School Town of Munster | Board of School Trustees | Regular Board Meeting | Monday May 11th, 2026

001Uh, good evening ladies and gentlemen and Mr. Castro. Um, welcome to the starting the meeting off right. No, he did warn us he might be late. Uh, welcome to the May 11th regular school board meeting. Uh, please note that Mr. Dempsey is not with us tonight, but the other four board members are present. Uh, please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic of all. Our mission statement here at the school town of Monster. Our mission is to cultivate excellence to realize potential and achieve high levels of learning. >> Our vision statement. >> Our vision is to be a school community where all students have a sense of belonging, take ownership of their learning and find joy, passion, and purpose in their Item

0021.5, public comment information. We currently offer two ways in which the community can participate in regular schoolboard meetings. The first public comment section on the agenda is for addressing current action items that are on tonight's agenda. These comments must be submitted by noon on the day of the meeting. The procedure for submission is posted on our website under board of school trustees. The second public comment section is for general comments and does not have to be specific to an agenda topic. If you wish to address the board during general public comment section of the meeting, please put your name and topic on a card and give to Deb Hayes right there or now um before the start of the meeting or now. All public comments are limited to three minutes per individual with a total

003of 30 minutes allotted for each public comment section on the agenda. Public comments. Uh, we did receive one on current action items, but it's actually not a current action item. So, Deb, we do not have any. Okay. General public comments. Is Patrick Owens here? Okay. Um, so are there any other public comments? All right. Building spotlight uh 3.1 project lead the way. Our elementary principles will now present. Thank you. Good evening. I would like to invite our elementary school principal or principles, teachers and some students to come up and share um project lead the way in the elementary buildings that um are alive and well. And so I invite our teachers and students Sorry, I'm short. Got to bring it all the way down. Um, we're representing kindergarten. Um, Mrs. Garcia, Lisa Garcia, Yasmin Mcpollock.

004I'm gonna go first. Project Lead the Way has proven effective in allowing students in kindergarten engage on hands-on project-based learning experiences where the kids are making, building, using their creative um thinking to make and build something from scratch. Students are engaged in activities. They um kind of I some of the activities include like building a beantock. So they are aligned to like literacy, math, science, all of that stuff. We read the three little pigs. They had to create three little p or three different homes for the little pigs and then we had like a wolf to blow down the houses and we got to see and experience all of that fun stuff through PLTW. It we did find it to be challenging for some students as there's like not a lot of teacher le like

005we're not really telling them what to do. We kind of just lay the goals for each thing that they have to make and then they have to come up with their ideas. They have to work with other students. That was also a challenge because students usually cannot agree in kindergarten cannot agree to do something like together especially if there's more than two students. Um we did notice it was better to pair them up or that them work individually because when it was time to take these projects home that was another problem. They all wanted to take their projects home. We ended up playing rock paper scissors to decide who's taking the project home. Um we also noticed PLTW is was a little bit difficult to um embed into our schedule and it was nice to

006like divide it like daily. We would do every day at the end of the day we would um it would take us multiple days to complete a whole lesson and it was very easy to kind of just break it up into different days. Um, PLTW does create an environment where students are engaged, hands-on learning, and it also um allows them to do be more of the teacher for them to share with the class what they made, their thinking, explain their ideas, their problem solving, and a lot of it really creates like it builds up their self-esteem to speak in front of people as I am doing now. Um, and also to like just share their thinking and ideas and it's great because it goes on to first grade, second grade, and so on. We're we're

007the very first first grade level to experience um PLTW. >> Just to add on just a little bit that um initially when we did the training it felt a little overwhelming for us and it felt like it would be very timeconuming uh looking at it from the teacher perspective but um once we really gave it a chance and made some minor modifications to fit our needs we've discovered that it hasn't been as difficult as we anticipated in general. The students love the projects um and all the hands-on activities built into the lesson and we've been given a clear picture of which students are really able to think outside of the box because a lot of them just expect for us to help them get the answers but this helps them think outside of the box.

008Uh the group work allows us to see who our naturalb born leaders are and it's giving more practice to those students who need a little more help with that concept of teamwork that she mentioned. Um, we've been reinforcing the life lessons of compromise, decision-making, collaboration, and showing perseverance. And these are all lessons that will help to build hardworking, resilient students who are not afraid to try hard things. So, um, my students have even had the opportunity to share their creation with, um, Dr. Hicks. He's been in my classroom when he's just happened to be in the building. and I never got back to you about your prediction that A-frame structure was one of the top performers. So, your uh prediction was a good one. So, uh project lead the way is still pretty timeconuming and

009a lot of work to prepare for, but um it will get easier over time as we are more familiar with each lesson. And when we see how excited our students are when building, creating, and exploring, we can definitely see the value of it. sit down. >> All right. I'd like to just share a few positive words about PLTW. One of the most valuable parts of PLTW is the collaboration it brings into the classroom. Um we actually there's four second grade teachers and we actually co-taught um each of the modules which was great collaboration with all four teachers. Um, the opportunity for students to work together, problem solve, and learn through co-eing creates a strong and supportive learning environment for everyone involved. It was wonderful to see the level of discourse among students as they worked

010through ideas, shared their thinking, and built on one another's ideas. Those meaningful conversations showed through engagement and critical thinking in action. So, um, our example that, um, I'm going to show you is it was a states of matter and they had to create their own, um, um, insulation because they had a popsicle. So, they had to go and collaborate and figure out how to keep their popsicle from from melting. So, you can see here that they did a very nice job of of insulating their cooler. Um, I brought two of my students here who, um, I'd like to ask them a few questions. So, Kevin, I'm going to start with you. Okay. How did you decide to make your insulated cooler? >> I decided by sharing ideas with my partner and finding how we what

011to do. We take turns sharing our ideas and we combined our ideas to make a new big one that was really good and worked. >> Excellent. And Cesily, did you guys always agree with one another? >> No, but >> So, how did you handle that situation? But we put our ideas together and it made um and then we fixed the problems that wouldn't work in both of our ideas and it made the cooler work. >> Excellent. >> So what stood out most was the joy on the students faces when something finally worked. Watching their excitement, pride, and sense of accomplishment in those moments was truly priceless. PLTW gives students the chance to think, create, collaborate, and experience the kind of authentic learning that stays with them long after the lesson is over. And as you

012can see, it has lasted with them because we did this last semester. >> Um, just to kind of reiterate some of the things that that have already been said that PLTW is such a rewarding experience. the kids get their hands on all of the things and um learn and you see it, you get to see the light bulb go off. It's super super awesome. Um so we're going to share our latest project that we just finished. Um in fact, they just presented them today. Um so in third grade, our last module that we do is variation of traits. So they learn how um the characteristics are passed from parent to offspring and how they can skip because of punet squares. So the third graders learned how to do their own punet squares. And in the

013end they had to create their own species um using two parents that they created their own pun squares and then chose what the offspring would look like. Um so I'm going to have share his off um his project that he did today. Okay. I can hold it up and you can talk about it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> This was their original drawings of what their species would look like and then this is what they created. And how did you create? >> So we each like made one part. I made the ears >> and shaped the head. >> Right. Okay. And then why did what do we have to do? What do we what were we proving with our new species? >> Um that it can survive. >> It can survive. So we had to

014create we had to use the punet squares to find the characteristics. Right. So your characteristics where did it live? >> In the forest. And what traits did you give it so that it would survive? >> Fur to keep warm. Color to camouflage in the forest. side eyes to see farther and sharp teeth to eat prey. >> Good job, buddy. >> I two are dying right now because we're about a week behind this. So, do not tell our secrets. >> My name is Laura Potchin. I represent Eids Elementary. I brought two of my friends with me from my classroom. And I'm so excited to talk to you about Project Lead the Way. Um, it, as everybody has said, it brings hands-on project-based learning to our classroom. The curiosity, the creativity, and the critical thinking is amazing,

015especially for third grade babies. Punet squares. That's insane to me. Like, that was a middle school, high school thing, and here they're doing this. Um it allows our students to engage in problem solving, engineering design and STEM exploration in a way that textbooks could not do this could not achieve that. Um over the year the growth I've seen is exponential with using this program. We have the academic growth where we're using like you guys were saying the math the science um and we're applying it to real world real world concepts. Um, for example, they learned about life cycles earlier and they started creating solutions to problems such as the honeybee uh population and creating an environment where they could succeed. Um, the critical thinking and collaboration is always a party in the classroom. Um, it

016challenges students to brainstorm, test, and revise solutions in the classroom. Um, they've learned to listen to each Don't give me that look. listen to each other, share ideas, and approach challenges um with resilience because sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to. After learning about uh weather patterns that and patterns and climate, students engaged uh were engaged by using their knowledge of how uh floods work and they created a flood project where they could avoid a flood. Monster is safe. I will let you know if there's any flooding. I've got the people. >> See, the third graders got it. >> I know we're safe. Um, and then seeing the confidence and the Oh, did you say eids? Sorry to get it. It was on delay. Okay. Confidence and engagement. Most some of

017our most hesitant learners, and I heard that all the way through here, are now leading projects. Um, the discussions, and then they're the ones standing up to present their uh, creations. So, I've had students that are like, I didn't even think I could do that. And they're standing up and they're able to do that. So, moments like that are happening all the time. And that's what the power of project lead the way is. So it's not about teaching the content. It's more about that u inspiring a mindset of um exploration and problem solving. So our students are not only learning new skills but they are learning to believe in themselves and take those risks and embrace the challenges. Now I've brought these two from my class where I've promised copious amounts of candy to them.

