001foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you let's see [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] happy birthday [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] let's see [Music] foreign [Music] everything [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign [Music] two three Sixers [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] let's see [Music] thank you [Music] let's see [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] I'd like to call this meeting to order welcome to the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees for the School City of Hammond for Tuesday September 20th 2022. if we could all stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign thank you roll call trustee Miller
002present president trustee Candelaria present trustee Blake King we're here trustee Murphy present trustee zono president all accounted for that brings us into the uh presentations superintendent Miller trustees our first presentation is on the Hammond Hispanic Community Committee with their Hispanic Heritage Month presentation I'd like to call Tony Salinas one of the board members for hhcc I see Mr Hicks too he's also one of the hhcc board members and then you'll be in a treat that we're going to have some kids do some dances for us here in a moment good evening superintendent Miller Board of Trustees members of the community um my name is Tony Salinas I am the elementary director for the School City of Hammond also a board member for the Hammond Hispanic Community Committee along with me is Jeremy Hicks vice president
003of the hhcc and also principal of Morton high school so we are here today to talk a little bit about Hispanic heritage one celebrations and also to promote our upcoming Latino resource Fair which Mr Hicks will talk about shortly so as we all know in partnership with the school C of Hammond the hhcc is very proud to celebrate Hispanic heritage month this month again uh Debbie Trevino is our hhcc president who is here with us this evening Mr Hicks is our vice president and I am also a member of the the board just some uh history regarding the month uh we start September 15th through October 15th again celebrating the history cultures and contributions of many countries in Central and South America and so we also uh take pride in celebrating not only food but
004culture language traditions and those kind of things as well originally many people didn't know that Hispanic Heritage Month was only a week and so in 1968 it was changed over to a whole month by President Ronald Reagan and then in 1988 it became a law where it's now officially a Hispanic Heritage Month you may ask why do we uh celebrate in the middle of the month and at the beginning of the month because several countries celebrate their independence from Spain uh on September 15th such as Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras and then of course Mexico on the September 16th in Chile September 18th so there's many countries that celebrate their independence throughout the month one of the common misconceptions uh and confusions is the difference between uh independent Mexican Independence Day and then also
005Cinco de Mayo so just for all the community's sake and information uh the 16th of September marks the independence of Mexico from Spain while Cinco de Mayo marks a victory of the Mexican Army over the French army in the Battle of Puebla on May 5th 1862 so those are two distinctions that we wanted to make clear need some help with that next slide I think the clicker gave out rich no problem all right now I'm going to turn it over now to Mr Hicks going to talk a little bit about our resource Fair good evening members of the board superintendent Miller I'm president zuno uh so we are here to um encourage our community to attend our 19th annual Latino resource Fair uh that the him and Hispanic Community Committee puts on so we can
006remember the days where it started off really small with only about three vendors at various sites and traditionally this is held at link I'm sorry Irving Elementary School and this year we are proud to announce that it's going to be held at Morton high school on October 8th it is a Saturday from the hours of 10 a.m to 2 p.m so right now we have over 70 vendors that will participate uh anybody this is a community event and this is something that's open to all members of our Hammond and local communities we've had a great turnout during the past several years even despite covet when we had our limitations we were able to provide foods to families and even vaccinations so the same things and a few highlights we will have there for the students
007out there in our younger audience we will have a gaming truck so that is hopefully will be a huge draw to get your parents or Guardians there with you and if you notice around the room we have a Loteria theme that is a theme for the 19th annual Latino resource fair so it's similar to a bingo type game and that will be the theme of the resource Fair where we're encouraging families to get their stamps at each vendor Booth to be eligible for drawings we're going to give away give get gas gift cards so hopefully that's another big draw including the food bank of north west Indiana is going to be there giving away meals to go for families after they depart so it's a huge event it's a huge undertaking but one thing that
008we really wanted to get is the word out to our community that it is a change in venue change in location but don't despair we will have different um things to address the change in location so we have a strong partnership with School City of Hammond without it we wouldn't be able to to hold and service our community and families the way we do uh the next slide so we encourage everyone to have that pre-registration this is to give us a good head count we are going to serve also a meal there that's going to be a Latino or Hispanic themed so we encourage our families to pre-register so that way we can get an accurate head count and everything is going to be while supplies last and hopefully it will be a great problem
009where we exhaust all our resources we give our support to the community and it's seen as an event that can be ongoing for hopefully next year would be the 20th next slide so to address the transportation concern typically was held at Irving Elementary we are going to have a circle of buses or transportation that the pickup sites are going to be at Irving Elementary School outside door a and then also the the new Columbia Welcome Center as well outside door a so we want to make sure that we still have the needs of that community of those tree streets and in that Community because they anticipated every year so hopefully it'll be bigger and better and and we can service a lot more with a new location so one special treat and this is kind
