it's a little confusing to me so either we table it so that we can get a better understanding so we know where we're going in the event some of those corrective action issues that we're dealing with actually comes to few ising superintendent Miller um actually I'll I'm going to throw it to Mrs ree because she's the one leading the scheduling initiative what would be the impact if if we table this and you you've also worked the most on the the half a portion is is there anything

062you can share with the board right now are there is there anything different in the packet like or is what we see what what we anticipate for the fall what you see is what we have talked about um regarding haa um the pathways are there uh they are more streamlined um not as many because it's hard to um have as many and get the kids what they need so we have streamlined it there's still the rock band the orchestra but it's all underneath the pathway band and it's more streamlined uh for the ID so that we can check off that they've gotten the required classes per the local pathway that's been okayed by the idoe so what we've see in this document is what what we're offering um I've worked directly with Dr Davis on

063that and she's worked directly with the idee and they did send us an approval for that as well yes we had to get approval for that well again it's it's not consistent from the information I'm receiving uh students have have not that has not been shared with them the understand the freshman's they they've been told to tell the Freshman that there is no no longer the same identical career path that other students have experienced no that will not be the same for the in point Bas on Shar it says freshman if you look started at page 89 uh is it's confusing uh and we I would ask that we can table it is there a hurry to pass on this AB need this until I can get some clear understanding this program clear crystal clear

064because it's not crystal clear but I talked to students and parents with theyve been told by their counselors based on what I'm reading here it's not clear and until it's Crystal Clear well if you have the votes you have the votes but I can't support it that's the bottom line superintendent Miller um I just want to say that we are scheduling right now and if we if we delay on this that's we've many teachers in high school have felt the pain of not having schedules ready on day one like we have to schedule now like this is the time to schedule and um it's based on course requests and we have all the course requests and and there are several Pathways that had singled digigit students even when you combine them like the third level

065and the fourth level together with still singled digigit students so this reflects where we think um our offerings are but but none of this I'm I'm not going to say there's a guarantee on any of it because it's all generated based on student enrollments like that's the honest answer is you have to have enough students to run a class like we we can't we can't run a class for five students or 10 students like we have to we have to have and if the students don't know the program is there perhaps that's the reason why we're not generating those students it's it's a it's confusion and I'm I I stand on it uh these folks have no reason to share information with me otherwise and um you know you have your votes to pass it

066but but I can't support it won't support it until I'm Crystal Clear based on what could possibly happen because we have to change it for the fall then we got all this confusion Madam president that's trusty Murphy This goes across the board so I'm the math and science person okay so some years we haven't done calculus all right some years we haven't done chemistry or in the higher levels so what we need to do is what I did back in high school we needed a Calculus class the next year is like hey we've got 10 kids we need 15 more and so we let the students know if you want this class to run next year get your friends to sign up so it's not just haa we need to make sure that the upper

067level science and English and math are held and we need to get those kids into the class so that goes back to the counselors that goes back to teachers saying hey I think you belong in calculus next year or you belong in this certain haa class you should go sign up for it I agree with the superintendent I would hate if I had an incoming freshman right now not being able to work on their schedule and get it back for review because we haven't approved this so I think for clarity because we had the public work session and then we had two more weeks to ask questions on this before it came to us that we should be approving this tonight but because the underlying question is do we have enough students to run it

068and the superintendent's correct they have a certain level where they want them and I guess at some point we needs to come back to us is it 20 is it 25 is it 30 at which point we don't run the Class M Madam president truste Spencer go ahead I think there's just confusion surrounding it because there are changes being made so I I I think we just need to make sure it's Crystal Clear for the counselors and so that they can make it clear for the student we know that we're un we're undergoing a lot of changes in this District sure so we don't want to be giving information that is not correct so if we need a little more time to make sure everyone is on the same page with this I think that's

069better than making a bunch of mistakes um m I can share we have not been sharing any information until we get ready to move forward and this was um approved by the school board um but this um course handbook I want everybody to understand this is all the offerings we can do and again it goes back to students so these are the offerings that we that we can offer but it's not it's really solely depend upon students like students sing that course um but this handbook is not um dep picked of of the only things you know that we have but that these are the offerings we want for our kids does that make sense trust like King everybody is saying it it's dependent upon students it's dependent upon staff to work with the students

070if you don't have the teachers and the people available to move the program that's the issue and if you have this the staff then the students going to follow and and that's my whole point it's not always the number of students you don't have the staff to run it that's the whole team superintendent [Applause] Miller I I'm not sure there's too much more I can say but our goal is to have 100% of current students scheduled before they leave for the summer and our last are we end school in May like I mean so like we have we're working on Master scheduling and that's where these things are important is to keep our master schedule timeline um and uh I we were hoping to have board approval so we can stay on that timeline that's

071that's what we're doing I'd be happy to to add at the next public work session uh update on haa and all of those items um but that which Pathways we offer is an administrative decision I I was trying to get the blessing of the the entire hando and I have been expressing this all along this just this didn't happen tonight that's true so it's no surprise thank you okay um do I have any what we have a motion we have a second we've had some discussion um is there I mean I heard you want a motion are you you're trying to make a secondary motion to table or I've share it with you how I feel about it if the board wants to move forward on it okay is you know I would like for

072it to be tabled I don't want to waste anybody's time making a motion to table it you know so let's just do us okay all right we've had a motion we've had a second we've had discussion um all in favor please signify by saying I I uh anyone opposed oppos all right so that is three in favor and two [Applause] opposed all right superintendent Miller all right I am recommending the approval of item D disposition of outstanding checks uh basically we have have in the authority of State Statute if people don't cash their checks after two years uh we can claim those funds back all right do I have a motion for this item Madam president truste Murphy I move for the approval of disposition of outstanding checks as presented second uh I have a

073motion by trusty Murphy a second by trusty Blake King is there any discussion on this item any discussion on this item hearing none all in favor please signify by saying I I I anyone opposed all right that sounds like five across uh item e trusty I'm recommending the approval of um the contract with Yolanda Earl for our adult English as a second language boot camp classes in the amount of $1,342 paid out out of our title three fund so not our main District funds but it is part of our our current Grant to provide these services to our parents non-english speaking parents all right do I have a motion for this item Madam president trusty Candelaria I move for the approval of the contract of fanda Earl adult ESL boot camp classes as presented second

074uh I have a motion by trusty candeleria a second by trusty Spencer um is there any discussion on this item any discussion on this item hearing none all in favor please signify by saying I I anyone opposed all right so sounds like five across all right item F trustees the next three items have to do with providing Occupational Therapy Services to students to stay in compliance with their individual education plans item F I'm recommending the approval of contract with Marie Neil who will be filling in as an occupational therapist for um an employee who's out on maternity leave it's the contract amount is 25,000 all right do I have a motion for this item Madam president trusty Spencer I motion for the approval of the contract with Marie Neil second I have a motion by