018They're going to be sharing information about our honeybee project. Are you ready Harper? I don't know if you'll All right. Come on, sister. You got this. >> Hi, my name is Harper Fetch. I'm a third grade student at Eid and Miss Pchin. My favorite thing about PLTW was the B project. I like when we made the B habitat model because when one material didn't work, we tried out different materials. This allowed me to work with my team and to problem solve. Lovely. Thank you. >> And next up is Theo. >> Um, my name is Theel Nolan and I am a in third grade with Miss Potchin. I liked our unit on honeybees because I learned a lot of neat facts like queen bees lay up to 2,000 eggs a day. We also got to make

019a habitat for bees using felt, clay, and fake flowers. So, as you can see, Project Lead the Way is an amazing thing to add to our >> our repertoire. Yes. I would say this morning when asking the students what is the best part and they all said that we get to build things. >> Um, and are like and I know what engineering is now. So, they're >> it opens their eyes to careers that they might not have otherwise universal for the elementary. Thank you for letting us present. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you all. >> Kim, do you want to get a group picture >> here or could the students and teachers for Project Lead the Way come up front for a picture? And I do want to note that if you

020heard our vision statement tonight, a lot of what you all just said is part of our vision statement. Taking ownership of learning and finding joy. >> It's not It's not moving. >> That's right. That's all right. I don't have feelings. It's fine. >> Yeah. Where's just the backdrop? >> It's just been one year. >> I think so. iPhone paper. >> Okay. >> Oh, yeah. That's not spontaneous, but >> I know. >> Sorry. >> Great job. >> And families and students, if um you have homework to do or need to get home to have dinner, it is okay to leave the board meeting, you're welcome to stay, but we will not be offended if any of you scadaddle. Um at this time, we would like to have a recognition for the community ambassador program. It is

021my joy to share congratulations with our graduating class of community ambassadors. The goal of community ambassadors is to help members of our community come in and learn how the school town monster conducts business in terms of educating students and all of the back of the house things it takes to run a school district. They got to see each of our departments and learn from each of our cabinet level administrators on how each of their departments is run. And I bet their favorite day was much like my student advisor's favorite day, which is when they went to the service center and got to see where the buses sleep at night and their the bus wash, go for a ride. So, um it's a great opportunity for you to uh to be our ambassadors out in the

022community when people have questions. They don't always know those of us that sit at the dis, but they do know you. And so, thank you for being willing to say, "Hey, my my job is to be part of the question answerers and some of the conveyors of of questions to us from the community." So, we're lucky to have you as our emissaries, uh, going out into the community and helping continue to educate our public on what we do because it's complex and it takes a conversation with somebody, you know, sometimes to help pass that information along. So, thank you for being willing to do it. I hope you learned a lot and I hope you had some fun on on the way. Uh Mrs. Park has put together some parting gifts on your chairs for

023you. Uh so those are yours to have and I'm going to recognize you publicly because God knows you had to sit through all those presentations. You at least deserve to be honored uh publicly. So if you'll stand when your name is called. Uh, Heather Bogner, Gregory Curran, Jenny Dempsey, Ud Eko, Guy Gillette, Damon Grove, Paulina Hora, Elizabeth Huffford, Rayfeld Johnson, Michelle Keith, Joe Kramer, Susan Lew, Amy Moore, Brian Rooney, Katrina Russo, Carolina Sha, Carolina Schaefer, and April Zinc. These are our graduating class of community ambassadors. Thank you and congratulations. >> All right. >> Take a picture up front. >> I learned my lesson the first time. I won't ask for a high five from an interview. And I will say the same to the community ambassadors. You are welcome to stay for the meeting, but

024if you have pressing matters to attend to, no hard feelings. Thank you. All right. At this time, we'll get to the consent agenda. Mr. Trip and Feldus. >> Madame President, you're going to give me a uh some uh issues here because everyone leaves before I speak. Okay. >> Um no, the consent agenda contains items 5.1 uh through and including 5.7. And I'll go through each of those briefly um before we make a recommendation. Beginning with item 5.1, approval of the minutes of the regular board meeting on April 13, 2026, which is displayed on the screen if you want to see a more detail. Also, the executive session that was held on April 13th, the board work session that was held on April 27th, and then the executive session following on April 27th. Uh all those

025are as presented and displayed upon the screen. contains item 5.2 the approval of the accounts payable voucher register is presented. Item 5.3 the approval of the payroll voucher uh register is presented. Item 5.4 approval of the personnel report which is displayed on the screen with the following recommendations for employment that you can review on the screen. the following resignations, retirements, professional learning requests, and those are for uh percussion world championships, Cisco Live at and the AP conference this summer. And then the following terminations as displayed and presented. We also have on item 5.5, approval of overnight field trips, which will be overnight field trips for the Monster High School uh volleyball team to Indianapolis and the Monster High School boys and girls cross country teams to Angola. The next item 5.6 Six is approval of

026donations with the following donations for Monster High School for baseball, Best Buddies, speech and debate and choir as presented with the amounts that are there for Wilbur Wright Middle School for the theater company as presented for Frank Hammond Elementary School for the robotics team as you can see that displayed. and then for the exceptional achievers department for unified game day. And those are all the donations that were applied to assist us with unified game day. Then we have item 5.7, approval of fundraisers. And if I can get to the right page, make sure I'm here. We go. approval of fundraisers for the high school with for cross country, boys and girls golf, unified track, theater, dance, and then several for the choir. As you can see, they even extend to page two. Then we have

027science olympiad for both the middle school and the high school. And I do believe that is it for fundraisers. So with that, the administration recommends that the school board approve consent agenda items 5.1 through and including 5.7 as presented. Uh would the board like any of these items broken down individually? >> Uh can I get a motion? >> Cinder, I move to approve the consent agenda in its entirety. >> Can I get a second? >> Castro second. >> Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries four to one. I'm four to zero. I forgot. Mr. Dempsey would have voted, I'm sure. Um, all right. Action items 6.1, Chartwells renewal. Um, Mr. Begley, >> we recommended approval of retaining uh the service of Chartwells as school town of Monster

028Food Service Management Company for the period of July 1st, 2026 to the June 30th, 2027 with the option to renew until June 30th, 2028. That's the mandated time when we have to do an RFP request for proposal and put it out to uh public again. uh where we could select a at that point select a different food service management company or um if Chartwells was interested in doing at that point we could continue with them well into the future. >> Very good. Uh can I get a motion to approve Chartwells renewal 2026 27 as presented? >> Castro, I move we approve Chartwell's renewal 2026 2027 as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Smith second. >> And any discussion? How long have we had Chartwells now? >> 21. >> Fourth year. >> Next year for

029the 27 28 school year, but after the 28th school year. >> Okay. Believe it or not, we used to house our own food service, which I when I think about that now seems crazy the amount of work and administration involved. So, um, great. Any other discussion? >> I would just comment too, just based on on your feedback, it seems like they've been a great partner. Um, and it's not just, you know, serving kids food. Like there there's been a lot more involvement from their end and and how how we've um carried forward and and to your point, Dr. Schwarzwolf, you know, developed our food service program and and it's a it's a heavy lift. So, and they've they've been a good partner for us. >> They've been certainly a good partner. >> All right. Any

030other discussion? All those in favor say I. I any opposed? Motion carries 420 to zero. Uh action item 6.2 school ton of monster project 2026 020 uh retain pangier for Wilbur right middle school interior improvements. Is that Mr. Begley? It is uh school town of monster administration recommends the approval of retaining the services of the panier construction company for the completion of the school town of monster project 2026210 the Wilbur Wright Middle School interior improvements for the price of $740,280. >> Um can I get a motion to approve school of monster project 2026210? Castro, I move we approve uh project as presented. >> Is there a second? Is there a second? Any discussion? >> Give us a second. We're going to swap laptops so you can see some pictures for >> Sorry, we're switching computers.

