001[Music] Good evening. Welcome to November's meeting for the School Town Monster Board of Trustees. Let the roll call show that all board members are present and accounted for. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Here at the school town of Monster, 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 comments. We currently offer two ways in which the community can participate in regular schoolboard meetings. The first public
002comment 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. 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, please put your name and topic on a card at the start of the meeting. All public comments are limited to three minutes per individual with a total of 30 minutes allotted for each public comment section. Item 2.1, public comments regarding action, current action. 2.2, general public comments. Item 3.1, Monster High School. Mr. Noling. Um, wow. Sorry. um with last month we uh
003approved a new CBA and one of the clubs that we added at the high school is our cyber patriot. Uh this has been around for a few years um as we talk about all the technology advancements in the world today and cyber security being a uh a very important aspect of that. We're going to have some students from our cyber patriot club and our coach come on up here talk a little bit about uh this organization. This gives kids a chance to really work in the field of cyber security uh through the US Air Force and some other organizations um and compete in cyber challenges. So have these students kind of talk and highlight cyber cyber patrons. Yours >> I want to say my name is Charlie Chen. I'm a sophomore junior high school. The
004first thing I want to say is thank you to our sponsors and the entire board for allowing us to um come here. So thanks to you guys that our team is thriving right. So we are training these young passionate high schoolers to fill these cyber cyber security jobs in the future because according to Forbes in Q3 of 2024 there are over 4 million big cyber security jobs and as you know the amount of overall like computer science majors increase have more software engineers we have more hardware engineers we have all of that the amount of cyber security specialist is not keeping up with that. So we need that you guys are letting us um so what we do in cyber patriot um is we prepare for these competitions where um we are given a list
005of um we are we are tasked with going through these machines and fixing their So these errors can be small like maybe we have something like just even a music file on a computer that isn't supposed to be there or maybe it's something more secure like a password isn't secure or there's a leak in our or there's a vulnerability in our server that's our um that's our job to fix that. So it's really a sense to you guys that our team has had this much success. >> Uh just adding a little bit on to what Charlie said. he was talking about our uh main focus which is the cyber patriot competition. It's a national competition hosted by the air force and um you're sort of placed in like a simulatory like role where um your
006job is to basically you're given like a compromised machine and your goal is to um like remove all of the viruses and basically just improve the security um so that you know your company doesn't get hacked. Um, none of it's real. It's all like set up by the Air Force. But, um, it's a good way to practice a lot of I mean, good cyber security rules in general. And I personally have learned a lot myself just um by, you know, being a part of this club. And, um, I guess recently we've had a lot of success. Um, this year we've uh, placed second in Windows uh, in the whole All right. In in we placed second in Windows in uh out of the whole country, 10th in Windows servers, fourth in Cisco, and these are
007just different operating systems. Um but you know, we've managed to hold a very competitive um position despite being a pretty small school and um I I feel has added a lot of value. Thank you. >> I have a quick question if you don't mind. I I just geek out on this stuff. How do you get scored? Because is it a time thing? And >> so um the time limit is four hours and they basically have long list. You basically have a list All of the pretty difficult. >> Oh, yeah. You can also point there's a few Like if you go over impressive guys, thank you very much. [Applause] Item four 4.1 consent agenda. >> Mr. Dempsey, the consent agenda includes items 4.1 through and 4.7. Uh, I'll begin with item 4.1, the approval of the
008minutes from the October 6, 2025 school board meeting, which is displayed on the screen, as well as the minutes from the executive session held on October 20, 2025. Item 4.2 is the approval of the accounts payable voucher register as presented. Item 4.3 is the approval of the payroll voucher register as presented. Item 4.4 Four is approval of the personnel report with the following. See if I can pull it up here. Recommendations for employment as displayed on the screen. The resignations as displayed, terminations, and then professional learning requests as displayed. Item 4.5 is the approval of the overnight field trip requests as presented on the screen and those overnight field trips requests are for the monster high school boys and girls wrestling teams, boys and girls swimming and diving teams, debate, theater company, dance and baseball
009screen. Also contains item 4.6 Six, approval of donations, beginning with donations from Winster High School as displayed on the screen. Scrolls through donations for Wright Middle School for the Medieval Times and Lego Robotics. Donations for Frank Hammond Robotics from the individuals that are listed. Monster High School athletic sponsorships from the US Army and McMahon also includes item 4.7 approval of fundraisers one here which are the fundraisers for Winster High School as displayed on the screen. the fundraisers for Wereife Middle School as displayed and for Frank Hammond High School robotics. With that, the administration recommends that the board approved with one motion and one vote consent agenda items 4.1 through and including 4.7 as presented. Would any board members like any items broken down? There a motion to approve consent agenda items 4.1 through and including