075trusty Spencer a second by trusty Murphy is there any discussion on this item any discussion on this item hearing none all in favor please signify by saying I I anyone opposed no all right moving that's five across uh item G trustees I'm recommending the approval of the contract with Procare therapy to provide the service of jacqu Cooper in the amount of $21,000 to again provide occupational therapy uh services for an employee who's out on FMLA all right to have a motion for this item Madame President trusty Murphy I move for the approval of contract with Procare therapy reference jacqu Cooper all right is there a second second all right I have a motion I have a second is there any discussion on this item Madam president trusty Blake King I Have a general question regarding

076G GH and the one we just approved all of this therapy that we're paying for for our students with the IEPs how are parents directed to these these folks for help I mean because I that's my biggest complaint I get from parents with IEPs they say there's no help and and we approve all continually approve all these Consultants how are these folks directed to our parents so so these for FG and these are not Consultants these when when a student needs based on the results of like the case conference committee when they get together with the parent and they decide hey a student has a federally qualified disability and as part of the accommodation we need to provide Occupational Therapy Services to that student what we're doing with that in the in items FG andh

077is we've had an employee um leave for another Corporation an employee on maternity leave and an employee who's on FMLA and we're legally obligated to provide those services without missing them so this is making sure we can continue to provide those services but how how do they get that you providing them but if a parent wants to know about these or just tell them what's the process yeah the process is to talk to the the teacher of record or if you don't ex if if you have an IEP you can talk to your teacher of record if you don't have an IEP and you you feel your child may have an undiagnosed disability you just need to inform the school which means you can just talk to the principal and say I'd like to have

078I'd like to have my child evaluated thank you very much y you're welcome okay uh any other questions on this item any other discussion all right hearing none we've had a motion we have a second we've had discussion um all in favor please signify by saying I I anyone opposed he that sounds like uh five in favor item H uh trustees I'm recommending the approval of the contract with Procare therapy for Samantha Johnston in the amount of 39,000 to again provide occupation Therapy Services for our students Madam president trustee Spencer I motion for the approval of the contract of Pro Care therapy for Samantha Johnson second have a motion by trusty Spencer a second by uh trusty Candelaria is there any discussion on this item any discussion on this item all right hearing none all

079in favor please signify by saying I I anyone opposed all right this item uh has passed um with five V uh from the trustees item I trustees I am recommending the approval of the agreement with administrator assistance to provide the Public Relation Services of Donna petrites um as you know we used to have a full-time position that cost north of six figures so we are being economical with this in it it's less than one tenen of the cost previously all right do have a motion for this item Madame President trusty Murphy I move for the approval of the agreement with assistance LLC as presented second there's a motion in a second is there discussion on this item any discussion on this item discussion Madam president trusty Blake king um Mr Miller you indicated that we

080had a PR consultant that was too expensive I guess and now we have this it's more cost effective however that particular person was not given this kind of responsibility it was separate totally different and in add um am I to understand that this person is the one that has those questions on our Facebook on our uh site now website right now did she develop these questions so that's that's been an ongoing conversation it's not been any one person who has developed the questions but it's been is that part of her job yes has she been developing any of those questions yes so she's already doing the job and we have not approved her contract I have an issue with that secondly when uh when I was told I was trying to get some understanding as

081to what the person's role was and I was told to get over it stop the blame game and move on now for somebody who's looking you're looking for me to approve your contract and you going to tell me to get over it and that seemed seems to be the the conversation or that seems to be the excuse that we just want everybody to just get over what has happened just move on I can't do that and for $120 an hour certainly we could have find somebody in this District not outside of our district that was vested in Hammond that could beat the face for our community and it wouldn't have cost of $120 nobody can speak for this Schoolboard trustee I was elected to speak Clos and for for this person for this to hire

082this person to be our our spokesperson as to how we're going to move this process forward is an insult is an insult to every Schoolboard trustee up here we were elected whatever decisions we make we have to face them and and and face them head on however it hurts so I I I totally disapprove of this especially when I was insulted when I was told to get over it and move on well I'm not getting over it and I'm not moving on thank you very much Madam thank [Applause] you all right i' I'd like to make a point of clarification um she's not writing the questions she's helping us with the answers to questions that we're receiving and those questions as I stated previously depending on what they are are a collaborative effort in how

083that they're responded to so I just want to clarify I think you met a president but I clarification but have you read the answers I've read the answers and and they're not totally truthful I I have and I would I would encourage everybody to go on on our website and read those frequently asked questions and uh to me they're they're just not addressing the real question that I believe you folks want to ask I don't think anybody need to ask a question for you you can get on that website and ask the question yourself so um just a kind of follow on what trusty Blake King is saying if you would like to take a look at our FAQ or to submit a question uh you can go to the school C of Hammond's website

084right on the homepage there's a link for um frequently asked questions you can go ahead and click on that there's a place where you can submit your questions as well as you can take a look at uh questions that have already been asked and answers that have been provided uh but that's available to everyone directly off of the homepage of the main website all right so I think we've had a motion we've had a second we've had lots of discussion um is are we ready for the vote here all right um all in favor of the approval of this contract please signify by saying I I uh any opposed opposed okay so that one is three two all right we're going to move on now to item J trustees our last new business item is

085a an extension of the agreement with Kelly education to provide sub Services um I will just say my commentary on it then be quiet but when we had them we were filling Subs at less than 65% um and we increased our rates it still did not by our sub the amount we pay substitutes that still did not yield a considerable more amount of Subs within two years we're filling it over 90% of our positions so this is why Administration still feels this is valuable when you when you look at things like having to pay long-term Subs insurance and many of the other benefits that go along with it it it it really closes that Gap we got a lot of changes going on that has been expressed this this is one that at least for

086one more year if we could have this in place um that is administration's recommendation I I I am going to ask that everyone let be quiet please it's really hard to hear when you guys are talking back I I was those of you who probably know this if you're Affordable Care Act over 30 hours a week you have to provide insurance I mean you do and if that's a longterm sub if we're owning them meaning that they work as employees for school City Hammond we have to pay those things if they work for Kelly we do not like so they they we do not Kelly has to pay them if they work over that and we have over 50 we have over 50 long-term long-term Subs so it it does add up it does that

087Mr CTS I want to give you a chance before um before it turned over the board anything else you'd like to add no I mean we reviewed it on a individual basis on a single sub and the avoided costs that we have and then we looked at it on a more Global basis and uh if everything goes perfectly uh by not using Kelly we might be able to save money but out of the 300 plus Subs that we have all it takes is just a couple of them to have a workers's comp injury to qualify for insurance benefits and and then it really swings the pendulum over to it was really more costly for us to do it inhouse so um and the history at school City of Hammond my understanding it was before I