031We'll go back. >> This is not my best work. Do I have to move it over? >> Outdoor area. >> We're building a back side of Right. >> We're building a swamp in the >> No, I think it's just helpful not only for us, but for the public to see what we're actually doing with this money because it's it's a lot of money, but these things are needed. So, >> I appreciate it. So, if you look up here, you can see the areas we'll be working in. Um, there's two large areas. One is the media center, uh, and the guidance office. So, it'll be a lot of redoing the case work, redoing the finishes, uh, redoing the furniture, uh, changing out the flooring, changing out the ceilings, changing out the lighting controls, changing um the

032meteor center. We'll be putting in a projector and utilizing putting in a new sound system. Um and then doing a new circulation desk and then also the teacher workroom. Right now it's has a carpet um that's dated um which is a kind for talk about that carpet. Uh we'll be replacing that, replacing the case work, replacing the controls. There's um eight bathroom areas, so 16 bathrooms that we'll be updating uh updating the the flush valves, uh painting the the the um the bathrooms. Um then also replacing the partitions and then giving that whole facelift. The other large areas, the guidance office, uh the bookstore and the uh faculty work room in that area also very dated. We'll be replacing the carpet, replacing the controls on the lighting, replacing the ceiling tile, uh replacing the case

033work, um redoing all the painting. So, it'll be completely uh updated. And then in the band storage area, we're going to take the um the band room and the storage area. There is a storage area just to the north of the band room that we want to reclaim and use that as school storage and then move all the casework, put in new casework for instrument storage into the band room, update all those offices. Uh so that will help the school with the storage cuz right now they're storing a lot of things behind the old gym. So they'll actually have a storage room. Uh, I'm going to recycle some of the old casework from around the the school that we're taking out and replace them with new. I'll take the old and put that in the

034storage room so they'll have a nice place to put all their supplies. And then um replacing all the carpet and um redoing all the walls and case work in the band room. And I have a couple pictures. So, this is kind of like what the finished product will look like. Um, I know Mr. Jay has all his meetings down in the u the the media center. So this will provide approximately 72 seats so he can continue to have that but have a a sound system now that he can use to project his voice. Not that he's not loud enough as we and right now. Um but we'll also they have a screen in there now. We'll put a projector in there uh that will utilize that screen instead of having to use the Prometheian board.

035The we've going to move the soft seating over onto that side wall. um can't put my mouse on there, but over in that bottom area and they'll have a printing station up there and then redo that whole teacher workroom. So, here's kind of an idea. Here's a picture of the current teacher workroom that we're going to replace all the case work, replace the carpet, um just give that room a whole new makeover, replace the ceiling. Here's the current. You can see the paint is dated. Um, we're going to replace all that, replace all the case work, put in the sound system in this port, in this area. Uh, I think they've had this furniture since the mid90s, so it's pretty uh it's pretty well used. So, here's here's kind of like a finished look of

036what it'll look like. Oh, and this is the next one. A little known fact I learned during this project. Uh, Mr. Jin Gaffigan was one time a student of Wilr Wright Middle School. >> Really fun fact. Very good. Well, thank you for the pictures and explanations. Certainly helps more to I think visualize it. Does anybody have any further discussion? >> All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to zero. Action item 6.3 school ton of monster project 2026 0210 purchase of furniture for Wright Middle School media center sharp school supplies uh as I so there's a construction portion that Pangier will do and there's also the furniture portion that we'll get from a furniture contractor and they'll provide all the furniture that I showed in um in the

037media center and they'll also be providing some of the furniture in the guidance office. Can I get a motion to approve this project 2026 022010 purchase of furniture for Wilberight Middle School media center sharp school supplies. Cinder I move to approve project 202610 the purchase of furniture for Wilberight Middle School media center sharps school supplies. And I got a second >> Castro second. Sorry. >> And any discussion? As I said again, this will be the furniture that went to that other present that presentation I just showed. >> Anything? >> All right. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4. Uh action item 6.4 uh school town of Monster project 2026 0330 retain Pangier for John Friend athletic complex improvements. Mr. Begley. >> Uh again, Pangier won the bid on this. The

038School Town of Monster Administration recommends the approval of retaining the services of the Pangier Construction Company for completion of School Town of Monster project 2026330, which is the John Friend Athletic Complex improvements for a price of 183,672. >> All right. Can I get a motion to approve? Just let you guys fill in the rest of that. Castro, I move we approve project to retain Pangier for John Friend athletic complex improvements as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Smith second. >> And discussion. >> Uh this is an area that that needs some uh updating if we'll be touching all the areas, the concession uh areas, the two bathrooms, the training room area, and there's also two uh bathrooms. There's a they call it the groundskeeper bathroom and there also is a training room bathroom that's

039just off those two those two rooms. If you look there, the partitions need to be replaced. We'll be placing the lights. We'll actually put down an epoxy floor down on the concrete. Uh we'll be replacing um all the the faucets and the plumbing to the sinks. Uh replacing the hand dryers. Um replacing the exhaust vents, replacing the mirrors. uh replacing those faucets, replacing the um soap dispensers. Um we putting in different partitions and urinal screens in the men's bathroom. Also, we replacing these heaters, which is an important thing cuz right now a problem we have, we're not able to heat it. We we take all the water out in the winter. Uh and then it gets to uh when does track season start? Starts right around early March where we still have threats of freezing.

040So, this will allow us to open it up a little earlier so we have a working restroom. So, when they're out there practicing, they don't have to go back across the street and we'll we'll be able to heat it with these new heaters. And then um that that's the crux of the project. >> Any questions or discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to zero. Action item 6.5, the SHI ninja purchasing memorandum. >> Just bear in mind, I'm a recovering language arts teacher. I'm going to do my best. Um, but this is a replacement for our um part of our remote monitoring and management system. So, right now, if I need Yark to fix something on my computer, he has a program that he can come into and

041he can do it for any staff machine. But right now they can't tunnel into the kids machines. So this will allow them to tunnel into every machine in the district and more importantly instantly patch any software that has an upgrade that is required. As we learned at the beginning of the year, this new system it if you have a student machine or even a staff machine to a certain extent if you if you haven't done your updates and you turn it on hypothetically on a Monday, it's going to run for a half an hour to do all the updates. This will help them manage that remotely, push it out and and have the computer do it in the background while you do other things. So, it will give them the ability to push out fixes

042a little bit faster and more importantly cyber security patches as they come in uh from the vendor. So, that's what this ninja defends. >> Uh can I get a motion to approve the SHI Ninja purchasing memorandum as presented? sender. So move. >> Can I get a second? >> Castro second. >> And any discussion or questions? >> And this is not um we talked about this. This is not for the town's use. This is purely for our own >> Yes. >> interchool use. >> Yes. >> For our students. Okay. >> All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 4. All right. Action item 6.6. six shi sofos purchasing memorandum. >> So the the ninja gets out into the machines to spread our software, spread our patches. The sofos is

043like the warning alarm if there's a a negative actor that's trying to access our machines. Right now the state of Indiana gives us crowd strike for free for uh staff machines only. there is not a solution in place for our student machines. So, this will be a solution that encompasses both staff and students. It's more robust than Crowd Strike, which is what we currently have. And CrowdStrike took the opportunity in this robust cyber terrorism environment to raise their price. And this is actually cheaper than the than the Crowd Strike um quote that we received. So this will help us monitor our machines all all hours of the day and night and respond in the event that we are uh probed by a negative actor. >> Can I get a motion to approve the SHI sofos

044purchasing memorandum as presented? >> Smith. So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Castro second. >> And discussion. >> I would add one thing. Uh Yaric Podzel was able to acquire three-year contracts. uh we're seeing that at least a 10% increase in anything that is network security or individual device security. And so Yark with these prices which were lower than some of the other quotes he got were we're able to uh buy into a three-year agreement with them. So we'll see no increase in cost for these two products. Ninja, I just love that name. And then the Sofos for the the next three years. So it's very very sound fiscally. I do appreciate um Yaric's attention to all the cyber security because I know every day it's changing and there are multiple attacks. We all

045know about Canvas and and what happened there. I was at Indiana campus this weekend and they were all still talking about it. Um but I appreciate that I um in one of his reports he has put out that he sends out fishing scams just to test the group to find out what are the percentages and are the teachers clicking it or the students clicking it and what can we do to help educate them. So he is all over this cyber security which is comforting and it's still really hard. All right any other discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4. Action item 6.6. 7 resolution number 893 teacher supplemental payment. Mr. Trip and Feldus, >> the administration recommends that the board approve resolution 893 which would be for teacher

046supplemental pay that provides additional stipens for dual credit AP teachers and elementary teachers with a master's degree in either math, reading, or literacy. Uh, and I'll talk more about it during discussion. >> Can I get a motion to approve resolution number 893, teacher supplemental payment as presented? Castro, I move we approve resolution number 893, teacher supplemental payment as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Can I get a Smith second? Sorry. >> Okay, Smith second. Uh, and discussion. >> I just want the board to be aware and you are This is something we've been doing for several years. It's basically the same resolution we've done. We do this outside of the teacher collective bargaining agreement. It's one of the things that we've done probably since 200 maybe 19 for five years outside of that. So

047that is why a resolution is required for this stipen. It is considered a supplemental pay. The amount of savings that our families see in dual credit credits or AP credits that apply to college are tremendous. Our teachers have to go through additional training. A lot of the dual credit requires master's degrees in the subject matter or at least 18 credits of M's level courses in that. So we've liked to recognize those individuals for their extra effort they put in to make sure they can provide those courses to our students. Um and so that's basically the reason for that. Again, it is the uh same resolution we've done for at least five years. >> Any questions or further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4. Action item 6.8, new

048courses for the 2627 school year. Mr. Nolan, >> as I have mentioned a couple times, the new diplomas that we're going to have some changes that keep coming down the pipeline. This is a course that we'll be adding uh to the course catalog for next year. Give you guys a chance. Do you need to approve it or you want me to talk about it? >> Um we can do whichever. You want to keep going? >> I can keep going. So this is introduction to public service. Uh this is a course that just rolled out uh this winter. Uh we worked with the Indiana National Guard uh to make sure we had the materials and the setup for this course. Uh this course will enable students for the enlistment service seal um and the enlistment service