0104.7 as presented. >> 412 so moved. >> Is there a second? >> Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 5. Item 5.1 professional staff salary and benefits for 2025 2026. Mr. Dempsey, the administration recommends that the board approve the professional staff salary and benefits for the 202526 school year as presented. >> Is there a motion to approve professional staff salary and benefits 2026 as presented? Castro, I move we approve professional staff salary and benefits 26 as presented. There is second. >> Any discussion? I would like to just take a short time uh these provisions apply to the positions that require specific education training and certifications but not specifically certification from the Indiana Department of Education. Uh these are positions that basically are not
011included in the collective bargaining unit when we actually do that uh CBA with our teachers. Uh I do want to just highlight the changes. We added similar attendance incentives and requirements as we did for teachers in the paid time off section of this document. We increased the benefit of group health insurance premiums as we did with teachers. Uh and we increased the 401A contribution to match the teacher benefit as well. Uh and then this also includes that 4% raise for these staff members as we did with teachers. >> Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Carries 5. Item 5.2 professional executive staff salary and benefits. >> Mr. Dempsey, uh, the administration recommends that the board approve the executive professional staff salary and benefits for
012the 2025 26 school years as presented. >> Is there a motion to approve professional executive staff salary and benefits 2026 as presented? >> 412. So moved. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Yes. I would like to highlight the new position of deputy director of technology is included in this group of employees. Uh the technology department also combined two previous positions into one new position uh that we will officially uh fill when this is approved. The data and digital systems administrator just combining two existing positions. One. uh we made slight changes to the PTO requirements uh for this group and improved the 401A contribution to match the other two groups I just mentioned. Uh and then this also provides a 4% increase uh for the staff members like we did for professional
013staff except for the new positions that were created this year and those will be salaries that were determined with those positions. Any further questions? All those in favor of the motion please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 5. Item 5.3, administrative contracts. >> The administration recommends that the board approve the administrative contract salaries as presented. >> Is there a motion to approve the administrative contracts as presented? Castro, I move we approve administrative contracts as presented. There a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Yes. Yes, I would like the salary amounts listed are like the other two show a 4% increase from the 202425 salaries. Um these recommendations do not include any administrator though who is new to a new position this year or a new hire this year because we obviously
014have current contracts with those individuals from their positions. But again, it represents a 4% increase to the salaries from last year. >> Any other questions? >> All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Carries. 5 Z. Item 5.4 classified staff wage rate. >> The administration recommends that the board approve classified staff wage rate increases as presented. >> There a motion to approve classified staff inreases. >> 412. Some moved. >> A second. >> You will see a pattern. Uh we are recommending a 4% increase uh for all the staff who rated as effective or highly effective last year. Uh we also recommend that we provide an additional increase to our school nurses at the rates listed in an additional increase to any maintenance staff with a wage rate less than
015$25 per hour. These two additions are similar to what we did for bus drivers last year and they also allow us to stay competitive with other local schools. So those are two positions that we identified this year that were below some of our competitors and when I say below significantly right now. So with that we make the recommendation. >> I guess I just want to say that I am very proud that we are able to do 4% across the board that we're supporting all of our people. I think there are a lot of local governments, town councils and school boards that cannot do that this year and will not maybe next few years um again based on sea one that decreased a lot of local government funding. So I'm very proud that we can do
016this and uh a lot of administration's foresight in this was helpful Mr. Melby and your team always and the fellow board members. It's a team effort for sure. Thank you. >> Just to speak on that a little bit, there are a lot of schools that weren't able to give raises at all were just gave stipens. Some that had to stick to a one-year contract and we were able to do two-year contract. And I truly believe that's because of the board, the guidance that you've given over the years and the superintendent and superintendents in the past. We put ourselves in a good position, but we're always going to be looking at >> um Mr. Tribal. I was going to wait. We have a couple more that involve great discussions, but as we're talking about it now,
017um I just want to ask about uh competit staying competitive. I just mentioned staying competitive in the region in the district. Um and I think people understand that as well. Part of this is stay competitive and remain attractive um because it's important to our employees, our staff and everybody in our district that they feel welcome here that they feel valued here and you know do it generally. >> Yes. Um we will always I should say always on an annual basis we look at other competitors and we talk about other competitors other school districts we look at Porter County and then the state that our classified staff and all of our certified staff as well. Uh this allows us to at least stay competitive with some of those. We are not as we are with teachers.