088was here but our fill rate was down in the 60% and I was told it was actually the teachers that asked us to get a solution uh to improving our sub fill rate and Kelly is up in the 90% range consistently and and even the mid 90% of filling those vacancies so it's providing uh additional Personnel for supervision of our children uh and and again they also raised actually the qualifications uh of the subs to a higher level than what even School City of Hammond had provided um so honestly I I think it's the right decision and to insource that at this time I'm concerned with all the other things that we have going on that we would be uh unable to deliver uh anywhere close to a 90 plus percent fill rate for substitutes

089all right uh thank you superintendent Miller uh do I have a motion for this item Madame President trusty Murphy I move for the approval of the agreement extension with Kelly education presented all right we have a motion and we have a second Madame President we'll open discussion when the room is quiet trusty Spencer over the course of the last several months we have had I can't even count how many teachers and parents come up and tell us of the poor job Kelly Services is doing [Applause] at at some point we have to listen to the people we are elected we've all said it we have to listen at some point this would be a good point to start listening all right other discussion or comments Madam president trusty Blake King could we get them to

090put could we get them to put this uh PowerPoint on the board dots so the the one that was presented to us would this be okay to be put on board dots uh for the public I I have to review it in general yes I think we can but I I just need to check thank you and uh I I 100% support what trustee Spencer has stated again we have a standalone HR department we have an executive director to our HR department initially when Kelly Services stood before us they talked about a cost savings well did we see the cost savings we did not see a cost savings and to me that's a breach of contract but yet we want to move forward and extend their contract I was under the impression uh Mr Miller

091that you were not going to put this on the agenda when I saw it I said well my God what happened it's on the agenda but here it is again we're struggling with numbers it's is always the bottom line the bottom line is always it goes against teachers and parents and students we've had so many complaints you know that was and we we have no control over these folks because Kelly controls the subs we don't we have a second employer under our wings what sense does that make and in terms of benefits is my understanding that when they were under the school corporation uh they had they were eligible for loan forgiveness for their college uh loans they don't have that anymore it's gone and and the perf is different and uh I mean I

092have a ple of things I won't read that a person who used to sub for Kelly that left because it just wasn't what it chalked up to be uh it's a staffing company I mean they're about human and bodies they're not about children we're an educational institution we're supposed to be about children first and this this this this company uh certainly has not has not in my opinion uh when we asked for the survey they were supposed to give us a survey we literally had to ask them for it on our second presentation oh we have it well why didn't you present it in the first place because that survey was damning it told the truth so I cannot support this I'm shocked Mr Miller that you even put it on the agenda you know

093insult it but here we have it again so that's my two cent okay superintendent Miller I'm not trying to insult you trusty Blake King my comment was that however the board votes this if they voted up or vote it down we need to know like because if it gets voted down we have to start working on bringing that back in house we can't wait till May or we we have to have a decision see that's our problem we're never proactive well that's why we're asking I mean we should have been planning you know you don't know how this board is going to operate it's like you have a rubber stamp you know and it's it just rcks with cronyism I don't care what you say it reeks with cronyism I'm through great I'm trying to

094be proactive waiting waiting waiting would be the opposite of proactive all right so is there other comments Madame President trusty Murphy I don't want to reiterate what the super attendant and Mr Kurt said because it's all true I mean you're going to have these reductions and costs that we don't have them it's a gamble so with the presentation that was presided to us yes in a perfect world we could save some money but as he said one workman's comp away from all that savings being gone along with the insurance um one of the things Mr CTS didn't go over that was in the part of that presentation that if we resigned with Kelly they were going to reduce the overhead costs and was like $121,000 we were going to save I believe something like that

095well they said that excuse me I'm sorry my turn um so when they took over it was 100 Subs if we were to end this today then we would get our 100 Subs back they're almost at 400 which is why they get such great fill rates we do have plenty of control over and over when the complaints come through and we say we don't want that sub to return they don't return they are removed um again we need some I don't think we should be gambling at this time on where we have nons supervision we had a point where literally one of our middle schools was on e-learning while the students were in session because we didn't have enough Subs I don't want to go back to those days so I urge my fellow board

096members let's don't take the gamble on this next school year and to approve the Kelly contract Madame President my final thing my final word well when the room is quiet yeah we talk about a fiscal cliff and we talk about a gamble we'll gamble with Kelly but we won't gamble with our own kids that's all I have to say all right we have had a motion we've had a second we've had lots of discussion um we'll go ahead and we'll call the vote uh all in favor please signify by saying I I those opposed oppose oppose all [Applause] right need to take a break before we start public expression okay peace we have one more item one more item okay okay item we have one item uh left it was the item we amended our

097agenda to add um trusty Murphy do you want to present that item Madame President I move for the approval of the resolution directing the superintendent to implement the correction action plan as presented in that's currently now added onto the agenda okay um anyone wanting to take a look at this resolution it has been added to board dos so you can you can pull that up and take a look at it uh we have a motion do I have a second for this item second have a motion and I have a second for this item is there any discussion it it's on board it's on board docs you you guys can pull it up um we we're not talking to the audience so we have a motion we have a second uh we're g to open

098for discussion as soon as it's quiet in the room Madam president for the sake of I'm sorry recogniz well got it okay I was waiting waiting for the room to be quiet I'm sorry um trusty Blake King for the sake of argument you know from my past experience as a board member resolutions were always read into record and uh if not that could we just give hear you we you know from my experience of being um SC truste uh resolutions were read into record because when I was a secretary on this board I I had that job of reading all resolutions into record so perhaps we need to reconsider that thank you Madame President trusty Murphy we already had a resolution approved earlier that we didn't read into the record if the fellow board member

099would like to read it I don't have an objection but again this is for discussion for an approval of the motion all right um we do have a motion we do have a second um is there additional discussion on this item sorry reading it or not reading it um you don't need to it's it's not necessary for us to read it but if if you would like to read it you certainly can Manny reading it or you want me to it you if you would all right resolution directing superintendent to implement corrective action plan this resolution is adopted by the School Board of Trustees of the School City of Hammond located in Hammond Indiana whereas on November 17th 2023 the Indiana distress unit appeals board determined that per Indiana code 20-19 7-12 the school City's

100Financial condition warranted the development and implementation of a corrective action plan and ordered the school City to submit the plan to doab on or before February 15 2024 whereas the school City's corrective action plan requires the school City to implement Cost Containment measures to implement the corrective action plan including a reduction in certified and non-certified staff and whereas the board of the School City of Hammond wishes to implement the Cost Containment measures identified in its corrective action plan therefore be it resolved that the board hereby directs the superintendent to take all actions necessary to implement the Cost Containment measures identified in the corrective action plan be it further resolved that the board hereby authorizes the superintendent to take all actions necessary to implement the Cost Containment measures identified in the corrective action plan be it