049honor seal plus. So students who take this course is required to get those last two seals. Um, and then depending on how they score on the ASFAB, they'll be able to either be on the SEAL or the SEAL Plus. >> Is that it? >> It. >> All right. Um, can I get a motion to approve new courses for the 2627 school year as presented? >> Miss So moved. >> Can I get a second? >> Is there a second? >> Any discussion or questions for Mr. Nolan? >> I I would add one other thing. Um, Mrs. Bergen is unable to be with us tonight, but this course allows those students to fill one of those buckets of the ASVAB. Without this course, the only way that a high school student could take the ASVAB in the

050past, if I'm incorrect, was to actually sign a commitment to enlist in the military. >> So, that took that potential pathway for that student away. this way by fill fulfilling this course and looking at um not just military but also public service through first uh responders. This allows them to do that without signing any type of agreements with the US military. Um so it's one of those things that gives our students another aspect of attaining those I hate to call it buckets but it's one of those pathways that needs to be filled and we want to create as many of these for our students as possible for graduation pathways. >> Any other discussions or questions? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 41. 4 Z. Why do I keep

051saying sorry? 4 Z. Uh, board policy revisions. Mr. Trip and Feldus. >> The administration recommends that the board approve the uh board policy revisions as presented. >> Can I get a motion to approve the board policy revisions as presented? >> Castro. I move we approve the board policy re revisions as presented. >> Can I get a second? Cinder second >> and discussion. >> These uh revisions were provided to the board prior to the April 27th uh work session where they were discussed in detail. Uh there are 224 pages of these and we went through each of these uh policies in pretty specific detail. Uh I did want the board to know that there were two small corrections I made both grammatical. Thank you to the board members and to the superintendent for actually reading all

052224 pages and finding those two mistakes. Um, and that's how I know you read them. So, this was presented at length, and I apologize to all of you for it, at length on uh, April 27th. >> And that was a public work session, and it was also available, and it still is available online if you two would like to hear about the revisions. >> If you have a hard time sleeping, I encourage you to >> I thought we were going to re go over those again right now for the next two hours. I thought we were going to entertain the yo, I know you're ready. >> Do not tempt him. Um, any other discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries 40. Uh, now for the bylaws. Um, item 610.

053Mr. Trip and Feldus. >> The administration recommends that the board approve the bylaw revisions uh as presented at the April 20 April 27th uh board work session. >> Can I get a motion to approve bylaw revisions as presented? >> Smith. So moved. Can I get a second? >> Castro second. >> And any discussion? >> Uh, this is a separate item. The policies, just for the public to know, bylaws are the rules that the board develops to govern themselves. Policies are the rules they do to govern the school district. The uh bylaws require a 75% uh approval where the policies only required a simple majority. So, we put these items separately so that we can have a v uh a vote. This requires four board members to approve, not just a simple majority. But with that,

054as I said, they were presented at a public schoolboard meeting, I should say, work session that is available online if you'd like to watch them. The bylaws are only eight pages worth. There's not as many, so it could be a good read. >> Any questions or discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4. All right. Item number seven. Any items that may properly come before the board? Are there any? Uh, number eight, general information discussion items. The Monster High School student handbook 2627. Mr. Nolan. >> Jay was complaining I was too close to the mic, but he wouldn't come up here and hold it for me. So, if I'm popping as he said, I apologize. Uh, real quick, handbook changes. I wasn't planning to present these, but my son

055left, so he wanted to talk about honeybees, so I was hoping he would do this, but um, he said no, Dad. All right. So, uh, handbook's kind of broken up into a handful of sections here. I believe we have five sections in our student handbook. Uh, as we do every year, we go through a revision, uh, time frame to make sure that they're up to date with current laws, current board policies as we just revisited those, um, and any changes that need to be made, uh, at the building level to make sure we're taking care of our staff and students. Uh, in the first section there, just real quick, green is new, red would be leaving the handbook. uh so you can kind of keep track of what's going on there. Um as required by

056state law, we're adding a note in there about our air quality coordinator. Um and then we made some minor changes to building hours, doors access, emergency drills, food delivery. Um, and then the big change in section one that, um, is a good change in my opinion, uh, is when it comes to our health services, uh, we're making sure that the IHSA time frame for physicals aligns with the district policies for physicals. Um, there was like a a weird gap the last few years where one was May 1 and one was April 1. So, there was like a month if you went and got a doctor's appointment done, you were good for one, but you weren't for the other. So those are going to land on the same date and then in perpetuity we'll keep those

057uh moving forward from year to year. Section two on there is attendance and discipline. Um again some minor changes in there just clarification on things like class and school disruptions and defiance. Um food court electronic devices is there's been a lot of mention in the state about the changes in the state law when it comes to cell phones in schools. Uh we were already a no cell phone school uh as we speak and we have a discipline procedure for that with progressive discipline. We added a note in there uh explaining that staff can't ask students to use their devices for academic purposes during the school day. Those have to be kind of put away. So kind of traditional practice was teachers sometimes would have students maybe record or take pictures or use an app. That's

058kind of off limits now with the new state law. So, we wanted to make sure that was explicitly clear in there. Um, no big changes, just some clarity to plagiarism and academic dishonesty as we updated that policy last year in regards to AI. Same thing for smoking and vaping. Just some uh clarity in there. And then technology abuse and misuse and some clarifications on procedures for student searches. Also in this section is a rewrite of our attendance policy. It's really big. It I didn't green it properly. There is a lot of rewrite and then there are some changes, but we went ahead and just blanketly rewrote the whole section. A lot of that was just formatting, clarity of language, just trying to get it cleaned up. So, let me point out a couple of things

059that um that I want to note. So, the attendance policy stays the same. The tardy policy stays the same. The first big change you will see is under excused absences. So, in alliance with our board policies on absences, which are in alliance with current state codes for attendance, um we have excused absences and then we are adding what's called an unverified excused absence. So, this is under state law. There's a category for excused absences and unverified excused absences. So, we're going to have that language in our handbook and you'll see that power school coding that matches that moving forward. Excused absences would be those that are illness as called in by the parent or absences approved by administration prior to leave. Unverified excused absences are when parents call the school and just say, "Hey, we're

060running late or there was a family emergency or a train delay." Those are excused up to a certain point, but those aren't things that we can continually excuse and excuse over and over again. So, just to clarify, we'll have three unverified excused absences under the limit. And then there is a reduction in excused absence limits for next school year. We're going to drop that down to six from seven to get us a little bit closer in compliance with that 94% attendance rate as outlined by the state. Uh for field trips and school dances, our policies remain the same, which are 90% attendance rate to attend a school dance and 94% rate to attend a field trip which misses school. Verified absences have remain the same. Uh again, we just kind of clean that up, make

061it look pretty, matches the state codes. Exempt absences again look very much the same. Again, just clarity and cleaning that up. There's a lot of language when it comes to attendance absences in both board policy and state law. Nothing really changes with early release pre-arranged. Um, and then the biggest change there is the excessive absence limit when you're looking through the document. Um, again, just dropping that down to six from seven absences. Um, and again, there'll be progressive discipline for those students who have excessive absences the school. and then no changes to truency uh makeup work all of that really remains the same. So a lot of that is just cleanup. The big changes are the addition of the unverified excuse absence and the reduction in attendance from 7 to six days u per semester.

062Any questions there before I go on? I don't want to go too fast. All right. guidance and counseling. Uh changes in there again were related to changes related to um basically school policies um and the new diploma. Uh credit towards graduation. Just to be real clear, uh we've implemented this practice uh this year. We have a grade replacement practice that comes over from the middle school and a credit recovery practice that's already in place. We just clarify that in uh the student handbook and code early graduation. U there's a note in there about students who want to graduate early starting in the class of 2029 have to get one of these new seals on their diplomas. They can't just earn a regular diploma as we have in the past. They have to have a new

063seal according to the state to graduate at any time earlier. Indiana assessments for graduation. Those are the changes as reflected in state law there with the new diploma. uh Indiana College CPS again as a requirement for some of the new diplomas. So, we just clarified that tutorial policy. We just added a little bit of clarity on language there for that open enrollment. Any questions there? All right. Evaluation of student work. We just took out some of the examples on the grade point averages. We're not making any changes there. And then, uh student progress reports to parents. we uh digitally email or send stu um like a a notice to check your power school notice. So, we're not mailing home massive amounts of report cards or transcripts. So, just making sure that's clear uh in the

064uh in the policy is there. All right. Code of or so co-curricular extracurricular activities. This is a big change. I want to take a minute on that. So, um, as as we know, um, money is getting a little bit tight for the district. Um, we send a lot of school trips on a regular basis. So, we did a full revamp of our school fees. Uh, so to get all of our clubs and extracurriculars in line with what we do with for athletics, uh, we audited and looked at both program fees and transportation fees to make sure that every program is on the same page. So, we are going to implement some fees for our extracurriculars that'll help cover programs like final forms and program development. We have lots of programming behind the scenes of keeping