018We're not the highest um salaries of teachers. We're not the highest wage rates with our classified staff, but this allows us in the same ballpark and very close to that. And uh I think this year when we can give this type of raise and I I want to uh reiterate what Mr. Melby said. with tremendous planning that we kind of foresaw a few things that were negative that may happen. We're able to deal with that over a long-term plan that allows us to still do something like this in a year when a lot of schools aren't and allows us to stay competitive, maybe more competitive. And that's one of the reasons why we make some changes to specific jobs or job classes here because we see when something isn't as competitive, we try to make
019that adjustment. So it's something we try to do and again we do this and other people make adjustments. So it's it's a game we kind of play with each other but it's one of the things we'll talk about with the next item too. But yes we do a lot of research making sure that uh that our rates are very similar to competitors very much. >> All those in favor of the motion please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 5. Item 5.5, substitute teacher pay raises. >> Uh, the administration recommends that the board approve the subst substitute teacher daily rates as presented. >> I said pay raises pay rates. Is there a motion to approve substitute teacher pay rates as presented? After I move we approve substitute teacher pay raise as presented. Is
020there a second? >> Miss second. >> Any discussion? >> Yes. I would like to just let you know what we're doing is raising the daily rate for each of our subs $5 per day. So at the lowest salary which was 105 we're raising that to 110 that's about a 4.7% increase. So and our highest raise we gave to a teacher this year was 4.7%. And then for the highest amount the 130 going to 135 is right around 3.8. So we couldn't get it exactly to four but it really falls within that range of what we gave our teachers from that four to 4.7. Uh so we thought it was very good and I I just have to say that uh we want to acknowledge our substitute teachers and we want to stay competitive as uh
021Mr. Castro said um I I want to acknowledge our subs and Barb Coggins who actually oversees and manages our substitute teacher pool. Uh September and October we had every absence that was in our system covered by a substitute teacher um for two months in a row. I can tell you that hasn't been the case in previous years. Uh we actually even were able to take the posting down uh because we had uh so many subs on the list that some of them weren't getting jobs because we had too many people there. So our subs have been doing a tremendous job. So this is also to acknowledge what they're doing the the $5 per day, but allows us to stay competitive. Um and they do a wonderful job and bring continuity to instruction when a teacher
022needs to be absent. Uh we could not be successful without the tremendous teachers that we have. Um and again like I said current we have a very large pool and a very effective pool which is good. The larger you have the more you can obviously be a little bit more selective which is wonderful um that we have that. So I just want to acknowledge them. They do a tremendous job and Barb has done a tremendous job of a lot of outreach to get people um signed up, get them on boarded, get them uh ready to go. So tremendous job. I just want to make sure we acknowledge them. It's probably one of the most unheralded positions that we have in the school town. Something we couldn't exist without. Thank you for all that. She's actually
023talked a few bus. >> Thank you guys. All those in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 5. Item 5.6 middle school volunteer stipens for 2025. The administration recommends that the board approve the Wright Middle School volunteer stipens as there a motion to approve the right as presented. >> And there's a move. >> There a second. >> A second. >> Any discussion? >> Just so you know, we do this on a fairly regular basis with the high school and middle school. allows us to meet the IRS regul regulations, compensate staff who volunteer for various extracurricular activities to serve as you see the ticket taker scoreboard. Those are people who help out and volunteer for all of our extracurricular activities. Um again, these are in line with the monster
024high school siphons uh and will probably be updated on an annual basis. >> All those in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Carries 5. Item 5.7, purchase of a custom marching band trailer, clubhouse trailer. School town administration recommends the approval of the purchase of a custom marching band trailer from clubhouse trailer company for a price of $22,269.68. A motion to approve this purchase of this custom marching band trailer of clubhouse trailer company as presented. >> 412. So moved. >> A second. a second. >> Any discussion? >> This is something that I've been working with with Mr. Phelis and Mr. Nolan and I work on it from a point of maintenance and our current trailer is old and it it is uh in need of replacing and Mr. Nolan has been
025working if you want to speak to it at all about uh it's got a lot of different uh custom pieces to it that helps our band when they go out to perform. Yeah, current trailer is I think a 2001 model and it's uh it's on its last legs. We've had some issues uh with different drivers refusing to pull trailer. Uh so we've been on the marketplace uh looking for how to update that. Um obviously you can get some really high-end custom trailers. This is like a middle of the road trailer option, but it's outfitted specifically for vans. So students can easily offload and unload equipment. The storage solutions are in there for the van. they can organize their stuff efficiently. But this is how our marching band gets all that gear for those performance shows