010of our we've been on the the media circuit this morning we're on WJLB so this is our Blitz of getting the word out there for the fair we have a great group and and this is kind of marked the name of the group currently they're located out of St Patrick's Church in East Chicago Indiana they're looking to expand to Hammond Indiana so they have some things that they will announce in the month of October as we get closer to expand the undertaken of holding a group of this of this size so we have with us today led by director Margaret Gomez the Ballet Folklorico yolozin group and they're based out of the St Patrick's Church in East Chicago Indiana they have several age groups and definitely it's something that it takes time it takes effort
011and we have families and communities so these are members of our community that we wanted to make sure that we showcase and highlight and I say we're lucky to have them here now because before you know it they're going to be famous and on the circuit they are reading our book to perform they were invited to perform at Walt Disney World at Universal Studios in December so shout out to them they'll be [Applause] December 3rd that's one of their gigs and then another thing that's a fundraising event that we wanted to give some support and some recognition they're having a Dia de los Muertos event that's going to be held November 12th with the band heavy and it's going to be at McBride Hall in Gary Indiana so they're going to perform a few numbers
012today which will do you want to promo the parade this Sunday too also yes also the parade we are having a parade in the City of Hammond sponsored by the hugs organization and also we have Purdue Northwest in the house Miss Catalina Rodriguez who also is the HAC board member but we're having a parade in the City of Hammond Sunday September 25th the start time is 12 p.m can you be closer to the mic we keep losing you okay sorry the start time it's September 25th it's this Sunday September 25th we are having the hugs parade in in conjunction with the pnw festival so the start time at Morton High School is at 12 p.m the route will go down 169th to Kennedy South 173rd and end up at pnw's campus so we're looking for
013an exciting weekend and we look forward to a continue collaboration with school City pnw bugs and various organizations within our community so I think we're ready are we ready for some great performance yes okay all right we're gonna I'm gonna walk off and then thank you you're not gonna dance Mr Hicks almost I almost did but my back and oh and it's a long story but one day thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you excellent excellent thank you you did a beautiful job excellent if we have any parents here you are you are welcome to exit at this time or you're welcome to stay for the meeting but if you were here
014to see your child now's a perfect time to uh to jump out thank you for coming I just want to tell Mr Salinas I'm glad the elotes are back I hope the decorations stay up with a whole month right okay bringing us back into the meeting now I believe we have the financial presentation if you don't mind since we have Dr Balch remotely can we do this strategic planning um trustees um itemd is strategic planning with Dr Balch who has assisted us with this process we administered a survey and he's going to review for the public I know you've had access to it the executive summary already but he's going to review with the public the results of the survey and I would ask you to consider that if if the foundational statements when I
015say foundational statements I mean the Mission Vision core values and priorities are acceptable for trustee to consider making a motion to approve them um but with that said I'll go ahead and turn over to Dr Balch first to present the results of the survey good evening Dr Balch whoops can you make sure you're not on mute DR Boss because we're not hearing you right now how's this oh perfect there we go good evening trustees and superintendent Miller and thank you for inviting me to this portion of your meeting you have before you an executive summary lots of great participation across those various stakeholder groups overall we had uh 317 survey responses 71 percent of those were from your students so it was nice to see that participation there are eight or nine different disaggregated reports
016and if you um break those down you'll see much consistency across all of those stakeholder groups so the first question reflected um affirmation of the core beliefs and 87 of the respondents agreed that those core beliefs indeed met the basic assumptions only about three percent of all participants had some suggestions for Change and the two themes that emerged was first his whole child a term that's easily understood that came up just a few times and then secondly the mental health related core belief it was suggested more than once that given the gravity of dealing with issues of mental health to possibly that be raised up a little bit in the ordering of those belief statements so I'll give you a moment to react to that could you repeat that please sure the in the open-ended
017comments you'll find in a few cases that a mention of mental health in a very affirming way that they recognize dealing with issues of mental health um is is important and a priority and the statement was as you look across those seven belief statements should the one promoting mental health be moved up higher in the ranking and as you recall we did not number those because we didn't want one to be necessarily any more important but nonetheless the suggestion came that promoting mental health might want to be a little higher up in the overall set of belief statements thank you Mr President trustee Murphy I mean I read through the um email the superintendent said to us I have nothing further to add I thank him for you know sending the question out to his
018staff about the word scholar but I think for me I'm good to go on these I don't have any suggestions for changes at all do you mind if I read what the core beliefs are please thank you Mr Miller okay so what the committee had come up with and the board tweaked was equity for all mutual respect for all open communication that builds trust being fully engaged in opportunities for academic advancement in whole child growth measurable objectives that are clear consistent Equitable and fair for all students and stakeholders promote promoting mental health wellness and safety within our school communities in students and all stakeholders giving their best effort while setting high standards for lifelong success and again they are not the the board did not put those in any prioritized order they are unsequenced you
019know it is significant that you have an 87 percent affirmation hats off to the strategic planning committee their hard work and your work as well aligns so nicely with over 3 300 survey responses so I hope you're able to pause and celebrate that that's quite an affirmation Mr President trustee Miller um I too have nothing uh truly to add but I know that and in some of those conversations when we talk about we intentionally did a number those when we actually talked about representing some of those things in a circular fashion so that you know not one was more important than the other um and I believe it was in this particular spot um that we had had those discussions and so um I I'm I'm very good with what we have but Mr President
