001[music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Happy. [music] >> [music] [music] >> honey. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Like this. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Please stay standing. Board members, here at the school town of Munster, our mission is to cultivate excellence, empowering every student to realize their full potential, and achieve high levels of learning. 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 continued growth. Item 1.5, public
002comment information. We currently offer two ways in which the community can participate in regular school board 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 procedures for submission are 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 the general public comments section of the meeting, please put your name, address, and topic on a card and give to Miss Deb Hayes at the start of the meeting. All public comments are limited to three minutes per individual with a total of 30 minutes allotted for
003each public comment section on the agenda. Item 2.1, comments regarding current action items. Item 2.2, to any general public comments. Thank you, Deb. Item [music] three, reorganization of the board. 3.1, election of board president. At this time, I'd like to open the floor for nominations for the office of president for January of 2026 through December of 2026. >> Cinder, I nominate Dr. Ingred Schwarzwolf. >> Any other nominations? We will close the nominations and I'd like to make a motion to accept the nomination for Dr. Ingred Schwarz Wolf for president for 2026. >> I move that we accept or you I move that we accept the nomination for Dr. Edgar Schwarzwolf. >> Is there a second to that? >> Second it. I'll second it. Smith. >> Is there any discussion? All those in favor of the
004motion, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. Dr. Schwarzwolf, I passed the >> I got to have the gavl to run the meeting. [laughter] >> Hello, old friend. So good to know. >> All right. Item 3.2, election of board uh the board vice president. Uh are there any nominations for the office of vice pre vice president for January 2026 through December 2026? I nominate Amy Cinder as our vice president for our board. >> Are there any other nominations? I will close nominations. Can I get a motion? >> Castro, I move that we accept the nomination uh for of Amy Cinder for the office of vice president for January 2026 through December 27 26 as presented. >> There a second. >> Dempsey will second that motion. >> Any discussion? With only one
005nomination, all those in favor of Amy Cinder to act as our vice president for this year say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations, Amy. Item 3.3, election of the board secretary. Can I get a nomination for the office of secretary for January 2026 through December 2026? >> I nominate Kristen Smith for the office of secretary for January 2026 through December 2026. Are there any other nominations? I now close the nominations. Is there a motion? >> Senator. So move. >> Second. >> Dempsey. Second. >> Any discussion? With only one nomination, all those in favor of Kristen Smith as the secretary, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations, Kristen. Item 3.4. Four. Is there a recommendation for the corporate treasurer? >> The administration recommends Jessica Espinosa as our corporate treasurer.
006>> Can I get a motion to recommend the appointment of Miss Jessica Espinosa as corporate treasurer? >> Sander. I move to appoint Miss Jessica Espinosa as corporate treasurer. >> Is there a second? >> Castro second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I I >> any opposed? Motion carries. Item 3.5, appointment of the corporate purchasing agent. Is there a recommendation? >> The administration recommends Jessica Espinosa as a corporate purchasing agent. >> Thank you. Uh can I get a motion for appointment to Miss Jessica Espinosa as corporate purchase purchasing agent? >> Dempsey. So moved. >> Can I get a second? >> Smith second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 3.6. I'm appointing myself to serve as the legislative liaison to the Indiana School Board
007Association for January 2026 through December 2026. Item 3.7, I'm appointing John Castro to serve as the policy liaison to the Indiana School Boards Association for January 2026 through December 2026. Item 3.8, 8, I appoint Kyle Dempsey to serve as the representative to the Monster Education Foundation for January 2026 through December 2026. Item 3.9, I appoint Amy Cinder to serve as the representative to the strategic planning committee for January 2026 through December 2026. Item 310, I appoint Kyle Dempsey to serve as representative to the PTO president's committee for January 2026 through December 2026. Uh, are there any nominations for representative to the park board for January 2026 through December 2026? >> I would like to nominate Miss Kristen Smith for representative to the park board for January of 2026 through December of 2026. >> Are there
008any other nominations? I will close the nominations. Can I get a motion for Kristen to be our representative to the park board for January 2026 through December 2026? Castro, I move to nominate to accept the nomination of Kristen Smith for representative to the park board for January 2026 through December 2026 as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Send a second. >> Any discussion? With only one nomination, all those in favor of Kristen Smith as our representative to the Bark Park board, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations, Kristen. Uh item 312 resolution number 892 board compensation. Dr. Hicks, it is our recommendation to the board that it continues to compensate itself at the state uh approved levels of $2,000 perom 112 per regular school board meeting and $62 for any other
009special meeting or executive session. Uh this is in line with past practice and in order to do so I would ask the board to uh pass resolution number 892. Is there a motion to approve resolution number 892 compensation for schoolboard members for January 2026 through December 2026 as presented? >> Sender. So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Smith second. Any discussion? I would just like to say that we have the opportunity to make more money or take more money by state law and we're probably about to say we're not going to be doing that. Um, all those any other discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 3.13. Uh, can I get a motion to temporarily temporarily adjourn the regular board meeting and open the board of finance
010meeting? >> Dempsey. So moved. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Would you like to gave back? >> That's okay. Item four, board of finance meeting. At this time, I'll call the board of finance to order for the purpose of organizing the board. Item 4.2, elect president and secretary, Mr. Castro. [clears throat and cough] By law, the board of school trustees shall meet as a board of finance by electing a president and secretary for a term of one year. I'd like to ask for a motion that the board of finance officers for 2026 be the same as those for the regular board of school trustees. >> Schwarzswolf. So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Smith second. >> Any
011discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. >> All right. Uh item 4.3, investment report. Mr. Melbby. >> Yes. I'll try to keep this relatively short. I have a lot of reports today and a lot of them are about the same item. So, our investment report, you have it in front of you. It's the onepage uh report on interest earned. You'll see all of our accounts. You'll see uh a breakdown of what we earned in each account every month. And you see what we brought in for the year in 2025. I know you guys already know this. We do our quarterly reports. We go over this every three months. And we will be going over this again shortly. Uh just a quick note, most
012of this the lion share of the uh investment report uh money goes into the operations fund. Unless it's earned from food service, it stays in food service. If it's earned in construction, it stays in construction. If it's earned in uh self self- insurance, it stays in self- insurance. Otherwise, it's going into the operations fund. Without any questions, that's my investment report. >> Any questions for Mr. Melby? I just want to thank you for your diligence and continued uh work in this on this front. Um people need to understand, the public needs to understand that it's kind of every every little bit is helps and especially going forward we're going to be faced with some some hurdles and just being responsible, diligent, and finding ways to do what we can to to grow money is uh
013is a something that's necessary. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, as you know, and this is a very important thing moving forward, the interest the the amount we're going to make is probably going to go down, right? The Fed rate has dropped three times in the last couple months. It may continue to do that. That's why you never really budget those dollars to on reoccurring costs. You have to do the onetime cost, which you guys already know. So, um, this is a little bit less than last year, but it's pretty good. Next year, I would expect a little decrease as well. >> Thank you. Item 4.4. Four, disposition of old outstanding checks. Mr. Melby. >> Yes. Pursuant to Indiana Code 5-11-5-5, all checks outstanding and unpaid for a period of two years as of