026to and from site every weekend. Um they have their last performance coming up this weekend. So hopefully we can get get in line, get in queue to get this trailer built and by next season at some point in time. Fingers crossed we'll have a new trailer here on campus to uh to get by. So current trailer had it lifespan. Um you can see it out in the parking lot. It's it's weathered. Uh, so we're ready for an upgrade. >> Just out of curiosity, what is the shelf like >> these two? So, we've had the current one. >> I'm not sure. >> We bought we bought this one used. Uh, the the one that we have currently was bought used and kind of retrofitted for marching band. Um, it's not technically a marching band trailer. It's
027kind of an open shell with some custom inserts that parents have kind of put in over the years. Uh this would be a similar looking trailer, low deck um equipment trailer, but it'll have all those custom features kind of already in there ready to go in our community in trying to build something that is maybe not. It will not look anything like the trailer that's in it will look very nice. They'll be very proud to hold that. one of the things that uh that needs >> and we're going to need to see pictures when it comes in because all this vinyl decal stuff we want to >> Yeah, we'll make sure. Kim Kim's worked with the company last year when we were getting this all out the bid and stuff and we've got design stuff
028for them. So once we get in line, the trailer's getting built right before it gets wrapped and painted certify all the drawings. >> Thank you. And just, you know, this has been over a year, so we've been working on this for a while. >> I just quickly want to say thank you for for the work you've done to to maintain the old one to to to try to get what you can squeeze every last drop out of that. And then putting the the the time, effort, and money to find the best possible equipment for our band. I mean, it just it just shows that we're paying attention where we can to all of, you know, it's not just athletic space especially we're trying to run the gamut here and I think it's really important um
029and I think it's going to mean a lot to kids see something like this something to be proud of >> and for you guys to know I mean this this pulls into the parking lot at Lucas Oil and people need to see how proud we are of our school district at Lucas Oil is a battle of fans of America fans from all over the country and uh you know next year hopefully we're rolling in one of the I just wanted to echo Mr. Castro's comments. Mr. Begley, you and your team do a fantastic job managing our assets, not only maintaining them, but also staggering replacement. So, we're not spending a ton of money all at once. So, definitely appreciate that. And I'm so excited for this for our band. We have an amazing band and
030they have invested a ton of ton of money into those instruments. So, let's take great care of them. >> All those in favor of the vote to approve the purchase of the custom marching band trailer, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? 50. 5.8. Policy revisions for 2025. Mr. Trick. Uh the administration recommends the board approve the policy revisions as discussed on September 29. >> Is there a motion to approve these policy 412? So moved. >> There a second. Castro second. Any discussion? >> Uh at length we went through the policy revisions on that uh work session. So if there are any specific questions you have you can but the it is displayed on the screen. If you want to go through all of them, please do. I invite you to do that. It'll
031put you to sleep. >> Just to refresh, how how many revisions were there? >> I think we had I think we had to address 93 different policies >> over 300 pages. >> Yeah, we can do those for everybody right now. >> I I'm I'm ready to go if you want to. Uh >> luckily work sessions are now online so you can go and watch it if you want to. >> But I will reiterate this. A lot of those are based upon some of the legal changes in Indiana federal law just over the last two years because some take some take a little when a law is passed sometimes it's a year or two years before it takes effect many of those were because of legislation that changed so we were forced to do all those
032in favor of the motion please say I >> I >> any opposed motion carries 5 item 5.1 bylaw revision for The administration recommends the bylaw revisions again as presented at the work session public work session in September. >> A motion to approve these bylaw revisions as >> I move to approve the bylaw revisions. >> There's a second >> second. >> I would just like to I know our board members understand this but the public may not. We do the bylaws and uh policies separately because we have a bylaw that says that a bylaw change requires a threequarters percent vote. Uh policy revisions only require a simple majority vote. So we do these separately so that we can document that uh we met both those percentages and requirements through that through the votes. comments. I just
033quickly want to say thank you for for the hard work and time that you put into it because it's it's literally at some points like a spelling issue or literally Donnie and I are crossing a tea stuff that you you catch and we discuss and that we've pointed out >> and I miss a lot. So you got I will have to say our board does a tremendous job after that presentation of actually reading everything and coming back and saying, "Hey, on page 52 we've got this." I really appreciate that. A lot of boards would not take the time to go through that that many pages. And I know from the comments I got that every board member read every word that was on that 200 some page document. So I appreciate that. That that means
034a lot. But just the fact that you take the time to do that. I know there aren't boards out there that that go to that extent. So thank you. >> All those in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5 Z there are not any items seven general information and discussion items. Item eight administrative reports one. Happy Monday everyone. It has been a very lengthy day for me uh and members of the team that started their day in the pre-dawn snow. So, I want to thank those members of the team that go out. Just so the public knows, it's not just me that checks the roads. There's a team of folks that drive the roads. We have a lengthy discussion. We take input from uh area superintendents to find
