001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Good evening everybody. Let the record roll call show all members are present and accounted for. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. Please >> 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. >> At the school town of Monster, we are dedicated to excellence every student every day. Our mission is to cultivate excellence, empowering every student to realize their full potential and achieve high levels of learning. As a school community where all students have a sense of belonging, take ownership of the learning and find joy, passion, and purpose in their continued growth. >> Item
0021.5, public comment. 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 comments 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 and topic on a card and give to Miss Deb Hayes at the start of the meeting. Deb is raising her hand. All public comments are limited to three minutes per individual with a total
003of 30 minutes allotted for each public comment section on the agenda. Item 2.1, individual public comments. We do not have any. Okay. Item 3.1, Faith Church donation to Elliot Elementary School. And I believe Miss Herold is going to present. >> Thank you. Um I am joined by several members of Faith Church. Um Mrs. Nicole Darusha, Stanley Cap, Dean Buchanan, Noah Darusha, Harrison Mitchell, Lucas Darusha, Mai St. Louis, Mila St. Lewis, Matthew Lopez, and Benjamin Lopez um are all here from Faith Church. They did some fundraising last year, and I'd like to actually invite um Mrs. Ducha to come up to explain a little bit about what they did. Hey, my name is Nicole Darusha and I am the elementary coordinator and the um youth and community outreach director at Faith Church in Monster right here
004on Ridge and Columbia. And Faith Kids is nursery through sixth grade. Um, and they are taught church but at their level. So, every year we do a massive um, fundraiser in the summer and it's called our fund run. And we pick a um, something to donate to. We've done to Brazil. We did the welcome network last year. And this year, as we're starting to partner more into the community, all five of our locations each picked an elementary school in their town that the church is located in. Um, and so this year, um, they ran, I think it was the 31st of May. Um, it's a big party afterwards, the foam pits, bounce houses, all the stuff. The kids love it. Um, and we were able to, um, for Elliot almost $1,800. So, we are very
005excited to be able to give back to our elementary school. >> Thank you, Mr. Russia. >> Of course. Absolutely. that raised the money for us. These are some current Elliot students, but also some former Elliott students. [Applause] Take a picture. You guys >> sometimes we hide sometimes where they like if they don't want us photo bombing then we won't otherwise. >> Yeah, I think they want you. >> All right. Thank you. [Applause] Item 4.1, consent agenda. Mr. Trippenfeld. The consent agenda contains items 4.1 through and including 4.7 which I will go through at this time. Item 4.1, approval of the minutes from the August 11th, 2025 schoolboard meeting as presented on the screen. Item 4.2, the accounts accounts payable voucher register as presented. Item 4.3, the approval of the payroll voucher register as presented. Item
0064.4, approval of the personnel report that contains the following recommendations for employment, which I will scroll through slowly, which again is presented on the screen and available online. The resignations as presented, the leave of absence as presented, and the personal learning requests as a professional learning request as presented and displayed on the screen. Approval of overnight field trips as item 4.5, which would be for the Monster High School publications and the Monster High School project bio or group. Approval of donations starting with uh Eids Elementary School, which received an anonymous donation of $500 for preschool. the donation that we just recognized from Faith Kids Monster uh in the amount of $1781, the Wubberite Middle School donations from an anonymous donor and Mr. Yvanovich. Um donors in the form of athletic sponsorships to Munster High School
007from Powers Health, Millennium Medals, and contractors Power and uh Power and Light Company. And then uh the following donation from the booster club of $3,000 to the bowling club. Also contains item 4.7 approval of fundraisers with the following fundraisers for Wilbur Wright Middle School uh for Wilbur Middle School volleyball. And then the fundraisers for Monster High School for environmental club, speech and debate, spirit committee, wrestling, environmental science, and as you can read and go to the second page also those sports teams along with theater and dance. again available online for everyone to review. Uh with that, the administration recommends that the board approve consent agenda items 4.1 through and including 4.7 as presented. >> Would any of the board like any items broken down individually? Is there a motion to approve consent agenda items 4.1
008through and including 4.7 as presented? >> Cast so moved. >> Castro second. >> Any further discussion? I just want to always comment on this, but I love our teacher mentoring program, and I want to give a shout out to the teachers who volunteer, but it it is I think a mentoring program for our teachers is an excellent way to bond the staff and then also help out our newer teachers. So, for those of you that are going to be taking this on this year, we appreciate you. >> Any other discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. Item 5.1, permission to advertise the 2026 budget notice to taxpayers for capital projects plan and bus replacement plan. Mr. Melby. >> Yes. The administration recommends that
