Board Meeting June 21st, 2022

001so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] um [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so do [Music] this would like to call this meeting to order welcome to the school city of hyman tuesday june 21st 2022 regular meeting of the board of trustees if we could all stand and recite the pledge of one allegiance under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all could you please remain standing for a moment yes i would like to acknowledge the passing of tim burfield a staff custodian here at the administration center who who lost a battle with illness a little over a week ago if you could have a moment of silence please thank you you may be seated thank you roll call trustee murphy present trustee

002blake king we're here trustee candelaria president trustee miller president and trustee zolno also present all members are present superintendent miller trustees just one presentation tonight our monthly update from maurice good evening members of the board mr miller i am bit a little bittersweet this evening is uh this will be the last time i'm making this presentation in front of you it's been 39 months i have thoroughly enjoyed all 39 of those months and working with the school city hammond um a couple people i can't thank everybody who made uh the last 39 months what it's meant to me um but mr miller for your friendship um we kind of came on board together at the same time and i uh i thank you for that friendship likewise um and last is alicia pritchett um i

003will tell you this this arrangement does not work unless you have somebody like her in the business office to make the day-to-day operations function um she's invaluable to what we did here in those 39 months and i can't thank her enough for what she's done for for me uh and the school corporation in that period of time so thank you very much all right after that let's get on with this you better make it good it's your last one so yeah uh i i just you know good means telling you what's going on that's exactly what we're going to do that's what we've done the last 38 of these presentations um the education fund as we've talked about essentially all year still running over budget mainly due to the retro pace that happened in january

004you'll notice about 1.8 1.9 million over budget there really looking forward to what june july and august hold june not as much because what you're going to have is some reduction in expenditures do the hourly employees not over working over the summer we'll see more of that in the operations fund but you will see some of that here in the education fund to get that back in line so i'm really encouraged and looking forward to seeing uh what the summer holds for the finances for the education fund and moving on to the referendum operating fund and that worked good you'll notice we did receive the spring advance draw on our property taxes you received in the both the the two referendum funds just under 18 uh other than that the referendum fund is almost exactly

005on budget we're just off by about forty thousand dollars uh which in the grand scheme of of the budget being uh almost sixteen seventeen million um forty thousand is not very much we're essentially on budget with the referendum fund next fund is the referendum project again no activity other than that property tax advance again you'll notice the 17.85 collection uh for the month of may we have already received uh our june distribution uh so and we'll get to that here in a second but things are looking good for your first half property tax payments in the debt service fund again the normal activity of the common school loan transfer uh and this fund you'll notice down to 17.35 a little bit more of a hit due to some smaller circuit breaker issues within the debt

006service fund it's much smaller you'll notice the debt service operations when we get to it this is where you're going to see your significant loss to circuit breaker and the pension debt service fund again uh 17.38 uh no other activity uh i am excited to tell you though that the june property tax distributions are ahead of 50 uh so you will actually be positive for the no need for a temporary transfer for the pension debt service fund in june at the end of june here so excited to have that happen okay moving on to the last one is the operations fund the operations fund continues a little over 50 spent through the month of may a bit of a cause for concern considering june would be about your 50 point so we've got a whole

007month here of expenditures that we're over again that's mainly due to those retro pays that happened in june it wasn't just the teachers that got the pay increases it was the rest of employee groups as well that were given those retro pays in january uh we're also looking for though as you can imagine a similar reduction in in june july and august within this fund uh mainly transportation because we won't have nearly the number of transportation drivers over those months obviously when schools not in session so really looking for reduction in expenditures over those three months what you will also notice is the property tax collection for the operations fund about twelve and three-quarter percent about five percent less than the other funds we talked about at 17 and a half percent um not what

008we weren't expecting but just to point out it's a significant number of loss in that circuit breaker loss for the operations fund uh the last part of the report is your summary page showing the previous year compared to the current year along with the transfer histories and then the expenditures and encumbrances out of the cares sr2 and sr3 funds all in all currently running about 3.6 million over budget um not much different than where we were a previous month at 3.7 but again really looking forward to the summer months where we don't have nearly the number of hourly employees in the system during those three months be happy to answer any questions you might have at this time any questions matt you will certainly be missed thank you so much for your hard work and

009good luck and i wish you the best thank you thank you so we we may still see matt from time to time no no sorry um certainly with any bond issues his company could could uh apply to do those type of things and um though his contract to come in two days a month is no longer valid we can still use him at will to make sure that that eric our new cfo has what he needs to be successful thank you thank you matt all right that takes us to item three public expression first period limited to items on the agenda first community member is going to be rena horgan rena horgan 7146 marshall avenue hammond good evening superintendent miller president suno and school board members um i see that tonight you're adopting the math

010curriculum this evening and i hope that this adoption for every classroom gets the required amount of math books this year needed for each student in every classroom and one for the teacher to teach from along with a few extra in the district when new students moved into the district last school year many of my colleagues had to make copies of math books because the district did not provide us with enough for the students in our rooms or one for the teacher to teach from this is unacceptable and i hope this does not happen again this school year i'd also like to ask you when will you be adopting social studies and science curriculums for the elementary grades as it's been over a five-year mark for social studies and possibly over 10 years for science i