014December 31st of each year are void. So, no later than March 1st of the year, the treasurer shall prepare uh a list of duplicate or all checks outstanding for two or more years as of December 31st. uh this year, talking to all the schools in school uh central office, it is under $2,000 in total. >> Any questions for Mr. Melby? >> This is something that we do every year. >> Item 4.5, fiscal indicators. Mr. Melby. >> Okay, this is going to take a little bit longer. Uh, as you recall, as the board recalls, and I know last year this was really exciting for me to present because all of the information was wrong. And remember, DWAB had an asterric on their website saying all of this information is wrong if you invested your money so
015on like we do. So, I think it was called the monster Noblesville rule last year. This year, they took away the asterric, which made me a little nervous because I want the information. I could tell you the information on the website was not correct. I worked tirelessly with uh Dan Schmidt, executive director of DOWAB. We've talked on the phone several times to try to help get the information better, make it work. They did fix some things and fixing some it made others worse. So, I got an email from him. It says, "Mr. Melbby, thank you for contacting me with your concerns about the data from DOAB uh financial indicator dashboard. This is the last page of your report. We have discovered errors in Monster School's data calculation. Unfortunately, our efforts are uh to correct the
016calculations have so far failed to fully address the issues at Monster School's data. My office is continuing to work to correct the data so that your district can have confidence in the numbers. Thank you for your patience and continued assistance. I want to assure you that the school town of Monster is not on DWAB's list of schools of concern. Remember, we always had to guess where we were. Well, I asked them for it to be in writing because the data is not correct. So, they sent me the email. With that being said, I'm going to go over some of the data. I'm going to go relatively quick because a lot of it's wrong. In this packet, you'll have some of the DWABS data and you'll also have some of mine that you've seen p in
017past meetings like the budget meeting or quarterly reports and so on. So, I'm going to steal Mr. Trip and this computer here. Okay, the first page and again all of this is in front of you. The first page is sort of the monster community school corporation just information. It gives you the 2025 net assessed value. That is the same net assessed value that's on our 1782 notice. It also has our estimated population. If you turn the page to the next page, you will see and I do believe this is uh very accurate. Uh which I believe our average daily membership would be considered a positive by DWAB because ours is pretty flat. If you look at the chart, it's pretty flat across uh the board for each year. We did have some uh dips in
018there after 2021. We had a little dip and that was due to COVID. And we also knew that two years ago, we had a very very large senior class. They were uh graduating. We took that into account with all our finances moving forward, but that was in there, too. The entire state is having a decrease of students in our schools. Live birth rates are down, so that's happening, but it really hasn't affected monster. So, I think this would be a big positive for a school town of Monster. I also gave you the uh information that you would see in the budget as Steve's turning to the next page, so you have it in there. Uh remember they go to two count dates as of 2020. In 2026 it's estimated for the next count. And you
019will also see the per pupil amount in there that DWAB doesn't have on theirs. We're one of the lowest funded schools in the state of Indiana. And if you look in the last year it looks like oh we got a about $270 more per student. But remember it was sort of a I'm not going to say what I was thinking but remember they threw the curricular materials into our basic grant. So when they said we were getting a 4% increase, we really the school town of Monster got closer to a6% increase in our funding. So sometimes it's not always what you read. If you turn to the next page, you will see our net assess value. Uh you see net assess value from 2016 to 2025. This is not one of their fiscal indicators but
020again when I talked to uh the director at DOWAB he said the purpose of this meeting is to give you a good picture of what's happening and what's happening in the future. Our net assess value has increased every year except in 2017 had a slight slight dip. It's increased otherwise. Uh this is important that helps our funding. We've actually been able as you know we promised to keep our tax rate. The board wanted to keep it under $141. We've been under a$130 for the last five years. This year our 17 to82 notice came out and we are at a$127.5. So right where we expected I think we were 0001% off. Wasn't bad. Uh so we've done our job to keep it underneath. But we need to realize moving forward with Senate Enroll Act number one
021the only way we can keep the levy close to the same is to increase our tax rate. So, the net assessed value, from everything that I've read, everything I've seen, our net assessed value is going to drop and drop pretty drastically over the next couple years. Our gross assessed value will not change. That will still probably grow, but our net assessed value, how they calculate how much schools receive from that, will drop. Sir, did you have something you wanted to add? >> Just wanted to make sure you made the distinction. The community is still growing. Let me turn this off. >> The community is still growing. Property values will most likely continue to increase, but it's our net assessed value after they roll in the rebates from Senrolled Act one that will impact us negatively.
022Please continue, Mr. Maui. >> You got it, sir. All right. The next uh the next fiscal indicator is fund balances. And again, some of this is great information. And if you look all the way back in 2015, I do believe most of the information is correct. If you go back to 2015, 2016, and 2017, as you know, we had a negative cash balance in our education fund. Moving forward, that green bar is up towards the sky, which is where we want it to be. We want it moving forward. In 2024, the only things that are negative are federal funds. And remember, that's always going to be like that because we spend the money and then they reimburse us. So, those little dips underneath, those are what those are. But if you can hover, Mr. Tripenfeld.
023The third one from the right which is rainy day. This information is not correct. It's the green one right there. The green one. One more to the right. Nope. To the right. Green. I'm color blind. Sorry. I think it's green. Is that green? >> That's close. >> Okay. Obviously, we know that is not our cash balance in our rainy day fund. It is not correct. The data is not correct. Over the next couple slides, I'm going to show you a couple things that won't make sense, and you're going to go, "Yeah, okay. If this slide's right, this next one can't be right. If you look on the next page of your uh packet, I just broke it down. Instead of all of our funds, it just gave you our big four are education, operations, referendum,
024and rainy day. I did that on this slide again. Mr. Trippenfeld is going to toggle for it, and he's going to bring it up on the board. It is still not correct on this board. What I believe they did is in this slide all the investments that we had money invested out was not taken into account. That's why it's not there. And yes, sir. >> Nope, not that one. There you go. Down there. So, the data is incorrect just like it was in the past. And that's why I got the email from the director. >> And I I I do want to point out in the letter it says, and I quote, Uh, and thank you to Mrs. Bergman for catching this. I know the corporations common commonly use the duab financial indicator dashboard graphs
025to report the indicators, but it would be appropriate for you for you to use your own calculations of the fiscal indicators in lie of the dashboard given the data errors we are working to correct. Keeping your board finance fully apprised of the school corporation corporation's financial condition is the ultimate goal and we exceed that almost every month. But nonetheless, I just want to let you know he's going to use a mix of DWAB and his own because they told us to >> and that's perfect. So the next uh part under there are my own bar graphs that I you know I like to make graphs. >> I put I apologize for interrupting. I just I want to make a point too. Um, you mentioned that they're not showing investments and investment returns. I just want
026to make the point that the type of investments that we employ are not high- risk. They're not they're not marked to paper where well, they're really worth this, but if we sold them today, they're only worth this. They're, you know, that that's money that's there. We have access to it. It's it's growing, but it's not it's not in in stocks. It's not in something that's volatile um or high risk. So, I just want to make that point because >> when we're talking investments, school town of months, we do all CDs. We do a laddered approach that we have money going out and money coming in because we track exactly how much money we're going to spend every month. We try to get as much invested as we can to bring in the most money for