020trustee Blake King thank you Mr Miller did you by any chance have a list of the committee that worked on this we certainly need to give them some public accolades absolutely not now at some point yes I would I would be happy to I think especially when we have a final printed strategic plan document that would be a great time to acknowledge all the people who have contributed okay and additionally um I'm just going to say my new um thought processes the three p's performance performance performance I don't want this document to be just some words on a paper we have to implement it it has to be real it has to become our soul if we are going to succeed with this com this very comprehensive plan thank you Mr President uh Dr ball
021so just so everybody there there's four separate parts to phase one and the inductor boss is only reviewed at this point the core values so we still have the the mission statement the vision statement to review and then the priorities that that that's all in what he's going to present right now um and then part two is to if the board approves the priorities tonight is for my Administration to write that action plan that trustee King is referring to on how we're going to accomplish each of those priorities and then ultimately that will lead to a comprehensive strategic plan document that will not only have these updated foundational statements but we'll list each priority and the plan for accomplishing it and that's what we want to have done before this year is over so tonight
022is just about the foundational statements in approving the priorities I think Mr President this one just want to add on to the with everything you said but that action plan also includes what periodically coming back to the board and saying hey this is what we've done this is what we've accomplished that's all part of the action plan too correct there there are benchmarks as part of the plan of what where we're supposed to hit along certain certain times yes so if there's no more questions about just the core value section DR Boss you might move into the next session absolutely for the vision statement through strengthened relationships we create positive and inclusive learning environments that build on the ability of all Scholars to be healthy confident socially responsible critical thinkers and problem solvers 85 percent
023of your survey participants agreed that it met the conditions of a dream for a vision statement and only two percent of all your respondents had suggestions for change I I listed the two that had some repeats but I'm I'm not suggesting uh that there's any implications for change unless the board would like to take that up foreign superintendent Miller could you read um the vision statement he he just did I'll read it again yeah through Straight one more time yeah through strength and relationships we create positive and inclusive learning environments that build on the ability of all Scholars to be healthy confident socially responsible critical thinkers and problem solvers thank you any other questions did I hear him saying there were three areas that need changes what was he saying DR Boss can you repeat
024your comment did you mention for this there was something to consider to change or no I didn't I listed two themes that had a repeat one was is there a place for success or successful but I don't think I would suggest to change because we used that keyword in your mission statement and it need not be repeated in the vision and then the other one was just a question about is scholar understood or inclusive enough the original strategic planning committee had strong feelings about the use of the word scholar and so you'll see a consistent use of the vision in the mission okay good thank you and then his like I said earlier his administration did have those further discussions for them and so I'm very comfortable with this no need to change in my
025opinion Mr Miller you do it so eloquently would you like to go ahead and read our mission statement and then I can talk about the data yes building on our Rich history in proud Legacy of success we Empower our diverse group of Scholars by advocating for and providing Equitable educational opportunities that's the mission and again 84 percent agreed and about two percent of all respondents had some suggestions for change with 98 percent not um the keyword scholar is the only thing that came up once again and if it was affirmed for our Vision it fits well in the mission Scott could could just one more time yes I'd be happy to read it again sorry I scrolled past it I'll come back building on our Rich history in proud Legacy of success we Empower our
026diverse group of Scholars by advocating for in providing Equitable educational opportunities I have no changes okay draft priorities Mr Miller would you like to read our six priorities sure the priority is that the committee and the board identified for exclusive Hammond number one was Student Success the second priority was retention of staff and students third was a commitment to diversity equity and inclusion fourth was improved communication fifth was being fiscally responsible and sixth and actually I probably shouldn't have numbered them because they really weren't sequenced was United district-wide Community uh with exception of student success or student outcome student achievement that was identified as the number one priority but the others are not really sequenced so in this case I did have a suggestion for you typically three to five priorities to be a driver
027for a strategic plan in the intended goals that will now be needed for the plan as you look at that ring I had I wanted to suggest your consideration of moving Student Success to the center because you'll have the School City of Hammond branding and Logo throughout the Strategic plan and the other remaining five priorities all contribute strongly to Student Success and we had talked about it as a strategic planning committee that we've missed the Mark if Student Success isn't always at the center of our conversations and so symbolically moving Student Success to the center really provides then those wrap-around priorities to best ensure Student Success so that is my singular suggestion for your consideration I'm in agreement with that I am as well Mr President trustee Blake King I'm in agreement I had one
028thought since you mentioned uh the issue of Mental Health and uh that was under I can't remember I wrote it down um I know it's too late or probably that mental health piece sort of stuck with me when when you put that emphasis on it when you were talking about I believe it was our mission or our vision statement it was in the core value core value so in our priorities I guess it's something you see what I'm saying Mr Miller at some point mental health has to also Drive Student Success because we're all under a lot of stress for sure period so anyway if we can do something with that or not you know it's just my thought s thank you Mr President trustee Miller could we have those read just one more time