011know you will give me the song and dance about how our new fancy reading program has social studies and science curriculums embedded in it but that simply isn't true yes there's social studies and science topics in it but these topics don't cover all the indiana state standards that teachers are required to teach and that students are tested on every year it's not our job as the teacher to find the curriculum to fill in all those gaps at our expense it's the district's job to provide these materials to students and teachers you have a lot of federal dollars at your disposal i think you should start spending it on what students and teachers actually need in the classroom please ask us thank you thank you next community member carlotta blake king um mr miller and trustees

012i beseech you to table the discussion on latin honors ranking that's the new business item be under latin honors the majority of parents i speak to ask why can't we do both simply the administration has not provided enough data to support it or explain the pros and cons of this system of ranking nobody knows what you are doing mr miller you reported that a survey which was conducted 10 times and only 462 students participated was that's 10 percent of our high school population and a whopping 50 parents i'm more concerned with the 90 of students that didn't participate and the parents that didn't participate perhaps they didn't even know what you were talking about how can we take this minuscule tiny fragment of participation in a survey and ask the trustees to accept a recommendation

013of latin honors raking over valedictorian and salutatorians valedictorians and salutatorians is a distinction that parents and families yearn for their children especially black and brown parents 2019 was a phenomenal year for the stringer family shaquille stringer was the first african-american male to obtain the distinction of valedictorian it took 100 years for this major milestone to happen at hammond high school now three years later this administration wants to eliminate a ranking that now primarily black and brown students achieve the distinction of valedictorians and salvatorians are automatically eligible for full rides at various colleges and universities can latin honors offer that what dates were the surveys sent out how much promotion was given i recall the board asking for more input i had no idea a survey was being circulated where was it marketed were were were

014the parents given a workshop on it i read the survey no real explanation of pros and cons of latin honors i read the comments by the students the answers were vague the hundreds of parents and students that i have spoken to are flabbergasted outraged and dismayed fear worry and sad and saying what's next to be eliminated this needs to go back to the drawing board we can have both distinctions and why not questions what about new enrollments of seniors what is the new ranking determined at the end of the first semester how does the new ranking attract new students new home buyers scott and edgar's incoming freshmen were they aware about this potential new ranking normally this starts at the eighth grade level so again we need to go back to the drawing table and

015if we're worried about more students then acknowledge why can't we do both thank you mr president trustee murphy um i actually have a question for the parliamentarian i'm kind of confused here um why would we use the first period of public expression as board members when we're free to speak on the contracts under new business so point of order point of order trustee blake king mr president i was always told that someone comes to first in public expression the board cannot question them or challenge them that's my point of order thank you so again out of order what is what point of order is still trustee blake king we are not the inconsistent we have to be consistent when when the public gets stuck there normally and i have tried to ask questions of the

016public and it's always told to me this is not the time of place so i would ask you mr president to be consistent and let's move on to the next order of business mr president trustee miller i i believe trustee murphy's question was to the parliamentarian it wasn't to the speaker so i think she should be allowed to finish her question mr president trustee blake king that was that is not the case i mean we can fix it up put layers of this and that the public once they come before that podium i have been told consistently can't ask questions whether whether it's parliamentary procedure or what have you so if we're going to have rules and not follow them what's the point mr president trustee miller i i really felt the the tense and

017the matter in which trustee blake king spoke was really more of a board member than a community member anyway so i think that trustee murphy should be able to allow her ask her question of the parliamentarian mr president trustee blake king that's an opinion i live in the city of hammond at 104 highland street i am a taxpayer first can i speak now is it okay trustee murphy so again board members have more than three minutes they are not limited to the three minutes like the public and board members can do a prepared statement ahead of time if they don't feel that anything under new business they want to speak for or against so again my question is on protocol so the first period of public expression with the new laws by the indiana legislature

018is for the public to come before us and to speak on new matters of business not for board members who already have that period so has something changed should us should i because i have things to speak under on a new business should i go to the podium or should i wait until the contract comes up before me that is my question to the parliamentarian which is more proper to take the full period that i need under new business or should every single one of these contracts i should go with three minutes in front of the podium thank you trustee murphy i think you have there's apples and oranges in all of this okay uh first off just to be clear when when somebody asks for point of order what they're asking to is to

019get back to the agenda it's not necessarily to cut off discussions or to cut things off and i don't know where you are i know trustee blake king has asked for porn of order i don't know if you have completed all of your public comments or not a true use of a point of order would be not to debate but to get us back on to the agenda i think trustee murphy's request of the palmitarian is a proper request in light of this yes there has been a change in the state statute with regard to accepting public comment and when you do that in the first period is to accept public comment on anything that is going to come before the board for decision there is nothing within all of this that that board members

020simply because their board members somehow no longer are members of the community board members certainly can sign up for the public comment period and approach and make comments during the public comment period that is an option that's available to anybody who wants to come and be physically present keep in mind that the new law makes it very clear that you need to be physically present in order to make public comment and you need to have rules i think that the rules that you currently have need to be reviewed again i think there's some discussion about reviewing them again to make sure that we are there's some fine-tuning that needs to happen in light of the new state statute um the other opportunity that board members have is when there is a motion when there's a