035out what they're doing and really ultimately work together as a team to make the best call we can safe learning continue. So, thankful for for the team. want to update you, update you on a few things that I've been up to since our last board meeting. Uh had a chance to go with members of the team to uh safety training uh about uh trends in the legal borderline illegal drug uh trends that kids are into vapes. Uh a lot of other things that I won't say to not encourage children to go find out what they are. Uh but after I left, I did a little drive around to the stores here in Monster. And by golly, everything that he mentioned, legal or illegal, was available in stores here in Monster. They're highly addictive. They're very,
036very harmful. And so one of the things we've discussed is what can we be doing to make sure can kids at least understand that the chemistry of this uh of this set of products is very very dangerous to them especially developmentally but also highly highly addictive highly unregulated uh terrifying terrifying stuff. My poor kids that the conversations they've had to endure as of us uh going through that training are unbelievable and all of my friends with teenagers. I'm so sorry if you're watching. I apologize now. Um, one of the best things that I've been up to since the last time that we were together was uh the goal meetings with members of the cabinet and our principles. We have some really high achievers leading in a variety of spots here and seeing that forward in
037their goals and helping some of them taper those goals to more realistic smart numbers that are actually achievable uh is really a fascinating process. So, uh, it's been great. It's yet another way to learn how folks, uh, care about our kids and what they want for the school town of Monster and helping them set those goals has been a fantastic task. So, it's been really great. Um, I do want to tell the board that um, just today met with members of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, offered to be part of a response team if there ever should be a violent critical incident in the state. Um, After the conversation with the new head of IDHS when we hosted her and her team here and then a subsequent conversation with Dr. Terrell and her team
038at uh Dr. Terrell also wasn't uh was at a school district where there was a school shooting six months after the school shooting that I I went through and we just have a lot of lessons that we've learned in eight years on where we're we're in a position now where we can really step in and say maybe we should consider doing this maybe you don't want to do that just helping folks avoid some of the the things that we went through and have a little better response than the ones that we had. Um and again, state of Indiana really stepped up in our events and tried to help us, but we've learned things and we want to be of of you. So, um monthly meetings on that from now until we get our response group
039up running some professional development that we'll give over the course of the next year or so. So, really a strange thing to to to know, but grateful to be able to make it of use uh for other administrators around. I do want to talk about the teacher appreciation grants. We've had some painstaking meetings uh with with internally with our administrative team and with the the teachers association working through how to manage this. As the board may remember, previously we were allocated an amount. We got to set the criteria. We used a a very mathematical equation that helped tell us if someone was highly effective, how much they got out of the amount of tag that we got and if someone was effective, what they received. This year they've targeted 20% of teachers. They have a
040tiered system where 5,000 I miss the one and they finally give us an amount uh but we don't know yet where people will qualify. We've worked really hard to get an application process put together so the teachers can say yes I want to put forward my data to be considered for this teacher appreciation grant. It's very selective the criteria from the state. Uh we do have to provide data to the state in order for a teacher to be eligible and the work that has gone into that and the care with which our administrative team has approached it, the care with which our partners in the teachers association has approached it has been an a great exercise in problem solving. Uh sometimes as you know you're an elected body, you get tasked with things that are
041difficult. You still have to make a decision. It's one of those things for us, but to have thought partners on our team, thought partners in the in the association. We're going to make this uh as as palatable as possible. Um it won't be perfect uh this first time through because it's an imperfect model. I just want to tell you I'm grateful for the work. Uh sometimes you get tasked with difficult things and you still make them work and people understand your intention and it's a good partnership. had the chance to go to the IATSS regional. Continuing to meet folks, came in real handy this morning that I had given out my business card. Uh thank you, Mr. Pirate, for the new uh business card wherever you may be. Uh and I was able to give
042those out and got an email this morning at about 4 a.m. and said, "We're closing, we're closing, we're closing, we're closing." I was like, "Yeah, glad I gave those cards out." Really a lot of information in return for that. So, uh it was a great day. Looking forward to going to the conference this week. It's a state conference this week. So, I'll be out uh for the middle part of the week. We have a team from Global Special Education Associates that will begin meeting virtually with members of our team. They will do some on-site visits. They're going to do an assessment of our special education program to advise us on areas that we can continue to grow in and and help us have a real clear uh northstar moving forward so that we are continuing