029yes um the driving priority is Student Success and some of the ways we've identified we're strategically going to get there is through retention of staff and students commitment to diversity equity and inclusion improve communication being fiscally responsible and creating a United district-wide Community thank you any other questions or suggestions Mr President trustee Miller um like a mic emotion that we approve the core values mission statement vision statement and strategic priorities as they have been presented second the Motion in a second any further discussion well just for the record I stand on the point I made regarding Mental Health just for record purposes thank you thank you any other discussion trustee Murphy yes trustee Blake King yes trustee Candelaria yes trustee Miller yes trustee is almost yes motion passes five zero everybody's done a great job
030on this it's amazing thank you thank you so so just so everyone's on the same page now that the board has approved my team will begin the work of I along Dr Balch will have a little bit of support there too make sure that we have the right framework but identifying how we're going to accomplish each of these things and then we'll bring it back to the board ultimately the final product we will put under um new business so the board can approve the final product when when it is is done and completed and at that point I'm sorry Mr President no that's right at that point perhaps we can invite all of them that'd be great thank you great all right our last our last presentation is our monthly Financial update and I'll thank
031you Dr thank you doctor oh you're muted again but we see you saying things thank you so much and I like to call our CFO Eric Kurtz good evening all right um again if anyone ever wants to follow along with any of our presentations they are all uploaded in our board docs platform and uh you can say oh I can't see these numbers well you can on your phone or on your computer or on your device you go to board docs on our home page there's a there's a public login that doesn't require a password and you can these are up there forever so you can go back and see documents from three years ago tonight's documents any of these things are up there all of our contracts every contract in school City Signs is
032up on the board docs platform for public review so all those things are there I know it's difficult to see all of this from sitting in a chair or maybe or through the through the zoom or through our on YouTube platform but that's where you can go go to board docs and you can see everything for yourself so we're going to look at the education Fund in the lower right we're tracking about one and a half percent under our forecasted amount in the education fund in our referendum fund we're about two and a half percent under uh the budget that are forecasted amount in the um Debt Service we're tracking well there as we talked about uh previously the pension debt fund is is over and probably will have to have some interfund borrowing uh
033around in December to make sure we finish the year with a positive balance the biggest concern I have is in our operations fund we're tracking about eight percent over uh our forecasted amount and however when we look at uh receipts and forecasted expenditures that fund should finish in the black uh but right now we are we are in the red in the operations fund so that's always a concern uh as as the finance person when you have a fund in the red but the two times that we really have to ensure that we are in the black and not in the red is essentially June 30th and December 31st so as we look at the receipts and expenditures in that fund I think we'll we'll be okay and a lot of that I think is
034as the raises that were agreed upon for the last bargaining cycle as they rolled into our craft and maintenance Personnel that is running over over what we originally budgeted so the budgeting would have occurred in October of last year and the negotiations and bargaining process didn't really conclude until January there any questions just just in layman terms what kind of happened there is because we retroed the raises back to August 1st but you can't go back to the previous fiscal year and charge those raises to the previous year so we encumbered essentially half a year of those raises along this year's financials because of how that happened didn't we anticipate that with the increase I think really what was anticipated is that the bargaining process would conclude prior to the end of the calendar year
035so those expenditures would have been charged in the 2021 budget year and they weren't most that retro pay was uh entered in really January and early February so because we extended negotiating the contract yes because we didn't we didn't really teachers first so we bargained with the teachers first and then it moves into the other the other represented organizations and that process can really complete until in the January by the time the pay adjustments and the retroactive pay were paid out well it seemed like we would recoup that money somewhere then well so if those expenditures had occurred when they should have our beginning balance this year would have been a little bit lower but so we have a higher level of spending in this calendar year because we have several months 2021 spending that
036was charged in 2022. so how do we fix it you try to bargain finish the process I just want to hear it I just want to hear what you have to say that's it you make a commitment and you have to follow through with those commitments thank you any other questions yes sir one of the questions uh Steve Blake King the figures we're dealing with now is it dealing with our our new ADM uh no the so the the current funding that we get into the education fund is based upon a forecasted ADM from the second quarter of this year we're completing the count process now and truing that number up and then there'll be an adjustment in what the state sends to us so right now they're sending it to us based on an
037estimate I think that was submitted back in April and then that will be trued up in our November and December distribution what is our current ADF uh I don't really we're working on it it's not final yet so we should have have that number finalized in the next week or so we're working through um conflicts with some of our students that you know other schools say hey that's my student some you know we have to work through those numbers and there's actually quite a few conflicts that our team is working through so when we get that Mr Miller the final EDM so schools take the count on the ADM day and then we have two weeks basically to shore up the numbers with it and unlike past practices where there was a longer process the
038state is trying to do this Dynamic process through the data exchange and they refer to it as decks for data exchange but Dex has been this is the second year of it it has been highly unreliable and they the state would be the first to tell you that too and um what it does though is spit back out students that you think you have that didn't the Dex thinks you shouldn't have or there's some other conflict and sometimes it's something simple like if somebody accidentally put an attendance code in wrong it'll spit out that entire record so like those are the kind of things we're going through and so we'll call the school like we'll call any one of our elementaries and say hey this this student record got rejected um we think it's because