101further resolved that the board hereby directs the superintendent to immediately take all actions necessary to implement a reduction in certified and non-certified staff be it further resolved that the board hereby authorizes the superintendent to take all actions necessary to implement a reduction in certified and non-certified staff be it further resolved that the superintendent is to provide a report to the board on or before April 2nd 2024 of a preliminary list of certified and non-certified positions as well as a preliminary list of employees that may be subject to a reduction of force based on application of factors stated in Indiana code and board policy be it further resolved that the superintendent is to provide rent notice to non-certified employees beginning April April 17th 2024 of any decisions concerning reduction of force be it further resolved that

102the superintendent is to provide written notice to certified employees beginning May 2nd 2024 of any decisions concerning reduction of force but not later than June 30th 2024 be it further resolved that it is the intent of the board that the superintendent provide written notice to employees no later than the last day of school for the 2023 2024 school year duy adopted on this 19th day of March 2024 all all right we have had a motion we've had a second we've had discussion we have read the resolution into the record uh are ready for the vote all right all in favor please sign trusty b k did you have any okay all in favor please signify by saying I I is anyone opposed all right that one passes 5 uh we're going to move on now

103to our calendar of upcoming meetings um our next meeting will be on February the 2nd that's it I'm sorry April boy I'm trying to go back in time right okay April the 2nd uh we have an executive session uh April the 9th we have an executive session April the 9th we also have a regular uh our regular Public Work session uh April the 23rd we have an executive session April the 23rd we also have our regular school board meeting and on April 30th we have an executive session as it stands right now M Madam president uh could we at some point consider going back to six o'cl just consider you know it is a school night you know this weather's getting better you know and it'll be you know better for our constituents our stakeholders

104you know just to consider going back to 6:00 you know yeah some some of that's a juggling yeah like whether we need to go back into executive session let the board have the onus to um absorb that that half an hour as opposed to putting it on on our stakeholders okay it's just a thought you know it's a school night no I I I appreciate that presentations with our kids it's getting warmer you know we want to get out of here no I I I definitely hear what you're saying there sometimes it's just dependent on the consultants and whatnot but but we will definitely continue to work at getting that um back on on schedule if possible okay um that takes us on to public expression uh second period uh trusty Murphy uh First Community

105member is Patrick [Applause] oor thank you good evening my remarks are dedicated to the students of this District not the board not the administration the students they come first and to the parents and to the certified staff and to the non-certified staff they are not to blame for the morass we are in yes the blame game should stop but now the accountability must step in and that's the accountability for for the members of the board of school trustees and all of the administrators who played a role in driving us to this fiscal cliff that begins with the superintendent of schools and every single member of the board as I recall and I was president of the teachers union for 50 years when a contract is negotiated it takes the ratification of the members of the

106bargaining unit and the board of school trustees to assign blame to the teachers Federation or the teachers for a contract that they negotiated several years ago that was ratified by the board at that time we were warned in 199 or 2019 that we were headed toward a fiscal cliff nothing was done zero we received $60 million from the Biden Administration through Co in my view that was totally misspent totally that should that should have been set aside and very very carefully carefully drawn on I believe the board and administration was counting on a referendum to cover their financial behind that referendum was a sham a complete and total sham they G you gave the admit the community brought bad advice the teachers got bad advice an email was sent out to teachers after the defeat

107of the referendum 5 days later another email came out saying whoops I was wrong I was wrong we are on a fiscal cliff closing school should not be on the table it should not every ounce of research every ounce of research talks about smaller neighborhood schools being the most effective way our parents deserve their neighborhood schools I'll tell you who doesn't deserve our neighborhood schools the Civil City because it's certainly no secret that the Civil city is in communication with board members about how they could use those buildings to further their agenda whether it's in Robertsdale or whether it's in the Kenwood area or whether it's out in Morton those discussions have taken place I know that H another point I'm sorry time's [Applause] up next Community member Reena Horan good evening good evening tonight

108I'd like to speak on your current FAQs that you have on the district website you see I have a problem with the fact that in the midst of your corrective action plan our administrator hired an administrative assistant person to address the so-called public questions this PR person is putting quite the spin on these questions and I'd like to offer some rebuttal you all know I'm a hardworking employee who always goes above and beyond every day what is expected of me yet if your FAQ in your FAQs my fellow hardworking colleagues behind me and I are being used as scapegoats for the district's financial situation in fact I think I counted at least 20 times where teachers were mentioned directly or indirectly as being Financial burdens to this District well I'm here to debate that and

109I want you to hear me loud and clear those who are making these financials decisions and policies in this District are the one who should be held accountable for this District's ever growing shortfalls not your teachers you see my colleagues here and I we teach students your teachers have no control over the district's budget we don't get to decide which buildings remain open and which will close we don't choose how many students are in our classrooms teachers do not get to choose the curriculum we don't get to choose the standards or the skills we have to teach and now we don't even get to choose our calendar it is safe to say teachers are not the problem sure we have a union who tries to get the best possible contract for each of us this

110every year to provide for our own families cuz this is a job of course but our Union and your teachers are not to blame for this District's what $15 million no $22 million oh no tonight it's $27 million when the heavens opened up and dumped over $63 million into our lap this administration had the chance to to make health insurance solvent they chose not to and said they take their chances they gambled on our resources and our finances not your teachers they held the purse strings they continued to make poor decision and blame the teachers when they fell short of that Mark Prior to 2021 teachers had been working without a cost of living raise when we finally received our well-deserved raise it was just to help close the gap yet these raises were not

111accounted for in our District budget Albert Einstein once said we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them this District cannot solve its problems with the same people at the helm who created the problems in the first place it's time for a change have the courage to do what's right for your teachers and this community thank you thank [Applause] you next Community member Don [Applause] VZ good evening good evening my name is Don valz and I reside at 7228 mcook I have been a Hammond resident for 30 years I a proud mom of two Morton high school graduates I'm here tonight to plead with you to not close Morton Elementary I went through this closure of schools back in 2019 when you closed Columbia I then got moved to another

112school and all my colleagues got moved to a different school so not only did I get moved somewhere that they just stuck me I lost all of my co-workers this school that I'm at now is like my family there are still teachers there that my own children had as teachers I always wanted to teach there and finally got the opportunity to come up to go to the school I've been teaching kindergarten there for 2 years and I have a total of 24 years in Hammond this year alone I've had 27 kindergarteners in one classroom and a shared pair professional between three people first grade 30 and 31 kids with no help where are all these children going to go please think about the families and the children before making such a drastic decision that will