027the students in our district. >> So, you're not you're not going to lose that principle is my point. >> No, sir. We're only going to make money. >> I just want to make sure people know that that it's not like, well, we gave a hundred bucks, but we're only going to get 50 back. It's not not like that at all. >> Thank you. So the next uh actually the next one where you see our actual cash balances those are actual numbers that's not from DWAB that is from us and then you see the endofear cash balances where I put them in graphs myself and I use the big four so those numbers are accurate in there and you could see every one of our big four our education our operations our referendum and rainy day
028have grown over the last five years we haven't dipped in any of them even though on theirh form. It looks like we have this next slide. It's the indicator called the annual deficit or surplus. And I think this is going to answer again a little bit of where some of the issues are in their slides. And again, I can tell you uh and I'm going to make sure I say his name. Dan Schmidt. Again, he worked tirelessly. He was on the phone with me all the time. He was adjusting, fixing this. The data was collected before many schools did this kind of investing and they had a system. Now they're trying to change it to help us. Uh he was awesome to work with. If you look at year 2022 and year 2023, if you
029look at this uh slide, it looks like we lost money in those two years. And you guys know as well as anybody else, we did not lose money in those two years. And let's say this information was correct. It's not. Let's go to the next slide, sir. Just to show you how the data that they're using is not talking to each other. If you look at their fund balances, well, if you look at 2022 and 2023, it says we increased our cash balances. So, if you lose money, how can you be increasing the cash balances? These slides are not correct. It's all I can uh really say on that. But if you went back to the cash balance, uh, fund balances, percent of expenditures, it does tell a telling story where back in 2015, 16
030and 17, the school, town of district was in a completely different financial statue as we are now because of this board, because of the hard work of our superintendents. We have made great fiscal decisions. we are in a position to handle what Senate Enroll Act number one's going to dish out to us because those cash balances will be dipping by 2028 but something that we plan for and can manage. If you next look at the next line or the next one which is revenue by type I really don't even want to talk about this slide from DAB because I think I I really can't even explain it and when I asked them they couldn't explain it either. So, I'm going to move on to the last one, which is the operating referendum revenue. Uh, this
031one is an interesting one. I uh DWAB didn't tell me what they thought of this, but obviously we have a referendum in the school town of Monster. If we did not have the referendum, we could not sustain the current positions and programs that we have in place. We could not. What this slide shows us is how much revenue we're bringing in and what percentage of the overall revenue is from the referendum. And that's 10% as you see that dot right there is 10% of our revenue is from the referendum. We could not sustain our positions and our programs without that referendum. So you could look at it as a positive saying our community is behind schools and they want to help them and that's a huge positive or you could look at it as saying
032if the referendum ever did not pass that would be a different story for the school town. I think they look at it as a positive. They did give us the nod and say everything was good uh and that we're not on their naughty list. The last page is one of my favorites. Uh and uh moving forward, I don't know if it's going to go up anymore, but in the last in the previous four years, we jumped seven spots in S&P's rating. So, we moved from a BB all the way up to an A+. And I will tell you, we were on pace to move up again to double A minus. But uh at our last meeting when they talked about Senate enroll Act one, they don't expect any schools to be increasing moving up the
033ladder. But >> right, so uh moving up seven spots in four years is a great thing. Uh but I do not expect moving up any further this next year. But either way, that is great for the school town of Monster. Pending any questions? This is my fiscal indicator report. Are there any other questions for Mr. Melby? >> All right. Can I get a motion to adjourn the board of finance meeting? >> Dempsey. So moved. >> Miss second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh number five, consent agenda. Items 5.1 through 5.7. Mr. Tripenfeld. The consent agenda contains items 5.1 through and including 5.7. And I'll read through each of those. 5.1, approval of the minutes, and it's the minutes from the December 8th uh school
034board meeting. I'm moving around here. Sorry about that. Then 5.2 is the approval of the accounts uh P payable voucher register as presented. 5.3 is approval of the payroll voucher register as presented. And then 5.4 Four is approval of the personnel report with the following recommendations for employment. As you can see those listed along with the following resignations as presented. The request to extend or amend leaves of absence and then the three professional learning requests and that would be the uh the personnel report. Item 5.5 is approval of overnight field trips. And we have overnight field trips for the high school, as you can see, for wrestling, debate, dance, and softball. Item 5.6 is donations. Um, you have donations for the high school as presented. As you can see, for the choir, football, there's a
035general one, speech and debate, and baseball. We also have donations for the middle school for athletics. in the uh science olympiad. And then we have donations for Frank Hammond for the Frank Hammond robotics. I keep going the wrong direction there. I apologize. And we also have approval of fundraisers for Monster High School for the following uh organizations. You can see it's the weight rooms and they're doing some of the futures and uh speed camp programs as well as fundraisers for the middle school. As you can see, a choir fundraiser. With that, the administration recommends that the board approve consent agenda items 5.1 through and including 5.7 as presented. >> Would the board like any of these items to be broken down individually? Uh, can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Castro,
036I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second? >> Miss second. >> Is there any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Mr. Trippenfeldis. >> I think I'm going to defer to uh >> All right. Dr. Hicks. >> Dr. Hicks. >> It is my distinct pleasure at this time to introduce our new recently board approved director of exceptional achievers, Brienne Oliver. Brienne, if you'll stand so that uh that we can recognize you. Congratulations. >> Kim, are we doing pictures now or later? >> Yeah, you should listen. >> You should want to leave. >> Yeah. Please do the pictures now. Can we take >> some quick pictures? Is that okay? While we're preparing to pose to pose, I want to remind the
037board that Brienne comes to us with um uh she's trained as a school psychologist. She worked as a school psychologist and then she became a building level administrator and now she is a coordinator in a school district in Illinois. She comes to us with a myriad of experiences and a very large supportive family. >> Yeah. Clearly. Thank you. Thanks for coming tonight. Thanks. >> Thank you guys. >> Cameron, do we need to take a Oops. Would >> you like to say anything? >> So much. I am so excited about this opportunity. Um, you know, I've been in contact. It was it was a lengthy interview process, I think. Um, so I am I'm just thrilled just getting to know everybody, getting to meet parents, getting to meet staff members. Um, I I just can't express
038my excitement enough. Couple more days and then it's >> on the ground. >> Thank you. Well, >> they expect out of you. Thank you. >> If anybody wants to leave the meeting at this time, you may. >> Yeah. Do you want a picture with her? >> I offered and I got I got sh the picture shook me off. >> Monster background. >> The monster background. Wait a minute. >> Fake chocolate. >> Oh, you're >> my babysitter knew from high school and they were friends in high school. My babysitter should probably Yeah. [laughter] >> All right. Thank you all. Sorry about the little disruption, but it's important to welcome a new team member. So, thank you. Action items. Uh 6.1 project 20251209 purchase of two bluebird school buses. Mr. Begley, >> the school town of Monster
039Administration recommends the approval of the purchase of two Bluebird school buses through the Central Indiana Educational Service Cooperative uh the cooperative purchase agreement. 178 passenger conventional bus priced at $188,891 and one 84 passenger rear engine bus priced at $238,416 for a total cost of $427,37. And this purchase is in line with our 2025 through 2022 school town of Monster bus replacement plan. >> Is there a motion to approve project 2025 1209 purchase of the two bluebird school buses as presented? Dempsey. So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Castro second. >> Any discussion? >> Just over the last year and a half, one of our big goals is to uh get our 12 year or older buses. We try to get 12 years out of all our buses. Right now, uh we excuse me, in