039this attendance code they'll fix it and each night it's resubmitted up to Dex again and we'll see if that fixed it or we have to troubleshoot further but that's what we do in these two weeks to try to troubleshoot all of this so in the spring we predicted a loss of 300. if we if we come in under the 300 they'll actually refund money back to the start of the year to adjust for that we didn't actually lose 300. if we lose more than 300 they will actually charge us more for the for the months that that we actually under support so the new number we started getting paid on the new forecasted number on July 1 yes but they true it up in November and December based upon our actual account uh the superintendent
040said on the data exchange it was actually shut off on Thursday and Friday because there was so much airing between all the districts trying to get their account numbers in so there's problems you know we have some of our own data problems but there is a problem system-wide or Statewide president Zona trustee Candelaria now when we do get our current ADM numbers can we please get a breakdown of like Ammon residence versus open enrollment students okay that's not an issue okay thank you and how soon do you think we'll get there so we we have basically two weeks to get it done so within the next two weeks so the next board meeting yes we should have the final number about an export so to be on an agenda thank you any other questions Mr
041President trustee Murphy we always have fun with the budget so as you just stated they did the new numbers July 1st based on the estimate we sent them of how many students were going to leave lose so this budget Force cast is not based on those numbers it's based on the numbers that we had at the beginning of the year or has this already been adjusted no this budget is was forecast last October okay so there is there is a there's two risks I guess in in the education fund one is normally whatever raise we bargain would be taking effect in August September uh so we're one and a half percent under under current spending but we did have that rollover money and this is this budget was based upon our forecasts a year ago
042or 11 months ago trustee Murphy are you referring to the budget we're going to submit in October what I'm referring to is like so we're forecasting where we hope to be December 31st all right but once you square up I'd like to see these numbers squared up this is one of the problems I had with a prior CFO so sometimes you get these unwanted O's in November and December when you start getting different monies coming in because they're squaring up the numbers and so all of a sudden you're like hmm are we going to push NIPSCO into next year instead of making sure that we're in the black on December 31st so that's where I'm going with this as soon as we get our finalized numbers I like to see what that forecast is are
043we really going to be in the black in operations or are we going to have to go move some money into that to be in the black on December 31st because so the superintendent has been saying hey we're getting closer it looks like we're going to be under 12 000. oh my God that's a lot less students and we keep shrinking um hopefully it won't be that bad but that's what we're looking at but that affects what we're going to do with raises you know whether number comes in so that's where I'm coming from I like to see these numbers trued up seeing for forecasting which I know hasn't been done in years um it was done under the prior superintendent that CFO but that's what I'm looking for not to give you um any
044further heart palpitations we've been under 12 000 for like five years we're we're talking about under 11 000 is where we're looking so so that does bring up we are in the budget cycle for the next meeting the next meeting will present and introduce the budget and receive public comment and then the board will be asked to approve next year's budget at the meeting on the 25th of October so with that that concludes my report thank you thank you sir all right that takes us to item number three public expression first period public expression first period limited to items on the agenda there is currently no one signed in for first session thank you item number four the approval of public sale of surplus unused Obsolete and excess School equipment trustees last time I requested
045you table this item until we provided a more detailed inventory which Mr Kurtz had provided to you you have a executive report and then the detail so at this point I am asking approval to um for the sale of some of these extra items do I have a motion president trustee Candelaria I move for the approval of public cells of surplus unused Obsolete and excess School equipment as presented second you have a motion in a second any discussion discussion trustee Blake King in this if this is going to be like I mean I read all the information um and auction or just an outright sale it'll it'll be a silent auction where people can basically put in the amount that they want they're willing to walk around okay whoever the winner is that's that's correct
046Mr Kurtz right silent auction well make sure you're on the microwave it won't get picked up yeah so folks can know what's going on here uh yes the uh the method that was used the last time School City of Hammond uh got rid of excess property was a silent auction process so there'll be a period of time for screening there'll be a a log sheet where people can write the highest bid and they can outbid each other and then our staff will go around and close out different sections and cash out those purchases and how are we promoting this well once once the board approves it we have to do a legal advertisement to comply with state law but then we'll also promote it to our employees through internal email we use our social media
047pages to try to share information we're going to do any newspaper or WJLB well the legal ad will go on the newspaper but I mean something bigger I mean if you really would display ad if if we think that'll drive more participation is there an opportunity for us to really make some money that would help I don't I don't think so okay one other one of the questions you know just for the public who's listening just if they're not looking at the document just name off some of the things that we're getting rid of so people have a general idea of what uh they can anticipate this one will predominantly be at gavit um most of the equipment that uh we're trying to get rid of is unused excess food service equipment okay so um
048it's things like some stainless steel tables and kitchen equipment and mixing equipment Combi ovens um it is in it is in the public section of the board docs uh I understand I'm just saying for the people that are listening who's not reading the doctors generally and we also have uh some computer equipment monitors and those kind of things that uh someone might want those monitors on some CPUs and those kind of things and then we have some of our really old vehicles that don't run or aren't really safe to operate that we are disposing of as well because they've been sitting in the parking lot not being used for a long time this is the best place to really promote this so I just want to clarify you you surprised me a little bit you