113affect many families teachers custodians cafeteria workers PA professionals office staff recess AIDS and nurses there is no way to Be an Effective Teacher with 24 or more kids in the primary grades and and no par professional no help I sit at the school board meetings week after week supporting all schools and all teachers for hours so please think about your teachers and all that we do and please don't shudder our schools thank you thank [Applause] you next Community member Mr Buck okay next Community member April Bodner okay this is my first time so you guys feel free to help me here all right okay um so one of the things that bothered me is that you guys are making executive decisions over teachers who have the same pedigree and education that I've went through the

114Ricker that you went through but yet they're being dismissive they have to have buying things out of their own pocket that's not fair we do clear the list at other schools to help teachers because they're not getting the pay that they deserve I would love to see anybody on this board go into a classroom for speak the mic please oh I'm sorry can you hear me I would love if somebody from admin came over to Maywood Lewis um or I'm sorry Lou Wallace and then Mor Morton Elementary School I was at Lou Wallace so that's a devastating blow to me personally I have my kids here and I have the opportunity to move right I want to I want them to see diversity equity and inclusion you guys aren't providing that you're failing our students

115at that they are being bullied because our teachers are being stretched thin three pair of professionals is that what I heard that's not enough you guys are failing our kids who have IEPs that need your help and your support you're failing them at the school where they're being bullied and when you want to go ahead and do your acquisition and merger this seems to me like a business plan it seems like we're consolidating the schools to help other people's pockets instead of the people who are there every day with 27 kids now that are not being given that same opportunities that people around the world deserve and just because they live over here I see what they're being eliminated their opportunities are being eliminated every child in America has an opportunity for a free education

116and you guys are failing the system with your teachers the School City of Hammond and everybody who has kids that go there and the teachers who can choose to go anywhere but they love these kids so much please take care of your staff and your faculty that is my only ask for you but I will be bringing this to the house and I will be opening up an investigation because you cannot shun me for my own personal human rights when I have three children right here and a 17-year-old and teachers who have been parents to my children unacceptable I will be bringing that up to the hill and investigation I want you guys to know that you two you should be the ones over here [Applause] [Music] super next Community member Elizabeth coffen good evening

117hello hello hello I'm Libby cofin a former counselor at Clarken Hammond high schools and currently I teach English as a second language and a in Hammond adult program first Miss King and Mr Miller thanks for your quick reply to my concern about the notification of the last meeting I have two topics finances and elementary schools first the elementary schools students need to be feel part of their school Community four now four high schools are two the ihsaa report of 1920 or 2122 Clark had 763 students Hammond 780 gav 878 now these students go to either Hammond Central or more Hammond Central with 1900 plus Morton High School with 1,700 plus an education professor of mine said students have a better chance of success if they connect with someone at their school the school resource officer

118teacher sec secretary bookkeeper custodian lunchroom worker coach counselor par paraprofessional someone I want to share a story by Daddy who went to a one room School of 25 in the mountains of West Virginia he was from Hicks mountain in southern West Virginia and when he went to Hinton high school at 14 the town kids made fun of him he was a hillbilly from the mountains Hinton was a seean own railroad Town one day as a train went by he grabbed the railing on the train and held on for 24 miles down the greenb river at alerson he jumped off and ran up to baptist boarding school in town he found the principal and asked may I go to your school the principal replied yes but you'll have to live in the laundry room and do

119the laundry for the students daddy said yes for four years the students had clean clothes and Daddy got his his high school diploma our students our elementary students can't get on a bus and go to another school and have a family elementary students need a family more so today than in the past don't separate our elementary students from their school family review that budget with a fine tooth comb find that money to keep the ele elementary schools open okay now to finances I would would like to see a real time number of where we stand dayt day okay you get rid of a teacher uh $75,000 that reduces the 24 million d d d da I want to see that number as it changes day today Mr gigas when I saw that uh uh that

120spreadsheet it was Greek to me I I need a vocabulary and you I want you all to give me a vote and now this is a public service amount thank you I'm sorry I'm sorry your time is up I'm sorry your time is [Applause] up next Community member Aiden huddle is [Applause] our good evening good evening um my name is Aiden hayatt I'm 17 years old I'm a current student at Morton High School and a early grad for Morton High School and a future 24 applicant and acceptance uh to IU Bloomington go hooers um and never at any point in my life have I had to question the Integrity of the school system and the school board but now with my sister in elementary school and going on to middle school I feel as if

121I need to question it more than ever um I wake up at 4:00 in the morning and I make my way to the gym and I come home to get ready for school at 6: :30 in the morning and go to school go through your school system come back home go to work and come back home to do homework and prepare for college there is no reason why I should be as a 17-year-old student more productive than my school board of what six people there's no reason you talk about these substitute teachers and how you can fill these positions quickly but what happened to qual uh quality over quantity you're you're dealing with a supply and demand system you supply these teachers to demand for these students educ a it is your job as a

122business or a corporation to handle that supply and demand it is not the question of the teachers to question you about that supply and demand it is your duty not theirs moving on from these Subs you guys need to uh in my opinion I feel as if you guys need to be more accountable my dad always told me uh you can only make so many excuses before you become the excuse yourself and One Last Thing Before I Go I'm going to cut this really quick One Last Thing Before I Go they always say you should quote a you know a strong and impressive man and I believe I might be one one day so quote me and I'll say I've traveled far to reach this checkpoint and I've reached it and I've reached it through

123so many hardships and don't fret you can fear what you see now but you have no idea what you'll fear when I come [Applause] back thank you [Applause] good job next Community member Preston ruy good evening good evening so uh the first time I was here I more or less accused this board of voting to close schools with the express purpose of turning the buildings over to special interest charter schools expressly against the wishes of the voters who have elected you into your positions since then I have mentioned mismanaged Esser funds in the amount of $63 plus million ignored nipco rebates in the amount of over $40 million mismanagement of $70 million in referendum and a complete failure to balance the budget since that referendum was received in 2017 afterwards this board voted to close

124two schools claiming it would save the money this board is failing to properly manage to begin with despite the fact that the board knows they are funded per student and when they lose the schools they're going to lose the students anyhow so it's not even a temporary uh save you're let alone a permanent one finally we gave this board notice that we will replace the members up for election if the board does not change its mind on this and the board still has not wavered the board's response is to now attempt the closure by the way of for schools if everybody doesn't know about it because they know after this election they will no longer be able to feed free buildings to their special interest Charter School Masters by doing this you've actually tipped your

125hand and shown everybody exactly what your motives are by tipping your hand you also show that you understand what's coming in this election season I would introduce your opponent but I know that one of them miraculously now has a sunup for expulsion imagine that not to mention and and I want to you know throw out there that a few instances that appear like retaliation or harassment do constitute legal retaliation harassment so we'll talk about the harassment of one of your own board members and then another individual who was suspended that's three instances of retaliation against people that do not agree with your school closures so I'm going to say this and I wasn't going to say it but I'm going to say it uh just because of this young man that came up here cuz