009the board give permission to advertise the 2026 bud uh proposed budget as presented at the public work session on September 3rd, 2025, as well as bus replacement and capital projects plan. Is there a motion to approve the permission to advertise the 2026 budget notice to taxpayers for capital projects plan and bus replacement plan as presented? >> Ender. So move. >> Is there a second? >> Smith second. >> Any discussion? >> I just would like to point out I won't go over all of it. We've uh you've heard me talk for hours over uh the last uh couple weeks. Uh but I do want to point out a couple things. Remember when we went for the referendum two referendums ago, our school board promised the community they were going to do everything they could to keep
010the tax rate under or around $141. In 2021, we were at a $130 approximately. At 2022, $131 approximately. In 2023, we were at A$130 approximately. 2024 A$130 approximately. And in 2025, a $126.88. Uh we have definitely decreased from that uh $141 that we promised. We said we were going to do our best under the guidance of our superintendents and our board. We've been able to cut from where we promised by approximately 10%. Now, we know uh Senator Ro act one has changed things, but we also believe it's a gradual change or not so gradual, but this first year we're not going to feel as much of a hit. when you budget or you uh put the numbers out there, you always go tax rate high for advertisement and that assess value low. So when you
011see the original numbers, you're like, "Oh, that's a little bit higher than last year." That's not where we're going to come in at. I believe we will come in at approximately a$127 between a$127 and a$1.28. I mean, I really believe it's going to be right at a$127.55 if you want to know my exact number. Um, but there are some variance in there. So again, we're going to beat it by about 9 and a half%. So um I recommend that we get permission to advertise the proposed budget. >> Thank you, Mr. Melby. Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. >> Item 5.2, project two, 2025 0525, school town of Monster activity bus. Mr. Begley. Uh this uh is a request and uh for replacing
012one of our activity buses. We have a 2012 that's getting old and higher in mileage. These activity buses, those are the white buses that you can put 14 students and a driver in. They're used quite often by uh our clubs. Uh their step program uses them and of course our athletic teams use them in the afternoon. Um so this would replace one of our aging ones and bring the fleet up. We've been focusing on replacing the yellow buses uh in the bus replacement plan. So we'd like to get uh of the activity bus is replaced. >> Thank you, Mr. Begley. Is there a motion to approve project 2025 0525 school town of Monster activity bus as presented? >> Castro, I move we approve project 202525 school town of Monster activity bus uh as presented. >>
013Is there a second? >> Sure. 12 second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. Item 7.1, seclusion and restraint handbook. Miss Burman, you will find um attached here on the agenda the seclusion and restraint handbook developed um through the collaboration of um our assistant director Jan Merik, our um exceptional achiever coordinators and also our um social workers. Um this is we've had a board policy, we've had administrative guidelines. However, um we do need to have an actual handbook um for our staff to reference um to be compliant with um Indiana code. >> So this is not an item that you need to take action on. This is just a review that so that it becomes that comes before you and so that
014it becomes public knowledge that we have this this handbook. It has been reviewed by council. We really just want to make sure you have it. And in order to remain compliant when we're done with this review, we're going to go back a step in the agenda. Really quick, are there any items that may properly come before the board? Item six. None. Okay. >> Are there any questions about the seclusion and restraint handbook at this time from the board? Okay. We have reviewed it. >> Item 8.1, administrative reports. Dr. Ricks. >> In light of the fact that we were just in a work session and uh an executive session and that the bears are going to bear down tonight, uh I am going to share very brief update and I would remind my team that we
015are all to be sharing brief updates this evening. uh have been working with the team on some construction items that we talked through at the executive uh session to make sure that we're all on the same page. Uh most notably, we're going to work uh to come up with a plan to colllocate the central office in the new uh multi-use facility uh that we'll be building. Uh want to make folks aware of that. Those plans will be forthcoming, but really appreciate the board's support on that. Really appreciate Mr. Begley and the teams work on that and we're excited to plan and and have a vision to both have uh a great facility that uh meets multiple purposes and hopefully uh a fiduciary uh savings on our part. So uh win-win for us and for uh
016our budget have been working with the team on negotiations. I don't want to steal Mr. Trippenfeldis' uh bounce but it has been great watching the team work. The relationship with the union is very uh sound. really appreciate meeting with the union president this morning and spending time with him and uh getting a sense of the history of the relationship and how things work. Uh really grateful for the the relationship and I think we'll have a very fruitful uh negotiating uh period with them. I've been working through my listening tour so far. I've had a chance to meet with the parents at the high school, the staff at the high school, the staff at Wilbur Wright and the staff at Eids. and the tour continues. Uh tour dates uh you know are upcoming. Had a chance