043to be a leader in special ed in a way that that we hope to be. So really excited to have that audit done and work through the steps that will most certainly ensue after we learn what their thoughts are. And fun thing I got to do since last time we met was there was an entrepreneurial uh competition at the high school and uh Miss Mle had entrepreneurs in class pitching business ideas and it was fascinating to me first of all the problems that kids have on their mind like in and of in itself that part is incredibly revoly to sit down with a teenager who's worried about caffeine addiction. Sit down with a a teenager who's uh really worried about screen time. That those conversations were incredibly insightful, but one of those people is going
044to be a billionaire. There was a a student who had an idea that I won't disclose publicly for fear that it will be trademark infringement. And Mr. Mr. Nolan knows exactly who I'm talking about. Uh that person is going to own the next wing of Eli Liy someday. and I hope we get a small uh percentage back when the time comes. But uh that's my update. Are there any questions that I can address for the board? >> Thank you guys. Item 82, assistance. >> Yes. Uh you've obviously seen a lot of the things we've been working on the last month, but I did want to reiterate uh the presentation that Dr. Hicks talked about was called High in Plain Sight. Uh Germaine Galloway is the gentleman who does that. He's a national speaker. Uh if
045he is ever uh local, he will usually do a a nighttime session for parents. If you ever see him around, I would highly encourage you to go to that. Um because the idea when this is high implant site, he shows you all the synthetic materials and drugs that are available in a lot of convenience stores and gas stations that are just as bad as um a lot of the illegal opioids and other things um that because of them being synthetic, they actually are legal to sell because the laws can't keep up with the chemistry, which is extremely scary because as we found out, most of those are made not in the United States of America. Uh but they're legally uh and the uh there's no FDA looking at what those uh things have and so
046extremely enlightening and downright scary I would say is a good point to do that and then obviously Dr. invited u the Indiana Department of Homeland Security up for a visit with superintendent. We got to host them. He briefly mentioned that, but we had the director of Indiana Homeland Security with us and also the director of the newly created Office of School Safety. Uh we're both here in presentations and uh I appreciate Dr. Hicks reaching out and getting those connections, allowing us to talk to those people and and making some really good connections. So, I think I'll end on that because I have talked way too much. >> Thank you, Mr. and 8.3 chief financial officer report. Mr. Mel has found his way home. >> Yes, I have uh but I one of the reasons why
047I was going was at a conference dealing with it was called infosc dealing on cyber security. So it was perfect that Patriot team was here and a lot of things they were talking about were some of the items that were discussed. Um I I do want to give a shout out to our tech team because listening and again I was most of the people that were there were bankers were large business owners were CEOs and C CEOs of and I don't even know what that one stands for uh of a lot of companies and I I think we are way ahead of the curve as far as schools go. Maybe uh we can always learn something but uh the guys there taught me a lot that went with me so I could what we need
048to be doing in the future. Uh, as far as the education fund goes, we'll start with the the first thing that you probably looked at was the cash balance dipped in a non-prepaying month, which would make you a little bit sad. I know you all noticed, but there's a good reason. If you look in the insurance column, it was really low in September and very high in October. It was just when it was processed. It was processed a day later. If you recall, I do believe we had a really early board meeting last month, so we had to process some things a little bit uh slower. So, we had a really good September. Uh it looks like we had a bad uh October, but we knew it was coming. You also probably looked at our
049supplies are a little bit higher and if you recall in years past, that's a normal thing for September because we try to close out our books a little early. We asked the schools to get their spending done by November 3rd. Therefore, it's easier for us to close our books. Now, obviously, if there's an emergency, we're going to go purchase and buy whatever that's needed to be done, but we try to get most of our purchases done uh by November 3rd. Uh the other thing you may have noticed is the transfer from the education fund to the operations fund. It did go up a little bit as we're tracking as we always do. Uh right now, we're on path, if we stick to these numbers are on the sheet, to be at 13.46% as compared to
050our basic grant. 13.26 26 as compared to all the revenue. So well under 15%. Uh we always can adjust the last couple months if if needed. If you look in the operations fund, you'll see our um interest in accounts was a very good month. Uh not the best month ever, but the Fed rate has dropped uh significantly over the last six to eight months. So that's one of the impacts. You'll see the transfer in is equaling the transfer out. You'll see the same thing with insuranceances and the same thing uh with uh supplies as well. A little bit of a compared to our normal month. The last one, which is important to me, that utilities leveled back off. Remember, there was a couple months that it wasn't red. Well, we had to pay that all
051off and it came back down to where we thought we were going to be. Uh moving forward, yes, now that it's approved, the trailer budget will be on next year's cash sheet somewhere. uh we have to estimate. I'll talk to Mr. Bey. He'll tell me when he thinks it's going to come in, I'll plug it in there. If it comes in before, then we move it and adjust it. If it comes in later, we move it and adjust it. Uh something that you'll know when you look at it uh next year in the referendum fund. Same thing with insuranceances. Other than that, we're tracking right where we believe we're going to be. We're going to increase our cash balances in all three of our major cash funds and right where we needed to be at