040July 2024, we were 17 or about 40.5% of the fleet was over 12 years old. We've got that down to 34% and this will bring us down under 30%. We'll be 12 of 41. that'll be under uh 12 years old. And I would a caveat on that. Some of those buses that are over 12 are spares um with the wheelchair lifts that are a little harder to replace. So it does throw that number off. And then some of our activity buses are a little older, but the mileage is is much lower than because they're not used every day. >> And if I could throw in Matt D. Houston, our head mechanic is fantastic. He's absolutely fantastic. I I was just going to say thank you to your to you and your team for squeezing every
041last mile out of these things and keeping them safe and keeping our kids safe. Uh you guys do a tremendous job. So, thank you, sir. >> You you should see what they did with the salt spreader to keep that thing going. We got about 15 years out of that when we're were replacing that uh that's out for replacement, but they to keep that thing uh surviving was amazing. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I any opposed? Motion carries. Action item 6.2 uh Scraft 220 2026 insurance renewal. Mr. Begley. Uh, School Town of Monster Administration recommends the approval to retain the Educational Service Center uh, Risk Funding Trust or ESHCraft to provide insurance coverage for the School Town of Monster for the period of January 1, 2026 through the 31st
042of uh, 2006. 31st of December, 2026 at a total cost of 8663,6954. >> Is there a motion to approve Ashcraft 2026 insurance renewal as presented? >> Sender. So move. >> Is there a second? >> Smith second. >> Any further discussion? >> Uh just for the public's knowledge, we purchase insurance every year. Uh this covers a myriad of things from a property to our boilers to um workers compensation pollution pollution liability. So this is um something we do every year. Just uh forformational purposes, this is up 1.9% from last year um when it was $847,000. It's up about 14.7 since 2023. Our high water mark was 2024 when it was $867,000. So it's we've we've come down a little bit. So uh our insurance premium has stayed right in that uh ballpark over the last four
043years. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Action item 6.3, resolution number 891 to close the 2025 accounting year. Mr. Melby, >> the administration recommends that the board approve resolution uh number 891 to close the 2025 accounting year. Can I get a motion to approve resolution number 891 to close 2025 accounting year as presented? >> Castro, I move to approve resolution number 891 to close 2025 accounting year as presented. >> May I have a second? >> Dempsey. Second. >> Any further discussion? >> This is a procedural thing that we do every year. If we need to transfer, that's not going to be something that we're going to be doing here. But, uh, this is just something you do to close out the books. Uh just
044remember there are items that are carried over that count against the 2025 budget and we'll talk about those in the next item. >> Uh any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Action item 6.4 the mini mustangs prek tuition 2026 27. Um, use >> school town administration is recommending the approval for the 2627 tuition amount for Mini Mustang. >> Can I get a motion to approve the Mini Mustangs prek tuition 2026 27 as presented? >> MC still moved. >> Uh, can I get a second? >> Miss second. >> Any further discussion? >> This is a slight increase from this year's tuition. It is still um significantly lower than neighboring uh pre-K programs and daycare programs though. >> And we've had that this is going to be our third
045year of the mini Mustang program and the last two years we've had over the number of spots applicants that we could build capacity at the Frank Cameron program and then we still have a couple of additional spots open at the Eids program this year. >> And is it all full day now or is there also >> or it's all full day? Yes. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Number seven. Any items they that may properly come before the board? Dr. Hicks, do we have any? >> I don't believe so. >> Okay. >> Let me just say for the record, I don't believe we have any at this time. >> Thank you. Uh, general information discussion items. Item 8.1, the Monster High School course changes 2026 27.
046Mr. Nolan, >> good evening. Um, we're getting ready to sign up all of our students uh for next year's courses. So, bringing you um the current course changes for next year, which are thin um compared to last couple years. We're only adding two new courses uh to the catalog for next year. Uh both of these are workbased learning courses. We obviously have some internship courses on the docket now. Uh but these are a little bit more wide ranging and optional um like a wide range of options for students in terms of work-based learning. So we have a a truly a work-based learning employment skills development program and then we're looking at a career exploration internship. Um just as we've talked about before the LA as they've rolled out this new diploma uh for the current
047freshman class uh part of that is an internship option that's required for the highest uh enrollment seal uh for the college. They'll need 75 hours of internship or work-based learning and then they'll need 150 hours for the employment seal. Uh so we want to make sure we have courses on the books to fill those. Uh we're still working diligently with um with our workbased learning coordinator at the high school to kind of build this out. Um and uh we've got about 50 students this year doing internships and we expect we'll probably be around 375 students um in the next couple years. So trying to make room in the courses, make sure we have program fully uh vetted there. Uh we do have a title change for next year. Of course the states never wants to
048keep anything the same. Um we have two courses that are going to change in our human services pathway. Um there is the fundamentals of human services will be the new title of the course. The course really doesn't change. Um currently that course is called understanding diversity. Um and then the other side of that course will be the final of that sequence is advanced social social and community services which replaces relationships and emotions. Um, so it's still a threecourse pathway sequence. This is still an option that students can use to graduate. They still need a pathway uh in order to graduate from Munster High School and get an Indiana diploma. Uh, so this is one of those pathway options that students have. Uh, so just some changes there. We do have other one change that might
049be forthcoming I'll bring to the board if that does come through. It's more of a title change. again our small business operations course uh might change um and currently it's called um I think it's just entrepreneurship and new development uh is the the end of the sequence and I think they're going to change that name to small business operations um and we're waiting on IvyTech the Perkins grant and the state to finally agree what they're going to call this course it'll be the same course but we're just waiting on agreement from the three organizations on what the title of that course would So that's all I got. Any questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Nolan. Right. >> I I do have one. Sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I have one quick question. So the email that
050went out to parents seeking seeking support of this to if we had relationships. Do you want to mention that just because >> send an email across the community today. Uh all faculty and all parents and all of the buildings uh hopefully got this. Um there's two kind of Google forms in there. Uh, one of them is, hey, I know somebody um or I I have a relationship with someone or I might have a connection. Um, and we're just soliciting that information, emails, phone numbers, so our team can start contacting. And then we do have another Google form uh that'll be going on our website where we're rolling out a landing page for all of our internship programming. And that's more like I'm ready to and I'm the person of contact and I'm ready to to
051discuss what it would look like um to do this. There's no commitment in that email. We obviously know you might not be able to take anyone. Uh we might not have a student who's interested in your field. Uh but we're just trying to land as many places and options that we can put in front of a student and say, "Hey, we have a place for you to go you might be interested in." And we're looking for everything. I had one parent reach out today and said, "I'm in Illinois. Does that will that affect it?" No. We can send kids to Illinois. Uh we can have kids work virtually. Hey, I work virtually from home five days a week. Perfect. that'd be perfect opportunity for our kid. We can do virtual internships as well. We're exploring