065track of things, making sure that stuff is tracked so we have it for the diploma. Um, and those programs do cost money. So, they're nominal fees. Uh, but we want to make sure that we're keeping money in line and also what these programs are using, they have money to make those purchases and pay for those things. So, we have implemented a program fee for every club and activity that'll either be about5 or $10 that is denoted under each uh program in the handbook there. So, you can kind of go through and be like, okay, my kids in speech and debate, how much are they going to have to pay in a flat fee to the district. There'll be other fees as assessed by the program itself based off the students participation, but these are fees

066that the school is assessing on those programs to help cover those costs. transportation fees. Um, as you guys know, for athletics, they play a fat a flat rate for each program based on how much they use it. We do have a few clubs that use quite a bit of transportation in the district. And unfortunately, we have not been a very well balanced in how we're collecting those fees. So, what we did is we did a flat rate for the following clubs: speech and debate, band, color guard, academic competition, and robotics. So those groups will now play a fat flat rate so that they're not paying out of the pocket every time for using the school town of Monster fee. Um it'll be exorbitant if these if these kids had to pay for every time they

067use the school bus or transportation. So we're trying to make sure there's just a flat fee collected that'll be invoiced to that group and paid from there. And that'll be anywhere between $25 and $50 again based off of historical usage uh for each group. Questions on those fees that are being added. The handbook delineates behind every club and activity exactly what they're going to pay. If they're going to pay per trip because they don't use they'll never hit $25 per year. Um or if they have a lot of trips that they're using, we've minimized that fee based off of historical use and the numbers of students in that club. Same as we do for athletics. This is this is for all three levels just for extra extracurriculars only. uh for curricular pieces depending on what

068it is. If it's within the contiguous boundary of the school district, the district picks up the tab. If a class is going on a field trip uh to the field museum, for example, then the kids pick up part of that transportation as well. We're just trying to get closer to we're we will not cover 100% of everything we spend to do these things. We're just trying to cut that delta down a little bit. So, this doesn't get us to 100% of all of our transportation fees covered, but this helps us reduce that cost. >> Moving students costs us a lot of money. Um, and and we've got to we got to be good stewards here of of our services that we used. Uh, I will note that these transportation fees that are assessed only cover

069those in the school town of Monster. So, if a group uses private transportation, I know sometimes I do like a charter bus to the airport um or overflight travel like for our groups that go overseas or to Washington DC and such. That's completely separate of that. Um those fees will have to be assessed per student per child who's attending that trip. This just helps manage the flow of money between the school and the transportation department. Um, okay. Last section there is athletics. Uh, we just made a couple clarifying notes on what forms are in final forms that parents sign off on. Um, they'll be signing off on the student parent athletic handbook, which the board has reviewed. Um, they'll be signing off on individual team policies. So, we're collecting those from each group. Those will

070be in final forms as well. And then the use of helmet warning for football, baseball, and softball is required by the state. That's a new uh requirement. And then there's a plethora of other forms in there from the pledge, sudden cardiac arrest, um, IHSA eligibility, and several forms in there they sign off of as part of registering for a sport. For the co-curricular, extracurricular pledge, it looks like we're taking out a lot of language in there. We're really just cleaning it up. There's a lot of repetitive language. Um, if you look at in the pledge process, there's two sections of it. it's a behavior and then the use, consumption, possession of alcohol, tobacco, nicotine capable devices and then it just repeats the same language over and over. We're just kind of cleaning that language up.

071It's the same um process for each one. Uh but it's one set of language in there. And then we implemented the consequence tier system last year to try to create some clarity on how athletes uh individuals, students, and club members would be treated through the process. It also gives guidance to the committee who sits down and reviews a pledge violation. U so it just kind of keeps everyone in line. This is what the pledge committee can do and can't do and kind of the consequence system for for each infraction that takes place. U we just added some clarifying language in there as well. And finally the concussion um policy which was in our student handbook. We're asking to remove that because it's covered in final forms. So any student who's in a program um signs

072off on the concussion policy um already in final forms, it's more delineated, it's more up to date. Um it has the links in there to take to the concussion protocols and stuff like that. So if we can remove this from the handbook, it just helps reduce a little bit of the handbook uh policies and such. So those are the changes. >> I did want to apologize to the board. This document is not cooperating. I can't seem to scroll through some of those pages. So you have it for review. And I also wanted to add that Mr. journal and gave us the entire handbook, not just the revisions. It's available as well on um board doc. So, both those documents are there to review. And again, I apologize we couldn't follow along. >> Got a summary

073document that really kind of hits on the big changes in there. There are a lot of technical changes. We went through and checked every Indiana code to make sure those match up with language in there. Um so, those technical changes, you can see those in the document and we're double-checking those as the new uh new codes have rolled out for the state this year. So, um, and we'll keep updating those as needed. There's lots of little updates, personnel, those types of things that are in there, but we're not changing the school song or anything like that. So, little things. >> Do you and Mr. Jay talk about keeping things consistent between the two as far as >> pleasantly surprised? I think his presentation will be a reiteration of many of these. >> Very good. Any

074questions for Mr. Nolan? Thank you, Mr. J >> uh Morgan said uh many of the things that I'm going to say we're just aligning with uh the high school. So uh you can see on page 13 um we are taking in subordination out um and replacing it with defiance. That's in line with state reporting um and uh discipline coding and also in line with the high school. You're going to hear me say that a few times here. Um, on page 14, um, exactly what Mr. Nolan just said about devices and having teachers, uh, have students bring in devices and things of that nature. Uh, we are also eliminating, uh, the PSP from our list. Kids are in the back, they'll tell you that hasn't been cool in a while. And it's also, um, it's also

075electronic games. So, we're just kind of, uh, taking PSP out of the list. Sorry, PSP state. >> Uh on page 18, um it's the same attendance policy that uh Mr. Nolan just mentioned, uh going from seven to that six. And then at the bottom of 18, you'll also see, if you guys are seeing it, um just the correct codes. That goes into page 19 where we have also added the unverified excused absence policy. And that goes into um the next page which is uh 21. Um and that is just spelling out the exact thing that Mr. Nolan said about uh coming to school or being um having having certain things happen in the morning. Um and then giving students a couple of chances at that un um unverified uh excused. All right. And then moving

076on to page 28 is just where our comfort dog heading is. But the comfort dog um expectations uh some kind of dos and don'ts and just expectations from the kids and from staff on um kind of how the dog is used and some things that uh we should be refraining from doing around the dog. Um so that is on page 29. Um we just had some clarity on field trips also on 29. um on excluding students from field trips um and just kind of clarifying what we actually do. Um moving on to page 30, which is uh athletic fees or participation fees, excuse me. Um and it's a it's slightly different than the high school as far as um the clubs that we have don't have the amount of travel as some of the high

077school clubs. So those would fall still under the parameters of what they have normally done. um you know, but the participation fees and uh we worked with uh the high school on this to try to align what that looks like for transportation. Again, it kind of goes by how many kids are a part of it and then how many times they are actually traveling. Um and then that program fee, you can see seventh and eighth grade football. Um that all runs through the high school. So, um we noted that in there. And then, uh on page 31 is the last thing I have and it's just the transportation fee clarity that um the high school just talked about. So here to answer any questions if you have any. >> No, but I do appreciate the

078consistency. I think that's going to help everybody know the rules. So >> thank you. Um Mrs. Borisma, keeping in line with consistencies or copycats, whichever one you'd like to call it, um uh we've updated our student attendance policy. So if you look at the elementary handbook page four through seven, they are not highlighted green, but they should be. And that was just a revamp of u attendance policy. And again highlighting that students are allowed six excused absences per semester. That's listed a couple different places um including under excessive absences. Um we stayed in line with what uh the middle school is doing also. So, for our parents trying to just help them decode the attendance codes um and understand what they meant, we um really like the way that middle school had um laid them

079out to explain exactly what the the threeletter codes are in power school. So, those are on page six for us. Um we tightened up our attendance or our tardy policy as well um and laid them out as far as how many um tardies are allowed per quarter. and then obviously the infraction and what would happen. Um so that's laid out a little bit differently. Um if you turn to page eight, uh again staying in line with the middle school and high school cell phone usage um language was copy and pasted so that we sound the same or similar. Um maybe just not as extensive because it's not as big of a problem in elementary. Although I'm saying that with all fifth graders with cell phones in their backpacks. So, um, popping to page 13 then,

080um, we just aligned our safety drills to the standard response protocol procedures that are already in line, um, and added the drills that we are routinely practicing. Um, and again, keeping in line with sales um, in school, this is limiting our students entrepreneurial adventures. Um, and you know, we want them to be creative, but maybe just not monetized. So, um, that falls completely in line with the middle school. In fact, I have to edit that they should not, um, that nothing should actually be deposited immediately to the middle school bookkeeper. So, we will fix that edit. Um, and then lastly, school parties. We just wanted to highlight that items must be peanut and nut tree and any allergy specific to the classroom must absolutely be adhered to. Um and we are going to um put

081that as a more present part of our parent handbooks as well. So those are our only changes. Thank you. Any questions? All right. And last but not least, the mini mustangs. is use. >> I would say the easiest of the three handbooks. We have very few proposed changes to our mini Mustang handbook, but of note is the updated annual tuition and payment schedule which is on page five, um, which we've already approved. And then on page eight, you'll notice that we shifted a section on school attire and moved that to page 12. You'll also see language regarding the cell phones has been added to match Indiana code and align with our elementary handbook. although I don't think many of our mini mustangs will be utilizing cell phones. Um and then you'll find this addition on