126now I'm kind of worried about him if you want to retaliate against somebody I'm the one kicking over the Hornets Nest I'm the one running the campaigns I'm the one finding the candidates so I beg you I implore you and I dare you if you want to come after somebody come see me I'm in your weight [Applause] class thank you next Community member Robin Bellamy good evening good evening um I want to First address how condescending it was to have an obviously orchestrated addition of a resolution to the agenda so no one would have a chance to look at it beforehand you just rubber stamped him the authority to implement implement the corrective action plan what is that plan it went to duab February 15th when does the public get to hear what that plan

127is I'm sure it's including some closing of schools make no mistake the no vote on the referendum was a vote of no confidence in the superintendent and the board and their ability to use that money wisely I know you have to make budget cuts I am completely against the closing of any of our Hammond schools we were told that cuts that affect students would be a last resort and yet here it is the first thing that pops up it would definitely affect students staff and the communities they serve and with bus services being cut now how are they going to get to school parents don't have cars or they work how are they going to get them there these are not wealthy communities our families count on these neighborhood schools and they support the teachers

128and their efforts it's you that they don't support it is you they do not trust meanwhile the teachers are still waiting for a fair contract at first there was talk of closing two schools now the rumor is that you need to close four schools if the teachers get the contract they want so it's almost like Scare Tactics oh you want a contract we'll close four schools we're done with the gaslighting and the scare tactics take responsibility for your mismanagement of funds there were some Cuts made at the district level in January but those people were offered other District positions at about the same amount or just a little bit less than what they were making before principles then could bump assistant principles assistant principles were offered teaching positions how much money was really saved sounds

129like the district Shuffle to me maybe you should add this question to your FAQ propaganda page a colleague of mine asked me to ask this question because she couldn't be here tonight about what the covid stiens were the general public should know how much money went to staff how much went to sanitation and how much went into Pockets upper level management got 10% of their salary while Library techs who worked Tire tirelessly to make sure that staff and students were ready for online learning got about $900 not fair maybe that's another question you should add to your propaganda page we want answers not your spin on the truth thank [Applause] you next Community member Christina signs is there Christina on The who signed up for public expression okay Mariel and slik [Applause] marelen slaz 6847

130California good evening good evening I don't even know where to start there's so much tonight and all that's negative but that's all that's been around here lately anyway um as for personnel I go through the sheets things like a book tonight and I see a whole bunch of resignations and I see more teachers retiring speaking of teachers I guess I'll bring up Kelly's Services first uh I'd rather have quality for the children and they're not getting that and they deserve better than that I got four grandchildren in the schools this cannot be tolerated why should somebody that's not qualified sub they have no business in the classroom that's wrong our kids deserve so much better so much better than what they've been getting out of 41 Williams Street for a long time also yeah I

131guess you're in trouble financially brought it on yourselves yeah it was a bit of a mess when some of you came on the picture of course some of you were part of the mess and um even if you got the referendum which the first time we relied to so bad why should we believe you uh fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me well it didn't happen even if that referendum would have passed you still been the whole so bad that you'd still be scrambling like a bunch of cockroaches when lights are turned on uh and um well it's good way to describe it it's your own fault some of you who are new I I know you got a buck the trend you've had a chance to do something to

132change things around for our children's sake and you failed them you all failed that have not voted appropriately with our children in mind that is not going to be tolerated and that will be remembered when people go vote because you have been detrimental to our children's education for a long time I've been coming to school board meetings all about 30 years except for one break I took and I have seen a lot and I have seen a lot of bad stuff and it keeps on perpetuating itself the foolishness I mean if you cut all these contracted services and Kelly should be the top of the list especially since they're sting a bunch of incomp competence to supposedly teach our children in the classroom cut a Ministry of salaries too you know hey it's a pain

133of being an employeed sometimes it happens also all these buildings that I brought it up before why haven't they been sold if they're empty sitting around sorry your time is up how much has been Wast up no more waste responsibility your time is up thank you next Community member Dr Michaela good evening good evening everybody um so I've noticed that there are two board members up here that talk about the concerns of parents and teachers and students and that is their job they ask hard questions they try to provide oversight and then there's other board members that seem to engage openly in propaganda while sitting there which makes no sense talking about oh we need to float another referendum oh we need to do this and that but you had a referendum it's not like

134you never had a referendum you had one and you didn't utilize it and if somebody somebody made a wonderful point about a lack of confidence in the board and the communication of that through the failure of that referendum and yet here we sit and we're talking about the same thing over and over and over again what I would have liked to see tonight would maybe have been some more hard questions like for instance when we're looking at the fact that that debt service is in a negative which is unusual um referendum account your referendum fund is also in the negative we're talking about well we're transferring funds out of debt service into other things because there's limitations on what we can spend Debt Service funds on that just sounds weird to me when we look

135at this Personnel report and we see that people who are providing Direct Services to these kids who are being underpaid and who are frankly working in a hostile environment are the ones that are leaving are the ones that are suffering and then we hear that 10% that the administration took 10% of a pay bump during this time my question is to do what because these these these these teachers these students that's what makes a school and frankly every time you guys demonize teachers and students it's really obvious virtue signaling or I guess you could say Vice signaling to people down state who are hostile to teachers hostile to education hostile to Public Schools hostile to the idea that we need to have public physical schools and if that's what you're doing here you're making it

136very clear that you're not here to run a school you're not here to operate a school you're not here to balance a budget you're here to undermine these schools and to undermine it to the benefit of your political allies whatever else ways they may be allied with you and it's disgusting what we need to see I'm sorry your time is up oh thank [Applause] you next Community member Mary K Kaminsky good evening okay I got a couple things what is wrong with Y I had a couple things to bring up okay I want to know why does my why is my nephew on his third teacher this year why there is no consistency at all none how are they going to no consistency if you keep shuffling them from teacher to teacher to teacher how's

137that fair to them that's not fair to them whatsoever it's not fair to these kids and second thing I want to bring up is you guys got to do something about the traffic on Harrison and walam because it is so hard for me to make that turn when I was picking my nephews and my niece up from school at Wallace it was hard to make that corner because you don't know if a car is going to come barring at you okay I've almost been hit making that turn onto Harrison so I can go get my niece and my nephews from school you know you got cars parked on both sides of the street and in the middle it's so narrow and another thing is I can't believe you guys approved that contract for Kelly Services

138those teachers are garbage and you guys know it and so does the everybody in this whole room knows that why why they're garbage why can't we do inh house I mean the quality the quality of those subs is garbage I had better Subs when I was in school thank you thank [Applause] you next Community member Dwayne last name looks like Connor is there Dwayne in the audience all right next Community member leet monz good evening good evening again um going over these um these issues hearing everything um I just have to come up and say that due to the fact that you have voted on school Clos closures behind closed doors and have increased the number from two to four schools due to the fact that you have had seven years of fiscal mismanagement since

139the 2017 referendum and failure to balance the budget since that time due to the fact that you have failed to establish goals that help our students achieve academically and due to the fact that you have failed to listen to the people you have also failed to listen to the teachers and you have treated them inappropriately and you have have and continue to refuse to work with the teachers union today I hereby announce my in to run for school board thank you thank [Applause] you next Community member Judy Morales hi Judy Morales good evening good evening thank you you want to fix them um I I'm sad that's what I'm going to say I this whole time I've been writing different things and it it all just makes me sad I've been working in the school

140system for 30 years I've been part of the Hammond teachers Federation the whole time I've been here all the superintendent well all there's only been Mr Miller who would be the third during my time have always always worked with us always worked with the teachers it's disheartening to hear that you you're not trying and that we're not we mean nothing to you just with the email today from Mr verta stating that oh the Contra their uh calendar doesn't have to be determined by the board it doesn't have to be shared it doesn't have to be talked about with the school with the Hammond teachers it just is done that's never been done before in the past I I mean I I guess yeah oh new things are happening but new things aren't necessarily the right

141way to go you were talking just last year constantly about transparency transparency transparency that's not transparent this whole hiding that Collective action plan was not transparent still not telling us all of it is not transparent all the rumors that fly around all the things that we've been waiting to hear our contract being finalized given us a an we haven't even had anything offered back to us and then putting in FAQs that we can't talk about the contract that you offered us that was public knowledge we voted on we can talk about what crap you offered us that's allowed I understand bargaining and stuff is not but when you offered it and we we we defeated it yeah we have a right to tell people you were not treating us very well and then in your

142FAQs it says you you worked collaborative collaboratively with us what I don't think you know what the word collaborative means because no collaboration was done an email sending out to us saying oh what do you think can help us save money is not collaboration that's a way to cover your butt to make yourselves look good collaborating is working with our Union working with us and telling us the truth that's also collaborating and not hiding and having 60,000 ex uh executive sessions where we're sitting here waiting to know what our fate is and that is what it is our fate and I understand why you want to keep Kelly Services because you're going to have no teachers next year so you do need them because you're going to have to have some kind of body in

143the classroom it's disheartening and sad sad sad sad sad thank [Applause] you next Community member David Perez good evening good evening my name is David Perez 6552 for First Avenue Hammond Indiana I'm a retired teacher from Hammond and also be Chicago retired administrator having been Dina students at gav Hamond high and Clark and I relish every moment any any every one of those schools but I also want to add to the agenda that I am a retired human resource manager from Inland steel where we were dealt with the same process as you had in cost cutting closing departments and we work through a process which was traditional as you're doing right now and Pat can attest to it also is just working from Top management down without involvement to the union those successes were not

144there it wasn't until Dale weby a graduate of gavit high school who's president of ill steel said we've got to change things and do things differently we've got to bring in the folks and have them participate in the process Dale was bold enough to open the books to Inland didn't try to hide anything any additional stiens any things that were done in appropriately he opened the books and said HR go out and work with these folks find out what they do find out what they want and what they need to make this place successful and when you get people involved who are stakeholders they will give you the savings they will show you from the cafeteria where the savings can be made they will show you from the teachers where the savings can be made

145they will show you where the cuts are as long as it doesn't impact them from a perspective of losing their job I agree with Pat tonight you you guys have been blaming blaming blaming teachers and everyone else for the for the things you've done here all of you are complicit in this process I love your spin Doctor Who is putting out the frequently asked questions but I have a question tonight what about the frequently avoided questions what about the gun the gun that was at Wallace school two or three weeks ago that he may have known about but didn't put a communication out and if you weren't made aware of it shame on you cuz he didn't tell you and if you knew about it and he told you shame on all of you cuz

146no one in the community knew about the gun and while it was not a real gun it was a gun look like a Glock shame on all of you talk about transparency I love the words that are offered here we're going to pull every Financial lever well here's the lever I'm going to suggest to you but you don't listen to anybody here anyway there's a man who has no license no degree in this particular position and you continue to follow his lead everyone second I put put a motion together I second it and we go through 32 all the time the best thing for you to do right now is not extend his contract and then you need to look hard at yourselves because you've heard this everyone is complicit in this process you're going

147to be voted out I can honestly say I voted for every one of you at some point in my life here when you've been on the board some of you more than once that's not going to happen again fool me once fool me twice don't fool me again some of you are excited about getting 500 signatures for referendum the referendum won't pass I'll make sure ref pass thank you almost done next Community member Christine Wright hello good evening um this is my first school board meeting um I have to say it before I start what I actually came here to talk about um it really doesn't make sense to approve Kelly Services and then in the very next measure vote to give Mr Miller the power to get rid of teachers and cuts doesn't make

148any sense but I digress I'm sure you've heard enough of that um what I'm here to talk about tonight is special education I have a kiddo who is autistic and is in the first grade this is our second year with the school City of Hammond uh School District uh the first year was a learning curve for us having a child with special needs enter the public education system I wasn't quite sure what to expect however I did learn early on that this school district is in dire need of accountability when it comes to the education of these children the school board has under reminded the teachers in these classrooms by not providing them Staffing they need to ensure a free appropriate public education for children with disabilities and to ensure that all aspects of the

149IEPs are met side note you're not hiring Kelly staff substitutes to substitute special education teachers when they have to leave the class um you cannot use the same teacher to student ratio that you use for other classes this underst Staffing is hard on the teachers as well as the students having a classroom of 13 plus disabled students with all different severities of disabilities in a small crowded classroom with only a few members of staff is not providing the students the public education they are required by law to receive or the ability for them to make progress in their education the chaos those teachers are trying to control on a daily basis simultaneously trying to teach each student with different educational goals is insane to me that you think as a district it's okay to have

150those rooms underst staffed some of them can't even get their principal Mr um we don't we don't mention Nam oh we don't mention names sorry some of you don't even mention the don't even get the principales to come into the classroom to observe for a few hours to see what's going on in those classrooms that's not acceptable you're provided additional funding in order for support for these children with disabilities those funds are to be used for them specifically so they receive a free appropriate public education regardless of the severity of their disabilities in many cases there are students in the district who need one-on-one support the district cannot tell parents we are under staff and not hiring that is not how it works that is not what the federal law states you can do you

151cannot keep telling folks you're not going to provide onetoone support due to Staffing you are to provide whatever the disabled child requires in order for them to make progress if you need more information on what you need to do you can read title 34 subtitle B chapter special [Applause] education next Community member Ivan Oola good evening my name is um good evening my name is Ivan Ooa I am a sophomore at Morton high school so my concern is that because a referendum did not pass you guys are going to be making a lot of cuts I am worried that you guys are going to cut the haa program the haa program has helped us relieve stress from schoolwork and it also challenges us to bring out our best skills when we are performing my question

152to you is how much would we need to keep the program going and if you have enough money in your budget and if you can give us the opportunity to raise the money needed to keep the program I am sure we can look for Grants to help keep the program the way it is the haa students have many performances and we can find other ways to raise the money because us at Hapa we consider ourselves family and family sticks together until the end if you cut the haa program you'll be making a big mistake because we will be stressed and then you will have to hire therapists and this will cost you more money in the the long run also I want to make sure you are aware that I was threatened to get shot

153by a student for just for playing the drums in band class this happened in front of the teacher as she just looked us at us to the office and the assistant principal and she didn't do much thank you thank [Applause] you next Community member Jose Diaz good evening good evening so this is my first uh school board meeting um and I'm kind of shocked of like how it went so basically you mean to tell me that you rather take Kelly's Services and work with them first before the union like how does that work like make it make sense then my the other thing I was going to say is you jam-pack students into classrooms right so my daughter she attends more more than Elementary there's 27 students in her uh in her classroom you expect

154one teacher to cover 27 students in one classroom can any of you do that so then this brings me to my other thing I knew that there was three schools like up to close right I come here today and learn that there's actually four schools to close that makes no sense at all you already closed enough schools then you have elementary kids mixed with middle schoolers I thought Elementary was like from kindergarten to fifth grade and in middle school was from 6th and up so then you guys put on the board that it's middle school and high school what about elementary and middle school cuz that's what you have in the school City of Hammond and it makes no sense to me thank you thank [Applause] you next Community member Mar Lopez is there a

155Maria Lopez okay Vanessa Vanessa veins good evening really good evening what's so good about this there hasn't been a good evening since the beginning of this school year last fall I made the comment that the School City of Hammond was on the path to implosion well that definitely fell on deaf ears and blind eyes and continues to do so I want to comment on an email that I receiv received this afternoon at 4:24 regarding the school calendar you know it really is so disrespectful and I mean all I can do is shake my head I I love the person that's I'm being sarcastic I really don't like them um who sent the email you know I hope you're having a good school day please please really second paragraph then Pandora's Box opens I'd like to

156inform you that a decision has been made on the calendar and then he ends it with respectfully really please please don't use big words that you do not know the meaning of I also want to comment on the Times article dated Thursday March 2 March 7th 2024 this really ticks me off it was stated by our superintendent that he has already begun to see massive gains in Reading with the hiring of instructional coaches they're on a grant that Grant will end at the end of the next school year not one word was mentioned about teachers who in God's name do you think are working with these students I am my colleagues are oh God unbelievable unbelievable I want to reiterate to all of you that this hot mess is not the teachers nor the Public's

157fault you know I keep hearing a limited cash balance please don't use those three words because unfortunately you don't know what they mean you mismanaged funds you paid yourself first you created unnecessary positions uh the administrative assistance have assistance you've moved people from administrative positions at the elementary school level who couldn't either hack being a principal or who got themselves into trouble moved them downtown created a new position for them and then you PID them more money by the way oh I see your head shaken that is true and our superintendent makes more money than the governor of Indiana time is up thank you ridiculous thank you time is [Music] [Applause] up next Community member Riley Sanders hi my name is uh Riley Sanders um so I'm going to start by saying um there is

158a teacher in here uh I I don't know if we're supposed to do names but no names he's kind of a he's our happy Teacher and he's just kind of really just kind of he's he's really trying to give us a chance and um with all the ha a cuts and stuff it's like getting harder and harder for him but he's really trying and I really appreciate that and um so in 2021 my brother Odin Sanders graduated and he attended the Area Career Center and he earned his associates in engineering um he my father um at his graduation shook a superintendent's hand and said and I quote please do not craft the bed on the Area Career Center it's a great program um I attend the Area Career Center and it is now a terrible

159program we don't earn Associates the like the teaching is just like it's it's not terrible but it's like like the associates like what happened to that the last good program that I feel is still instated is College Bound but that's not like Hammond or that's not like a School City of H thing so with Hapa and the Area Career Center like every all the programs that I kind of care for are now just kind of being dropped and cut and with these Pathways that like you need like to take guitar two and guitar 1 and guitar 3 to take rock band with these Pathways that are being instated it's actually becoming harder to get into ha of classes and with not as many people that have the eligibility and requirements to take rock band it

160is like you're not going to have enough people in Rock Band so in turn rock band will be cut so it's you're setting up a system that's going to it's meant to fail and I see I support public education I support public education but it's setting itself up for Charter Schools just to come in like this is as a junior and there's other juniors in this room like we're scared like you've ruined our senior year like I worked really hard last year taking all the honors classes and dual credit classes I could just so I could enjoy my senior year and you guys kind of ruined it like I appreciate you two you two are perfect you guys are golden um but this is like I don't really have much else to say but it's

161just like I my dad said not to crap the bed and the bed has been [Applause] crapped next Community member lisis [Applause] geas good evening good evening Madame President trustees you know I come up here unlike everyone else I don't bring my notes I just um say what needs to be said I guess or what I remember between walking there to here but I want to take uh whatever time I have here to just kind of collect some um thoughts that been shared and also recognize individuals who are here for the betterment of this district and that's the parents that's the students that's the teachers that's the teachers it's the teachers it's the custodial staff it's the support staff the cafeteria staff all are doing a wonderful job and I know some of you know

162that teachers and the groups that I just mentioned those individuals love our students we don't do this for the money and when we do get a little bit we're criticized and use and that raise is used as a weapon against us to do other evil evil evil things I I really really am disappointed tonight at the resolution that's why I was at the back of the room saying read it I wanted everybody to to hear it we're granting an individual authority to do something which is to correct direct the financial uh status of this District the person who allowed us to be in this position you're granting him and his top two Associates the authority to correct it's incredibly disappointing incredibly disappointing I don't understand that when we've come to you and I know other

163groups have as well through emails and other uh forms of communication and they've pointed out to you that we have zero confidence in the leadership first to put the correction corrective action plan in place and now you're granting him the authority to follow through on it how is that logic where's the logic in that I just thought there's no rational uh explanation for it on top of that we're going to wait till April and May before we hear this plan your committed staff is asking first for you to hear them and then to listen and then to act it's time for change thank [Applause] you that concludes everyone written in for a second session public expression all right everyone thanks very much uh for being here this evening this meeting is adjourned for