052is any any option that we can at this point in time to try to get kids authentic experiences. The other thing I'll say about the experiences, we know this kids are going to sign up for these internships and they're not going to like the field they signed up for. That's okay. Like a kid might sign up and work in a law office and at the end of that internship they're like, I'm never going to be a lawyer. That's fine. that's an authentic experience. They're going to learn a lot from that. So, don't feel like you're making this commitment and the student is, you know, bound by the path that that they're on at that point in time. Um, you know, we might have kids who go through some of these experiences and we just want
053them to have these these opportunities to learn and make some decisions before they go off to college and they want to go engineering and they realize they don't like working behind a computer, they might choose something different before they get there. So, uh, if you get a chance, fill that out, fill out those forms for us. >> I just had a quick question for you. Is there, uh, any requirement by the state? I mean, obviously, we're going to have to vet the individuals or the opportunities so it's not like Kramer having his intern. Um, but also as kind of proof that they have an experience or, you know, student safety, all those things. Um, I'm sure as this program rolls out, you mentioned you're working with the coordinator and there's a lot of a lot
054to unpack here. >> Yeah, there there are lots of pieces of the puzzle here. Um, we we have a lot of paperwork and forms and working with our insurance and Scraft to make sure that we have all of our safety mechanisms in place, background checks, all those things. Uh, you know, currently we have a pretty good process for our internships. Um, we have about a dozen kids who work at community hospital each year. We have some kids who go out some to dentist offices and do some local businesses here. Um, and we've used that kind of as the guinea pig in the last few years. Um, we're tightening up some of those things. We're also trying to make sure that we make the paperwork flexible enough. You know, a hospital has a lot of fura
055and herpa compliance stuff that they have to worry about. Maybe another organization doesn't have to worry about those, but maybe they have something else they got to worry about in compliance. So, we're trying to make sure that our paperwork matches this wide range of things. So, as soon as we can get people on board, there's a long process to get them on boarded and make sure they understand what their end of the bargain is to work with a child. Um, and we'll we'll we'll work that out. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Mr. Nolan. Item 8.2, highability handbook, 2025 2026. Mrs. Bergrren, >> thank you. The high ability broad-based planning committee is a required committee um per the state code for our high ability programming. Um we met on December 16th um to review our high
056ability identification process um our practices behind identifi identifying students and we also wanted to ensure compliance with um Indiana code 2030183. So, in July 1 of 2025, Indiana Code um became law, which states that students who are in fifth grade um fifth, sixth, or seventh, excuse me, and they achieve a score above proficiency on iLearn mathematics is on page nine. They receive above proficiency on the ilearn mathematics assessment in grades five, six, or seven. and they also earn a C or higher in their current mathematics coursework. Um are automatically enrolled in an advanced mathematics course. Um this this is important for many ways. Um one the high school um working with the high school and their adoption of preap has already we've already began as a district to expand our more rigorous course offerings to
057more students. um this is just now a state code that requires us to increase the level of math for our students. So where we get in a little bit of a pickle and the state has invi um given us guidance in the um high ability handbook the link where it says IDOE announced that is the recommendation by the state because the iLearn scores will not be to the schools until September of 2026. we as you know start school in August. Um so their recommendation is to look at their iLearn checkpoint scores and um other achievement data for their would they qualify um do they have potential of passing at above proficiency on the ILR assessment. Um so the broad-based planning committee meant we kept our other um areas of identification as they have been in
058past years. We added the information regarding the new Indiana code for math and we are meeting again on January 15th um [music] to again just to continue to explore our document and we are the focus on the January 15th is that appeals process. We will not change the appeals process for the 2526 school year. This is now moving forward to the 2627 school year. Any questions? >> Thank you, Mrs. Bergen. >> You're welcome. >> Uh, administrative reports 9.1 Superintendent Dr. Hicks. >> It is my joy to welcome everyone back to 2026. Uh, I'm excited. It's our first full year together. It's a big deal. Um, I have a few things to share. Uh, since our last board meeting, I do want to point out thank you for the, uh, holiday break. I took some of
059my vacation time that you so generously offer administrators here in the school town of Monster. And, uh, I really, um, did a deep dive on Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary documentaries. So, if you want to talk the cowbell sketch, we can do so offline. Uh since the last time we were together, I had uh along with many of the team attended the law seminar put on by the Indiana School Boards Association virtually. Turns out it was supposed to be in person. Uh but we wound up in a virtual session nonetheless. Learned about special education law. Learned a little enough and I don't know if it's part of Miss Yos's uh update, but we learned about some multilingual language learner things that we're going to continue to improve on. I I do want to point out
060uh since she's taken the helm on uh ENL multi-ute language learner uh front uh we have found some opportunities for growth and we have grown quickly very quickly. So I I want to point out uh thank you and uh we continue to to grow in that area. We had a a lovely curricular spending strategic uh since the last time we met. Uh Mr. Mr. Melbby sets our budget uh with great care and the cost of our materials to actually teach children continue to not listen to Mr. Melby's budget. Um inflation is a bear and so we met and talked about ways that we could try to get those two things to come a little closer together over time to avoid any long-term uh spending issues. But in the meantime, really for me selfishly, it was
061a great opportunity to learn where the bright line of demarcation between what we pay for, what the buildings pay for, and what we ask partners, granting partners, Allah, the Monster Education Foundation to pay for. And as a result of of that meeting, uh I'm going to sit in uh on some Monster Education Foundation meetings upcoming uh to really try and be a part of how do we leverage their dollars through scale. If we're doing something that is good and we want to replicate it in a few classrooms, well, we can purchase those things at at at scale instead of oneoffs that keep that price low and gives us leveraging power with the vendor should it be something that they all want to buy. So the goal would be to help MEF stretch its dollars and
062to make sure that our technology partner department is managing those things on our devices so that we can help folks if they decide to misbehave technologically as it were. I want to tell you that I had an absolutely joyous time in the runup to break. One of the great jobs of superintendent is you get to go around and people ply you with cookies and candy and children are wearing a lot more pajamas than they do almost any other time of the year. And I'm not being facitious. It is truly one of the best parts of the job. And to go in, I do have a you know resemblance to a very historical figure slashceelebrity slash someone that is a big deal around s uh around Christmas time. And uh I won't lie, I was the
063kids are really nice to me and I don't know uh I I had to decline, you know, no, I I don't take requests, that sort of thing. But uh to be able to go around and spend time in each of the buildings was such a wonderful opportunity. And there's a lot of joy in the school district as it pertains to going away on break. I just uh teachers and children alike. So, uh, really grateful for that opportunity to to be in each of the buildings and for our own celebration as a central office staff and as a group of administrators. One thing that I do want to put on your radar, we uh through the course of the curricular conversation, we had a similar field trip strategic and what what I learned I thought I
064was going to learn about field trips, which by the way, you could put this this blanket goes over a lot of the learning I've done since I've come to the school town of Monster. I thought I was going to learn about field trip costs. And what it turns out I was learning about was transportation costs across a variety of activities, not just field trips. And what I learned is there's a pretty marketked delta between what we're asking our families to help us pay for for for things that are not curricular in nature. These are extracurricular activities. uh that transportation cost is rising rapidly and I think we can go to our families and have a request of a modest transportation fee for many of our extracurricularcurricular costs. We will never cover all of the delta.