082page 13 of the handbook. And that is all. Any questions? All right. Thank you all for the time and energy you spent on that and for keeping things consistent. We we appreciate we know it's a lot of work and it's tedious. Uh administration reports. How about the superintendent, Dr. Hicks? I also want to thank Angela Jones for her work on the handbooks. She's reviewed them all and um her eyes still work straight. So, great job. All right, board updates. Uh I we we executed it in the consent agenda, but I think it would uh uh it requires some public discussion. Uh Mr. Mr. Melby has uh has retired from the school town of Monster after a tenure both as a student alumni and as our CFO uh for the for the previous eight years, seven,

083eight years. Um and uh he's gone on to work in industry and we wish him the best as he as he moves on in his retirement. However, I want the board to know and the public to know that we have a very capable uh individual on our team, Mr. uh Steve Tribfeldus, who is going to take over the financial duties of the school town of Monster. And uh as such, he'll be giving the financial update when the time comes here in just a moment. Uh he is wearing two hats temporarily. Uh we are in the process of finding a director of human resources. We have 18 uh 18 candidates in the pool. So, we're pretty excited about uh it's been a robust showing thus far and uh we're going to start to do our internal

084screening and then we'll start to bring folks in for interviews. So, we're pretty excited. But, uh just wanted to make sure um we let the public know that Mr. Melby is is also uh moving on. Additionally, I would like to thank uh Mr. Jay for an excellent uh diversity dinner. Uh that is a labor of love. It takes a lot of time. He has to partner with a lot of entities to pull that dinner off and uh also thanks to Charwells. I mean, the the food was amazing that night. So, it was a lovely evening and uh really got a chance to meet some folks that I haven't met anywhere else that I've as I've done my listening tour and as I've been around for PTO events and those sorts of things. So, really appreciate

085the time and effort you put into that. And out of the middle school, it is my joy to share with you that the district 1 middle school assistant principal of the year is Victor Torres. >> I Yeah. So, >> they're a really strong team, so it's hard to see one of them get an award and not the other two, but I will tell you pretty awesome. Pretty pretty great work. And I would imagine somebody in this room may have helped nominate him. So, way to way to go, boss. Nice job. Um, I want to commend Kim Pyrick for an excellent uh excellence in education event. Obviously, the education foundation puts a lot of uh effort into that to help support Kim, but no one puts more time and effort into that. She runs the process

086to help us select uh the teachers of the year uh organizationally. We we still participate as a team, but she runs point on that and it was my first one uh here and it was wonderful and I just want to publicly acknowledge all acknowledge that hard work. It it was incredibly well executed. That same week we had uh the reverse raffle. I I've been to some events in my time here in Munster. Short short short time that I've been here. And I thought that I'd kind of come across all the pockets of people that I would probably meet at some point. And guys, there was a whole reserve of monster residents that I had met nowhere else ever that showed out on that Friday night um ready to earn their dinner. And uh it was

087fascinating uh to see the number of people that just hadn't been anywhere else the whole time I've been here. So, congratulations to the boosters on that event. I had the opportunity to speak at our uh local Rotary meeting. Uh want to thank uh Dr. Dhy for the invitation to come and speak to the group. Um really was a fantastic uh was a fantastic opportunity for me to to introduce myself to yet another group and to talk about the great things that are happening here at the school town of Monster in the high praise accolade department. It's hard taking a new job. Uh especially when you take a new job in January and you find out that you put on one of the preeminent events of the school year. And by the way, nobody told you

088you were going to do that until about I don't know what do we give you about a month's notice on that for maybe six weeks generously. That's very kind of you. >> Welcome. >> But uh uh Randy Wilmer and the uh exceptional achievers department in total put on a fantastic unified games uh day. Uh thanks to Wilbur Middle School and your team for for hosting uh that event. Uh it was it was just a beautiful celebration of a variety of our kids. Just a fantastic day and the parachute. You kidding me? I don't know why we don't have that thing out more often, but it's a celebration unto itself. So congratulations. You did it uh on 6 weeks notice. We've given you a whole calendar year this time. I can't wait to see what that

089what that means. So, and then I would like to thank the board for the opportunity to attend the Indiana Association of School Business Officials conference. Uh, I've I've reached a point in my career where sometimes the state-led conferences are hit or miss. And I've never gone to IASBO because usually it happens while I'm in Washington DC with eighth graders. And so, for the first time in a long time, I could go to that conference um and not go to Washington DC with eighth graders. Uh, that is not an open invitation. Uh but uh it it was an incredibly welloiled machine. The sessions were wonderful. We are considering some things internally, not only the transportation fees that we've discussed. We learned that we could consider fees for some other things that are not curricular in nature

090that they are considered consumables. So you may see us come back to you in June or July and say, "Hey, if you're taking a class where you need this thing to make that class happen, i.e. uh clay in a ceramics class, that's considered a consumable. We're allowed to charge for that. Now, do we is now the time to do that? Do we wait? That's some internal uh investigation we're doing. But learning that it was a permissible uh activity at all was gobsmacking. They didn't put a memo out about that, but a lot of school districts have been doing it and and the the state board of accounts and the the department of education said it was okay. So, a lot of very interesting learnings there and uh was great chance to spend some time with

091the team uh down there as well. So, really want to thank the board for all of their support and the understanding as professionals, you know, you have to keep your you have to keep your blade sharp. You just have to and this is an opportunity to go out and keep the blade sharp in terms of learning how other school districts are are doing things financially around the state. So, I just wanted to say thank you for that opportunity. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Mr. Hicks, assistant superintendent, Mr. Trip and Feldus. >> Um, I did want to add that uh I assume the roles of finances as of May 1st, so all of the reports I'm going to give later on are for April. So have some patience with me a little bit

092for the first one. Um I I wasn't able to talk with Bill about all of these, but I'll go over those with you as well. Uh Dr. Hicks mentioned some of those positions that we um have posted. For example, the director of human uh human resources. We also have a few as you saw retirements, resignations. We have those all posted with the intent to replace them for the 202627 school year. So we are already with that process going on and we have already got scheduled interviews for all the schools for some of the teaching positions that we are going to need to fill. The number is small but we want to make sure we get them filled as quickly as possible with the best candidates. Um I do want to take just a moment to

093thank Bill Melbby for his years of uh dedicated service to the school town of Monster. uh the financial outlook of the school district is completely different than when I began my position in 2013 uh as an assistant superintendent here. Now the school board, the past superintendent and our community by supporting two separate referendum. One we've actually approved two times through that process, an operating and a capital referendum are the main reasons why our finances are so strong today. Uh but Bill Melbby was the chief architect through most of those uh activities and that turnaround. He definitely left this district. As we all take these positions, and I've heard Dr. Hicks say this, we want to leave it better than we found it. And I can say that Bill Melby definitely left this district in a

094better situation than he found it when he took over about eight years ago as the CFO. Um, if you're listening, Bill, I know you are. I'm not saying this because you asked me to. Uh, I know Bill's listening to this. Uh, Bill, thank you for everything uh through the online version and uh you can thank me later, but I did want to mention that tremendous tremendous work and big phys literally and figuratively big shoes to fill uh with Bill. So, I just want to make sure you realize that um some of the activities uh that uh one of the ones that Dr. Hicks did not mention that I want to mention I was blessed to be able to volunteer for the elementary math bowl competition uh that Frank Hammond actually sponsored at Wilburite Middle School.

095I first want to acknowledge all the hard work that Mrs. Borsma uh Miss Bergrren, Miss Yos did to host the event on such short notice when another school had to actually cancel. So it was all hands on deck. Um everyone pitch in. Um there were numerous volunteers, some of them sitting in the room, uh for joining together and pulling it off. It was a tremendous uh endeavor. If anyone was there, you could see that I was in my math teacher element. Uh I was I it it's one of the best events we've been at for a long time. It's it it's just one of those things. It's great. If you haven't gone, it truly is something to see and see the problem solving our kids go through. Um although I had an issue with the

096scoring at the beginning and people weren't able to see that. Miss Borisma fixed me really quickly and we got that straightened out and it was a great event. So, the one thing that was wrong was mine. I wasn't doing the software very well. Um, I also attended a digital threat assessment training through the Indiana Office of School Safety in the last month. Gave us some great tools and skills when when investigating online issues and threats. Uh, tremendous resources there. And then with Mr. Melby's retirement, uh, I've attended several Department of Local Government finance webinars to get ready for that budgeting process that we have to go through in August. uh which begins now really for uh school business officials. And then last week, Dr. Hicks mentioned that uh several of our administrative team members were

097able to attend the Indiana School business officials uh state con convention. I actually attended sessions regarding student fees, uh indirect costs, AI automation for business offices, um general costs of operating schools in the state of Indiana, and SEA1, which we've talked about a lot. Um, a very interesting topic was property tax replacement credits, which we as a board are going to be discussing more in the next couple years. That will be devastating to the schools in Lake County in 2029. Lake County currently collects $170 million of local income tax that they then take off the bills of local property tax owners. they actually just take it off the bill and pay it directly to all the taxing entities. That is going away in 2029. That $170 million will actually be placed then on taxpayers property

098tax bills. Very interesting. Uh if you're at the cap like we are, that is going to be lost revenue in the account of $100 million throughout the county. It's going to be rather interesting in 2029. We also had legal updates and a few other con uh sessions, but the convention provided great information that we're going to be sharing with the entire team. We already discussed some of the fees that Dr. Hicks uh mentioned. Um and with that, I think I'll wait till the next item on the agenda. >> Thank you. Did uh Mrs. Bergen send anything a report? >> I did not. >> I just ask doesn't Okay. Thank you. All right. 9.3 financial report. Mr. Trip and Feldus. >> This is where I ask for a little bit of patience. Um, I was not

099uh over top the uh finances during this month, but I I can explain both of those. Um, basically I'm going to go through three funds. The education operation and then our referendum fund. With the education fund, you're going to notice one thing that our basic grant amount went down a little bit. Uh, that is because our ADM, our average daily membership decreased from the October count to the February count. And the February count then takes effect in April. Most of our ADM uh decrease is because we have seniors who graduate in seven semesters. So they pull them off of our books and our ADM usually decreases slightly in February because of those early uh graduates. Uh so that's where you'll see that slight decrease that will then continue on until we hit July when then

100we have uh projections for the next school year. Uh for the expenses uh I'd like to just the travel and professional development uh were a little higher than Mr. Mr. Melbby had anticipated, not a lot, but a little bit higher. And then you'll also see that we have the payment to the area career center. That's listed as a co-op. So, we make payments to the area career center for our students who go there. That is in this month's, which is not a normal dispersement because we pay that usually once or twice a year. Uh, with those, we still ended right about where Mr. Melby anticipated we would in our balances. So, he was kind of spot on for that month, even though we had some changes and discrepancies. in the operations fund. Um you'll see

101that there's a fairly large interest income that's reported in April. We had three CDs mature in April. One of those was a 2-year CD, fairly large amount. So that's usually a good amount of interest that comes in. So that's uh one that you can see there. It's a little different than maybe some of the previous months. Um with that, I can tell you we are doing very well with investment income. Once again, Mr. Melbby set us up for a 2-year cycle where we are going to have investments coming in every month for the next two years uh at varied times. So, it's he did a wonderful job with that. With expenses, uh I do want to uh list you list that our legal professional expenses uh were a little higher as well as our maintenance

102and repairs. Actually, a little higher is about 44% more than normal months. Um but with that our mobile and fixed equipment was less than 50% less than projected. So a little bit difference in a couple of those fees. Um but with the interest income we finished a month ahead of Mr. Melby's projections. Uh and I do want to let you know that I did make some quick adjustments to the estimates in the blue for the next couple months. Uh based upon those projects that you guys approved just today. So, you'll saw that was probably about $900,000 in uh expenses that we're going to do at the middle school. And then those expenses that Mr. uh Podel presented and those uh John Friend, those are now in here. Next month, I'm going to tweak them to

103kind of figure out exactly what month they're going to hit, but I had to add them quickly. Uh and so they're in there, but they may not be in the appropriate month that they're at. But just in the blue, you if you look at those, it's projections, you'll see some higher expenses listed than was previously in the operations fund. Uh and then leads us to the referendum fund. Uh no income as you guys are aware. The only income comes in May and June and November and December from our property tax draws with the referendum, but there's nothing to talk about this one. Those are almost spot on with what Mr. Melby had in his projections. So they are projecting on almost perfectly with his uh projections and I'm already tiring out the government students. um

104to the board. Uh I also provided uh the one thing I didn't realize you wanted was a rolling 12 summary. So Mr. Melbby, I think may have given you a printed document of that. I added that in your executive content just late this afternoon because when I got back from the uh the workshops, I realized that was something you wanted. So I apologize it wasn't there. It's not for public. So I want to make sure it's there for you guys to look at executive content. Um, and then we should be able to I really wasn't able to access the information from that document with some of the file transfers until this afternoon, but it should be pretty good and up to date with April in there. And pending any questions? That concludes the financial report

105for April. >> Any questions? >> Uh, no, just a quick um it looks like we're going to attempt to get an early draw again in this month, correct? Of some of our uh >> So, we should have that in operations referendum and then debt service as well. >> Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chenfeldus. Mr. Begley, director of operations. >> Thank you. Uh when construction maintenance facilities, our tennis facility, we completed the soil remediation. We have had a successful roll test. Uh and aggregate is being in place last week and this week. Uh light pole bases are being installed and conduit is being run between the light pole bases and we'll start putting in fence posts. Uh the new multi-purpose building, central office and campus circulation project. We have the BCA and planning commission

106meeting tomorrow. Depending on how that meeting goes will kind of depend um the future of of that project in regards to receiving bids um and with the different um zoning appeals we're asking for. Uh Elliot playground uh waiting on bids return. That'll be on the 21st of May. That is the uh basketball court that we're going to put in for Elliot. uh that will then give all our elementary schools a basketball court. Frank Hammond and Ease already have them and Elliot has been wanting one for several years and we're getting support through their PTO uh in addition to supporting that project. Uh Wright improvements in the friend athletic complex with the approval tonight. I'll get the notice proceed in the PO uh processed and get that uh project going. Uh transportation Mustang 2, the graphics

107have been approved and should be in our vehicle fleet very soon. And then uh Chartwells renewal is in food service. And then um right now I'm sending out messages to to students regarding positive and negative lunch balances to get that squared away by the end of the year. I do want to Yeah. If you look at if you look at this picture, you that's you can see how this is before the soil stabilization and that is a picture I took on my TV. This year has been the rainiest spring in Chicago history. uh we have 11.16 ines at O'Hare, 199% more than typical years. So that has been uh problematic with trying to get the soil stabilized. Uh this is after the soil stabilization. What they do is they mix mix a Portland cement in

108with the ground. It stiffens up uh turns into basically a parking lot. So it's much easier to uh work with. So there you can see the roll test going back to that first that what that's what was happening before the soil stabilization and you can see this u roll test the truck is not sinking at all huge difference. So that meant we could start putting the aggregate in and that's the aggregate getting in place down and after that gets we'll compact that and do another roll test make sure we're ready to start forming up and putting down the concrete. And then here is Mustang 2. Thank you, Mrs. Pyrick, for helping with that design. And uh that will the the bus is done and that's going to go over to the graphics folks. And once

109they get the graphics put on, we'll get it up here inspected and in the fleet and start using with our students. >> That's pretty cool. Might have to get on the bus. Um any questions? Thank you, Mr. Beck. call out that the community ambassadors, I think they get to ride on the Mustang uh one. They have in the past. So, >> yes, >> incentive to become an ambassador. >> I'm the driver. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Begley. Uh director of exceptional achievers, Mrs. Oliver. >> All right. Um, the exceptional achievers department celebrated unified game day on Friday, May 1st, and we hosted over 180 students at Wilbur Wright Middle School to celebrate a day of teamwork, belonging, and connection. Um, exceptional achievers in grades preK all the way up through our transition students along

110with their peer buddies participated in events like scooter races, bowling, a dance party, and the famous parachute game. Um, and then we also had close to 30 parent volunteers and so many staff members who were there to make sure that the students had the best day ever. Um, I was asking some of the transition students the other day, you know, what was the best part of it and they said everything. We loved absolutely everything. Um, and so all of the late nights and the, you know, panic over only having six weeks to plan was totally worth it just to see the kids smiles on that day. Um, and I also want to make sure that I have a chance to thank our event sponsors, People's Bank and the Monster High School PTO, as well as

111the Log and Fiad families. Um, and our activity sponsors, the Elliot and Eids PTO for their donations. Um, next up, our teachers uh recently completed administering the I am assessment, which is the alternate assessment that some of our exceptional achiever students um participate in. And these teachers did an amazing job. A lot of our students have to take this assessment individually. So, it takes a lot of planning um with our staff. Our instructional assistants have to jump in and assist. And while we don't have all of our results back from the state yet, um what we do have is showing that 80% of our students that tested this year are at approaching or at proficiency in both ELA and math. So, I just want to give a shout out to um the teachers in our

112Aspire classroom for the amazing work that they're doing. Um I also want to acknowledge our STEP program that hosted a great Mother's Day brunch last week. Uh the boys helped plan and prepare uh for their moms and grandmas. Some of our central office staff and I know some board members were able to attend as well. And the boys really from the planning the menu, the shopping, the cooking, um the decorating, and then cleaning up, they they do it from beginning to end. So, they did an amazing job hosting that event for us. Um and then finally, as we approach the end of the year, I really just want to recognize our entire exceptional achievers staff. Um we're still in the heart of IUP season as we finish these last few weeks. Um, and I've literally

113seen the blood, sweat, and tears that our teachers are putting in right now. Um, and I just think that I I have to openly recognize all the hard work that they're doing. Um, I've only been here a few months, but they've welcomed me with open arms. They're totally idea uh open to all of the new ideas that I'm sharing with them. Um, they're doing what's best for our students every single day. and we have our first leadership team meeting this Wednesday with Global Special Education Associates and I'm just really excited to continue working with them to do some goal setting and action planning to continue to improve what we're doing for our exceptional achievers. So, do you guys have any questions? >> Thank you. >> All right. director of elementary education, >> excuse me, >>

114our way to access results have been released and show strong growth across our English learner population. This year we have 20 students who met the criteria to autoexit uh services with many more expected to exit through additional evidence. This growth reflects the impact of targeted instruction and the strong support across our schools. Congratulations and thank you to our teachers and staff for their dedication to student success. I was blown away by some of the results that I saw. On May 5th, our staff engaged in professional learning in a variety of ways. Our elementary team focused heavily on professional development aligned to the implementation of our new curriculum, building teacher capacity and instructional consistency across all of the levels. staff particip uh participated in collaborative learning sessions designed to strengthen instructional practices and better support student

115learning as we implement our new ELA curriculum like next year. We finished our iLearn testing at the end of last week and we are on the tail end now of the heaviest testing season. So I'm excited about that. As we approach the end of the school year, we're proud of the growth and accomplishments achieved by our students and staff. We look forward to building on this momentum as we close out the year and prepare for 202627. >> Thank you very much. And director of communications Kim Pyrick. >> Hello every focused around branding um social media website development. So, a right now my biggest focus is um a crunch time of the community newsletter that we are pushing out and hopefully will be in not hopefully it will be in mailboxes by the end of the

116month. Um that is going to focus on um capital improvements, program updates as well as um our bond spending and the um we are also um I met with Mr. Nolan today and we are finalizing our approach for several branding projects at the high school that are going to completely transform many of the blank walls that are going to make things much more inviting and welcoming to our students and staff. So, super excited about that meeting that we've had. And um as Mr. Begley mentioned, we finalized the Mustang 2 design, which I'm super excited about adding that to our fleet for next year. And this is a super busy time for everyone, but it's my favorite time to capture the end of the year celebrations um for all of our student milestones and end of

117the year traditions such as dare graduation, elementary fun days, field days, happy or I'm sorry um it is happy but hour of awesomeness or I think it's actually a day of awesomeness, 8th grade recognition, monster high school graduation and many many more. So, I want to thank um you for the opportunity to be able to capture all of the smiles that I get to see and share with all of you. So, thank you, >> Kim. I will say you are everywhere. Every event we go to, there's Kim. So, thank you for helping increase our communication and share what we do with the world. All right, board reports. Mr. Castro, >> thank you very much. Dr. Schwarz Wolf just uh quickly uh attended the April 20th and May 4th town council meeting uh as part of

118my uh being a liazison for the redevelopment commission. Nothing to report from either meeting. Uh was also enjoyed that April 27th work session. Mr. Trip delivering those those policy updates. It was great. Um, and just want to give a quick blanket thank you to to all of our volunteers and all the community ambassadors and, you know, seeing these folks from Project Lead the Way and and what our teachers are doing. And I have a senior and a freshman and I feel like those third graders we saw talking will be in high school in just a few weeks and graduating. It's crazy how fast that moves. Um, and you know, just the constant change and and that that our district goes through, that the state is pushing via changes in in legislation, trying to keep up

119with all that stuff. We have such great leaders in our community um, in our district. Um, and constantly adapting um, and keeping up with those changes. Um, I had a chance to attend the reverse raffle as well. Don't ask me how that works cuz I've been going for over 10 years. I still have no idea. So, just give money, you eat, and I don't know, Ingred wins. Um, >> I didn't win this year. >> And, uh, >> I I want to reiterate Mr. Trippenfellow's thank you to to Mr. Melby. Um, he's done a phenomenal job. And if anybody knows Bill, he's he's so humble when it comes to this, just this thing, not anything else. Um, >> he's so humble when it comes to the district. He wants to give credit to his team, to

120the board, to the past superintendent, to Mr. Trippin, to everybody else. But you couldn't have said it any better. He was the architect. He was the engine. He was the creativity behind a lot of these decisions and we were so confident in him. But that said, Mr. Trienfeld, we are excited to have you um in this position. We're looking forward to working with you. We know you're going to do a phenomenal job. You have our full unbridled support. Um and we're excited to have you on board. I I can't I can't uh say that strongly enough. So, thank you very much and we look forward to it. And Lizo, >> thank you, Mrs. Smith. >> You um first I'd like to start with some quick park board updates. Um this past month, we our park

121board gave a full report about just updates to our park system and some specifically Westlakes is receiving a new bathroom, which is exciting for all. Um, in addition to that, um, we have a new golf, um, management company that oversees, um, the golf course. And so, there's a lot of improvements that are forthcoming in that specific area. In addition, I reached out to the parks department today to ask about summer employment for teens, and they are still looking for numerous lifeguards. So, if you know anybody that is a lifeguard that is unemployed this summer, um the parks department is still looking to fill a number of roles there. Um with that said, I would also like to extend a sincere thank you to our staff, our teachers, our principles, our admin team, our um anybody

122and everybody that I may not mention or forget to mention. Every time I've been in a school this past month, the activity, the smiles, the work, um the discipline, kids moving from classroom to classroom and things happening and I don't know how everybody manages it all. Um I've never been a principal, but um I applaud all of you because that is a large undertaking. Um John's not kidding about the third graders that were here. As I'm I'm looking at my daughter's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Pollock back there. I feel like she just entered kindergarten um a few days ago and now she's graduating eighth grade. So, time does move quickly. Um we all attended numerous events this um past month, which is always an honor to be invited as a school board member. We don't have

123to be invited and we thoroughly enjoy being in the schools, being part of our school community, seeing our kids in action. Um, this month I did attend the Wilbur Wright Hall of Fame and I'd like to tell you, Mr. Jay, it was an amazing event. Numerous staff members attend, but to honor those teachers that previously taught at our school district and they're being honored by their peer, their peers now, um, is quite the event. to hear the people talk about Wilbur Wright, what it used to look like, what they thought about being a teacher back then versus now, and just all of their comments. But specifically, one of the teachers that was um honored this year was Alice Alman, which interestingly enough, I never knew her as a teacher in our school district, nor her

124husband as a teacher in our district. I only knew her as a volunteer at St. Paul's church and she heavily influenced my life as a volunteer as vacation bible school and other things and it was nice to see her highlighted as part of that ceremony. So congratulations to all of those that were in the Wilbur Wright Hall of Fame. It was an excellent event and I thought it was very well done and Chartwells also did a lovely job to make it exceptionally um nice for the awardees. Um, I also had the opportunity to attend the Mother's Day brunch. I sat with Brienne and I actually met a few staff people I've never met, our school psychologist and another staff member and it was lovely hearing about their job here at Schooltown of Monster, what they

125do on a daily basis because I've had no interaction with them. Um, but it was really welcoming to meet new staff people I've never met and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Um, with that said, I'd also like to extend um, kudos to Bill Melby and his time here. Um, I don't know what we would have ever done without him and his leadership and um, confidence he instilled in what he's presented us, transparency, the work, involvement, education of all of us as schoolboard members is beyond and Steve as reiterating what John stated, we have our full support. Um, last but not least, I cannot not I feel bad if I don't mention this. I attended the Wizard of Oz and um for those of you who have not been to a play in some period of time,

126you should absolutely go. The Wizard of Oz was outstanding. Unfortunately, I didn't see Mrs. Potchin's daughter as um Dorothy, but every these kids just blew me away with their talent. And Luke McInness and Mr. Plaz, they were did an outstanding job. And those kids, I mean, between their schoolwork, I mean, one of the girls that played the witch, she was the witch. She was um she was here uh for the National Merit Scholar. She decided to go to Notre Dame. She got a huge scholarship and she's going to school every day. And it it's just amazing what our kids are talented. So, thank you all. >> All right, Mrs. Cinder. >> This is always such a busy time of year. Um, I enjoyed celebrating the teachers of the year. Uh, the diversity dinner provided a

127great opportunity for collaboration and learning. So, thank you. The booster club reverse raffle turnout was impressive and the unified game day was a true highlight for me in this past month. It it really showcased our community spirit. I also enjoyed celebrating Mother's Day with the STEP classroom. It was wonderful to see those meaningful life skills in action. And I can't overstate my appreciation of the work by Mr. Melby to leave our finances better than he found them. I'm excited to see the wonderful team he built continue to thrive under the direction of Mr. Trip and Feldis. Best wishes to everyone as we wrap up this semester and thank you for all you do to support our students. Thank you, Mrs. Cinder. Um, I ditto owe everything they said, but I also just want to say

128how much I appreciate this board. We work as a team. We get invited this time of year in April and May to 60 events. And when you see one board member there, know that they're representing the board because we can't go to 60 events. And uh we're all very busy. We don't get paid for it. This is like a volunteer job in my opinion, but we can talk about that later. Um but I'm so happy to have a team. We text about, hey, is anyone going to this event? We we want to represent, but we just can't be everywhere all the time. So, if I I really appreciate I um know the Wilbur Wright uh Hall of Fame last minute I was going to IU big graduation weekend. I I just appreciate that we all

129cover for each other and help each other out. So, thank you team. All right. Uh announcements future meeting June 8th uh regular board meeting at 6 p.m. Can I get a motion for adjournment? >> Cash so move. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. We are adjourned. Thank you all for coming.