021second on a motion then the president can call for discussion and that discussion can occur and the board can then deliberate on a decision so there's nothing that precludes a board member from being able to have that discussion now there is when that discussion occurs and if the discussion gets off course or off topic that's when point of order when somebody says point of order it means let's get back to the topic of the motion or get back to the topic of what the board action is to be taken hopefully that kind of clarifies all of the discussions that you guys are currently having about the various procedures so it appears that we can both go to the podium or we can go speak to the motion then i see no reason why that can't

022be done during the discussion after a motion and a second that occurs of course if you have a motion and there's not a second and then there's no discussion then you move on to the next agenda item thank you you do have to sign up prior to the meeting correct you need to be consistent across the board for everybody in the community i know we've had some individuals who came in shortly after the meeting started the sign up was taken up and they weren't able to speak you need to treat everybody the same regardless of who they are so once it's taken there's no more signing up for that thank you so being consistent that's one of the reasons of having the rules is so that you can be consistent and fair across the board

023all right going back then to public expression first period that concludes everyone uh signed up for public expression first period thank you that brings us to item four unfinished business the approval of the festival lakes parking agreement with the hammond parks and recreation trustees as requested the contract has been updated to reflect both morton and hammond central thank you do i have a motion president trustee candelaria i move for the approval of the festival of the lakes parking agreement with hammond parks and recreation as presented second we have a motion we have a second any discussion thank you mr miller any discussion all in favor aye opposed motion passes brings us into the consent agenda i have a motion to accept the consent agenda president trustee candelaria i move for the motion to approve approve

024all consent agendas items a through e has presented second i have a motion and a second any discussion discussion mr president trustee blake king thank you i just lost it mr president i would like to read and to record the accounts payable docket register for june twenty first twenty twenty second our claims are one million six hundred and two thousand six hundred and twenty seven dollars and seventy one cents and our payroll is three million four hundred and seven thousand two hundred and sixty one dollars and ninety four cents and mr miller i mean mr president trustee blake king thank you i did have one question give me a second i can find my on the uh personnel report i see the summer school is that in addition additional personnel for summer school and did

025they start last week i'm going to let miss reese answer that question could you repeat the question trustee king yes of course i see there's additional names on our personal report for summer school is this an additional or were they already hired or or what we're playing catch-up because we had several names at our on our personal report from last these are in addition okay and then one of the questions regarding our paraprofessionals are they hired by seniority yes that is within their handbook okay thank you very much do you mean for summer school trustee yes yeah yes i'm talking about summer school okay just making sure for anyone in the audience thank you sir i appreciate that um i think oh and one other thing i normally when i look at the personal report

026i always try to match it up with the jobs that are out there that we have not uh been able to uh find and janitors it seems like we we are short janitors in different places what where what are we doing in in terms of hiring janitors because i you know that is a major uh employee for our our district you know things need to be cleaned properly these rugs i'm sure they catch a lot of bacteria you know if we don't have the number of staff and i don't i haven't seen janitor's been hired in months so please um look into that for me i sure will but i i am underneath the understanding right now that we are we are good with the janitors well i'm not because listening to some of the

027janitors we're not i'm i'm not of that understanding so please just do what you can i appreciate it i will thank you thank you um that concludes my questions mr president thank you very much thank you any further discussion any other discussion all in favor aye opposed motion passes president zulno superintendent miller i have uh two people i'd like to have themselves introduce themselves to well i said that horribly i have two people that you just approved that i would like to have introduced themselves to the board the first is the board just approved the hiring of our new principal for wallace elementary miss melinda hawkins please come on up [Applause] good evening board of trustees superintendent miller everyone here and everyone watching at home i am not only honored but so excited to be

028selected as principal of wallace elementary my resume will show you that i spent the first seven years of my career teaching in gary but ultimately came back to hammond to teach at lincoln elementary since then i've spent the last five years serving as the assistant principal at wallace to see my dream come to fruition and my journey come full circle is something i am very proud of you see my journey in the school city of hammond started 33 years ago when i was a four-year-old head start student at the former maywood elementary i then went to eggers where i spent kindergarten through eighth grade after that i graduated in the top ten in my class at hammond high i grew up just two blocks over on carroll street everyone in my family is a school

029city of hammond graduate both of my parents were custodians for the school city of hammond and i've been a homeowner here in hammond for 12 years the city is something i am proud to be part of and the school corporation is something i'm even prouder to be part of you have my promise that i will continue the momentum that my mentor and predecessor has created over the last four years you also have my promise that i'm going to do whatever needs to be done in order to push wallace to be one of the if not the premier school in hammond i know that my staff our students families and community are ready to show him and just how bobcat strong we are i am so thankful to be starting this journey with an amazing staff

030of educators i would be remiss if i didn't thank god for blessing me with parents who worked hard their entire lives to give me as many opportunities as possible i'd also like to say thank you to my three brothers who are here in the audience and let them know that i will always be my brother's keeper i'd like to say thank you to my family and friends for always being there to support me cheer me on and be a part of my journey i would be nothing without you a very special thank you to lori thursby who has given me an example of what a true leader is the school city of hammond made me who i am and i am blessed and honored to give back everything that has given to me thank you

031[Applause] welcome welcome mr mr president trustee blake king i i must say that was one of the best acceptance that i've ever heard today and it was sincere into the heart and i so appreciate you thank you so much agreed um trustees the second person i'd like to introduce to you is lydia mcneely our new college and career coordinator and leader of our counselors she's been a rock star for us at scott middle school getting both state and national recognition so looking forward to big things thank you um i my speech is not anything okay i almost started crying i'm trying to hold my composure so good evening superintendent miller board trustees president zuluno i want to thank you for the opportunity to serve as a college and career coordinator for the school city of

032hammond i'm proud to be able to work with a great group of school counselors in a district that values our profession and knows the impact that we can have on our students and families i'm excited to help develop and support nasa aligned data-driven district-wide school counseling program that promotes equity and access for all we will work to increase the opportunities for our students and families to learn about the post-secondary options that are available to them through collaboration with all stakeholders we will continue to create a culture of post-secondary readiness that will ensure that students are equipped for success in whatever field they choose to pursue thank you again for the opportunity and i am excited for this journey thank you and welcome [Applause] thank you that takes us into new business approval of math textbook

033adoption trustees i am recommending the approval of the math textbook adoption uh in the amount of one million three hundred forty three thousand three hundred forty three dollars and forty five cents split between our textbook rental fund that we receive from the state and then we're making up the difference with our federal asset money um to complete this purchase thank you do we have a motion mr president trustee murphy i move that we approve the math textbook adoption as presented second we have a motion and a second any discussion mr president trustee blake king thank you mr president now miss horton has come before us and expressed the desire that included in this textbook adoption that it's everything she needs you know i wouldn't know looking at this these um bullet points i mean are

034the workbooks there is well they have to duplicate any additional work based on what we've spent is everything here because i did bring what was they originally proposed and it's a lot of good stuff for our kids but if all of this is not part of this recommendation as mrs horton said our children are missing out so that's my question does it meet her standards that she addressed at that at that uh podium um i'm going to defer to dr ship for the specifics but we don't want anybody having to make copies of textbooks or well we've done it before i'm not denying that well that's well what's the point of even saying it because i'm saying that that is not the intent of the administration is to shortchange people on textbook purchases i fundamentally

035agree with what miss oregon said that it is responsible to the school corporation to provide resources for teachers to teach um but i will defer to doctorship on any specifics on on the order so after the board of trustees approved the recommendation then i will reach out to every vendor and give them our adm count that's what we used we do buffer well i would say that's my practice is to buffer because sometimes in the fall your numbers are a little bit higher than your spring count and so that is how we ensure that we have enough textbooks and materials i will i've already talked to the biggest vendor we have when things are ready to be delivered i want to be at the schools to guarantee that the delivery is there not have them

036go somewhere and then go other places so in that process when things are delivered you take the shipping off you make sure it matches with what you did um which what order you placed if anything is missing then of course you go in contact and make sure we have all those things ready for our students mr president may i ask trustee blake when is the shipping due when are we expecting these books after the board of trustees approve it when i call them that's when we set up they know i want these books in july before the students get here so i can ensure if there's any missing materials we have enough time to communicate with them to get enough materials for all our students and teachers well that's going to be my burning question

037until we get these books thank you thank you mr president trustee miller um i would just like to personally again thank dr ship and superintendent miller for the process in which we did the adoption that these materials were made available to students to faculty to parents to community members to come in and provide feedback and look at all the options that were available i know it took some extra time but i think it was it was very much worth it i appreciate that i appreciate you addressing the issues we also have had with the book rental fees and those challenges have been kind of a stumbling block for school city payment in the past in providing materials and the fact that we are we are addressing those things and going forward that they won't be

038an issue um i i just want to commend you both for making some making those hard decisions as well as making it a more inclusive process in picking resources thank you mr president trustee murphy i just want to piggyback on trustee miller how widespread this was i was at a chess tournament in march at morton high school and these books were available to look at so it's it's like this was a big public event and they were there so they did a great job trying to get this out to the public and making sure there as many opportunities as possible for the public to provide input before today's adoption thank you any other discussion roll call trustee miller yes trustee candelaria yes trustee blake king yes trustee murphy yes and trustee zono yes motion passes

0395-0 next item is the approval of latin honors system mr president blake king i ask that we table this discussion this this um this item for further discussion so that perhaps we can include both the latin honors and keeping our valedictorians and salutatorians because if the issue is acknowledging more kids why are we eliminating four so that doesn't add up the math does not end up when we are eliminating the veils and the cells you know from the two high schools um that's my motion correct you need to make a proper motion i make a motion to table item item b approval of latin honor system and i provided my reasons why do we have a second motion fails for lack of a second do i have a motion for the approval of the latin

040honors system mr president trustee miller i make a motion for the approval of the latin honor system do i have a second second motion in a second roll call vote discussion i'm sorry discussion i apologize mr president trustee murphy um as you may have not seen i sent an email yesterday on this thing i do agree that hybrid because i sent it out and i said that at the public works session at the same time um even with the latin honors system because i also had a very long discussion with the superintendent today on this one as i was trying to decide how i felt about this motion and where i was going to go with it there's room for both and it doesn't stop valedictorians and salutatorians there's always going to be class rank

041someone will always be valedictorian that will never ever be taken away from them even if we do this without the hybrid someone will still be valedictorian that is never going to weigh and i'm hoping the public doesn't think that it's going away because it doesn't stop it is totally true that the race to the top that our students want to do some of our students want to do to valedictorian salutatorian they're scholarships to state universities so i don't believe anyone here is going to stop that but the latin honors as presented by our two principals that was something different it was something to embrace to increase the inclusivity within our district and this was to say hey you did a good job so you are at this grade point level you fall into another grade

042point level and this falls into another grade point level i also like to point out this isn't board policy so we can start to look down this road and work on something a hybrid or the latin honors and we can still change it say hey we got this feedback and maybe this didn't work out so well but again the latin honors was something that came up by our principals and their administrative staff within the high schools after consolidation to say you know what how can we honor more students at our graduations i think it's a good idea but i agree with trustee blake kling that we need to also make sure that we have something for the students that are on the race to the top and we honor a valedictorian and salutatorian that we

043can do both and i believe with the discussions we'll have is this ongoing that's going to happen thank you any other discussion mr president trustee blake king i hear what trustee murphy says but it's not part of this motion it's not in it's not presented as from mr miller and the administration in that manner um and and not this is the first time mr miller has never communicated to me or any board member that valedictorians and salutatorians will remain so i'm not going to be suckered into what somebody verbally says it has to be in writing again if you we did such a great job and getting with the public to look at our books we did a poor job in promoting this to the parents no parent workshops this past weekend was juneteenth celebration

044i ran into so many parents miss king what is going on so you did a horrible job in promoting this and letting people know and informing parents this is a distinction that parents and students have been looking forward to valedictorians all their lives black and brown children have been denied this distinction for whatever reason and now that they are attaining this distinction we're going to eliminate it that's insane i'm trembling i am angry i am just as angry as the parents that approach me ms king where is school where is school city going what are they doing they are stripping us they are lowering the standards but yet one board member gonna sit here and say we can do both it's not in writing i learned that much it's not in writing it's not so

045and this is an urban community and i'm tired when you of us when you want to bring in these kinds of programs you never find a district comparable to hammond urban the majority of these students are black and brown and we are ignoring that it took a hundred years to get the first male valedictorian at hammond high school and three years later you're gonna strip it this is insane those are my comments and if we do this i i don't know what the fallout is going to be but it's not going to be good because people are sick and tired of being sick and tired we are racing to the bottom instead of racing to the top thank you mr president thank you mr president trustee miller um so a couple of things um from

046my perspective i agree with trustee murphy in that class rank is never going to go away um your number one your number two out of 500 like it's it class rank is never gonna go away this doesn't replace that i also disagree with the previous speaker in that we're racing to the bottom as it was presented to us previously crown point high school which is the premier district in our county has a latin honor system so if we are trying to emulate excellence as it's been suggested that we don't like there there are schools of excellence that are that are using this model um the other thing i'd like to share was mr miller provided us uh some numbers on the number of students that could have been honored this year as part of the

047graduation process um had we had latin honors opposed to only our like our top 20. um at hammond high school um the highest level would be summa laude and there were 17 students that achieved that i mean that's that's huge um magnum kamlati there was 13. uh kumalati there was 32. um mr miller i don't have the percentages um in front of me i i i don't have those percentages do you do you have those percentages handy or dr roush the for each of the classifications um i know that was in one of our emails i was going back through here it's in board docs if you click on the first pdf in there do you have those handy cindy yes so summa laude is a 4.0 a grader so we had 17 students at

048hammond central that had a perfect i mean that's that's pretty amazing uh magnum cumulative is 3.8 to 3.99 yup and laude is 3.5 to 3.79 so that's um all those students would have been a what b plus a no one would have got a distinction for for less than that at 3.5 a 3.3 is an a minus so a 3.5 is is an a it's a solid a so those are still all a percentages distinctions but we had 17 students essentially that were vying for valedictorian solution but it was determined by like class you know class rank like every tenth of a percent but we had 17 students that could have easily have been valve victorian or salutatorian um under this model they get the acknowledgement under the model of just valedictorian salutatorian it's it

049is only the top two um and so i appreciate the opportunity that we have to show value for the work that all of our students are doing because that's amazing that we had 17 students with a 4.0 or above that's that's great and if folks know if students know i shouldn't give up because i gotta be in in you know calculus that there's still an honor level for me like i think that's an incentive to our students to do more and to work harder even though they you know they might have gotten knocked out of spot number one or number two and this system also takes into account like students that are in hapa students that might be career students you know um students that aren't taking those heavily weighted classes like with like ap

050classes and those sorts of things like it gives everybody the opportunity to do well and to be acknowledged but class rank is class rank like that's never going to change even if we don't use the title of valedictorian salutatorian you're still going to be i was ranked number one in my class that doesn't go away those are my comments mr president thank you trustee murphy i also want to point out even though it says it starts next year it starts with the incoming freshman class this is a four year process so over a four year period of time we have the ability to tweak this so it's not going to start with next year's seniors or sophomores or the current freshmen it starts with the incoming freshmen so this is four years before this even

051starts so we have plenty of time up go ahead so we're going to be doing both for four years so we we fully intend to have latin hours in the next three years as well as a salutatorian valedictorian the next three years so we will have the hybrid people are talking about for the next three years but the the point of every of that things can be changed is absolutely true so if if this doesn't jive or doesn't work with the community or or it's not what we think it is we can absolutely the board can direct me to to change it at any time um i i will tell you you know when your superintendent you need to know when to talk and when to listen and my my leadership came to me and

052said this is something that we think we can do to honor more kids hammond's nearly a 90 minority district so we're not replacing minority students with other students we're actually honoring more of our students we're honoring more of our students with with this type of program but they came to me and said this is a way that we can honor more of our students and the other issue with it is is that you get some kids i and i and and and my my daughter did well in high school but she had friends who wouldn't come to the career center not because they didn't have programs they wanted to take was because the classes weren't weighted and they needed to make sure they only took weighted classes we've had this similar type thing with hapa

053kids where oh i'm not going to complete my hapa program because i need to take classes that have the extra gpa point like i don't think that's in the best interests of kids so i i'm actually not against the hybrid system like i you can you got me on the record saying it right now like if it if we still want to acknowledge excellence of the top one or two and still do the latin honors things that's what we're doing for the next three years anyway so let's see how it goes and uh if the board approves it now because that's we wanted to have a long transition plan because we didn't think it was fair for any existing high school student to say oh we're not doing that you know so we'll be honoring

054them both and we'll see how it goes over the next three years and yes we'll change it if it isn't working like we've changed many other things mr president trustee blake king i have learned more about this latin honors program in these few minutes than i have in the months or whatever you all been talking about this and i'm i'm certain that many parents who are listening are probably just as confused if if you're saying you can deal with the hybrid we should just start off we just say we're going to do that period if you're that sincere mr miller i mean nobody was open to keeping the latin honors and i didn't hear anybody say that i made the motion crickets well in the public works session we talked about it where in the

055public works session when the principal was presented and what did we say not enough information uh there hasn't been any input from the parents and you're going to tell me 10 of the student population is going to make this decision and 50 parents that's insane what corporation runs a business like that again as i stated before i'm concerned about the 90 percent that didn't respond to your survey for whatever reason and you submitted it 10 times so either you didn't explain it correctly people don't know what you're talking about or they're just not interested you don't it's like you're pushing you're shoving this on us i'm i'm i'm listening to my principles i mean but but you are paid by taxpayers that's okay that's who takes care of the bills let's get the contract here

056he interrupted me you know let's get back on track by mr miller he forgets who he's working for the taxpayers the parents when we want to engage our parents for something we do but when we don't want anybody to know anything we'll say well we did a little survey and you know this community is suspect of surveys that come out of school city of hammond and how they have turned on certain communities dr i'm sorry go ahead dr ship how many people filled out the survey for the textbooks i believe it was probably less than it was less than 20. less than 20 and we had it in every school in every building so the fact that we got 50 for this survey is twice as much parent input than we got on the on

057the textbooks they i i don't know how to fix that like i i'm not and you're not trying that's not true yes it is i hired a pr person to help address some of this i asked you in an email what promotion i haven't seen any promotion of this i haven't seen it anywhere i've seen any flyers haven't seen it in any library any churches i haven't seen it anywhere so don't tell me you promoted this can we get back to discussion on pros and cons of the motion please oh i'm not giving pros and cons you're dismissing what i'm saying asking about him talking to churches is not for or against them he said he we have a motion on the floor do we have any other discussion if i was in i i

058get interrupted every time i you know motion on the floor for the approval latin honors system we have a motion a second any other discussion if not we'll go for a vote trustee murphy yes trustee king no trustee candelaria yes trustee miller yes trustee zomo yes motion passes 4-1 next on the agenda is the approval of the updated food service procurement plan trustees this is a an extension of the existing food service procurement plan contract can't tell you an exact amount because it depends on how much we actually purchase over the year okay do i have a motion mr president trustee miller i move for the approval of the updated food service procurement plan as presented second we have a motion and a second any discussion um trustee blake king the vendors um are they

059listed in here or should they be or is department's gonna be part of the um the vendors for this particular um approval i don't believe so i'm double checking no are we just approving the plan on how they're going to do it yeah it's a policy thank you have any other discussion any other discussion all in favor aye aye opposed motion pissed abstain abstain motion passes four yes one abstain item d the approval of the contract between the food service department and clarity clinic uh trustees this is for professional development in the amount of three thousand two hundred fifty dollars plus fifty dollars an hour for consultation if needed not to exceed five thousand two hundred and fifty dollars paid for it of our food service fund to provide professional development to our kitchen managers

060on leadership thank you do i have a motion mr president trustee murphy i move that we approve the contract between the food service department and clarity clinic as presented do i have a second second a motion in a second any discussion any discussion all in favor aye opposed abstain motion passes five zero next we have the appro approval of the contract extension with ems ling incorporated uh trustees this is the second of a possible four one-year contract extensions in the amount of thirty three thousand eight hundred sixty eight dollars out of the paid for the food service fund this is the software that runs our food service departments thank you do i have a motion mr president trustee murphy i move that we approve the contract extension with ems link inc as presented do i