049say Gava but I thought this was at Clark yeah and the date for anyone listening is Tuesday October 18th at Clark that's during Hammond school's fall break um at 8 30 it begins and then the next day Wednesday October 19th at the career center if you're interested in some of those broken down Vehicles if you want them for scrap or for that kind of value that's the next day the career center back parking lot at 8 30. thank you thank you any other questions all right we have a motion in the second we've had discussion trustee Miller yes trustee Candelaria yes trustee Blake King yes trustee Murphy yes and trustees only yes motion passes five zero that takes us on to the consent agenda Mr President trustee Miller I move for the approval agenda items
050a through f as presented second you have a motion in a second any discussion Mr President trustee Blake King thank you I would like to read into record our accounts payable docket register for September 20th 2022 our claims are two million five hundred and ninety seven thousand nine hundred and forty two dollars and 43 cents and our payroll is three million three hundred and four thousand six hundred and twelve dollars and seventy nine cents I have a question regarding payroll uh Mr Kurtz I think you can answer this I think am I am out of order okay you really should go to yes yes Mr uh president I would like to ask I'll Farm it out is it yeah that's superintendent Miller will answer it then okay okay thank you so much Mr Miller yes
051uh a while back I think it was in June or whatever we approved some uh compensation monies for for our staff and uh only I asked under payroll because it's coming out of payroll have all of those folks been paid or what's to hold up here they they have not um they are scheduled to be paid on September 30th as far as I understand um there was something with the first payroll of the year please go ahead and further describe it well after after the board approved uh that supplemental payment there were several potential people that were brought to my attention that maybe should have been on there so we had to investigate those concerns that some some of our Personnel were overlooked and then we're going to try to get it on to the
052payroll that we just finished however that is the first pay of the teacher contract so there's lots of moving Parts in that pay so rather than disrupt that process of rolling over the pay we just opted to ensure that it gets paid on September 30th and then a couple other questions Mr President trustee Blake King I I believe I I've made a request to review the invoices for Lewis and campus and I didn't receive them so could could someone please I'm pretty sure I said them let me just give me a second because I um yeah I thought I received that up until five o'clock I didn't see it I think I said it a couple days back actually I just released the request yesterday I didn't well I haven't I haven't seen him well
053anyway so that's a question and then uh secondly under e Personnel report I uh do not support the hiring of the bus driver because I did not receive the documents requested to justify it thank you Mr President any other discussion I'll just say I found the email about Lewis and cap so I'll reform it to you but it wasn't yesterday at 12 18. okay thank you any further discussion all in favor aye opposed motion passes five zero item number six new business we have the approval of the secured school safety Grant I trustees this is a matching Grant the amount of a hundred thousand dollars that we that the state of Indiana puts out we are looking to continue to invest in the Evolve weapon detection systems with this money thank you do I have
054a motion president trustee Candelaria I move for the approval of the secured school safety Grant as presented second I have Motion in a second any discussion for the record it's the amount of a hundred thousand dollars if I'm reading this correctly yes it is a matching gram which means we put in a hundred and then they they put in 100. thank you any other discussion trustee Murphy yes trustee Blake King yes trustee Candelaria yes trustee Miller yes trustee zomo yes motion passes five zero next we have the approval of the mou with Ivy Tech Community College for high school-based dual credit trustees the next three items are just the annual approval of which courses that will be students we will receiving college credit in addition to high school credit so this one's through Ivy Tech
055for Hammond Central Morton and the career center all right do I have a motion president zono trustee Candelaria I move for the approval of the mou with Ivy Tech Community College for high school-based dual credit as presented second you have a motion in a second any discussion uh Mr President trustee Miller uh superintendent Miller um I noticed that after that Clark and again is that due to our limitation of dual credit instructor I'm sorry Morton is that due to our um our problem and having dual credit instructors so yes um the the bottom line reason is getting credentialed dual credit teachers but one of the benefits of the grant that you can grant that the board approved last time is that it will cover those funds for for teachers to become become credit so hopefully
056by next year we'll see more of the same courses at both schools that's one of the things that that as much as possible I would like to have replicated at both schools and the opportunities or the are the same but uh having been at the early college for some time it can be it can be challenging to to have it perfectly aligned because it does completely require an evaluation of the staff members credentials you know that can vary wildly from teacher to teacher and and I'm sorry I didn't think of this until now so we can put a pin in it but is there any opportunity to do um like like a virtual with that so if we had an instructor at one campus but not at the other um we actually did did that
057last year um a little bit to um one of one of our teachers I believe Mr Childers at Hammond Central was remoted into to Morton for one of the advanced calculus classes he was teaching so so yes to answer your question okay the the university partner doesn't care if it's remote or in person so yes we have flexibility with that all right and again I know it's too too late now but as we're planning for the fall depending on how many treachers become credentialed and that sort of thing I would love to see us be able to offer more of the same I me too I'm in agreement it's one of the reasons we advocated last year too for dual credit teachers if you're watching this you get an additional Financial incentive as well to
058teach dual credit so awesome thank you so much superintendent Billy any other discussion all in favor aye opposed motion passes 5-0 prove the mou between the school City of Hammond and Vincennes University trustee same concept but this is what the career center and Vincennes University do I have a motion president trustee Candelaria I move for the approval of the mou between the school City of Hammond ACC and Vincennes University has presented second Motion in a second any discussion discussion trustee Blake King Mr Miller Hammond Central only not Morton I why for for Vincennes this is actually just the Area Career Center this is some of our CTE programming classes at the ACC so um that's that's it for Vincennes any any other discussion all in favor aye opposed Ocean passes five zero hmm and finally
059approval of the mou between the school City of Hammond and Indiana University same concept dual credit mou this one with IU um yeah in this one we only have a licensed faculty member at Hammond Central for this particular dual credit Arrangement so so that's that's so that would be the issue for the other one as well well for Vincennes we we're only targeting to have them at the career center at this point um so for Indiana University though we we'd be happy to add additional dual credits so we have to work on that yes that part that's part of um that you can grant money that we got last time can can help to add capacity for this anything else Dr ship that I'm forgetting to say about that no thank you thank you do
060I have a motion Mr Milt I mean Mr uh president trustee Blake King I uh make a motion that we approve the mou between School City of Hammond in Indiana University do I have a second second you have a motion in a second any discussion any discussion all in favor aye opposed motion carries five zero thank you next we have the approval of the mou between him and Central High School and a geminist corporation too good for drugs uh trustees this is an agreement with geminists that has a too good for drugs curriculum geminists I've learned a lot over the years with them is that they may desire to offer both schools but the way their grants work they can typically only offer a program at one school or the other so in this case
061it's at Hammond Central and it also includes up to five thousand dollars of of supplies and materials for implementing the program thank you do I have a motion trustee Candelaria I move for the approval of the mou between Hammond Central High School and geminist Corporation too good for drugs as presented second Motion in a second any discussion discussion Mr Steve Blake King thank you Mr President could you sort of explain what what they do I mean what is it about so they're going to talk about um so Geminis will provide an instructor to come and work with students on basically promoting a positive self-image and self-identity that they don't need to they're essentially too good for drugs they they themselves so it's an SEO program designed to prevent kids from getting addicted to to drugs
062so how many kids how are they selected students read I'm sorry how many students and how does it selected Dr ship you happen to know I I don't have that off top of my head this is a minimum of 500 students will complete the program okay any other discussion all in favor aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and then we have the approval of the agreement between the American school counselor Association and the School City of Hammond trustees we have some remaining funds in the Lilly Grant and we as a school system desire to get all of our schools up to the ramp certification which is the ask a certification right now only Scott Middle School has that designation so this is a relatively small contract the amount of 10 125 to to re jumpstart that
063program and make sure that our schools for next year are in place are in ready to apply for ramp certification essentially it's a point process and you have to show all these different points and then if you have enough points you can apply then they will rate your school to whether or not they achieve the ramp certification so they'll be bringing in one of the ask a trainers to work with our counselors that's what we're paying for thank you do I have a motion president Zona trustee Candelaria I move for the approval of the agreement between the American school counselor Association and the School City of Hammond as presented you have a motion and a second any discussion all in favor aye opposed motion carries 5-0 item G the approval of the contract with Regional
064Mental Health Services oh trustees this is an annual contract that allows for us to use our special education Medicaid fund to pay for students that would need a crisis evaluation that's typically reserved if they are claiming they're going to harm themselves or others it also allows us to pay for non-special Education students who may not whose families not may not be able to afford the cost thank you do I have a motion president trustee Candelaria I I move for the approval of the contract with Regional Mental Health Services as presented second you have a motion and a second any discussion all in favor aye opposed motion carries 5-0 item H the approval of the cath tracked with threshold learning consultancy trustees this will allow for a registered Behavior technician to come in and we're anticipating
065about 30 days worth of work with the school system uh totaling an amount of an anticipated 16 800 paid out of the specialty Grant to work with our staff and our students thank you to I have a motion Mr President trustee Blake King oh I apologize yeah I almost made it through the whole night without screwing up once okay I was mumbling sure Steve Murphy I move that we approved the contract with threshold learning consultancy as presented second we have a motion in a second any discussion Mr Miller could you sort of explain this I read it and read it in so there there are times we need an expert to come in and give independent evaluations of students sometimes this happens in um in cases but we're not only limiting it to that in
066addition we see a need where some of our our staff could benefit from having training from a registered Behavior technician um so that we're better equipped with dealing with sometimes some pretty significant behaviors um that's that's what the role is going to be some of it is for the expert testimony other is for the professional development so they go throughout all the schools or just limited to certain schools that's that's a really good question I I'm not sure the scope if I don't see denona in the audience it's just I know I reviewed that on behalf of the special Department it is as it will probably be for the most part under denona's you know when denona feels like her staff need that extra layer so it's not to any one particular school but it
067would be designated in pretty much you know determined by denona thank you oh any other discussion all in favor aye opposed motion carries five zero and our last item is the approval of the mou with the City of Hammond for use of the police department's Communications Tower trustees there's no cost to this mou I want to publicly thank Chief short and the city and for being so accommodating for this this is due to the fact that our current Tower is located on top of the hospital and it's coming down so we have to relocate and they're allowing us to move our radio equipment on top of the police communication Tower do I have a motion trustee Candelaria I move for the approval of the mou of the City of Hammond for use of the police
068department's Community Communications Tower as presented second they have a motion and second any discussion Mr President trustee Blake King thank you um didn't I read somewhere just to get it up it's going to cost a day okay explain it please sure sure I'm glad you brought that up I don't want that misconception to get out there so we anytime you have like a a situation like this you look and see do we just want to replicate what we have or what would it cost if we actually had a robust system and so we did look at some quotes for having a robust system for radios like for example the bus radios do not communicate with the school radios so a bus driver cannot radio a school administrator they have to call dispatch dispatch has to
069get on the phone and then if they have to call the school administration and then they can get to the administration there's no way that they can directly radio from a bus to a school administrator so that type of system was quoted around eight hundred thousand this move is going to be about twenty thousand dollars to install move and they do have to do a little bit of rewiring but we're basically reusing the same equipment to move the radio towers if we didn't do this it would mean our buses would not have they would no longer have radio communication between dispatch and and the buses so we're only spending twenty thousand twenty thousand correct that's not part of the mou though that's no that's what's up guys yeah correct and okay any other discussion all
070in favor aye opposed motion passes five zero that takes us up to the calendar Thursday September 29th there's a public work session at 5 30 here at the administration Center for school Improvement plans Thursday October 6 Executive session at 5 30 in administrative Center collected bargaining Personnel litigation Thursday October 6 school board meeting and public hearing 6 pm at the administration Center public hearing is on the 2023 proposed budget and Tuesday October 25th is our school board meeting at 6 p.m here at the administration Center that brings us to public expression second period public expression second period regarding uh General matters first community members going to be Mrs Carlotta Blake King hi Pat next Community member is going to be Wanda Puckett good evening school board members good evening I'm not going to dress you
071all I'm here to ask the parents with y'all please stop dropping y'all kids off in the middle of the streets and tell them to run across the street this is why we are here cross you all kids I don't want to see nobody children to get hurt I'm a mother grandmother and a auntie I'm asking y'all order to keep these babies safe let's go by the rules follow the rules the buses stopped and picked these kids up in the morning and after school y'all going around the same I'm walking home walking to work I see this every day I have parents y'all dropping kids off in the Middle Street I'm walking between cars please I'm asking y'all let's keep these babies safe because I know if that was me doing it and somebody hit one
072of mine I know how I'm gonna react so I know exactly how y'all gonna react please pay attention to the bus driver those drivers have enough to deal with then what y'all putting them through that's all I got to say thank you that concludes everyone written in for a second session of public expression that brings us to the reports from the superintendent um I don't normally single any comments out but I I will second Miss Puckett's plea to please parents if we have it at many of our schools Morton in particular we have people dropping kids right off in the middle of the street it's it's just not safe please consider her words um today is National I.T Professional Day so I'd like to give a big shout out to Mr benich RIT department for
073all the work that they do um many times we take for granted that things are just working but truly our schools would not be able to function our HVAC is all controlled by computer network systems our security our lights all these things are now controlled through networks and so we we want to thank all of our I.T employees like to thank the group that came up you know for Hispanic Heritage Month I've really enjoyed the dancing and seeing the young ladies uh dance I'd like to encourage everyone to come to the parade this Sunday and it starts at noon and then we as you heard we have our Latino resource Fair coming up in October as well so hope hope to have a great turnout for that the board approved back in the spring A
074diversity equity and inclusion audit that's going to be taking place in our schools coming up next week and all employees are encouraged to participate and share their feedback we have open houses coming up this week at Scott Middle School and Edgar Scott is tomorrow evening in Eggers is Thursday evening please consider coming if you have a student at Scott or Eggers I will mention too at Scott we've done a lot of renovation work it'd be really good if you haven't seen some of the investment we've done at Scott to come out and see it she was here earlier I don't see her in the room anymore but Lydia McNeely is now our College and Career Readiness coordinator but last year she was the lead counselor at Scott Middle School and she was named the middle
075school counselor of the year for Indiana so a big shout out to Lydia I'm very proud and yes that is she's going to be on the radio with me tomorrow on wjob so we can give her some more props on the radio tomorrow we'd like to thank Shantae Irving in the Lake County Bar Association for donating Care Bears and celebrating Care Bear share your care day that's a mouthful with Irving's third graders but all third graders got to learn about careers in the law and as a lawyer not in law enforcement rather and they all got to take home a Care Bear courtesy of the Lake County Bar Association like to invite everyone again and I have a nice uh a nice hopefully the camera can pick this up but on October 5th at 4
076P.M we're going to be honoring uh my predecessor the late great doctor Walter J Watkins with the dedicating of the black box theater in his honor and memory it is a public event so we're encouraging everyone who would like to come out and celebrate to do that we will have some refreshments there and some performances and some speeches and to dedicate the Black Box forever to Dr Watkins um we have our first school City speaks that is the superintendent q a in partnership with the PTA tomorrow at Morton Elementary from 6 to 7 P.M I've already received I think 17 questions from the PTA president I'll be answering those uh tomorrow a lot of good questions on there from how do we get our library materials to how do we make sure sticks get picked
077up around our schools a lot of different things so I'll be happy to answer them tomorrow lastly I want to mention that for our high school seniors national college application week is September 26th through 30th so many of the colleges Nationwide waive their application fees during that week so it's a great week to apply for college so with that said that that concludes my reports for this evening motion to adjourn so moved