017to go to a chamber networking event. Really grateful for the work of the chamber and looking forward to partnering with them. Uh had a chance to uh uh to to send Mr. Tribenfeldus on behalf of the school district to his first sustainability coalition meeting. Can't wait to hear how that went, Mr. Tribenfeldus. So, thank you. And um I'm with the help of Mrs. Pyrick and the team, I'm working uh we're working on locking down dates for community ambassadors and the student advisory for the superintendent. Those dates will be forthcoming as well. Uh grateful to her for bringing me up to speed on it and helping me set the dates and move these things all forward. And grateful for all of her help setting up the listening tour and making uh making it possible for me
018to execute it. So, thank you. Uh, and that's everything that I have. >> Thank you, Dr. Hicks. This uh item 8.2, assistant superintendent reports, Miss Burger. >> Thank you. Um I'm Miss Yo is not here this evening, so I am also going to share um the elementary side for us also. So, first one foremost, we want to thank the board for their support and all of our staff for an excellent and our students for an excellent start to the school year. Um it's been tremendous and we're grateful for everyone and everything that they've been able to accomplish. Um a reminder, a quick reminder, September 25th is our first um late start release. Um these are flex days that we wrote a flex waiver for at the end. I think I wrote it at the end
019of not last year, the year. It was the beginning of last year. That's what it was. And we did not use them last year. um the administrative team felt it was not enough time for parents to make arrangements. So, we pushed it to this year. So, on September 25th, we will have early release. The times of those release will be coming from each of your schools. Um however, we did want to ensure that students will have the option to um receive a lunch before they leave. So if there's any questions um regarding that portion um also we would like to say from the elementary side that um there is a new um testing calendar for the school year. NWA is already complete. Thank you to Yaric and his team for getting all the devices out
020and working for our students so they could take those assessments. Um if you want if you're curious about your child's assessments and when they occur, you can go to the um our website and the calendar is there. From the middle school side, um we'd like to celebrate that actually 45% of our students currently in 8th grade will go to the high school with a a minimum of one high school credit. Um however, we will have about 30% leaving with six or more credits. So, this has been through the work of our middle school team um in collaboration, I will also say with the high school that they've done a great job in working together to ensure that there's a continuous pathway for our kids. Um that brings us to the excellent news. I think the
021board is aware, I'm just going to make it heard for the public. Um the high school under the leadership of Mr. Nolan in support of his staff. The high schools in excuse me, Muner High School in 2024 um our students earned 9,132 college credits in one year. I don't that is such a testament to the work that the administrative team does, the staff, our community, our students to make such an accomplishment. According to um Mr. Snider. If we average the cost of one college credit as $300, it we have saved um our parents $2,739,000. So, I would just like to make that known again. Congratulations to the high school and Mr. Nolan and his staff. 9,132 um credits earned in one year by our students. So, and I believe that's all I have for today.
022Thank you. That's awesome. Mr. Trippen Feldus. >> Uh Dr. Hicks made the comment. Yes, I just I left the first uh sustainability commission meeting at the town. It was organizational meeting today. Hopefully, I'll be reporting out maybe once a month. They plan to have those the second Tuesday of every month. So, it's going to be interesting to coordinate those. So, I'll be coming from those probably to come to these meetings. Um working on just getting members from the community and also our students from the high school that we have to shore up our appointment of those students. Uh but it sounds like it's that our individuals there have a lot of really neat ideas and we're going to be moving forward with some uh some definite uh actions for sustainability in the future that uh
023will be rather interesting and uh I'm a little uh I feel a little overwhelmed with some of the ideas these people have. So the kids are wonderful there. We had four students there today just as representatives and they've got some big ideas and uh it's going to be really good to get beside them and see watch them work. So from that note, we'll move forward. Uh this is obviously October is what we call our ADM day, which is average average daily membership. As of September 5th, we were at uh 4,19 students. So that usually stays about stable for us, but we have an official count the I think it's the first Monday of October. I can't remember if that's the that may be the first I think this year. I think it might be October
0241st this year. So we'll see how that goes. That's where Mr. from Elb's always wanting to know see what those numbers are because that affects uh uh the funding that we get from the state obviously. Um in August I attended the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board uh affectionately known as Herb, their annual meeting regarding collective bargaining. Actually was an extremely uh productive meeting because there's so many changes in the Indiana code affecting collective bargaining. It was really good to get some uh good feedback from the people who will determine if our collective bargaining agreement is uh basically in line with Indiana code or not. So, it was really good to get that information. Uh in August and obviously in September, we've been meeting uh informally with the Muner teachers association as part of that process.
025I really can't discuss specifics yet obviously because we're still in negotiations even though it's informal. Uh but I did want to emphasize the fact that it's it is truly um hopefully a collaborative process that we work with our teachers association with and they have got a good group of people on their team representing the teachers and it's it's uh always a positive experience even though we may not always agree on everything. Uh it is always a positive experience and it works well. Uh and then hopefully shortly we'll be able to report more out after September 15th. Um, I just want to make the board aware of that I've been working on revisions to a little over 90 school board policies, which is about three times more than normal. Uh, so we'll have to be going
026over those probably through a work session. Um, we'll have to probably talk about maybe a little different way to present those because if I take just one minute on each one, that's already 90 minutes. So, we'll have to talk about that and see what you guys want. And then one last thing, Vicky Swing, who's our benefit specialist, she does a tremendous job. I want to give her many kudos as I can. Uh she's been with the district for several years and this role has just suited her beautifully. Uh she and I are going to begin the uh what we call the benefits road show to the school. So we're going to go out and talk about uh the different benefits that we have including things like our free clinic that we offer. Uh our free
027orthopedic surgeries that we can do with uh Hendricks Regional uh our free prescription medication that we have with one of our programs. Uh free cardiac care that we also do with another program. So, we try to make sure we make those known to our uh our employees and our people on this uh insurance plan because they're tremendous. And then again, this year, we're going to be offering our pharmaccogenetic testing again for our employees at no cost. So, if someone did not take advantage of it last year or any of our new employees, um don't get me started on that because I'll go for an hour. Uh but it's a tremendous benefit that can truly reduce pharmacy costs and actually get people to take medications that actually work. If you do the research, it's just amazing.
028So, we offer that at no cost to our employees in a short time period. We usually run like a 60 or 90 day window. Those uh those uh genetic tests usually cost around $400 a person. So, we tried to uh take care of that cost for them. So, we'll be advertising that, encouraging people to do that. And as you saw, we're still onboarding and hiring lots of positions. And as you saw, a lot of those are still the addendum that come after a lot of those positions. So, it's been very busy in the human resources department in the last month. Uh with that, barring any questions, that completes my brief. >> Thank you, Mr. Tribenfeld. This item 8.3, chief financial officer report. Mr. Melby. >> Yes. I want to start by um again, as you
029guys know, we presented the budget uh last week and how lucky Monster is to have board members and a superintendent that understands school finance uh probably better than I do. It It's a pleasure uh doing that and reporting back to you your questions. It's just it's awesome. The school's in very good hands. So, uh that's a great thing. As far as the cash sheets, I'm going to go very quick. This month, we did decrease our cash balance in the education fund as expected. It was a three pay month. We are slightly trending slightly ahead of where we thought we would be and actually uh the education operations and referendum funds. So, all of them have been slightly ahead of where we thought. The one thing I do want you to be looking ahead, just like
030at home, if you're uh when they come read your uh NIPCO box, if it's not working, sometimes you get charged a little bit more later. Well, that's coming here because they weren't uh hitting our high school, I do believe, for a couple months. I was I was wondering where that big spike was going to come. I'm like, "Hey, we're trending underneath. That's great." Well, it's probably going to be coming next month or the month after. So, don't be shocked when you see a large number in utilities under the operations fund. Other than that, that'll be my finance uh presentation for today. >> Thank you, Mr. Melby. Item 8.4, director of operations, Mr. Begley. >> I only give you a quick update on some projects we have going. Uh the fine art ballards, we're waiting for
031the ballers and barricade uh materials be delivered. It should be any day now uh or midseptember. And after that, that project will wrap up. uh the 35th Street parking lot and storage. The trenching is wrapping up for the low voltage runs. Uh the trusses have been approved. We're just waiting on delivery. So, you're going to start seeing that uh storage room building take shape. Uh we still have an anticipated completion date of late October. Um as Dr. Hicks said we uh following your meeting, I met with DA to give direction with the multi-purpose building and central office and they're going to start meeting with the stakeholders to kind of finalize design and uh refine the whole scope and get that those plans ready for uh going out to bid uh transportation. Uh we're going to
032conduct our fall bus evacuation drills uh tomorrow at the high school and middle school and Wednesday for the elementary schools. We had one driver successfully pass his road test today. So, he's going to start his supervised drive time and we'll get him on his route. And then, uh, we're still waiting on those two 84 passenger buses to come in. They should be coming in this month. And with the activity bus that you just approved, the the wait time on that is pretty short. So, they that should be coming with the uh other two buses pending. Any questions? That's all I have. >> Thank you, Mr. Begley. Item 8.5, director of computer systems report, Mr. PDAL. Hopefully I'm going to be pretty quick too, but to trying to cover what we have accomplished this summer is
033um how eventful we've had of a summer. But I'm going to start with the one thing that has impacted everybody in this room and in this gonna give you guys a little bit of a backstory is you know environment that was 24 years like an old building per se, 10tory building. It's not up to code. It's just it's it's not worth fixing what's there anymore. So, we as a team have decided um to go ahead and build a new one. So, my team and the administration as well, we have come together. we have laid out different foundations and plans and structures and we place but now transitioning over to it as with everything you know we kind of ran into a couple different issues um but I would say are they to have the team
034that I have because if it wasn't for them the dedication work they have done this would have been not possible this would have been a disaster And given the fact that not only we're erecting a whole new facility, you know, you know, figuratively speaking, we've had four 4,500 new devices that we've prepared and deployed. Um, Mr. Begley over there was tearing up, you know, the south end of the building. So, we also had to get networking services up and running and the PA up and running. Uh, the team has also deployed roughly 600 brand new surveillance cameras throughout the district. Um, and by my calculations, we probably saved roughly 370 $380,000. Yeah, 370 $380,000 so far. Uh, we still have a little bit of work left at the high school in the exterior, but none
035of this would have been possible if it wasn't for my team. And I'm sorry, I'm kind of choking up, but these guys have done a phenomenal work. We also um had an abrupt departure of our database guy. So Kurt Papovich back there, he's been filling in and he's been doing a tremendous job, trying to not only re-engineer what his predecessor left behind, but also trying to change with everything that we're doing to make our place better, synchronize a lot of different systems together. Um Kevin Vuadika, who's basically been spearheading a lot of these new initiatives when it comes to the new domain, the new environment. Um John Riviera, he's also been detrimental with this. Rebecca Bogus, um um Vanessa, um Josh Ellard, um Alex Miranda, and now even Ryan Sparling. And Ryan came back to
036us thanks to the town partnership that we have. So even though he is the Tom Tech, he's really helped us out big time. And I I I can talk a lot more, but uh given that, you know, there's a game that we got to catch, I just wanted to take a minute to recognize the sheer amount of work that the team has done. And if it wasn't for them, this would have been a disaster. And that's that's all I got to say for now. All right. Thank you, Mr. Pnel. Item 8.7, Director of Communications, Miss Pyrick. Hello everyone. Um I'm going to talk a little bit about what I'm working on. Um communications covers a lot of different things. So branding is currently one of the big focuses right now. Um I am updating all
037of the different murals in schools. Um right now the focus is uh Wilbur Wright. We're doing a 36 panel. Um all of them are getting done. Elliot, we are going to install them throughout the whole building. um down the hallways, little pods of four that you see similar to here, and then working with the other principles. Another big project we're working on is external door signage throughout all of the schools. Eids and Elliott is current or Eids and Wilbur Wright are currently in production. Um sounds like a very easy job, but it's not. um trying to make sure we have all of the um door letters and where they're being put um what type of materials we're using, who's going to install them, how they're being installed, all of that. And probably one of the
038biggest um things that we have started to do, well, not even started, it's been over a year, probably a year and a half, are the interior room sign numbers for the Wilbur Wright and um the high school. We are doing over 550 signs. It has taken a year and a half like I mentioned. Um, this job is really, really time consuming and it has affected many more operations and systems that I ever thought it would. um building directories, fire alarm systems, cameras, air handlers, breaker panels, power school um the system that uh room numbers, schedules for our students, PA system, maps and directories, and then information that we provide to our first responders. So any change that we make has so many people involved. So, we have had multiple meetings to make sure that if
039we do call a number, if we have an emergency of any kind, that every single person knows where that room is, if there's anyone that needs help. So, that has really been something that's very important to all of us. um communications. Um as always, website updates constantly changing as well as working with our building principles as well as our communication ambassadors working on newsletter updates and social media making sure that all of our community members and families know all the amazing things that are happening in our schools and classes. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Pyrick. Item 9.1, individual public comments. There are none. Item 10.1, individual board member reports. Dr. Schwarz Wolf. >> Good evening. I will be attending the Indiana School Board Association fall conference in Indie next week. I will be
040the delegate to the uh delegate assembly, which will be setting priorities for the legislative year of 2026. So, it's a time when the school boards across the state get together and decide what do we want to focus on when we know the legislators are going to come at us with a lot of different rules and regulations. So, we're this is our preemptive strike, so to speak. Um, and so I'll have more to report next time. >> Miss Cinder, >> thank you. Um, I appreciated the opportunity to attend the redevelopment commission meeting held on September 4th. The agenda primarily focused on approval for three voucher registers. The largest voucher was $50,000 and that was allocated to tax increment financing allocation fund. Prior to the redevelopment commission meeting, the town council convened and officially proclaimed the week
041of September 17th through 23rd, 2025 as constitution week. So that designation aims to honor and promote awareness of the United States Constitution and the fundamental rights it guarantees to us. And additionally, the town council adopted a responsible biders ordinance. This new regulation introduces enhanced criteria for vendors engaged in construction work on public works projects that'll ensure greater accountability and compliance with established standards. And then um on a more personal note and following up to Mrs. Bergrren's comments earlier um I know at a previous board member I mentioned or board meeting I mentioned my son who graduated in May. He did start at Purdue University in West Lafayette. So seniors think about this with 73 credits. He is a junior and they accepted um 73 credits with a 4.0 GPA as a freshman. So, um, sounds
042like that saved my husband and I about $22,000. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Cinder. Mr. Castro, >> thank you, sir. Uh, I first want to thank Miss Cinder for attending that town council redevelopment commission meeting. I was unable to attend, so I really appreciate you going. Um, I was able to attend the one on August 18th, that same thing. There's usually not a ton that comes from these redevelopment commission reports, but uh passing of that consent agenda as well. Um I do want to announce uh welcome all of the the kids that are here from the all the government students. Um glad to see you here, but I do want to announce that anybody who was a late arrival and came after 6 p.m. the that doesn't count. you have to return uh for
043an additional meeting uh and have to be here at 6 PM. So, if any that applies to anybody, I'm not sure if that was anybody here, but just in case, um we're going to have to we're going to have to do that. [Music] >> Um just just want to want to give a a thank you to uh all of our donors um and to Faith Church for for deciding to uh commit to us. Um, uh, it's just neat to see, you know, religious institutions, public institutions, and faith community throughout Monster just kind of speaks to how we all work together on things. And, uh, I I love seeing that. Um, another quick note, honestly, uh, to the government kids, I don't know if you're aware or he mentioned, we use board docs. Um, there's a
044website so you can go back and review, look at previous meetings. Uh, this current meeting, it's also, uh, streamed. um it will be available so you can watch the meeting, check notes, take notes um if you need to follow up on that. Um and then last thing I just want to say it's it's funny the consent agenda. I've mentioned this before. It's just a quick thing. We kind of go through it, you know, we vote on that and it's has so much information. We spend so much time as board members going through that, reading through that, looking at the vouchers, all the work that everybody does. It's just it's just such a quick, you know, just a quick part of the meeting. But all the work that that's done for that and and I think
045that applied to a lot of things tonight just getting the the school year off the ground. Um you know there again just quick mentions of of work sessions and executive sessions but so much time and effort goes into that specifically we were talking about the collaborative approach to um the collective bargaining and it's awesome to see that again that that we're we're all working together to try to come to a good end for everybody in our school community. Um, Mr. Pel, you and your team, I'm glad you had the opportunity to come and speak to that. You know, you hear, "Oh, it was a new domain." And if anything, people are like, "H, what this all this has done is caused me problems." Nobody realizes the amount of work and effort that you guys undertook.
046I want to thank you for that and thank you for all the because nobody's going, "Hey, great job on that new domain." It's mostly like, "Hey, man, my email doesn't work." And I was among those people. So, um, thank you for doing that. And uh same with with Kim and and the communications. I'm sure you don't people don't walk at me and go, "Hey man, nice sign. Thanks." So it's just it's just a lot that that you're doing. So thank you for that. Um and that is all I have. >> Thank you, Mr. Castro. Miss Smith. >> Um thank you. In light of uh John's comments about working together, I will start with my park board um meeting. I sit on the park board on behalf of School Town of Monster. Um although we're all
047separate entities, we work cooperatively together um on numerous projects, but upcoming right now as part of our park board priorities, we have submitted a capital improvement project list to the town council for their review and approval includes numerous updates um throughout our park system here in the town of Mster. So that um we'll give updates to like beach park um cobblestones um I think every single park actually in monster will be touched with something as part of that project list. Um Centennial Park is a separate financing initiative and that will be underway in terms of review by council and determining our final steps for um the new park that will be some of the new updates will be at Centennial. Um, we had a ribbon cutting for Bridges Over Ditches that occurred last week, which
048was well attended. Um, we also approved a final bid for doing a West Lakes washroom finally. So, no more portaotties out at Westlakes eventually, which is exciting. Um, we are in the process of reviewing RFPs for golf course management. Um, a lot of the youth and probably adults will be excited to know we are stocking Maynard Lake. Um I don't know with what type of fishes yet, but that is to be forthcoming and a lot of numerous projects and fall initiatives that um are forthcoming. With that part concluded, I'd just like to note um just a special note that we've started our entire school year on a really positive note um with the hiring of Dr. Hicks as well as all of the items that we've all shared here this evening. Um it takes a
049lot of hard work over the summer to start our school year off in such a positive way. So, I definitely want to thank everybody here. Um, I'm not going to do it by name because inevitably I will forget somebody, but I do want to make special note to Bill Melby and Jennifer Espinosa for your hard work on um the bi the finances and preparing us for our financial future and ensuring we are ready for that. Um, I think that's a big undertaking that we cannot make light of any way, shape, or form. Um, I also again want to recognize Steve and Colleen for helping us through some transition items. Um, so that is continued thanks and appreciation for that. And last but not least, um, I attended the open house and for Wilbur Wright and
050Monster High School last week. Um, two different formats. Very valuable still even for a as I think of myself as a seasoned parent. I'm still meeting brand new teachers or teachers that have been here for a while. So there's still a lot of value in holding those events and we're one of a few schools in our area that continue to hold it. So um parents who aren't able to attend who are um or those who did attend it still find it very valuable to have. So thank you. >> Thank you Miss Smith. Um I will be attending the Indiana School Board Association fall planning conference on Monday and Tuesday uh next week. I've been to a couple of them and I and I can say every time I've left there, I feel relieved and I
051appreciate the school town of Monster more and more when hearing um stories from other school districts across the state. I am the uh board liazison for the Monster Education Foundation and I'd like to highlight three new members for the Monster Education Foundation, Mr. Halusk, Nikki Nyana, and Nikki Briner. Um along with the the MEF their first grant cycle will be voted on this Wednesday and they also formed committees uh I believe in the last week or so and they've already been formed. Uh so good things with the Monster Education Foundation. Uh one last note and I don't know Kim if we can do this as long as Miss Herold uh would allow but it was brought to my attention I was reminded that way back when when we graduated that M. Herald was voted on
052by her class as most likely to come back to be a monster school town a monster teacher. >> Yes, she was. >> So I think maybe can we can we highlight that some ways to get that out far and wide that everyone knows as long as she's okay with it. >> I want to I want to stay on the board. >> MHS teacher. [Laughter] still has time. >> Anyway, that is all I have. With that being said, uh I'd like to make a motion for or excuse me, what's that? Oh, we have a couple meetings coming up. We have a meeting on September 24th, a special board meeting September 24th, followed by our October regular board meeting on October 6th, both at 6 PM. With that, I'd like to entertain a motion to adjurnn. >>
053Schwarz will so moved. >> Is there a second? >> Castro second. >> All those in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. 5-0. >> Meeting adjourned. Thank you everybody. Go bear.