065Our goal is not to make it a netneutral operation. But given the financial pieces that we're we're going to experience under Senate enrolled act one, now is the perfect time to say, "Hey, maybe we ask you for a nominal fee to help us offset some of those costs." I know that there was a time when we did that and then there was a time that we didn't do that. And I think we're nearing a time where we need to do a little bit of that. Not a lot of that and not what it was historically, but I think we're going to need to put together a plan for that. So I have asked the finance team and the administrators, hey, how many trips are we taking for each activity? What is the actual cost when
066we do these things? And what is an entry point plan for us to consider for our handbooks as we move forward as a district? And so the board will have an opportunity to de facto approve these in the student handbooks prior to the 2627 school year. So I'm not going to spring these on you. You'll see some drafts of these and you'll be the ones who codify it into policy through the handbook process as we go through it in the spring, but I wanted to put it on your radar as discussions we're having so that if you guys have any feedback or thoughts, you you can let um me and my team know kind of uh what your thoughts are on that. So, uh that's really what we've been working on. Uh and happy 2026
067to you and yours. >> Thank you, Dr. Hicks. Item 9.2, two, assistant superintendence reports. Miss Bergen, >> um I don't have much today. Um happy new year and I just want to say thank you for approving uh Miss Oliver. We're excited to have her on the team, myself especially. So, >> thank you, Mr. Trippenfeld. >> I just have a few items. First of all, welcome, Miss Oliver. Uh as she said, the interview process was quite extensive. So, um it was uh we we picked a great person. So, just welcome to the team and we appreciate being able to work with you. Uh I also in December got to attend a couple of conferences. Uh the ISBA law seminar that Dr. Hicks already mentioned and then the uh IASBO school finance seminar for the year. Um
068which should we say was maybe Mr. Melby's going to take over with some of those but there was a lot of nashing of teeth and things like that. So almost the entire session was Senate enrolled act one of 2025. Uh, and the only thing I will highlight is they did a um, basically a panel discussion and several of the superintendents said things like if we don't pass a referendum, we may have to consolidate with another school district, close our doors, stop all transportation, do all these other things. So, one of the things that did make me at least go from leave that meeting with was an appreciation of our community first of all for the wherewithal to pass a referendum to have that tool that a lot of other school districts don't have. And so
069I just want to say thank you to the community for that. And secondly, uh the idea of the financial situation that we're in with the school board and Mr. Melby that we're in a much better situation than I would say 95% of the school districts in the state of Indiana, if not nearly a hundred uh with be able to have some to accept some hits with this and still not have to make drastic cuts. Um there may be some smaller cuts but I don't think there's going to have to be something drastic like we experienced in 2015. Some of us were there at that time but um it was it was not a seminar you leave smiling uh but it was extremely beneficial with some plans and things that people are going to be doing.
070So don't want to uh really focus on that much but Bill may say more. And then in January myself and four other individuals were able to attend the inaugural uh Indiana school safety summit. uh they've changed with now the department of uh homeland security taking over the uh the basically Indiana school safety. uh they offered an inaugural safety summit where they focused on behavioral and digital threat assessments and their keynote speaker was the individual that we had here training our staff members in November of 2024 which really brings a lot to um what we do here uh that Melissa Reeves who was their key speaker and presenter presenting her method of behavioral threat assessments was the state's uh lead speaker at that. So, it was very nice that we were we were ahead of that
071game, at least with our staff members, and that we've had 44 people trained in that process uh before the state even happened. And uh another great information in there, they talked a lot about digital assessments that we hadn't seen yet before, but wanted to mention that we were allowed to send a maximum of five individuals. There are nearly a thousand people at that summit from all around the state of Indiana. So, uh just wanted to mention that. And then also one thing for the board for information. We are going to be getting hopefully a strategic or at least a small group of individuals working on the 2728 school calendar. So our goal is to have a calendar to present for the 2728 school year at the end of this school year. So again as we
072finish up in May all of our families will have 2627 which is already approved and then 2728. And again as as we have in the past when we uh do this we'll be meeting with the PTO presidents presenting the information to them presenting to our uh teachers association and our teachers through that process and you'll be involved too. Uh it'll take several months uh as many of you know as we do that uh but we're getting that beginning that process and I just want to reiterate to everybody there's always people who love our calendars and always people who hate our calendars and it's really difficult to make everyone happy. uh we try to do the best we can uh to service the needs of our students through those calendars. So uh that process is going
073to begin for that school year and I think with that I'm finished. >> Uh Mr. Trip and Feldus, I really appreciate the fact that you because a few years ago we didn't do two years out for the families and I think the families asked for it and you all made the change. So I think a families appreciate that. Um I think it's also really nice that you give input from all those different groups before you make the calendar. So, like you said, you're not going to please everybody, but families, teachers, admin, businesses, everybody has an opinion on it and um we we appreciate you doing that. >> And in the past, we have made changes based upon specific input from parents and specific input from teachers. They actually had some really good ideas. >> Uh
074we can't make everybody happy though, and there tends to be two camps. The elementary and the secondary have some different preferences, but >> we go with it. >> Thank you. Uh administrative report 9.3. Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Melby. >> When I think of 2026, I think of Indiana in the championship game in football and I think of the Chicago Bears beating Green Bay. So, I'm not going to talk about Senate Ro act number one. I'm going to talk about other positives and keep it in that realm. I'm going to keep it short because I've talked a lot already. If you look at our cash sheets, we did trend a little bit better than I was expecting. Well, that's sort of where I want to be, right? You guys know me by now. That's where we're
075going to end up. I do want to point out uh transfers from the education fund to the operations fund. We can transfer 15%, we stuck around 14.26%. We always like to come in under that if we can. Other than that, you will notice on the cash sheets and our tax bearing funds, we did uh receive our tax draw and we did pay our uh debt maker debt payments in December. With that being said, I'm going to go to the financial update that S&P says they want me to do so they can move us up, which I hope they remember saying that. Um, you'll see in the beginning, uh, the historical investments from 2013 to 2025 where we were and where we are now. Also, uh, to your point, Mr. Castro, the rules that we have
076to live by when you were making these rules, like we can only go two years out. uh we can only purchase things that are approved by the board or CDs or uh items like that. Then you'll notice the uh all of our investments. You see what bank they're at, the amount, the source or fund, the rate we received, our purchase date and maturity date, as well as how far out it's uh uh the CD matures. So you see all of that. We are uh laded out for approximately two years. At the end of 2025, you will notice our percent of our total budget that we spent. I I do want to point this out. When you look at this in years moving forward in the education fund, there's almost very little incumbrances. But now with
077curriculum materials put into the education fund, you're going to have a larger uh encumbrance moving forward. And just an encumbrance for the audience is things that you know you're going to purchase. You ordered them. You they're going to come in, but they haven't come in yet. So you already allocated. You save that money for that. And those will count in the 2025 budget. So in our education fund, we have approximately $140,000 of incumbrances. We came in right where you I I like to be in the education fund go to the operations fund right where I wanted to be between 80 and 85% and then in the referendum fund the same exact thing. Um and then we talked about the transfer from education operations being 14.26%. Pending any questions? That is my quarterly report. >> Thank