052the end of 2026. excuse me, at the end of 2025, remember 2027, 2028, that's when things really start hitting change a little bit, but uh we are definitely way ahead of it and we're making adjustments. >> Any other questions? Uh that's my report. Director of operations, Mr. >> Thank you, Mr. Dempsey. give you a brief update on some of the projects we have going. The 35th Street parking lot and storage. We're wrapping that up. We're closely watching the weather and we'll put the asphalt down as the weather permits. We need that 40°ree rising temperature and it looks like we'll have that at the end of the week. So, cross our fingers we can get that put in this week and we'll wrap that project up. Our tennis facility pending discussion we'll have with the work
053session for approval. get that moving in the near future. Uh, parking lot lights and for Eids and Elliot, it's a project that I have to go to the board, excuse me, the town for parents. Our lights are the town has very specific lighting requirements for their park lights in order to get maintain what we have. I have to go to a barren meeting process November, December, get that approved. our multi-purpose central office and campus circulation uh projects. DA recently met with coaches DA our architect for met with coaches to review um the updated updates to design and then we'll bring updated design to the board at an work session that project. Uh we have a small project going to start on the 18th outdoor classroom. It's that little part right off of the art room
054on the west side of the building. We're going to fix that up and it'll be much more usable for our exceptional achiever students. So, I worked with Miss Devil and kind of came up with the design and it's going to be a much used uh part of the building now for those students. Uh transportation, we have the Indiana State Police inspection on November 21st for all our buses that are 12 years and older. So, we're getting ready for that. And then food service, we are still waiting for those EDS u serving lines come in. expecting them coming in break, but that'll be a nice upgrade. Any questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Item 9.1, individual board member reports. >> Uh, good evening. Um, I attended the Indiana School Board Association fall regional dinner with some
055of the board members and, uh, our administration. It's a nice time to connect with other school boards and administration in the area. Um, we also have presentations from the Indiana School Board Association lawyer who talks about recent law cases uh related to public education and school districts. And then we get a legislative update. And the big push for January as far as school boards are concerned is just to try to get less regulation through legisl legislation for schools. As you just heard from the policies, the policies we had to change. Um maybe maybe we could tone that down. So that's going to be the push that will start in January. Uh as the leg legislative lison on you, you probably saw that there were six different communities in our state that ran referendums and five
056of them passed. Um in 2009, our legislators changed the law the way schools were funded and we found like schools like Monster were in the bottom 10. So that was the mechanism that our state legislature gave us to earn more money. Um, so there's been a lot of um controversy lately because these schools were running these referendum, but it's the law and that's how they got more dollars. That time watching the numbers come in that night made me realize how thankful I am to our monster community for supporting our school district. We could not run our schools the way we have now to the standard that we want and expect if we did not have those referendum dollars. So, thank you, Monster. Uh, I'm looking forward to presenting to the community ambassador program on uh
057this Friday with Mr. Dempsey and uh selfishly I spent the weekend on a Marine base with my son. So, uh happy 250th to the Marine Corps. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Cinder. >> Thank you. I wanted to start out by thanking Dr. Hicks for the weekly reports you you send us which include updates from the cabinet members as well. I know those take a ton of time to put together. Um, but they really help us keep our fingers on the pulse of what's happening in the district and and believe me, I read through them sometimes multiple times. Very, very helpful. Um, as Dr. Schwarz Wolf mentioned, I was also able to join the board administrative team at the ISBA fall regional meeting. It was fantastic. um very informative and we had some time for
058team building with the group as well because we don't always uh have a lot of time to get together outside of of our business meetings. The STEP program's Halloween lunchon was a success with over 50 attendees, including all kinds of administrative staff, support staff, nurses, safety resource officers, um, uh, teachers, best buddies, the Griffith STEP program classroom came over as well and a terrific showing from the IT department. Um, so I guess if you want your ticket answered, um, provide food. So, um, our STEP students are between 18 to 22 years old. They have graduated from Monster High School, and they're learning life skills in our classroom here. So, the class planned the invitations, menu, they budgeted the expenses, they went shopping, um, made the food and decorated, and they each had jobs during the
059party, whether it was greeting, clean up, or, um, uh, music, entertainment. So, um, that was fantastic. I was glad I was able to attend. And then I also enjoyed halls where we had another outstanding turnout. Thanks to the teams that work together, and I mean teams, it is a lot of people that work together for that event and it's a safe and fun experience for our neighborhood kids. So, really appreciate that. >> Mr. Castro, >> thank you, Mr. Kempy. Um, I actually was unable to attend the last meeting. Uh, so I apologize for missing that, but I was in Arizona with my daughter was a senior at Monster High School visiting Arizona State for their Sunundevil day and uh I'm I'm happy and sad she loved it and uh she has been accepted and she's
060committed to going there. So I got a future Sunundevil in my house. So for that I I was willing to miss the meeting. Um I attended the last redevelopment commission meeting. Uh nothing new to report there. I missed the pre prior two. However, because of um board school board commitments here, uh we moved a meeting and then um we had an executive session. So, but I'm always uh willing and able to communicate with um members of town council in case there's anything we missed. So, we have a strong relationship there and fortunately nothing that I miss. Um also had the opportunity to attend the ISBA regional dinner um as Dr. towards both and as center mentioned good fellowship great time to break bread do some team building and uh here ISBA does a great job
061uh the Indiana school boards association with the presentations they provide a lot a lot of information um they're very helpful and it's always it's every time we go it's more and more disconcerting that the news we hear and they're fighting the good fight but you know just just a lot to work through. Um, and as Dr. Schwarz knows as well as our legislative leazison, I'm just trying to work through the financial constraints we have. Um, but I'm I'm proud to say how well we've dealt with that. We're looking, you know, through through maintenance um, of our facilities, through careful fiscal responsibility. Um, we're looking out years ahead. We have to prepare. We know what's coming and we're taking that approach. We don't feel like there's going to be any changes. There's going to be any
062assistance. So, I just so proud of the team and Mr. team specifically for the work and foright that you have. You guys are so conservative in your estimations and I I I always appreciate that. It's helped us and it will continue doing that. Um, Halloweens I was able to attend for a little while. I was running late for that one, too. Unfortunately, work work schedule's killing me. But it was great. Such an awesome community event. When I showed up, there was still a line I mean down to the parking lot. So, was fantastic. So, thank you again teams that have done that. And just one thing I want to reiterate that Dr. Sports Bull said talking about that funding. Uh we are not everybody's clear, we're in the bottom 10 in the state, not 10%,
063the bottom 10. So, We're really working hard and have to face an uphill battle. So we will thank you the community and everybody here continuously for support financial support. Thank you very much. >> Thank you Mr. Castro. Miss Smith. >> Thank you. Um a few brief comments. Um I also want to reiterate about the Halloween halls as well as Wilbur Wright held a trunk or treat event. Um it's very nice to see the coming into our schools and us embracing that opportunity to do so. I specifically wanted to thank Mrs. Leaport and Mrs. Sash for their leadership and heading up Halloween halls at the high school is a big undertaking as well as all the volunteers that participated in both of those events. I also had the opportunity to attend the um play this past
064weekend and you did not go you missed out because it was outstanding. The topic for both plays Wright and the high school were very sensitive topics that were done profoundly well. Um the Wilbur was focused on school shooting and it was done from a child's perspective and what that child how he how he changed through life and impact children and school have on those kids and it was done profoundly well as well as the high school play and their topic of how children are treated throughout their lives. So again not only that as well as the auditorium I mean to sit in our auditorium now compared to what it was hands down a much better experience. Thank you. I reiterate all the kudos. Um I also want to mention about the and the trailer. I
065live by the high school, so I hear the band practicing um morning, noon, and morning and night, very late at night. And the parents that contribute to loading that trailer, unloading that trailer, bringing the stuff into the high school, all of the activities surrounding that trailer situation is huge. And I don't know of any other group or activity that does that much work from a parent perspective. So you guys deserve a brand new trailer and I hope very well and very excited to showcase it. So um last but not least Education Foundation has their holiday lights kicking off. Um they announced it this past week. So if your block or individual home would like to participate um sign up. The sign up is online and be a very fun community event as well. >> Thank
066you, Miss Smith. Uh, I too attended the Indiana School Board Association fall planning conference a couple weeks ago, excuse me, with my fellow board members and some administration. Um, I can tell you that I I left there very pleased and and almost relieved that we were able to offer the the that we were able there are some school districts that us that are not able to get any raises zero including some some districts in outside that to this day have not ratified their agreement and so a lot of that has to fall under earlier today with sea one and the changes that place team originally you as representative of teachers union has come together we are monster awards Dr. last week. Very pleased that we kept that going on um for the last couple years.
067It's always fun to to participate in that event. Uh and last I Dr. mentioned I'll meet with the community ambassadors on Friday. Um this is our third group of of uh monster residents that are that have participated in this. If anyone wants to participate for next year, anyone knows someone that wants to nominate someone, please let us know or let anybody in this building know so they can get on Miss Pyrick's radar, take part. It's a it's a great it's a great um event that they do once a month and we get a lot of positive feedback experience. So with that, uh, item 10.1, announcements. Our last regular board meeting of the year is December 8th at 6 p.m. And with that, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. 12. >> Is there a second?
068>> Second. >> All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries.