School Town of Munster Regular School Board Meeting 6/9/25

001[Music] Let the roll call show that all board members are present. Let's please stand for the pledge of allegiance. United States of America and to the stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all item 1.4 public comment information. There are currently we offer current 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 comment section

002of the meeting, please put your name, please put your name and topic on a card and give to Miss Deb Hayes at the start of the meeting. Miss Hayes is raising her hand. All public comments are limited to three minutes per individual with a total of 30 minutes allotted for each public comment section on the agenda. Item two, individual public comments. Any Deb item three, recognition 2024 25 school town of Monster retirees. Dr. Eller. Yes, we have three retirees we were planning to honor tonight. Carolyn Blocker, Kevin Klein, and Steve Lopez. Um all three um are already enjoying retirement and not joining us in in the in attendance tonight. Uh we do have some gifts for them that we will have already reached out to them to have them come in to to pick up.

003So we thank all three of those individuals for their long t long longterm and wonderful service to the school town of Monster. Thank you Dr. Heler. Item four, principal principal report. Ms. Borsma. Oh, and welcome to all of you. Um out for summer. Um our end of the year celebrations happened. and our fifth graders had a wonderful time celebrating um their tenure at our elementary buildings and we are sending Wilbur Wright Middle School some wonderfully prepared students. So we're excited to see them move on and sad to see them go at the same time. Our fifth graders also celebrated DARE graduations and we'd like to publicly thank officer or sorry Sergeant Grace um and the school board as well as Dr. Heler for attending all three of our DARE graduation celebrations. Um, in regards to

004academics, our iid data looks really good. It looks like we are hitting above 95% passing across all three buildings, and we're very excited for that. And as well as our second graders who uh our goal was an 80% passing rate for them, and it looks like we're really close to that also. So, we're incredibly proud of our second and third grade teachers, but also our kindergarten and first grade teachers who are absolutely preparing our students to be readers. Uh, summer school is live and in action and in session right now, the four weeks of June. Um, our second graders who are at risk for passing I read are attending. Our third graders who did not pass I read are also attending. And then we have a cluster of kindergarten, first and fourth graders that are

005also attending to the tune of 88 students who are partaking this summer. Um things are going very very well and thanks to Mrs. Latoya Edwards who's running that program and spearheading that, we're happy to have her on our team. Um other than that, we're just busy working on summer professional development for teachers. Our elementary reading curriculum adoption process is starting this summer. Uh we've adopted a new prek curriculum, so we're diving deep into that. Um we have to hire a new prek teacher. Um so we're in the process of that as well. And uh we're staffing our buildings for a new school year because August 12th is coming all too quickly. Thank you, Mrs. Bisma. Item five, consent agenda. Mr. Triben Feldus. Mr. President, the consent agenda contains items 5.1 through and including 5.5, which

006I will quickly go through. Item 5.1 is the approval of the minutes from uh the May 7th executive session of the school board, the May 8th executive session of the school board, the May 12th regular school board meeting, the May 15th special school board meeting. Um and then it also then contains approval of the accounts payable voucher register as presented as item 5.2 5.3 the approval of the payroll voucher register as presented. It it contains item 5.4 approval of the personnel report which includes the following recommendations for employment as presented and displayed on the screen. The following resignations as presented and displayed on the screen. uh one letter to rescend a resignation, a retirement listed, and the leaves of absence uh listed for that individual, and then the professional learning requests uh as presented. As

007you can see, I'm trying to scroll through this list slowly and then one termination uh that is listed as presented as well. It also contains approval of overnight field trip requests of the Merl uh Monster High School girls soccer team to go to Carmel and the Monster Boys and Girls cross country team to go to Angola, Indiana. With that, the administration recommends that the board approved with one motion and one vote consent agenda items 5.1 through and including 5.5 as presented. Would any of the board members like any items broken down individually? Is there a motion to approve consent agenda items 5.1 through and including 5.5 as presented? Schwarz Wolf so moved. Is there a second? Castro second. Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion

008carries 5-0. Item 6.1, donations. The administration recommends that the board approve the donations as presented. Is there a motion to approve donations as presented? Castro, I move we approve donations as presented. Is there a second? Smith second. Any discussion? From the discussion, you'll see that we have donations uh listed for Monster High School in the following amounts. Obviously, as you'll see for uh track, speech and debate, the training room, art club, best buddies, gate receipts, and uh dance and at the amounts that are available there. All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Item 6.2, athletic sponsorship donations. Uh the administration recommends the athletic sponsorship donations as presented. Is there a motion to approve the athletic sponsorship donations as presented? Ender. So move. Is there a

009second? Smith. Second. Any discussion? You will see a list uh there for the athletic sponsorships um that will be uh that were submitted actually in May. So they'll be going for the next school year to American Community, Aries, Ruof, Compton, and Broomhead. And then Cal Waste and Recycling. Mr. Trementhalis, you said it'll go towards next year. I think is that correct? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. Item 6.3, fundraisers. The administration recommends the uh the board approve the fundraisers as presented. Is there a motion to approve the fundraisers as presented? Castro, I move we approve the fundraisers as presented. Is there a second? Schwarz will second. Any discussion? As you will see on the screen, uh for the high school, we have the following fundraisers.

010Uh girls soccer, speech and debate, boys soccer, dance team, cross country, athletics, uh a couple of for athletic sports teams, CEC, student government, and I'm still going and there's several for choir. That is for the high school. for the middle school. We have the following fundraisers for the Wilbrite Middle School dance. Any further questions? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. Item 6.4 202526 Mini Mustangs PreK program tuition. We are going to ask for a motion to approve the 202526 mini pre Mustangs prek program tuition as presented. Schwarz Wolf so moved. Is there a second? Smith second. Any discussion? How does this compare from last year? The the biggest change is that we do not have a half day prek program this coming year. I

011don't know that we made we $50 change to the actual amount, right? because I think what we were talking it was going to have to be more. So, okay. Yeah, we kept it still very low compared to any private preschools or private daycarees. Okay. Thank you. Any other further discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Item 6.5, approval of the agreement concerning student 2025. Is there a motion to approve the agreement concerning student 2025-1? Wolf. So moved. Is there a second? Castro second. Any discussion? So I will give just a little bit of context without giving much information because this is related to a specific individual student. This relates to a due process uh conversation and and discussion that happened between parents and the school

012corporation and ultimately a decision was made um in that due process um hearing to come to some an agreement about what would happen for that student for the 2526 school year which is outlined in the agreement for the board's approval. All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Item 6.6, project 2025331, the Eid serving line and comi oven replacement. Combi oven. Comi combi oven replacement. Water and heat. Mr. Begley, you want to comment about that? Uh, the serving lines and combi ovens at Eids have lived a good life but are in now in dire need of being replaced. Uh this replace this this project will replace both and bring them up to date with uh better equipment. The combi oven takes water and and heat and

013you can dial in moisture, heat, time for different recipes and it gives better texture to fries uh and all the things they serve there. And then also the uh serving lines, they are just starting to fall apart. And we replaced Elliott's and Frank Hammonds last year and this will uh replace them and we will fund it out of the food service account. Is there a motion to approve project 2025331, the Eid serving line and combi oven replacement as presented? Cinder, I move to approve Eid serving line and combi oven replacement as presented. Is there a second? Miss second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. Item 6.7, project 2025 0530, the school town of Monster furniture replacement, summer 2025 work. So, thank you.

014Uh, working with Mr. Melbby, we've allocated money in um a bond to finish up replacing the furniture in all the schools. Uh, we've completed furniture at the high school. uh this furniture order for you tonight will uh complete the furniture replacement at the middle school. Uh and then next month I will bring furniture orders to complete furniture replacement at the middle, excuse me, at the elementary school. So this is to complete 20 classrooms. Those are sets of 32 uh for the student desks. We've already replaced the teacher desks and it will bring the u the classroom more flexible and have a a desk and chair. Is there a motion to approve this project 2025 0530 the school tunnel monster furniture replacement as presented 412 so moved. Is there a second? Castro second. Any further discussion?

015All those in favor of the motion please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Item 6.8 curricular materials disposal. Mr. uh each year or excuse me uh textbooks and curricular materials they go through a textbook adoption about every five to six years and each year we gather the obsolete curricular materials from all the schools as they expire or become obsolete and since I will say this since going one to one the amount has gone down greatly uh but we've used Allied Book Company for several years to pick up and dispose of the materials and I recommend approving the company again to uh come by and pick up the materials and disposable. Is there a motion to approve the curricular materials disposal with Allied Book Company as presented? Castro, I move we approve curricular materials

016disposal as presented. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Item 6.9 classified staff fringe benefits 202526. Mr. Tripldis administration sorry administration recommends that the board approve the classified staff fringe benefits as presented and I'll discuss shortly after the motion in the second. Is there a motion to approve this classified staff fringe benefit change 202526 as presented? Schwarz Wolf so moved. Is there a second? A second. Any further discussion? I would just like to touch on a few of the things. We made some adjustments uh in this to the number of work days to earn 10 PTO days because we're going to make some changes with the instructional assistance hopefully in the future where they will work more

017days for some training days. So, we had to make some adjustments there. Um we made a small adjustment to prorrating PTO days from July because that's when our year- round employees start from October. That's a change in there. Uh we also revised in a few places the classification numbers because we if you remember last year we changed some classification numbers and now we got to make sure those match with those numbers. Uh the only things that are affecting anything when it comes to finances are the district portion of medical insurance increase slightly by $300 which we've actually talked about in 2023 and 24. So it was planned. Um that was not a and it's not a huge increase but it's a small one. We cleaned up a lot of language. So whether it's retirey insurance

018benefit language or excess unpaid uh days, no difference in benefits, just we really went through a deep dive and made sure the language is a little bit more clear to understand. Uh and then the big thing that we've actually talked about as a board for a year and and administration is we added one paid holiday back to those positions that are listed on there as the year round or the uh the building level. So that's a process we're going to go through over the next couple years hopefully. uh we added one of those and I'm trying to think the only other thing we did was we added specific instructions on how to what to do and what to follow in a workrelated injury because it was more general. So we got more specific there. Uh

019and then the other thing that's financially uh as a a financial issue is we adjusted the mileage rate stipens for a few of those uh positions that have mileage stipens to as you'll see later on the federal government raised their mileage rate rather significantly this year. So we adjusted those stipens by kind of the same uh percentage and that came from the uh business office. Mr. Melby did that. Other than that, really all we had did there was some language to clear it up to make it a little bit more clear and to clear up some reference numbers. Um, but very minor adjustments as as a whole. Any other questions, guys? I guess my only comment would be that I want to be sure Mr. Melby looked at this because after the Senate Bill one

020passed, everything is money, money, money. And this is an added cost, which sounds completely fair and legitimate, but every time we do anything that's going to cost money, I'm going to ask, can we afford it? And I know Mr. Melbby is not here, but I assume, and I want to hear it, he looked through this and agrees. Yes, he looked through everything. He actually gave me the mileage rates and he gave me the amount for the uh insurance uh and that's really the only really increases there. So he actually gave me those amounts and we looked at them and again they're within the the parameters of what we were going to do originally. So it works. Thank you. I hate to speak for him, but he actually gave me the actual numbers. So Mr. Trip

021and Fellowis, when does that mileage rate change occur? Is it July or is that Yeah, the mileage rate will occur as of July 1st. Thank you. Any other questions? Is there a motion to approve the classified staff fringe benefits 202526 as presented? Excuse me. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Sorry, guys. Uh, all those in favor to approve the classified staff fringe benefits 202526 as presented. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 50. Bear with me. Item 6.10, transportation benefits. The administration recommends that the transportation staff fringe benefits uh be accepted by the board as presented. Is there a motion to approve the transportation benefits 202526 as presented? Sender. So move. Is there a second? Castro second. Any discussion? Same language clear up of all of these. So if there's position

022numbers, the only thing that's different in here is at the very end when um and again it's not a change in the benefits or any value. Uh we just cleared up the incentives. We have an incentive for uh attendance with the uh transportation and we cleared it up just to make sure that uh if you have perfect attendance, you don't get both. It was listed there, but it's it's a little bit more clear. Uh there was some phrasing like they aren't independent of each other. So we just made it very simple and said you can get one A or B down here. Uh so we just cleared that language up in addition to everything that was made with classified. So again, nothing that's that significant changes when it comes to cost. All those in favor

023of the motion to approve the transportation benefits 202526 as presented. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries 50. Item 6.11, administrative fringe benefits. The administration recommends the board approve the administrative fringe benefits as presented. Is there a motion to approve the administrative fringe benefits 202526 412 so moved is there a second castro second any discussion so there are only really three minor changes in this one was the PTO buyback that we do for teachers and administrators we had the language in there that uh the check would be written in June well administrators contracts go from July to June so we can't even calculate the number of PTO days left so we we changed that to July to actually match our practice uh again no change in the financial outcome same

024as it was before the same benefit. The only thing that is a change again is the adjusted mileage rates that were based upon the increased federal mileage rates for those positions that also had that those uh values were given to me by Mr. Melby. So those were taken care of with that. And then the other change that we made again no financial significance uh is that we removed some of that transition language to the 401A plan that administrators have. If you remember we made a change in 2021 and kind of had a transition. and there's a three-year vesting period. Well, in 2021, we had to wait for three years for either existing administrators or whatever. In 2024, those three years were over. So, we can get rid of all the reference to prior to 2021,

025after 2021. Now, it's just the 401A program. So, again, no change in benefit, no difference in what the values are, but we're just able to take out that transition language. All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. Item number seven, any items that may properly come before the board. Item eight, general information and discussion items. Uh 8.1, Monster High School Handbook changes for 2526. Mr. Nolan. All right. All right, it's that time of the year to do some uh handbook changes to update for next school year. Uh quite a bit of changes here for the high school. Most of these are just language cleanups. A lot of them are due to changes in state law and policies uh or adjustments that we've had to make internally to

026run the building a little bit smoother and we wanted to make sure the handbook matches uh the language there. So, building hours, we just made a small note and change in there uh from 3:00 to 3:15 and we put a note in there about the media center being open till 3:30. Attendance at school dances policy stays the same where it's a 90% attendance rate to attend dances. We just added some language in there to clarify how the administration would calculate that so students and families could clearly understand how that was going to work out. Same with attendance on field trips. Again, 94% attendance rate to attend field trips that will miss or require missing school. Um, and again, some language in there about how exactly we are going to calculate that on a regular basis.

027Attendance codes. This is a little bit more internal, but we do uh publish those attendance codes in the handbook so that people kind of know when they log into P school what those look like. Uh, we've added a few in there for some clarity. Uh, that just kind of helps us um with some of our recordeping internally. um and so we can do a little bit better job of meeting the students needs. So minor minor changes in there. Uh we just added a few extra codes to delineate um why kids are missing or why kids might be excused in their absences. Moving over to excessive absences and truency. There's a few changes in policy here. These are related to a new state bill that expands attendance uh limitations or attendance policy all the way up

028through GA grade 12. Um and there is a policy within the state law now students cannot be suspended solely for attendance reasons. Um so we had to make some adjustments in policy there. Um we spent some time with Angie. We've talked a lot about this with our uh the Indiana Association of School Principles. We've kind of come up with a policy that adds a little bit of cushion before kids get to those suspendable offenses um to kind of provide some um you know extra steps in our process there. U there's a one-year sunset on this. So unfortunately depending on how the state does their research and recommendations we will have to revisit um both our excessive and our truency policies when it comes to discipline at the end of of this school year. So, those

029changes are in there based solely based on changes in state law. Um, alcohol and other drugs. We just made some uh a couple clarifying notes in there about the accessories uh that students might have in their possession that are violations of the policy. A lot of times we're finding the accessories in their possession that are part of the products that they are consuming. Uh so we wanted to make sure that you know maintaining those accessories are a violation of the policy and we have spent a considerable amount of time working on our monster uh student assistance program. We are going to start running an internal program next year with our social workers to help kind of catch those students who have violations whether it's tobac tobacco or uh drug use um as part of their

030discipline process. they're going to have to go through some course work with our school uh social workers and the monster police department as part of reduction in their um discipline. Uh so we hope that this maybe catches some kids, helps some families out. There's even a parent uh requirement in attendance. The parents will have to require uh to attend a meeting. So we're putting a little bit more teeth into this as opposed to just suspending students. We're trying to add a little extra teeth uh before they come back in the building. last or school disruptions in there. We just added a little clarifying language. Um, again, we've adjusted this to try to add some clarity and we felt like maybe we were missing a spot. So, we added a little bit of language in there

031about specifically to class or school disruptions um and teacher referrals. Moving over to the dress code, um made an adjustment to the hats, head coverings, or any other obstructions of the face. Uh we're reverting back to an old policy. We've adjusted this a few times over the years. Um but we're going back to an old policy that that bars students from wearing any head coverings in the building. It's become a little bit of an issue and a little bit of a security issue. Um again, exemption for religious type headwear. Uh but we don't want kids wearing hats in the buildings as it really impedes our security systems to kind of track kids uh moving through the building. Driving to school. Just a note in there about students uh make sureing their parking passes are in

032the spot number is visible uh so that we can kind of see that. A lot of times kids are hiding those in plain sight. Um and it becomes kind of difficult for us to find those when they're parked in the wrong spot. So having on there helps us out a little bit. Just some clarity on cell phones and some of the extra technology that's uh leaking into schools. Uh smartwatches, tablets, the computer glasses. Um some bans on those that we we're going to continue enforce. When it comes to harassment and bully bullying, uh there were a couple changes in state law and timelines. Um couple of adjustments with timelines. Uh it used to be two days to notify families of an investigation. Uh we do now have to notify a family before the end of

033the next school day at the conclusion of the investigation. So we don't have two days to do the investigation. We have a little bit more time plus a day to notify them. However, um there's a new I section in there. We have to immediately notify both uh families that there is a pending investigation of bullying or harassment taking place. So, in the past report came in, we would investigate and we would call the families, let them know, hey, we've looked into this. You know, your child was accused but has been proven innocent. Um hey, there's a situation going on. There's some harassment or something going on there. Now, we have to tell both families we are starting an investigation into their child and for their child. Um, and then we have a timeline. We still

034have to meet with that. I think it's 10 days uh under state law, but we have a few extra days to to notify them of the conclusion of that investigation. When it comes to plagiarism and academic dishonesty, this is probably the biggest change in the handbook for next year. we uh had to roll our sleeves up a little bit when it comes to the AI technology buzz um as it comes into schools. Um and we've seen an increased use of students using AI. Um so we spent considerable amount of time on this policy looking at what the college level is doing and some of best practices in the AI world. Um, we've added an honor statement to the student handbook when it comes to uh giving, receiving, or using aid, including AI tools to produce

035or alter their work. So, students will sign off now, whether it's a test or an assignment. They'll be signing off on that policy saying they did not use those things. If it is barred by practice in that classroom or for that assignment, um, we've delineated the consequences for those assignments. um tried to provide clarity in how that is going to be put into practice. It was kind of confusing in the old handbook there. It was just mainly language. We've kind of cleaned that up. And then we added an entire section on advanced automated artificial intelligence. We're referring to as AI. Um, and this policy at default prohibits the use of AI in the classroom, but does allow for two additional policy placements for teachers depending on the class or the assignment that allows the students

036to use AI in certain situations. The goal here was we have some classes bar none, they don't want the students to use AI. We have certain situations where they can use AI in certain situations for different research or refining their writing. And then we have some classes who are using AI in totality for a project such as computer some of our computer science classes. Um so we had to kind of look at a varying and flexible policy here. We've also included a um kind of a another visual breakdown tool that explains each type of policy and how students can use that. there's a link to it in the document that that one was also provided to the schoolboard so you guys have that. So, a lot of variations in there again to kind of support

037the students use but also there are certain situations like some of our AP classes where they cannot use that technology depending on the assignment. We wanted to create that flexibility, a review of those materials. So, one of the things that we've added in there is a little more delineated process for catching AI. We are still going to use some AI trackers. We do know they have limitations. Um, but teachers do reserve the final right to question or determine if a student's work has been plagiarized using AI resources. Um, teachers may request department chair review. So, asking for their department chair to review this work, what they've collected and say, "Hey, this seems to be AI. Can you look over everything I have here before I submit this documentation over to administration?" And then it also

038requires a meeting with the student and the parents to explain we've collected all this information. This is why we believe that your child has used AI inappropriately on this assignment. Um so we've tried to put in some checks and balances here to make sure the process is a little bit more thorough before things get turned over to administration and a record goes on a student's transcript or in their file which has become a little bit of an issue sometimes when it comes to uh scholarships, college applications, applications to honor societies and some of those things over the years. So, just trying to put in some more safety nets to catch kids. We know kids are going to make mistakes. We also know it's really difficult sometimes to catch uh students using some of these tools.

039We want kids to use these tools, but they've got to learn like the literacy around that um and some of the flexibility there. Questions on that one. That one's pretty heavy. There's a lot in there. Uh we have gone over this with teachers. teachers are have been told to start thinking about how they adopt this in their classrooms next year. They have different assignments that might need it in different situations. Um, but as a blanket policy, there'd be no AI use unless the students have permission to use it in certain situations. I I really appreciate the proactive approach to this and the thought that went into this um policy. I just have a comment. Sure. Um, page six, first offense. There's a couple references to illegibility, and I think they should be ineligibility. Oh, yep.

040Good catch. Thank you. We'll get those fixed. I didn't use AI to check this. So, um, I'm sure there's a hundred other typos in here, so we'll get those cleaned up. Um, inschool suspension. Uh we just added a note in there about students not reporting on time for ISS. Unfortunately, a lot of times students are issued an ISS and they use that as a u arrive to school late with Dunkin Donuts day. So those students may have their ISS's turned to out of school suspensions for showing up at 9:30 instead of 8:00 when they were supposed to report. Adding and dropping classes. Um again, just some clarity and language there. No change in practice. Um, students still have flexibility to add or change classes. We did add a note in there about AP preap classes.

041Um, you know, we we'll switch students if they need to at certain kind of cut off points so we can track grading, make it a little bit easier transitions at quarters and semesters. Real career counseling and information. 90% of these changes are because of changes in uh the new diplomas. So, as soon as we got this kind of all solved and we were down to one diploma, now we're going to be running two diplomas in the high school um until a few years at least. Um so, College Board's big future, we just added some notes in there. Um that's the new program uh that's attached to the AP students PSAT scores. They can do all their searching. They can put in all their likes. Um they can look for programs cost. They can sort out

042sort out their um colleges from there. the inserters profile that was provided by the state. That program is gone. Now everything's in college big future accounts. Couple uh changes in there for the graduation requirements as we've discussed ad nauseium. Um Indiana College core, we added a note in there. Um obviously is that is a big big chunk of the new diploma, but it is available for all students at the high school and has been for a couple years. Um just a clarifying note of what the IC is and how that works. So some language was added for that. Um honors program, some adjustments there as we've moved into the preap model. Uh post high school information, again a reference note to big college futures there. And then tutorial. Um this was in practice this year.

043We just added it in policy. Um, as you guys know, a couple years ago when we added the block on Wednesdays and Thursdays, we added in a chunk of time uh that we're calling tutorial. It's kind of a resource hour, 50 minutes for kids. Um, we've made the decision this year, we did this in practice and it worked out really well. Um, we do have students in grades 10, 11, and 12. Uh, they have kind of like an open campus college atmosphere uh feel if they meet these requirements, a 90% attendance and a 3.5 GPA. They're not assigned to a tutorial. So, they have a chance to kind of congregate in some of our open spaces, uh, use the media center, uh, use the group study rooms, um, you know, work with their friends. Um,

044those students don't have to report to a classroom. They got a little bit more freedom to move around, meet with who they want to meet. Um, they're not as supervised in those, um, periods there. So, we're going to continue that practice. It's worked out really well. And I think our kids really um liked having that kind of open 50 minutes once a week to meet with their friends and do what they need to do. Clubs and extracurriculars. We have a few additions uh for this year as proposed by uh the students. We have Fellowship of Christian Athletes, FCA. Um if you guys know anything about FCA, it's a nationwide program at both the high school and the college level. um for both, you know, it's big focus is on student athletes, but it you don't

045have to be an athlete to be an FCA. Uh but um it's a it's a great program with a lot of scholarship and leadership opportunities for students and summer opportunities. So, we're going to start a program at uh the high school. We have Italian culture club getting started. We've added a lot of culture clubs over the last few years. So, we had a group of students who are requesting the addition of an Italian culture club, excuse me. Um, the athletic department has started a monster athletic council, the MAC, uh, that's been in, um, been running for the last couple years. It's a student leadership group from all of the different athletic organizations. Kind of organizes events like fundraising for Best Buddies and Special Olympics, but also getting turnout for some of our games and supporting

046our student athletes. There's a lot of leadership opportunities in there through the IHSA. So, our kids attend the summer camps and there'll be a fall camp that they'll be attending. So, um that's our monster athletic council. The auditorium staff just did a a revision of their uh programming there for students and kind of changed it all up to the monster theater company. A lot of students are involved obviously on stage, but it takes a lot to to get those events going. So, there's a lot of behind the scenes work. So that's where kids can kind of fit into that program. And then moving over to our athletic programs, we will be making an addition of adding girls flag football, both varsity and JV for the fall of this year. So that's a big addition. Um

047it's an emerging program in the state. Um with a bunch of money coming from the NFL and the Colts organization. Uh, but we will be running a um girls flag football program um for this fall. Any questions on there before I move on? I know that's covered a lot. All right, last section here. Eligibility requirements for participation. Just again, a few little changes of notes. Um, these are some of the forms that are signed off in final forms as required by state law or by board policy. overnight field trips, sudden cardiac arrest, and the PPE, the physical for physicians. Those were already being done in final forms. They just didn't match what was in our handbook. So, we just wanted to make sure that was clear in there. And then for the co-curricular and extracurricular

048activity pledge, uh we just claimed cleaned up some of the language in in that section um to make sure it was clear. We also delineated out um as clearly as we could a consequence system uh that was tiered to explain how this was going to impact students in different types of events um competitive clubs, athletics, and then non-competitive clubs. What would be the consequences if a student violated the um activity pledge um and how that might look for a first, second, or third consequence. So really no change in practice. It just wasn't clear in the handbook. So we tried to add some clarity in there so when a student or a family or a parent read this they understood kind of what the consequence chain of command would look like for each type of situation.

049That's it a lot any questions? I don't think so. Thanks M. Sorry. Go ahead. Um first of all I appreciate the way you put this together. I was able to it was very easy for me to read the red and the green when we got this ahead of time. Um I'm just curious about the thought process with the two different attendance standards, the 90% for school dance and the 94% for field trips. Great question. That's one we debated a bunch about. Um the big reason for that is um so the state sets the 94% attendance rate. Um, we we talked about adding that to school dances. It would exclude a lot of students, we think, in certain situations from attending those school dances. And we know how important those really are to the families. And

050for some students, it might be their only opportunity, right, to attend prom, to attend homecoming, winter formal. Those are really the only three dances we have. Um, and depending on when those fall, it can be pretty pretty tight. Like homecoming could fall pretty early in September. Um, at 90% attendance, kid gets sick in the first couple weeks of school. It's a common cold. Mom or dad keeps them home, they might be out of homecoming in five weeks. Um, so we we wanted to make sure that we had some teeth behind this. as many schools in the state have adopted these policies to try to help encourage attendance. We felt 94 was a pretty high bar for some of our students in there. We do feel though if kids are going to miss school for a

051field trip that they should have to meet the higher bar of 94% which is where the state cut off is. So again, field trips that leave on Saturday morning, kids fully eligible for that as long as they've been in school and they've met um their program requirements. but those that require the students to miss class we felt like should meet that higher bar. Um so that's kind of how we ended up coming up with two different numbers. It does add some confusion but and it is tougher for us to track but we felt like it was a little bit more fair to have a lower bar for the dances that don't have as much impact on the school day. No one's going to homecoming dance missing class. Thank you. Just real quick if I could

052just some discussion or some clarification. The state provides us with that 94% bar. That's what we are judged by as individual schools and by a school corporation. So on the the upcoming new accountability model for the report card for students and for schools 94% will be the mark that we are judged by. So that's where that 94% came from. I also want to just add a couple things. Mr. Dr. Nolan and his team have done a lot of work especially around alcohol, tobacco, vapes, all of that work and to try to figure out ways beyond just punitive consequences. And so bringing our social workers into the conversation when students have these violations acknowledges the fact that addiction can be a real thing even for our high school kids and we need to get these kids

053into a different conversation um when we are catching them with these substances rather than just punitive. So, I do, you know, acknowledge the fact that they've made that that change and they're already doing some some things to help educate students earlier about the dangers of some of these types of substances. And then finally, the AI piece um is a huge undertaking. Um we're probably not going to be perfect on this policy the first year. We're going to learn a lot this first year as we utilize it. Um, but it's a necessary addition because it's the world that our kids are now learning in and they're going to leave our system and go off to college where there are going to be expectations for that reasonable use for AI. There's a there's a place for it

054to be used in our system. We need that that appropriateness that that ethical use of that. So, training our kids now on what that looks like and knowing when it's okay to use it versus when it's not okay to use it is really important. Yeah. And I'll note on the AI, most schools in the state have taken like a completely prohibitive approach. Carmel, Fisers, those schools have completely banned AI. Um, and when I've talked to the principles at those schools, they are not looking at making adjustments to that. Um, the colleges on the other hand have much much more broader policies and we've got 88 to 90% of our students going to college. So we wanted to try to expose them to similar policies that they're going to see at the next level at the

055academic level. Um so we we tried to do our best to look at the Indiana, Purdue, Duke, uh Clemson, a lot of these schools had some really good policies in place uh for their students. So we tried to model those off of those policies so that our students was getting the same kind of feel as they move through, you know, their education track. And then when it comes to the SAP program, we've had it in place, the board has implemented that decades ago. Uh the problem we've run into is that as mental health has become the central focus of um psychological care across the country, especially here in Northwest Indiana, we've found that most of our families when there is an issue on campus or an issue with drugs, the the resources they have limited

056outside is they're not there. um they're doing a better job of supporting mental health, getting students in for mental health issues, but if you call and say, "Hey, I've got a kid who's using, you know, marijuana." Um the chances of you getting in in a reasonable time frame are slim and none. Um so we're we're trying to figure out what we can do in house to fill in this gap that we were really using outside resources to help support. They're just not there anymore. Mr. N the question I have is with respect to the the the say the dances homecoming turnabout turnabout will always fall within 30 days of the second semester starting homecoming it it could vary. Has it been an issue with if if a student misses a week because he or she

057is sick they're kind of stuck. Yep. Has that been an issue in the past? It hasn't. So, uh, we kind of experienced that this year and that's why we added in some of the language we did. Um, if you guys remember this winter, everybody got sick like right after winter break and, uh, the winter semiformal landed late January this year and we had a lot of kids who had missed three or four days of school. Um, so we went back and looked at first semester and we had kids with like perfect attendance first semester, they missed four days second semester, they were disqualified from the dance. So, we went back and said, "Hey, first semester was great." Obviously, you you've got this sickness that's going around. We we exempted those students. So, we did add

058in there uh some leniency for our administrators to make those decisions, which wasn't clear in policy. We wanted to make sure that we could go back and reserve the right to look at a previous semester's data depending on when that dance fell on an individual basis. Um, we had a lot of that this year where kids came in and they're, you know, perfect attendance first semester, they get this flu, they were out four days, we we we marked them as okay to go to the dance. So, thank you, Mr. Yeah, great question. Uh, I have a comment about the head coverings. I know we as a school board spent quite a bit of time discussing head coverings. So, Miss Jones, Mr. Mr. Trip and Fellows, can you make sure that the handbook policy coordinates with

059our board policy and that the issues that we discussed at that time are still being addressed with this new handbook policy? Thank you. Any other questions? The only thing other thing I'll just This will be on the agenda for the July meeting for board action. So, if there's any any specific things that you want to see changed, if you catch more spelling errors, things like that, please send them my direction so I can pass them on to Mr. Please. Thank you, Mr. Nolan. Welcome. Thank you. Item 8.2, the new mileage rate. Uh, Mr. Tripfeld, you touched on it a little bit early, but go ahead. Yes, we have a board policy that states that we will uh use the mileage rate that it's approved by the federal government in January and then we applied in

060July one. So, in January, the uh federal government issued the new mileage rate of 70 point cents per mile. I do believe it was 53 cents before was 67. Okay. So, um this was a increase. I think it was an increase over the last couple years we hadn't addressed prior. Um so, this is just formal. It doesn't require a board vote. It's just notification that the change will happen in July per board policy. Thank you, Mr. Triple. Uh with Mr. Melby's absence, there will not be a uh financial operations report this month. Item 10, 10.1, assistant superintendence reports. Mrs. Burger. Thank you. Um, Miss Boursma did such a great job sharing all the information going on at the elementary level so I can shorten mine a little bit. Um, just wanted to let you know

061that over the summer about 10% of our students will be engaging in some sort of summer um, classes provided by the school town of Monster. I think we have about 300 plus at the um high school, around 40 at the middle school, and then as Miss Boursma said, a little less than 100 at elementary. Um we've had some exciting initiatives take place in our structured learning classroom. We've integrated a general ed curriculum for the foundations of reading, which um have taken off. Excellent. I'd like to thank uh Karen Tomco and our two teachers within that classroom for making sure that that came to fruition. Also, we have the summer of learning conference coming up which is sponsored um by the IDOE but it'll be at Dunland this year. And also we engaged in strategic planning

062which I'm sure Dr. Heler will address um during his time. But it was an amazing time to hear everybody's ideas come together um and I'd like to thank him for that opportunity. Um, I was not here at the last board meeting and so I just wanted to take a moment and publicly say thank you. Okay, I'm gonna get This isn't fair. Where's Kim? Um, thank you to Dr. Heler for his leadership, vision, and kindness over the last three years. As an individual, I have grown under your leadership, but to see what has happened to the district has been amazing. Um, this is why you were selected to lead us and I'm very grateful. Thank you. Mr. Trippenthalis, that's difficult to follow. Uh, so I will just say obviously I participated in the strategic planning as

063well and the process was extremely thorough and made a lot of us think about things that we don't normally think about as those groups of individuals. So, uh, some tremendous things that we're going to be doing and I have to echo those comments that, uh, Colleen did. Obviously, it's summertime, so we're working on filling those positions if they're open. Uh that's something that we're doing and obviously as you all are aware this is collective bargaining year. So um there are a few seminars we're going to be going to uh law seminar this summer as well as a budget seminar and a collective bargaining uh seminar in the next month or two to kind of prep us for that and also a lot of as you mentioned SEA1 and then budget. So a lot more information

064that will come out through this uh month as we start getting preparation for that. So, and I've spoken enough tonight, so I think I'm done. Thank you guys. Item 10.2, director of operations report, Mr. Begley. Thank you. Um, if you've not had a chance to check out the baseball soccer practice soccer field, we've switched over the baseball outfield uh to the soccer field configuration. Uh and I would just like to say the temporary fence that we put in place uh for the baseball field, the removal and installation of that is much much much less labor intensive and it's been greatly appreciated by our grounds people and our custodial staff and it really can switch the uh two different fields back and forth very quickly. Uh our fine arts is coming to a close that project

065classroom areas are going to the final stages. Uh, the flooring is in, the tile and the carpet are down, the drop ceilings are in place, the cabinets are being installed. We anticipate getting the band, orchestra, and percussion rooms turned back this month. And we'll turn that over to our custodial staff so we can get the classrooms waxed and in place, the furniture and have them ready for the beginning of school. Then construction is going to collapse into the theater. Again, we still have the uh uh seats coming in on the 30th. Uh the stage has been put in place. Uh it's painted. It looks great. Uh we're going to start installing the um motorized screen that'll be going in next and that project should be finished up with the theater portion of it um in

066August. The Wolveright bleachers, the demo is complete and installation is taking place. They got the new um shell uh the framing up and an anticipated completion date of June 20th. Our 35th Street parking lot and storage project that is out to public bid. So, we'll be doing a bid opening on that June 26 and we'll get started immediately after that. Uh we met with DA, our architectural firm to discuss our multi-purpose building, new tennis facility, traffic flow project and central office projects and we'll continue to completing the design phase in that in order to keep pushing those projects forward. transportation. Uh we still have the 284 buses coming in in the fall and we've been working uh very hard to prepare our buses for our Indiana State Police inspection on June 12th. So that'll be

067this week and we'll have our annual inspection to ensure our buses meet standard. And finally, I wish Dr. Heler all the best in his uh new endeavors. And I know you'll do a great job. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Begley. Uh Dr. Kalis is sick this evening. So there will not be a director of exceptional achievers report which moves us to item 11.1 individual public comments. We have a number of them. Uh Mr. Otoic and I just want to congratulate you on a new job. I remember when you uh interviewed years ago for the position and you came in with ideas and plans and programs you wanted to implement here and I believe you got most of them not all of them you might have been here for three years I'm sure those programs things

068that you implement here will stay here for a very long time thank you thank you Mr. a subject. Mr. Dhy evening everybody it's nice to be out here and not over there. Just wanted to thank Dr. Heler for joining us three years ago. We knew he was serious and we went out and bought a new suit when you left it better than you found and that's all we can ask for and wish you the best in your future endeavors and hope you meet down the road again sometime. So, God bless. Mer administration. My name is Andrea Liser and I'm the reading specialist at Elliot Elementary. I'm speaking of myself and many colleagues who've been deeply affected by the recent decision regarding our principal of 16 years. We were recently informed that Nicole Bernie will not

069be returning as our principal next year. I feel compelled to express my strong support for a leader who has played such a vital role in our school community. Nicole has been the heart of our building. She has guided us through challenges, celebrated our achievements, and fostered a culture of collaboration, stability, and care. She's led us with respect, empowered staff to grow, and helped cultivate a sense of family among all of us. I know I speak for many when I say her absence would be a profound loss. I respectfully urge the administration to reconsider this decision. Thank you for your time and for listening to the voices of those who have worked alongside her day in and day out for many years. Many letters of support have been forwarded to the school board and we would

070really appreciate if you could take the time to read them all. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Leer. Miss Miat. Hello. It saddens me and angers me to hear about Nicole Gernzie being removed from her role as principal. I worked for her for five wonderful years before I decided to stay home with my children. She was everything you would want from a boss. supportive, a listener, professional, caring, and a great leader. I remember turning in my letter to resign, and I cried to her as I didn't want to leave a great school led by an even better leader. I learned and grew into a better teacher because of her leadership. This is a huge loss to Elliot Elementary and the school town of Monster. I was looking forward to hopefully working for her again once I

071returned to work because she made Elliot feel like home. She is the reason our school is the school with heart. It takes a great leader to create a staff that become family. You need to have that to have the best education for your students. Thank you, Miss Garrick. I was fortunate to teach at Elliot for nine amazing years. Over that time, I became part of a family with Nicole Gernzi as our leader. She is a force that brings her staff together between her constant support, guidance, communication, and I think most importantly, the way her door was always open. She always makes time for her staff and had the best advice to give. Her leadership was beyond the staff and trickled down to fostering great relationships with her students. I recently attended the senior walkthrough and

072as each student walked through the door, they stopped to talk to Nicole. Some gave her a hug. After seven years of not being at Elliot, they remembered her and the positive impact that she had on them. One student even laughed about how many times he sat in her principal's office and then turned around and invited her to his graduation party. I left teaching in Elliot two years ago to raise my children. The decision to leave Elliot was not an easy one. As I know when or if I decide to go back to teaching, no one would compare to her as a boss. She allowed me to be creative. She trusted me and she always supported me when I had concerns. Her guidance and confidence in me helped me become the teacher that I am. Her

073leadership is unmatched and I can truly say that I miss working with her. Elliot is known as a school with heart. That surely is true, but it's because of our leader Nicole Grizzy. She is the heart of our school. The community has benefited from her for 17 years with her at the helm of Elliot and over that time she's guided hundreds of students and staff in the right direction. Seeing Nicole's position being posted made the situation all the more real and gut-wrenching. I hope that she can reapply for her job, a job that she excels at and she deserves to maintain. I'm sure there's no one in this room that believes another candidate will have 16 years of principal um 16 years of principal experience within the school town of Monster. An extraordinary connection with

074staff, students, parents, and the community. I mean, look at all the Elliot shirts behind me here to support her, will give as selflessly as she has to ensure continued success, the success that she has built, and to maintain the strong culture of family within the school. as I have mentioned, all attributed to her consistent leadership. So, board members, aren't you asking why a change is being made? Who is behind this request? And what specific issues have led to this decision? And it it is incumbent on the school board to ask questions and to investigate, one that is fair and one that is unbiased. Thank you for your time and your consideration. Thank you, Miss G. Miss Lusk. Hi there. I am speaking on behalf of the Elliot first grade teachers Ji and Jenna. We are

075writing to express our appreciation for Nicole Garby and to acknowledge the remarkable leadership and support that she has shown to our school community. We are deeply saddened by the decision to remove Nicole from her role as principal. One of her greatest strengths is her ability to anticipate the future needs of both staff and students. A clear example of the decision was when she enrolled in an online course keys to literacy before her own teachers took it. By doing so, she familiarized herself with the expectations and the challenges challenges involved ensuring that she could offer meaningful support and guidance from her staff began the course. She also guided the instructional leadership team to anticipate and proactively align with district initiatives. This proactive mindset reflects a rare and admirable level of commitment. She is also a compassionate

076advocate for students, particularly those facing emotional and behavioral challenges. This was a challenging year for our grade level and she offered support to ensure that instruction could continue in the classroom. She would also follow up and check in on students who were having a rough day. We've seen her provide struggling staff members with thoughtful guidance, instructive feedback, and even modeling effective strategies, always with grace and focus on growth. Nicole leads by example in every sense. Whether it's professional development, dealing with unexpected challenges, or simply supporting her staff today, she is in the trenches with us. During the co pandemic and through the heartbreaking loss of our assistant principal, she stood as a steady, reassuring presence, guiding our school through some of its most difficult days with strength, empathy, and resilience. Over the years, she has

077created a positive school climate. Teachers aren't afraid to ask for help and voice our concerns. Even with her 50 years of combined teaching experience, there are still new obstacles and challenges that require her greatness. She also supports her staff beyond professional responsibilities. She celebrates our wins. She checks in during hard times and makes sure we all feel valued and respected. In short, and always the kind of leader every school deserves. Her dedication, empathy, and vision have helped shape our school into a strong, supportive community for both students and staff. and she will be great and our school won't be the same without her. Thank you, Hello again. Um, I'm Mrs. Miranda, but I am actually reading a letter on behalf of our nurse, Miss Lisa Mikkelson. My name is Lisa Mickelson, and I'm the school

078nurse for Elliot Elementary School. The purpose of this letter is to express my 100% support and favor in keeping Nicole Gernzie as our school principal and preserve her good name and nature. I've been blessed to work under Principal Gernzy's leadership and guidance and alongside her for the last seven school years. I've witnessed her handle the most difficult situations with parents, students, and staff with utmost respect, compassion, and professionalism. Her strength admirable day after day. If I had concerns for the students health or safety, no matter how small or big, Nicole Gernzie always took it seriously and we worked together for a solution while making sure to follow policies and procedures. Co aside, lest we forget the constant duress we were all put under during the CO 19 years. She has taught me to be to

079be better as a nurse in a school setting. She has supported many staff members, including myself, during terrible or even tragic life events. And with all the same genuine, kindhearted celebrated our joys in life, always reassuring, family first, easing our burdens. Yet, here she is, shouldering the aftermath of a broken system, handling it with strength, kindness, fortitude, and class. I expected nothing less. I highly doubt you could find another who compares to the level of intelligence, emotional intelligence, integrity, and commitment she graciously provides. With sincere gratitude, Lisa Middle. Thank you, Missa. Miss Stacy, it is with great respect and appreciation for being emotional. It is with great respect and appreciation that I write this letter in support. I have had the privilege of knowing her in multiple professional capacities throughout my career and in every

080role. She has demonstrated unwavering support, fairness, and strong leadership. Miss Curtsy is an accommodating and a compassionate leader who fosters an environment where both staff and students felt seen, heard, and valued. She is wellinformed, thoughtful in her decisions and always leads with empathy and integrity. As someone who has personally faced challenges related to both physical and mental health, her support has been especially meaningful. She has consistently shown understanding and flexibility in ways that have greatly contributed to my wellbeing both physically and mentally. Knowing that I can rely on her compassion and fairness has made a significant difference in my ability to thrive professionally. Throughout my various transitions and education, Miss Gerie has remained a steady encouraging presence. Her leadership continues to have a lasting positive impact on those around her. The absence of Miss Geries

081who has been devoted to shaping culture and direction of the school will leave an undeniable void that reaches far beyond the administration. Her steady leadership, deep understanding the needs of both students and faculty and commitments fostering support and nurturing environment have been the foundation upon which the school has thrived. Teachers who have relied on her support vision will find themselves navigating new uncertainties and students who have grown up with her unwavering presence may struggle to adjust to a shift and vision. the sense of community she created where trust growth and career priorities will be hard to replicate as leaving a gap that might take years to fill and her absence will undoubtedly feel that we've changed as a delicate balance she maintains what need to be redefined I wholeheartedly support she's truly got her soul

082without her presence brings unique energy and sense of community that cannot be replaced Mr. Listening to uh some of my co-workers um read what they've written, I come to realize how uh bad I am at writing things. Um however um in regard um man random teach physical education for 15 years in my teaching career I've taught three different principles and neither of the other two hold to what brings Miss Gerie puts her staff members before herself every single day when she shows up in everything that you're hearing now. um that her staff, the students come before. Oh, I've got a million things to do. My door is never closed. I've never gone into the office and seen her door close if she's been there because your whatever problem you're dealing with right now is her

083most important problem. So, I'm going bring it, put up my table, we'll hash it out together, we'll figure it out. And I've never had that in the other, you know, I've been here for three years, so the other 12 years, it's rare. It is the rarest. um there's a personal touch she has with interacting with her staff and her students and uh if there was ever a time that I needed her helper advice it was clear that was her next top priority. Um, as I'm sure you are well aware, building a positive climate and culture is one of the most difficult things that somebody could hope to do. And I'm sure it isn't easy, but she makes it seem like it's easy because Elliot is a school with heart and it doesn't happen without her.

084Um, for an individual to put the needs of her staff and students above her own on such a reg regular basis is rare. I don't just choose words carelessly. But at the same time, when I wrote this neckl next sentence, I got in a little trouble once upon a time when I was a youngster. My dad sat me down and said, "Man, I'm not mad. I'm disappointed." And at that point in time, you could you could almost see the heart coming out of my chest going on the floor and break into a million pieces. And so in that it's incredibly disappointing to see a job posted for an elementary LA Elliott Elementary School principal when we already have the perfect one. Thank you, Mr. [Music] Thank you for the time to speak today. In my

085experience, speaking first is uh not the best of ideas. Um but maybe today might have been as uh I got to hear everything everybody said and I guess been a for a lot more emotion out of what I have to share. Uh so first thank you for letting me talk today. Uh my name is Trevor Howard. I'm proud to have been a Muno teacher for 14 years uh with Nicole 16 altogether. Uh I work closest with her on the RTI team and school improvement team. uh she served as my mentor uh principal while I was in my graduate program. Um academically I felt her biggest strength uh was to vertically align the curriculum. We knew what the expectation was for what we needed to teach and by when uh and I felt like the effort

086and energy from our our school building uh rooted in our confidence for her guidance uh helped us redefine the potential for our growth. Um further as a parent of two children uh um I could not have been uh more pleased with the care that my kids receive. Um my son who received special education here uh there was a determination for him to spend maximum amount of time in the general education classroom. Uh he left the newly developed sensory room too when moving him to a new school district. I was apprehensive but I remember how smooth the process was. uh which I would say speaks to the quality of the current home that he has as well as to uh the quality of the IEP he carried with him being um monster one of the most

087difficult choices I ever had to make. Um Nicole there was a guarantee of success as well as a a safe family that I didn't realize how much it is because of your support uh as well as a couple of people here. Uh Steve was one um who provided me some help with my my future goals. Um I got to develop the confidence to pursue future opportunities. Um but I would say anything I learned or accomplished moving forward will in some way be attributed to Nicole. Uh lastly, as my advice as we reflect on Nicole's performance, professionalism, care and concern for all is to slow down before you speed up. She's a leader who represents as you heard before earlier at the heart of Elliot. Um it provides us with the support and opportunity for growth.

088Um if provided for the support and opportunity for growth that that she's given all of us, I believe a remarkable impact. uh still to come and uh as hard as life can be at times I would just uh like to say uh the path to success u will be a little bit more difficult and less like thank you first I will be reading a letter on behalf of Michelle Young I was a monster employee from 2013 to20 Gernzie. I taught structured learning in K to 5 at Elliot Elementary School. During my eight years of teaching special education, Miss Gernzie was caring, supportive, and encouraging to both students and myself. She was always there to help me problem solve and do what was best for the structured learning program. Miss Gernzie was a strong advocate for

089her students. As a team, we made decisions that were in the best interest for our students, including a modified curriculum, LRE, and appropriate accommodations. Miss Kernzy spent time in my classroom and directly with students to understand their unique needs. She attended IEP meetings and support staff meetings to provide the most successful educational plans for all. As a teacher, I felt comfortable communicating and collaborating with her. Miss Garner's leadership skills were to be admired. The love and passion she showed for her Elliott staff and students were truly appreciated. As my own children began school in another district, life took my teaching career in another direction. It was then that I left the school town of Munster to do what was best for my family. I wish all teachers had the opportunity to work for such an

090incredible principal. I considered myself blessed that the start of my teaching career was with Miss Kernzy. Sincerely, Michelle Young on behalf of myself. So, I currently teach fifth grade at Elliott. Nicole Gernzie has been my principal for the past 11 years. Over the course of those 11 years, she's demonstrated strong leadership, showed genuine care for her staff, students, and Elliot families, and fostered a positive and productive school environment. In my opinion, Nicole's most noteworthy quality is her ability to lead her staff in the most supportive way. I've witnessed many times she supports staff as a whole, by grade level, or individually. For example, not only has Nicole helped me countless times with concerns or ideas I had in my own classroom, but she's also been there to meet with my grade level team whenever we

091needed help with PLC goals or other fifth grade projects like we the people. And she offers her support in a timely manner despite having her many other duties to fulfill. I worked closely with her as an IL member and saw just how much time and effort she dedicates to Elliot. She listens and helps when we have ideas for our classrooms or for the school as a whole. She's approachable and communicates clearly. Her leadership translates to more than just running a building in them. She genuinely cares about her staff and students. She's built great relationships with staff members and is empathetic to personal issues they may have. She knows her students well and is accommodating to their individual needs. Lastly, I've always felt that LA is a fantastic school in which to work because of how

092Nicole had created a positive and productive environment. She pushes her staff to challenge themselves and their students. She gives praise, but she also knows when to give constructive feedback. Her doors always open and makes everyone feel comfortable. And I'm so fortunate to have fully as Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Mr. McN. Um, I I'm I'm so appreciative of all the LA teachers that are coming out today to stand up for their principal and uh that's what we all want to do, right? We want people to come out and say that they support something. This is the best way to do it. So, I really appreciate everyone, but um I do want to talk about the sustainability commission. Now, um I don't know if Councilman Chuck Gardner talked to Okay, he has, but um I do want

093to emphasize the importance of the school and our sustainability action in a month or so. Uh speaking to everyone behind me, uh it's a sustainability commission hopefully will be created um next week and it'll be used to um implement more sustainable solutions in ones that are using community based uh action and one of the members of this board would be an administrator from the school. Now um it's very easy to see the importance of the school in uh implementing our sustainable action. um they take care of future generation and we need to show that our students need to show our students that we can adapt to these new circumstances that we are put in. So um I would say that you know the things that are coming in the future are coming no matter what.

094Um I really appreciate what what you guys do. You guys have a lot of stuff on your plate all the time. I know that. But um when it comes to uh the future generation uh young people do need to see that we have people that are capable in doing extra to motivate them and to make them able to contribute back and save their planet. So, um, I just want to say that the school has such an important impact because they show their students that they truly do care. And even if you guys have a lot of stuff, the importance of this mission should not be understated. And I do really appreciate everything you guys do. Um I know it's the last time but I know I don't sign my dorm room. Um but yeah so

095again the point is we do need someone to step up because school is some place that we can all motivate our students and that we can step up to the challenges ahead of us. Thank you, Mr. McMulti. Uh, I want to thank Calvin and I want to thank all of the the Elliott teachers, past and present, for for coming out tonight and speaking. Individual board member reports, Dr. Schwarz Wolf. Um, I am the legislative liaison and as you know, legislation is uh ended in April. So, I don't have anything currently. However, we'll be going through policies to make sure all the new legisl legislation is um in our board policies. Um but I do want to address Dr. Heler. Um I have very much enjoyed working with you these last three years. I remember when

096you first came in for your interview, um you had a presence. You were able to connect with every single one of us, five different board members. Um, and we were looking at a time to try to change a culture and we felt like you were going to be the person to do that. You just had a very strong sense of leadership. Um, and it and it definitely hit. Um, you've done everything we've asked you, the initiatives like student for a day, the um, student advisory council, the we are monster awards. all these things that you've done have increased morale, um, improved our culture and our buildings, made us more of a team. Um, and again, we very much appreciate that. One thing that stood out when I when we checked his references and I went

097back the day we introduced him to the community, he one of his um, letters of recommendation said, "Dr. Heler is able to give the gift of significance." And that has stuck with me. I wish I had that ability to do that, but I've watched him do that with students, with teachers, with admin, with parents. If somebody has a problem, he's not afraid to bring them in and have a conversation with them. He truly wants to hear every voice. So, it's good that you came tonight. Dr. Heler, I want to thank you, Hillary, Avery, Hannah. It's been a pleasure getting to know your family. Every one of you have made a mark in our school district and in our community in Monster and you will be missed. Thank you. Miss Cinder. Um as was mentioned by

098a couple of people already, I too had the opportunity to work on our action planning phase of our district strategic plan. Um, this is an exciting transition for us from vision setting to the practical work of implementation. And I worked with a subcommittee focused on priority three, family and community partnerships. I see a couple of you out there on the committee. Um, we developed specific actions aimed at strengthening relationships with families and our community members. The um facilitator highlighted how engaged and energized our planning committee was and he specifically noted how impressed he was with our district's commitment to the work and how he feels we are going to maintain our our momentum despite uh transitioning to new leadership. I was also honored to participate in the high school graduation ceremony. It was a personal

099joy to hand my own son his diploma alongside so many of our incredibly talented students. Um Kevin, when I met you in grade school over at our house plan with Colin, I never thought I' I'd see how far um you've come. The public speaking, the the um public actions you take. Gosh. And you're just you're one of many so many talented, tremendous school kiddos in our in our schools, young people. um the statistics shared about this graduating class, the college credit, um acceptances, scholarships, technical certifications, community service hours, it just speaks volumes about their accomplishments and the accomplishments of our educators. Um our students are well equipped to be successful contributors to both our local community and the broader world. Uh it's it's moments like those that that reinforce the importance of the work we

100do on the board and I'm proud to support the continued success of our students, staff, and families. And finally, I would be remiss if I did not thank Dr. Heler. Um I'm the newest board member, so I've had the the least interaction with you, but wow, you did a fantastic job um setting up all kinds of orientation for me, education. you have been accessible and um I just continue to be impressed with your leadership um your thoughtfulness and intention and um wish you all the best. Mr. Castro, thank you very much sir. Uh just want to make a quick note. Um even though we did not have a financial report, uh that information is still available publicly and accessible on board docs if anyone is curious. Um, just want to make sure you know that.

101Um, I want to echo um, Mr. Dempsey's comments and thank you all for having the courage and the passion to step up uh, and comment um, all of you. I know I know it's difficult to do uh, and we do acknowledge and appreciate hearing your feedback and and the passion from the community. Uh, I also had the opportunity to attend the high school graduation and the eighth grade promotion ceremony. And I had a daughter uh participating in the eighth grade promotion ceremony. And I'm happy to report that I actually got a hug this time as opposed to the uh forearm shiver that uh Mr. Nolan warned me about. And I I did not heed his warning uh for the first one. So uh we'll see what uh what next year brings. Uh, and you'll you'll

102you'll see we'll have to talk pregame for that one as well. Um, and I want to make some comments. Uh, Dr. Heler, as I'm sure you can imagine, when I heard the news that you would officially be leaving the district, I was surprised but not shocked, if that makes sense. I knew the pool of family obligations would ultimately prove too much, and that you were a highly sought-after candidate pretty much early on in your time here at Monster. Still, I hoped you would have stayed for a few more years. I am happy for you, I guess, but I'm not happy. You came in and made an immediate impact that resonated throughout the district. There was a palpable sense of positivity in the air as you built your team and began to move the district in

103a new direction. I feel like we were just starting to really see some of those early changes coming to fruition and laying the groundwork for some even more impactful changes in the future. As we say our goodbyes at this last meeting, I'm reminded of the very first time I met you, or more precisely, came across your name during our last candidates, our last superintendent search. The search firm listed you as a strong candidate to consider, which surprised me as I distinctly recall your submissions being very general. Dear board members, or I'm interested in your district, or hey, you you guys at that district over there in that place. But there really wasn't any direct reference to the school town of Monster. We later found out that this was because you had never even heard of

104the school town of Monster, nor had you ever considered a job in that great Midwestern flyover state of Indiana. The matchmakers still felt like you would be a good fit for Monster and Monster a good fit for you. Man, they sure nailed it. I wasn't initially so sure though since as I mentioned earlier on paper this didn't seem like a job that was high on your list because as it turns out we weren't anywhere on your list. But then you walked through the door during that first imperson interview and you owned the room for some reason. Maybe it was that weird tiny head shot in your profile. I was expecting a dude who was meek and slender and definitely shorter than me which would have made you pretty darn short. and instead inwalked one of

105the Jolly Green Giants lesserknown potato farming cousins. I still crack up thinking that the airline lost your luggage and you had nothing but swish pants and a hoodie or some such professional attire and had to scramble to find a reasonable interview suit to wear later that evening. Honestly though, that was one small action that showed creativity and quick thinking on your part. Once we officially hired you, you hit the ground running and were interacting with our district even before you moved out here. You used your transition time effectively and started working with your team to address weaknesses and bolster strengths in our district from day one. You were constantly in the buildings, in the community, and interacting with staff and students. Your presence and visibility were one of your biggest strengths. Personally, what can I

106say? You're a good dude. Yes, I was oneif of your boss, and you devel you developed a strong working relationship with the board. I was actually president your first year, and I think we both kind of quickly found our way in these new leadership roles. With that though, we also developed a social bond that made working together a much more positive pleasant experience. It's a lot easier to get stuff done when you get along. A friend of mine shared with me a saying about friendship which will forever resonate with me. He said, "Friendships come in three forms: reason, season, or lifetime." I look at your tenure here in much the same way. You came here for a reason. You were certainly the right guy at the right time. You made an impact and in many

107ways we are a better district thanks to your leadership. You came here for a season. I never thought you were a lifer, but I certainly I had certainly hoped you would be here for more than three short years. Still, you did some amazing things while you were here, and I feel like you laid the groundwork for future success. The last one, Lifetime, remains to be seen. All I can say is I hope we remain personally connected going forward. that this experience was a positive one that shapes your leadership approach in your next district and for the rest of your career and that your legacy here is one fondly remembered. As excited as I am for new opportunities and new leadership for our district, I'm sad to see you go. You will be missed, my friend.

108Thank you, Mr. Castro. Miss Smith, thank you. I will be giving an update on our process for hiring our next superintendent. And we have big shoes to fill obviously with uh John Castro's comments. That was very well done. Um we are pleased to share the following. Our deadline, our first deadline has passed for accepting applications for our superintendent role. To date, we have over 30 applications for our search and which is a comparable number when we hired Dr. Heler a few short years ago. In addition to that, the board shared um with that I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought. The board will be meeting with BWP on Wednesday, June 11th. At this time, BWP will present a slate of candidates to us. Um and at that time, we will be looking at resources

109that BWP will make available to us in terms of best practices for interviewing and evaluating candidates going forward. The board will then conduct our first round of interviews. They may be in person or um online June 16th and 17th. Those dates are somewhat tentative um in terms of just finalizing those interviews. After this, we will then narrow down our slate and we will invite candidates in for our final round of interviews on June 23rd through the 25th. Upon that final time period, we hope that we have found our next superintendent. However, if we have not, we will not settle for less. Obviously, again, we have had Dr. Heler for the last three years, and we want nothing less than the best for our district. We will also determine if an interim superintendent is needed at

110that point. If we do not find the right candidate, we will then again repost the position. If at such time we do not find the right candidate for a school district, it is our goal that we continue to maintain and advance the programs as created by Dr. Hiller. We are all in full support of the groundwork that he has laid over the last three years. He's done a tremendous job. We feel that this is the be pa best pathway for our school district and is positive and we want to continue to move forward. With that said, I want to also extend my sincerest thank you to you, Dr. Heler. Um, and coming on this board, I thought I knew a lot in terms of the previous superintendent and the role that um, we were looking

111for as a district. I came in later and obviously was not part of the hiring process. But with that said, we couldn't ask for a kinder, more humble person was empathetic and treated everyone um with kindness, care and overall humility in terms of seeing them. I did not know what Dr. Wolf was going to say tonight, but my one comment that I kept coming back to was that you made people feel seen. Whether it was a student, a teacher, an administrator, you always made people feel seen. I've never met anybody in terms of a superintendent that knew so many young students, whether it be at Elliot, Wilbur, Wright, the high school by name, knew what they did, knew something about them. It was truly outstanding and heartfelt. We wish you all the best to you

112and your family. And again, you have left some very large shoes to be filled. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Smith, and thank you for all of your work on organizing the the superintendent surge and and correlating with with BWP. Um, I'll be I'll be quick with my remarks. I had the the honor of of speaking uh giving the board um remarks at the 2025 commencement ceremony. And it it was a pleasure to speak to I did it last year uh and I did it this year. the 2025 class, what I learned is not just so much about their academic results. And just to give you an example, one that comes off the top of my head, 41% of the graduating class earned a 3.5 GPA or higher. And that's just one of the statistics that

113I uh spoke about and it's it's truly remarkable, but also how embracing they were to each other and how kind all these kids were to and supportive of they were to each other. even with the one clap in between every single name. I I've not I've not seen that before. Um but I also want to make mention, you know, Dr. Heler, you were my our first superintendent that that we had the opportunity to work with. And as as a board member whose IQ doesn't break the bank, right, the learning curve for me is a little more than the rest on on this board. And so you uh were very patient with my dumb questions and a lot of my complaining uh and you were and you were always open. And what amazed me is I

114had heard stories about our previous superintendent. I didn't know if any of them were true, but but I was very impressed with the fact of how how much time you spent in each of the schools. not just the elementary schools, not just Wilbur were right, not just the high school, and you knew everybody and everyone was was open to coming to speak to you and you were always open to listening and I can only hope that our next superintendent um fills those shoes and and keeps taking the culture of the school town of Monster to where it needs to be. Um, and that's all I have, but we do have a gift. running a little late today. Okay, Dr. Heler. All right. Um, I'll start by saying thank you to everybody who said the nice

115kind words. It's been very very very kind. Um, little I feel like a little undeserved, but very kind. Um, but I'm going to before I jump into my final comments, my last time as a superintendent at a board meeting for this school of monster, I do want to say a couple of other things. First, first I do want to express appreciation to all of the folks from Elliot who came out tonight and felt like it was important and felt convicted to come and show your support for Mrs. Gernzie tonight. Um, I do also want to make clear, um, just so everybody is clear, there is no board action related to that topic. Um, if any of you have concerns or things that you would want to share with me, I am still the superintendent for

116just a few more weeks. Uh, I am more than happy, as has been said multiple times, to hear from you individually. So, please do reach out if you have concerns, but this is not a board action. Um, there's no action related to Mrs. Gernzie for the board to consider. I'm going to jump into some other thoughts. Cavin, uh, if you're still here, uh, we've had a good uh, good ride the last couple of years. you've been you've been a phenomenal ambassador for both just your student body uh and the environmental club and really for students who who care about their planet and want to see the best for their community. Um you've come to this board meetings before and made um true impact with the words that you have said. Um, we literally have no

117idling signs all over the school town of Monster because of your direct work as a student, which is exactly um what we would like to see all of our kids do, making an impact. Uh, in terms of sustainability commission, I have been in collaboration with Mr. Gardner. Um, there will be members of the school tender, both staff and students, who will be taking part on that sustainability commission. once they approve it at the town level, um I think we're going to work on a resolution to come to the school board level for the school board to uh pass to take part in that sustainability commission work. So, thank you for your continued work there. Uh thank you to Mr. Dohy, who I think has already snuck out, and Mr. Esttoic, two of the board members

118who were on the board when I was hired. I do believe um Ron just set his own personal record for the shortest time he's ever spoken um when he was on the microphone. If you know Ron well, he can he can talk. Um, I'm going to jump into my my comments. Uh, I I'm not going to I'm going to try not to get too emotional with this because I I already cried at the last board meeting, so I'm going to try to keep this a little different. Um, over the past three years, uh, I have had a few different areas of focus uh, as a superintendent. Um, as I've met with staff, whether that's in large groups, small groups, or one-on-one. Uh the first uh starting back in year one was that focus on wei.

119Um the wei and we are monster is important. Uh that unifying theme continues to resonate. We put it on a t-shirt in year one. We didn't know it was going to take off but it continued to resonate both with staff within our schools and within our community. I will ariculate with what some of our board members said. The work is not done. I want to encourage the team up here and the team of principles and staff to continue to do the work of alignment of setting the conditions for highly effective schools getting all of the arrows in the school attendant monster pointed in the same direction. The more our five schools and the system are aligned and cohesive the better the results will be for our students our staff and our families. Also, over the

120years, I've talked about educators and my continued belief that if you work in schools, supporting and serving students and creating the conditions that allow students to be successful, then you are an educator. Regardless of your role, nobody is just a custodian or just an instructional assistant or just a secretary or just a bus driver. You serve our kids. You're educators. At the start of this school year during our staff kickoff event, I talked about talked to the staff about leadership. I talked about how leadership is not about your title. I encouraged our staff to be leaders from whatever role they were currently working. And I can say with confidence that this school district is in good hands going forward. We have leaders everywhere. We have leaders within our fleet of bus drivers. We have leaders

121in classrooms across all five of our schools, in our counselors, our social workers, our secretaries, and administrative assistants. We have people in custodial and maintenance who take on leadership roles every single day. In literally every position and role within our school district, there are individuals who are leaders. This leadership was evident last week as we worked, as was mentioned before, on action planning for our district strategic plan. The room was full of amazing, thoughtful leaders who are engaged in the work of propelling the district forward and not being satisfied with the status quo. A single Mustang is powerful, but a herd is just about unstoppable. Leadership is not about individual glory, but about harnessing collective strength, diverse talents, and unique perspectives of the entire team. Ultimately, this effort to build a strong we and value

122every individual as educators and to cultivate leaders at every level has positioned the school town of Monster for continued excellence and innovation all in service of our incredible students. There are great things on the horizon for the school town of Monster. I look forward to watching you all from afar. Once a Mustang, always a Mustang. We have a Indiana association law seminar followed by the ISBA school association finance seminar and last next month's meeting is Monday July 14th at 6 o' With that, I will entertain a motion to move. Is there a second? All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Meeting adjourned.