078you Mr. Melby. Uh item 9.4 for director of operations, Mr. Begley. >> Thank you. Uh quick update on construction. Uh 35th Street parking lot still does have a couple things uh to complete. The new gate is in and will soon be installed. Uh the packclad siding, we're waiting for that to arrive on or about uh the 28th of this month. As soon as that comes in, we'll get that uh put on put on and then that will wrap up that project. The tennis facility, the materials have been ordered and started to come in, specifically the underground water detention. We'll start doing some tree removal this month and contractor Pier plans to start February 2026 with site excavation and then with substantial completion at the end of July 2026. The parking lot lights at Eids and
079Elliot have to return tomorrow um to the town of Monster Border Zone and Appeals with an updated light study with the lower wattage and 20 foot poles versus 25 ft poles. Uh the new multi-purpose building, central office and camp campus circ circulation. The underground locates and soil boring uh were completed over break. The soil samples are now with the engineers for soil analysis and we're finishing final design with the architects. We're going to meet with the uh town site plan review committee uh this week to go over the project and uh we'd like to get this out to bid in next month or next uh two months. Uh the Eid's outdoor classroom is underway. We're waiting on some improvement with the weather in order to continue to put in turf and complete that project. Uh
080we are updating key access mags at several doors at Eids Elliot and Frank Hammond. Uh we wanted to get this under over done over winter break but we're waiting for delivery of a couple parts specifically some mag locks to get that to finish in the next two weeks. Uh the stable control project uh that was approved last month at the board meeting with those parts been ordered. We'll get that going as soon as those come in. And the fine arts, I don't know if you noticed but that project is complete. So, that new sign is up and I'll send some pictures to you uh after my briefing. Transportation, we found a replacement augur for the tailgate for the dump truck. So, our salt truck will be back up and running. And again, to give a
081shout out to Matt and Santino, that thing had about 47 different foreign parts put on it to keep that thing running. And uh that they get 15 years out of a very costic, salty environment is quite a tribute to their mechanical abilities. Uh, and then food service, we put in the new serving line at E, so that's installed, up and running. So, pending any questions, that completes my brief. >> Do we have a plan for uh traffic flow or parking when the tennis courts are being redone? I know we use that as a thorough affair back there. >> Yeah, that we've discussed that with them to >> be and we've done that before with the when we're doing the classroom projects. They come in at six, they're off, and then there's they they keep the
082traffic to a a minimum or none at drop off and then pickup. >> And typically they get start at six, they're done at two. So we kind of >> but they know where to park so they're not taking student parking because we've had that issue. >> Thank you, Mr. Get all that squared away. >> Any other questions? All right. Thank you, Mr. Begley. Item 9.5, Director of Computer Systems, Mr. Potsel. Happy new year. Um I don't have a whole lot of stuff um other than um whatchamacall done a lot of maintenance over the break uh from upgrading our infrastructure. So wireless wired switches routers just a lot of stuff that we're able to get up to date to make sure that again we're staying on top of stuff especially all those vulnerabilities that are popping
083up pretty much every other day or every day or sometimes three times a day. Um the team has also rolled out probably about 60 additional cameras primarily at the high school but we also did a few uh elementarymentaries the service center we replaced some old ones again old 15y old 12y old devices that need to just go offline um working with Mr. they'll be on creating a test environment so that we can go ahead and create a pathway to get rid of VMware so that we don't have to uh pay the ungod amount of money to broadcast once uh but also we upgraded um our backup solution so that that now also created a pathway to go ahead and get get rid of PPDM the Dell Power Protect stuff. So essentially, instead of paying about
084160 grand a year just to have those two solutions, we're going to be working on uh finding a way to just get off of that because it is just finan. It's it's just it's not it's it's not good. Um however with the data center boom that's happening um run across some interesting numbers where just in 2024 a single 64 gig server chip 190 bucks now costs almost a thousand. >> So new is probably not going to be an option for us for a little while. Um, even a comparable video surveillance server that we just bought three years ago was like $18,000 with 220 terabytes of storage. Now the same thing is 50. So that's going to be a challenge that we're going to have to contend with in the near future. So Mr. Belby, we're
085going to be uh [laughter] we're going to be having a good time. And I want to wrap up by uh giving a shout out to my team. Uh recognize them for all the work that they've done last year. It's been a year that I'm probably gonna try to repress for the rest of my life. [laughter] But it wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for them. In addition to that we've got to clean up the old ones, put them up for auction, you know, again, all the domain stuff that we've done, the email migrations. This there's just so much stuff that we've done that again, it wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for them. And again, I just want to recognize that. And uh as a final little number that I ran just to kind of
086you know see how we kind of stack up with stuff. Um I to titied up all the different work orders that we have and combined in 2025 that was documented. Uh they have completed 4,338 requests. If I had to guess there's probably another 1500 or more that were not documented as in hey can you help me with this? Can you help me with that? So, we're probably looking at 5,800, maybe even 6,000 requests in addition to everything that was done. So, I guess I just want to take a minute to commend them, recognize them for that because it is a great team. I'm honored to have them and uh hopefully they stick around for a little while. Penny, any questions? That's all I got. >> I just want to make a quick comment and and
087reiterate that a thank you to you and your team. Um because the the the other part of that is nobody's going, "Hey man, nice job on those servers." [laughter] It's, "Hey, my email doesn't work. Fix this. What's going on?" So, I know it's like being a referee. Nobody cares unless you make a mistake. So, keep keep doing the good work and and thank you to you and your team. And I'm going to be honest, I don't understand half of your report every time, but I understand the budget and I understand the improvements that come from your department and what you just said about all the service calls and work requests they've taken. I appreciate everything and I appreciate your skill set and your team because I don't have that. So, thank you. >> Yeah, I
088sorry. Um I just wanted to ask because I you know we should call out that you we there's an impact of the work with the town as well. So does those do those work orders include that those those are separate. Yeah. >> Also an additional probably 560. >> Yeah. >> Took over officially >> behind the scenes as well during the transition from when they were leaving impact onto us when we were onboarding them. So that that was a challenge too that again it's one it goes back to one of those repressed memories that I hope to bury and never have to go back to again. >> But no, ever since then I mean things have been great. Ryan's been awesome over there. Rob has been getting a good you know foothold over there too. And
089hopefully moving forward Rob is actually going to be helping us with now AI integrations too from a policy perspective. Again this is something that could be done jointly because they're going to need some AI guidelines as well. So I mean that that partnership has truly helped us out. It really has. I I can't complain. >> That's great. And and I appreciate the communication that's gone out to our uh to guide our staff and teammates about the about the safe use of AI in our environment. So, thank you, Miss Pyrick. I'm sure you were a big part of that. >> All right. Thank you very much. 9.6 Director of Elementary Education, Miss Use. [laughter] >> New year, everyone. So, our elementary students in kindergarten, second grade, and fifth grade are currently taking Kogat. Our WEDA access
090window just opened up today. So, we want to wish all of our students the very best as they demonstrate their learning and their abilities during these assessments. Our elementary ELA textbook adoption committee will hold a follow-up meeting on January 21st. Committee members have had the opportunity to closely review each vendor and participate in vendor partic uh vendor presentations. Um during our meeting on the 21st, we're going to take a deeper look at the two options the committee has narrowed down. And then I also had the opportunity to attend two days of training at the Indiana School Safety Summit with a focus on behavioral and digital threat assessment. It was eyeopening for me to attend that training and it definitely highlighted much of the work that our schools already have in place. So it was exciting