061have a second second motion and second any discussion any discussion all in favor aye opposed abstain motion passes next item is the approval of the dei contract audit dei audit with global consulting solutions trustees this is the contract that we've spoken about the past few meetings with for a diversity equity inclusion audit of the entire school city of hammond the amount of 65 000 paid for out of operations it would begin in earnest in august and the deliverables are expected within three months time thank you do i have a motion president trustee candelaria i moved for the approval of the dei audit with global consulting solutions as presented second we have a motion in a second any discussion discussion mr president trustee blake king uh i'm looking at under this under policies as listed in

062the desk audit section of the proposal can we make sure that it includes purchasing and procurement policies of spending data related to minority business so i'm going on record to make sure this is part of this audit that we will be looking at uh purchases and procurement policies that uh relates to minority business hiring vendors consultants etc which i'm sorry which page are you on did you save the i didn't say what i didn't say i paid i thought you said no you were out of school i can't find it right now but it keep reading so that's that's not in the contract well it's under policies and policies relates to um hiring purchasing the whole nine yards that's part of our policies our board policy includes all of that our purchasing power so in

063regards to policy we want to make sure it includes purchasing and procurement policies uh related to minority businesses because otherwise why is it called dei diversity equity and inclusion dr goodlow's not here to answer that specific question i can give him your feedback but that like well i'm going on record making every question i don't see why why it's an issue it's not an issue for me i'm just telling you the contract doesn't specify that well it's under policy it does i can't find it now i said i highlighted at home i didn't hear it mr miller if it if it aids you at all you because you are dealing with trustee murphy's shaking her head as well because you are dealing with public dollars you must strictly follow the bidding requirements of state law

064with regard to purchases it is a very tightly regulated area that you can't shift money to preferred businesses or preferred bidders if you're not going to the most responsible lowest bidder that's just the way the law is set up mr president trustee blake king well how did we manage to do it with the building of the new high school skillman wrote into the contract diversity equity i mean he gives a report every month on the hiring practices and procurement of minorities and businesses so how did we manage to get that in that contract mr president make me understand that trust email it's like we're done trying to die okay so when the prior board under dr watkins that is something the prior board wanted to see however dr monica conrad was also our attorney at

065that time and advised us while we can ask them to try to do these things they cannot break state law so they did a yeoman's job there was all kinds of these extra things so trying to do him in residence hiring students at hammond central and hammond high to try to increase the minority students and the students sorry the adults that lived in hammond so it's not that we demanded it's not that it was in a contract we asked them to try and that's where those reports come it goes back to that prior board and dr watkins asked him to do that and i want to point out also item c on here it shows you right in that we just approved and that was approval of new federal guidelines to make sure we follow

066exactly what monica conrad just told us we need to make sure we cover and i'm not going to give the long federal laws here about our procurement plans we cannot say we're going to hire you just because of the color of your skin or your ethnicity we have to make sure the contract is reasonable and it's the lowest bidder because we are bound by taxpayer dollars that have to be put out under federal and state law so i agree with you that our hiring practices and our ability through hr to try to expand our ability to get staff that looks like our students that definitely needs to be looked at but contracts we have to be very careful with to make sure we do not run a foul of state and federal law mr president

067trustee blake king obviously you all are missing the whole purpose of this audit they're looking to see whether or not or how we do or how well we do or don't do in the area of diversity equity and inclusion in every aspect of school city of hammond and procurement certainly should be part of it it's an audit we're not making anybody do anything we're looking and seeing to see what we are actually doing in that area i mean you guys can come up with all kinds of distractions i didn't i'm not asking you to i'm not demanding you to hire anybody but the point was through the building of the high school i made that request i met when you were gone i met with the group not true i think manny was there and

068we told skim this uh attorney conrad was there do what you can and as a result of that every month they provide us a report the number of higher women hammond residents latinos hispanics blacks the whole nine yards we didn't twist their arms we actually do it that's not true and i'm not asking you to do it i'm just as an audit is it just what it is they're looking and see what how do we fare in that area if we fair bad we just feel bad you have to do better if we fare well keep moving mr president trustee miller i'm not sure exactly how we would collect that data if we're looking at past practice like how you would even go back to a vendor to ask you know what i mean it's

069not information that you collect as part of the bidding process or that sort of thing so i'm not even i'm not sure how that would that would work if you're looking for a report out on how many dollars and cents were spent with you know a particular type of vendor or a particular business or whatever based on those factors um i'm just not i'm not sure that the data exists well if it doesn't exist perhaps we need to put a policy together so that it can exist it's an audit simple as that what are we afraid of to find out the truth it's an audit we're collecting data to see where we are in various areas what's so hard about that it's just like when we went to that dei conference in valparaiso the reason

070we can't move forward in the area of diversity equity and inclusion nobody wants to talk about it we just wanted to go away mr president trustee trustee murphy the gentleman again uh watkins we did a lot under diversity equity and inclusion it's not that people don't want to talk about it so i i just have to disagree with you with that because he did a lot to make changes in this district so your request how about we just put this we send it to the consultant and let them go and decide if this is something that um doesn't break state and federal law and this is something they can look at and let's go and get a vote on this contract um again i'm glad you made the point that dr watkins did a lot

071in diversity equity and inclusion but it's a shame 90 percent of those folks are gone either terminated fired left quit so we can just you know that's a fact this is what we're trying to pass i i think my original comment was i will share this feedback with dr goodloe the only thing i can't do is speak for this company they're not here tonight if if they say no problem i have no issue with it but if they say that's not something that's part of our audit practice that's like i can't speak for that but that's all you have to say all this extra dialogue you know i don't know where it came from people are praying okay we have a motion we have a second any further discussion trustee miller yes trustee candelaria yes

072trustee blake king yes trustee murphy yes trustees only yes motion passes 5-0 takes us to item 7 upcoming board meetings on tuesday july 5th we have an executive session at 5 30 p.m here at the administration center followed by a school board meeting at 6 p.m and the meeting after that is tuesday july 19th here at the administration center at 6 p.m mr president trustee miller um being that the july 5th meeting is the day after holiday and we'll have a shorter window to review the packet you know um many people go away for a long weekend would it be possible for us to get the packet a couple days like earlier then friday can we can we work the yeah can we set the deadline now you know for folks to submit things earlier

073so by a couple of days so we have a little more what what day would the board prefer or it can wait till the 19th which is a while a while yeah all right moving along public expression second period uh regarding general matters first community member is going to be married more more erity good evening board members my name is mary moriarty and i am a resident of hammond 6833 rosewood i wanted to bring up an era that was listed on the sr funding plans on page 10 there were four teachers listed as the alternative education in the alternative education program but for the entire year there have only been three i cannot help but wonder what else is being reported inaccurately i understand that you won't know this but i urge you to question

074the information and request the data to verify the ending to verify the accuracy thank you for your time thank you wow next community member corletta blake king good evening board policy zero one six six agenda adopted december 10 2012 has been grossly violated by uh our board attorney mr miller and trustees people wonder ms king why as a elected official are you coming down on this podium to speak back in september i can't quite remember board police board reports was part of the agenda and mysteriously this board and superintendent and our attorney decided to the board made a motion to take it off and since then i have been requesting that board reports uh go back on our agenda by this board policy and it reads clearly all i simply have to do is make

075the request to the superintendent of president and it shall be put on the agenda it doesn't say it's up to the president or is up to mr miller as was reported last year as to why the vote was taken to remove board reports off the agenda we talk about mutual respect and civility but yet and i've asked consistently just about every board meeting please put it back on same question same answer no so that's why i'm standing before the board mr miller who works for me isn't that amazing he's the employee i'm the employer but you can make a a statement that prevents me from talking only in america so my last words are simply this mr miller has been brought to my attention that every time the word community engagement community uh support community

076involvement you seem to simply shut down it is up to this community who is invested to be part of the process and making decisions for our kids i've asked for a task force so that we can begin talking this summer all the time stakeholders come together and deal with the issues that we had this past semester the bullying the fighting the lack of certified teachers deans counselors social workers mental health professionals that are not on site but yet again when the community requests these kinds of task force these times the committee mr miller shuts down thank you very much thank you that concludes everyone written in for public expression second period regarding general matters thank you trustee candelaria takes us to reports from the superintendent just to clarify i don't work for any one trustee

077i work for a majority of the board they're the ones who direct me when a majority of the board no i'm talking now the majority of the bills directs me i always comply that's that's the role of any person in charge of organization when they don't work for any one shareholder or trustee they work for the majority and the majority says to do something that's what they do but there's no board policy on those books to do what you all did mr president trustee murphy this is the period of time for the superintendent to provide reports yes well he started it all right all right please just a reminder for middle school students who have not completed and families who have not completed the 21st century scholarship the deadline for that is the end of

078this month june 30th you can visit learnmoreindiana.org scholar slash enroll for more info again that website is learnmooreindiana.org scholar slash enroll for 21st century scholarship again we're asking all parents to please register their children for the upcoming school year can be found on the registered tab at school city of hammond website all parents will have to register their child to come to school this upcoming year it is really important in in in situations that we have updated contact info that we know that that the people the families coming to our schools that we know where they're at and we can get a hold of you in an emergency so that's why we require registration each year very important um i want to thank everyone who worked for successful commencement at the wolf lake pavilion that

079includes our our students teachers admins the hammond police department hammond parks department for two very successful events very proud of everyone especially our students for just really two two great celebrations of the work that we've been doing in in hammond schools just a reminder our summer meal program started last monday and it will run into august 5th unfortunately because of changes in the rules meals must be eaten on site this year that was a federal decision that's not a school city thing that we can affect but the federal government changed their policy they think we're enough out of covid that that we can't offer take-home meals over the summer so uh but again we have i believe about eight different school sites where we're offering summer meals where you can come in at lunch and

080get a free meal with your children we have plenty of job openings with school city of hammond you heard a few of them referenced tonight but please consider joining the school city of hammond team very competitive wages and benefits and i get to work for kids there's no better no better role than working for students lastly i will mention that kelly is hosting an in-person hiring event for substitute teachers on the 23rd june 23rd and june 30th from 10 to 3 in this building right here so if you're interested in doing substitute work that that's on your schedule you want to work one day one week and four days the next week it's all around your schedule so it's very convenient and another another great way to to work with our kids all right that

081concludes my reports thank you do i have a motion to adjourn second good night everyone thanks you