091to see um how much we have already done here. And then just a reminder, pre-registration for many Mustangs opens up on February 5th. Um, and that information will be available on our district website. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. 9.7 Director of Communications, Mrs. Pyrick. Everyone. So, my report's going to be a little bit short because as people were talking, they were taking all of my things. So, um, in addition to my focus on branding and social media, I get to help schools, um, promote programs just as, uh, Mr. Nolan was talking about, I've been working with, um, Ashley Ta Taylor Eert and Brad Doctor, um, at the high school to develop a marketing plan in regards to promoting their business workbased um, learning internship program. So, um, that is going to include a a
092landing page. Um, we worked on the interest form. Um, postcards as well as, um, brochures will be mailed to local businesses and families trying to get that interest out there. So, um, Mr. Nolan took took half of my report, but that's okay. [laughter] Um, another, um, thing that I've been working on, there's a new reporter from the Times. So, I have been really, um, on the education side, um, working to improve our relationship with him so that we can get as much publicity as possible for all of the programs that, um, are going on within our school, but as well as sharing all the accomplishments that our students and staff have um, achieved. And on the branding side, um today the interior signs came in for um Wilbur Wright. So that's one check off. We
093just need to get them installed, but that's another topic. Um and then Mster High School, those signs will be coming next week. And that is again probably about 685 signs um that are going to safely identify locations within our buildings. Our next um step there is going to be wayfinding um within our building so that um people can find the locations and then we're going to hopefully be able to take that effort outside as well. And then finally um Mr. Begley, I want to thank you publicly for all of your help um with the performing arts sign. I know that you love going to the zoning meetings. So, um it did take a little bit of effort, but if anyone drives um down there, you should see it. And I am thrilled and I can't
094wait to do more within our district to um show that branding throughout our community so we can all be proud. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Board reports. Mr. Dempsey, >> I'm going to be very quick uh on behalf of the Monster Education Foundation. They are about to host uh their largest fundraiser of the year. It will be on Friday, February 6th. Jeans and jerseys for um is what it's called and it is going to be held at Byway Brewery. That is all I have. >> I ordered a new jersey for this. Uh Mrs. Smith, >> happy new year to everyone. Um I will also be brief. I just wanted to mention that um this Wednesday evening at 7 PM at Monster High School will be a PTO meeting which will be
095specifically talking about the new graduation standards um as the eighth grade class going into their freshman year will be the second class that will be part of the new graduation standards. So there will be a meeting on uh Wednesday at 7 p.m. And Mr. Nolan also mentioned there'll be another general parent meeting forthcoming as well. So, look for more details about that. And I did want to mention to Kim that the sign outside at the auditorium does look amazing. I passed by it in the morning and it does look very nice. So, thank you for all of your hard work as well as the whole staff. >> Thank you, Mr. Castro. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Schwarz Wolf. Happy New Year, everyone. Uh, first want to again congratulate Miss Oliver. Uh, welcome you. We're
096excited to see what you bring to our district and seemed very enthusiastic already. So, uh, you look like you're ready to hit the ground running, so best of luck to you. Um, it's a big challenge. Um, but we're excited. You're a lot of support. Um, and I'm sure you're going to get a lot of input from our community. So, uh, we're we're excited to to see what you bring to us. Um, I had the chance to attend the December 15th and January 5th redevelopment commission meetings. Um, nothing much to report there. I will mention though that uh as we just elected a new slate of officials, town council has a new slate of uh officers as well. So if you are curious, please uh go to a town council meeting or look that up online
097to see who your new uh officers there are. Um Dr. Hicks, I love that you said this is our first full year together. That's that's cool, man. Like that's that's you're starting to feel such a part of this. your team, um, us as a board working together. Uh, and we're excited to work to continue working with you and and that first full year. I hope it's, uh, it's many full years. Um, and I'll I'll mention too quickly, uh, I know we're going to hear about Senate Enrolled Act all, you know, consistently, month after month. We're talking be talking a lot about finances. And I just want to make sure people understand this isn't a maybe. This isn't we may you know districts might be in trouble or municipalities might be this is happening. This is
098something we have to take action on. It's very going to present very serious challenges. Um so when we are talking about things like fees that may come to come to pass or you know raising those tax rates this is all part of keeping this school this community the best we can um and working together with our community understanding their needs our needs um as a team and helping to do everything we can to educate our kids. Um, so I know there's going to be some difficult times, but we're ready to work, uh, to keep things, um, at the top of our game here. So, uh, that is all from me. Um, thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mrs. Cinder. >> Thank you. Um, I was reflecting on my first year serving on the monster
099school board. So, um, I've really been filled with gratitude and optimism despite our challenges. Uh, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the administration, uh, fellow board members, the ISBA, and our many involved community members. Your guidance, collaboration, and commitment have made this past year both rewarding and educational. Working alongside such a dedicated team has deepened my understanding of our district's strengths and our challenges. Over the past year, I've gained valuable insight into the operations of our schools, the needs of our students and staff, and the priorities of our community. Some of the most significant lessons that I've learned include the importance of transparent communication between the board administration and the public. The value of diverse perspectives in decision-making, ensuring that every voice is heard and considered. The impact of strategic planning and
100shaping the direction and success of our district. And I love um serving on their strategic um planning committee. I think um that's that's um very exciting for me. I I love that team. These experiences have strengthened my commitment to serving with integrity, openness, and a focus on continuous improvement. And I want to thank you all for your trust, partnership, and commitment to our schools. Thank you. I would like to thank Kyle Dempsey for uh being our board president this past year. It is uh extra work, not extra pay. um a lot of pressure and as it turned out we had a very stressful year last year with a lot of different things going on. So thank you and in addition uh Kristen Smith was serving as our vice president and she and uh Mr. Dempsey
101did a really good job as of teamwork during transition of having a new superintendent. Um it was chaotic and you guys kept us grounded. So thank you. On January 6th I attended the Indiana school board legislative leaison training webinar. Um, it was a review for training that I've already had, but it was good information. And then they also went through, as a reminder, this is a short session. Legislation is um or legislators are in session right now. Um, there are 700 bills that have been introduced there. It's supposed to end by February 27th. There's no way 700 bills are going to be heard and seen. So, it's very interesting these first couple weeks which bills are going to get traction. Um, there's one right now, uh, House Bill 1266. It's a 54-page document supported by
102the Indiana Department of Education, and it has so many layers in it. Those things always kind of concern me like what's going to sneak in at the end. So, we're keeping an eye on it. Indiana School Board Association sends us all emails and updates. Um, but there's there's a lot and it's going to go fast because they started in December this time. Uh, happy 2026. Let's have a productive year of teamwork and growth. And I look forward to uh our year announcements. Uh future meetings, January 26, we'll be having a public works session with at 6 p.m. Uh it will be a joint session with the town council, which as far as I've been on this board, we've never done. February 9th, we'll have a regular school board meeting at 6 p.m. Can I get
103a motion to adjurnn? >> Castro second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed?