001[Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Laughter] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] I [Music] wanted to do the Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]
002[Laughter] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] We'll call to order our board meeting this evening. I am Kristen Smith. I'm sitting in for Kyle Dempsey who's unable to be here tonight. I will take roll call at this time. Amy Cinder here. Ingred Schwarz Wolf here. and John Castro is on his way. At this time, I ask that everybody stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We currently offer two ways in which the community can participate in regular schoolboard meetings. The first public comment section on tonight's agenda is for addressing current action items that are on tonight's agenda.
003These 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 of the meeting, please put your name and topic on a card and give to Deb Hayes at the start of the meeting. Deb has her hand up in the corner. 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. With that said, presently we have four comments for our public comments on action items this evening. You have three minutes at which time
004I'm first going to call Julie Julia Atkinson please to the podium. Is this okay? Um, this is longer than three minutes. My my husband signed up as well. If it's better for him to take over when I'm done or if I can finish it, it will be up. My name is Julie Atinson. I've been a student advocate for 17 years, but I'm not going to stop now. May is mental health awareness month and I'd like to bring awareness to Wilbur Wright's school counseling program. The American School Counselor Association recommends a student to counselor ratio of 250 to1. Research has shown time and time again that these ratios lead to lower rates of absenteeism and higher achievement scores. Global Wright has had a ratio of roughly 500 to1 during my time here. If the district's mission
005is to create lifelong learners through the highest quality educational programs, there is much more work to do aside from offering more AP classes. There are currently no administrators in the school town of Monster who oversee the mental health professionals, counselors, and social workers who work here. No administrators at Wilbur Wright or in central office have any type of mental health background to help advocate for our professions or to help us navigate sensitive issues or to help others understand confidentiality laws. I have been accused of violating Furpa confidentiality laws and board policy. Consulted with a licensed social worker with prior parental consent about a student in crisis. As a school counselor, this is a regular part of my job responsibilities and I frequently contact social workers, therapists, and psychiatrists. If I can be fired for this
006despite having enthusiastic parental support, then I would urge the other counselors and social workers in the district to take notice. As a licensed school counselor, I am extremely aware of my ethical obligations as they relate to confidentiality and to furpa, which are two separate things, because those are the literal basis of my profession. If students or parents don't trust me, they won't talk to me. Suggests that I have violated a student's right to privacy is perhaps the most offensive thing I could be accused of doing. I'm also extremely familiar with my professional obligations as they relate to Purpa. Because I am a school employee, I do feel it is important to point out that the administrator who has accused me of violating furpa was not able to answer the questions, what is furpa or what
007does furpa mean or even what provision of furpa did she violate when asked in front of the school board. The family educational rights and privacy act is a federal law which protects students educational records and personally identifiable information. The only people with access to this information are either those with a legitimate educational interest or if a parent has given their consent for the information to be shared. Again, I consulted with a licensed social worker who had firstirhand knowledge of a student's mental health concerns with both prior parental consent and enthusiastic support. I also think it is important to mention that to this day no administrator has ever contacted the parent about this conversation which occurred in November. So at this time Ben Atkinson will come to the podium please. I'm going to complete uh Julia's
008statement. I have been on paid administrative leave since January 10th. The psychological and physical effects I have experienced during this forced social isolation have been profound because my co-workers were allowed to just think that I was ill. At one point, the administrator who recommended my immediate termination urged the staff to send me a thinking of you card as if admin also didn't know why I wasn't at work and wanted to support me. Later, I participated in a hearing where I was treated as a nuisance because then it was suggested that I waffled in my testimony when I was emotionally exhausted and not been allowed to speak until 10:45 p.m. I think it is important for my community to hear this information during the mental health awareness month. This is my community. This is where I
009live and where my kids go to school and where I run into parents everywhere I go. I have said from the beginning that I want the school board to have to publicly make a decision about how they interpret their policies. Is a licensed social worker who personally worked with a student not someone with a legitimate educational interest? Written consent and supportive daily conversations with a parent not enough to qualify as parental consent. I've been offered the opportunity many times throughout this pro process to simply resign and I refused. I could see the writing on the wall from the start. What was but what has happened here is not right. I did not violate any laws or policies. I've gone through this entire process because I want my children to see how important it is to
010stand up for your convictions and for what is right. And to show them that people can do hard things and still come out the other side. That's important to do the right thing even when you know you're not going to win. If I can be fired after 17 years of being consated as highly effective, then any employee in the district can be fired at any time. Maybe the craziest thing about it this all is that I still want to work at Wilbur Wright because of the students and my co-workers. Lindseay Grunwald and Kathy Qualic are two of the best mental health professionals I know. Lindsay has had to be the only school counselor with a case load of thousand students. Had to pick up all the slack in my absence with little to no acknowledgement.
011Carol Erits has had to field questions every day from students asking where I am. I have made so many great friendships with so many teachers. I love working at the school my child attends. Love seeing students out in the wild. My plan for my family and my future was for me to work here in my community until I retire. Heartbroken. I'm so thankful to all the students and parents who have ever trusted me enough to share personal information with me. Never once taken it for granted. Thank you. Our next um person that has asked for public comment is Deanna Dreus. I apologize. G O B I CA. I don't want to incorrectly state your last name. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead. Oh, no. Please take your time. Members of the board, I am here
012to address the board on behalf of Julia Atkinson. One chooses to enter the profession of working with not for accolades or recognition. It's to me and I would like to tell you about the difference. Mrs. Atkinson has made for my children both as past and at Wilbur Wright. As a parent to the monster school district, I am personally grateful to the time and dedication she has sacrificed for my children. She has made a positive impact on both of my sons. My oldest, now at the high school, is thriving, and he struggled with learning and anxiety. Mrs. Atkinson provided a safe and quiet place for him to go when he needed to just chill out and veg, as she so kindly put it. And this wasn't every day, but when she was available, she allowed him
013to come and chill out. Sometimes my son really didn't have anything to say or she asked him about his day. And if he really didn't answer, she picked up on those cues and allowed him to sit without judgment or pressure. For the three minutes or so that his break allowed, he played with a fidget, maybe ate a piece of candy, or she let him build a Lego figure. When his time was up, he thanked her for allowing him to sit and hang out. And I'm thankful for her and everything she did in being my son's touchstone when he needed a safe place after a long day or a difficult class. It makes me sad that my youngest son, now enrolled at Wilbur Wright, will not have the same experience of seeing her friendly face or
014hearing that infectious laugh in the hallway. When you ask the kids what they love about Mrs. Atinson. They tell me it's her smile, her ability to laugh and make a crazy joke. It's difficult to relate to young middle schoolers, and she can do this without struggle or question. It just came naturally, and I, as a parent, will miss her openness and prompt responses when I had a scheduling question or a question regarding a class. She is an asset to the parents and only she has the children's interest at heart and is dedicated to make sure all students and parents feel successful while trying to navigate through the tumultuous waters of middle school. Mrs. Atkinson, you are loved and revered by parents and students. And as the community comes together to support you, I would personally
015like to thank you for all you have done. Thank you. The next person listed is Heather Burmeister. Burmeister. Bes. I'm here for Julie Atkinson. I have three students. I'm a B. I'm Heather Burmaster. So, she is our counselor. Um, I have two students who are high ability students. I have one student who has an IEP. They're active in extracurriculars. I am active in the PTO. I have had a lot of experience with different um staff members in our school district. And there is literally no other staff member that I have more time or more of a caring response or more of a positive interaction than I have with Miss Julie Atinson. When my son came to the school district, uh, shephered us through his transition into sixth grade and joining the high ability program, which
016is a bit of a a bit of a step when you are transferring into the district and haven't just been grandfathered into the program in the second to third grade step. Um, in sixth grade, she sat down with my husband and I during parent teacher conferences and she reassured us. She gave us resources and she spoke to us about our son and now he's doing amazing and I really want my other two students to have the benefit of Mrs. Atkinson. Uh she's not just oh she's a good counselor. The experience that people have with Miss Atkinson, the experience that the student have the experience that our students of color have reported with Miss Atkinson also is above above average. She is an amazing counselor. She is irreplaceable. I urge the board today, if you vote
017no, if you go back, if you look at this situation, please vote no to certifying her termination today. She's irreplaceable. She has 17 years of experience in this career that people are doing because they love it. Only if they love it can they be effective because I'm sure not everyone loves it. But Miss Atkinson, she has her heart in it. She has experience. She is a member of our community. She has three children in the school district. She lives in Monster. She is irreplaceable. I can't believe that we're looking at terminating her. I myself, as a counselor, I am very well-versed in confidentiality matters. If there was an issue, there has to be some other recourse that that this board today could say no to certifying her termination and go back and look at other
018other avenues of recesses if it was appropriate. She's still licensed by the Indiana State Board. So, who are we? I also want to I was hoping that I would be able to read the multiple multiple comments from community members on the Facebook page when they heard that she was up for termination, but there will not be time. There was overwhelming support for her, not just, "Oh, I thought she was nice," but overwhelming experiences, personal experiences with their children, with themselves of how amazing she was and what a difference she made in their life. We cannot lose her, especially on the heels of the Elliot fiasco where we lost six good people. Thank you. At this time, we have no further comments on public action items at this time. Correct, Deb? Thank you. I will be
019moving on to recognition and presentation. We will be recognizing this evening our commun community ambassador program, Dr. Heler. Yeah. So, tonight um we have the opportunity to recognize and celebrate our second cohort of the community ambassador program. We started this program last year with the intention of developing well-informed ambassadors that truly understood all the complex interconnected issues for a public school district. This year's cohort is comprised of members of our community. Some with students in our district currently, some not yet, and some who already have students that have graduated. But the one thing they all have in common is a clear desire to be part of the solution and to be a source of support for the school district. There's a lot of misinformation in our world today and education is not immune to that.
020I've seen firsthand inaccurate information posted on social media about situations in our district and the ambassadors from both this cohort and our first group providing accurate clarity to the conversation. This year when we were going through the legislative process, many of our ambassadors took an active role and wrote their legislators on behalf not just of Monster, but all public schools. This type of community involvement is what the program is all about. Tonight, this group who have spent the last nine months with us learning all about all things School Town of Monster are graduating as the second cohort of community ambassadors. We want to thank you all for your commitment, your dedication, and your heart for the important work of public education. Before we move to giving out your diplomas, I'd invite any of our board
021members uh to make any comments. One of our board members uh started the program before she was a board member and is also a graduate of the of the program tonight. Uh but I'll turn it over to any board members who would like to make any comment. So I was part of the uh initial inauguration. So I was on the in the group last year. uh John Castro and I saw this program that um down at the Indiana School Board Association back in 2019 and we were so excited to bring it back here and then COVID and we just never got it going. So when Dr. Heler came he said oh I would love to do that community engagement and it has been phenomenal. First of all, the dedicated people that have volunteering their time
022to come. These are long meetings, like two hours of learning about transportation. But I I will be honest, I I had been on the board eight years at that time and I learned quite a bit about our district through that that program. I think every board member, and probably Amy will say the same thing, every board member should go through that. It's it was the best onboarding I had eight years into my role. So, thank you all for volunteering for it. Thank you for being good messengers. You don't always have to agree with us, but let's just keep it truthful. So, I appreciate all of you for for doing that for us. Hi, good evening. Um, I'm Amy Cinder. I had the pleasure of serving with a great group of individuals, many who are here
023tonight on the Monster Community Ambassadors this past school year. Um, I actually applied for the ambassador program before I decided, excuse me, before I decided to run for school board. And I'm so glad that despite the commitment that I decided to go ahead and and do both, um, it is a fantastic program. If you have questions about the school, um, they will be answered. You'll you'll find out things you didn't even know you should be asking. So I appreciate all the time from various people in the district spending a lot of time and energy and effort to help us better understand the operations and um in addition I learned a lot from the group of ambassadors was a really intelligent group that asked fantastic questions and had a lot of knowledge to bring as well.
024So very grateful that we have this program and I'm excited for it to continue. First up is Stephanie Zapka, Kate Duca, Darcy Flity was unable to be here this evening. Adam Keefner, Candace Log, Talia Muri, Vicaro, Sarah Najek, Nikki Nihana, here. Okay. Liz Arisco, Heather Fipp Stevenson, Melinda Pippik, Amy Cinder, Natalie Vega, Finn, Yang. Did I I said that correctly? And Crystal Yedneck, who's not able to be here with us this evening. Congratulations to our 2025 class of community ambassadors. [Applause] Thank you everyone. Thank you for being here this evening. Appreciate it. Next up on this evening's agenda is the Monster Education Foundation grant presentation. I believe I saw Lynn Epley here somewhere. Hi Lynn, welcome. Lynn is the current president of MEF and will be recognizing grant award winners this evening. All your grand
025award winners want to come in and take a seat. Okay, they're all happy today to be here to present our latest recipients for the month of March. We had seven grant recipients. Uh and those grants were from all five of our schools and those grants total just under $11,000. bringing this year's contributions um on grants for students um from teachers and staff that applied to nearly $60,000. That was 27 grants in total. And at our Wednesday meeting, we have another five grants um that have been applied for that we hope to award as well. So, we've had a really successful year and again, we say it all the time, but we're only successful because we have amazing teachers and staff that actually apply and think of these unique ideas um for the benefit of our
026students. We count not only the money but the number of student engagements that these grants reach. And so far this year we've had 6,000 student uh engagements from these grants. Meaning that these grants affected so many students. So 6,000 students. Given that there's 4,000 students in our school district, that means almost every student in our school has certainly been affected by one of the grants that these teachers have been awarded. Um and some of them won. So we're really excited about that. Um and before we announce our grant award um recipients on behalf of Education Foundation, we did want to say thank you to Dr. Heler um your involvement with our organization over the last three years that you've been here has been um really exemplary and we really appreciate both um your participation in
027our meetings um and feedback that you um have given us but also just your support along the way. We we couldn't do it without the support of the school town of Monster and We appreciate that leadership. Thank you. Great. So, this is Stephanie Zapa and if you would um announce our grant recipients, if you hear your name called, we will um you would come up. We have a grant recipient pin for your lanyard. Thanks. Um Mrs. Potchen from EES in the amount of $2,000 for the LL program for the third grade classes at ES. [Applause] Mrs. Garcia from Elliot in the amount of $1,000 to bring traveling zoo to the kindergarten classes and structured learning classroom at Elliot. Mrs. Snider from FH in the amount of 1300 for new keyboards for the music classes at
028FH. [Applause] Um I don't think she's here but Mrs. Lech from NHS in the amount of 400 for materials and lices for the horseshoe shop at [Applause] Mrs. Augustitz from MHS in the amount of 1,800 for C pen readers to support literacy in [Applause] classrooms and our final recipients are here one of them has birthday and one of them isn't feeling well Mrs. Gibson from WW in the amount of 150 to prepare for her classes and Mrs. Hobus from Eids in the amount of $415 to provide materials to support the robotics team at the state [Applause] competition. Thank you very much for the time. Sorry. Thank you to MEF. At this time, I'd ask Mr. Nolan to come forward as the uh report from our staff this month. All right. Good evening, everybody. I'm going
029to go through uh just some big highlights or general highlights from the high school. Um booster club reverse raffle back on April 25th uh was a huge success. So, I want to thank the community in general for turning out that night and raising uh quite a bit of money. It was one of our biggest nights uh we've had in the last four or five years. Um so, again, uh a big shout out to all the families who attended, all the teachers and staff who came out for the Booster Club reverse raffle. So, we want to thank you. Uh with that, the Monster High School Athletic Council raised $1,500 at the Best Buddies Bowl, which was a huge success this year. And that money will be going to Special Olympics Indiana and to help Monster High
030School uh earn its unified championsship school banner for the 24-25 school year. Speaking of unified championships, our unified track season has kicked off. We hosted our first ever unified track meet on April 23rd versus Griffith and our second one uh is coming up ne uh this week, I'm sorry, on the 15th. So, another opportunity for the community to come out and cheer on some of our student athletes uh as they participate. Um, huge shout out to the Wilbur Wright uh staff custodians uh for hosting boys volleyball and uh this season while our gym was under construction. Uh so, we just want to thank Mr. Jay and all the Wilbur staff for putting up with us the last few months here. We know it was kind of a a big big uh big thing for us
031to come over there and move in, but uh want to want to thank you for that. And finally, on the athletic side, uh just a shout out if you hadn't seen, um our conference has joined forces with Jed TV to start our own network, um the NCC network, and we'll be hosting that and that's starting kind of now and up through next school year. Uh but it's a great opportunity if you can't attend uh events or you want to see an event that uh maybe is on the road, uh you'll be able to catch those on Jed TV. Um, so just an opportunity for us to uh get our name out there and for everyone to be able to see our athletics. So if you got grandparents living in Florida now, they'll be able to
032watch some of the kids sporting events um throughout the fall season uh next year. Finally, a couple thank yous because they're here in the audience. I want to thank Kate Duca uh for some beautifification in front of the school. Um, we got we got our mulch done last week as we're trying to get everything ready for graduation and then Kate came in this weekend and put in flowers for us and she didn't even say anything till today. So again, thank you Kate for uh taking care of that. We've started AP testing over at the high school. Uh this year we're testing 26 courses and 1,254 exams. And just to give you a little bit of comparison, last year we had 24 courses tested, 2000 or 1,284 exams. Uh but we also had about a hundred
033more kids in the senior class. Uh so the number of exams is a little bit down but percentage we are up there uh as we speak. Um finally fieldhouse is all wrapped up. So graduation uh will be taking place indoors June 1st at 1:00 at Monster High School. So make sure you got your notes down. Um we're still working out a few little kinks in the bleachers and such. Uh but um the audio system's up, scoreboards up, the bleachers are in. They're beautiful. It looks great. So, thanks Sean uh for all the work he did with that. Uh but uh we're excited to have graduation in our new feeling fieldhouse here uh at the end of the month. That's it. Well, I'll I'll say one thing. I'll speak for the principles. Dr. Heler, we are
034mad at you. No. Um I won't protest, but again, congratulations, Dr. Heler, on your new position. and you'll be sorely missed by the principles here. Thank you, Mr. Nolan. At this time, we will be moving to our consent agenda. With that said, I would ask if any of the board members would like any of the items to be broken down individually as presented in our consent agenda. At this time, I will request that we my first board meeting being in charge. So, give me one quick second to make sure I ask of this correctly. I would ask at this time that the decision concerning Julia Atkinson be separately voted on and removed from the consent agenda. Thank you. Uh with that, the consent agenda then contains the following items and I'll make sure I delineate
035uh part of the uh personnel report that isn't isn't included. Uh includes items 5.1, the approval of the minutes, which you'll see uh we have minutes from the April 14th uh schoolboard meeting, the uh April 22nd uh executive session, the April 25th executive session. So there's three meetings there for that. That's item 5.1. Item 5.2 uh includes approval of the accounts payable voucher register as presented. 5.3 the approval of the payroll voucher register as presented. And then item 5.4 for excluding and I'll go through this so we can show what we're excluding will be the entire consent agenda item items uh including the recommendations for employment as displayed on the screen the resignations as displayed on the screen retirements as displayed excluding the contract cancellation termination and then professional learning requests uh as displayed on
036that screen again excluding the contract cancellation it will also O include item 5.5, approval of overnight field trip requests, which include the following for Mster High School for the football team and the marching band. With that, the administration recommends that the board approve with one vote, one motion, and one vote consent to general items 5.1 through and including 5.5, excluding the contract cancellation as listed on the personnel report, item 5.4. At this time, I ask for a motion and a second. Schwarz Wolf. So moved. Castro second. Any discussion? Call for a vote. Oh, I'm sorry. All those in favor say I. I. Any nay. Motion passes. Motion passes. Four to zero. At this time, then we will consider the separate item of the termination of Julia Atinson's contract. Yeah. And I'll make a separate recommendation
037then for that. So the administration recommends that the board approve the contract cancellation termination of Julie Atinson as uh displayed on the screen and presented. At this time I ask for a motion in a second. Schwarz Wolf. So moved. Castro second. Any discussion at this time? Then I will call for a vote and I will take a roll call vote. Is that what I should do? John Castro. Hi. Amy Cinder. I Ingred Schwarzwolf. I Kristen Smith. No. The vote passes. 3 to 2 one. At this time, we will move forward now to action items on our agenda. 6.1 donations. Uh the administration recommends the donations as presented. I will ask for a motion to approve the donations as presented. Schwarz 12. So moved. Second. Castro second. Any discussion concerning the donations as presented? I will
038go through those uh for you. Uh you'll see there's a few of them. This there's a few documents. The first one is uh from Monster High School which were donations through April. And you can see uh donations to the baseball choir, dance, DECA, culture, cuisine club, speech and debate, and choir as presented from the donors. We also have another one from Monster High School uh for Unified Game Day. The Booster Club uh donated uh $2,000 to help with Unified Game Day. And then we had the PTO from Monster High School also make a donation for Unified Game Day. So there's three for Monster High School. Wilbur Wright Middle School has two. First to the Science Olympiad uh in the amount of $500. you see from Nori there. And then it also has their PTO which
039donated $150 to the unified game day as well. We also have a donation from the Elliot PTO for unified game day as presented as well as a donation from the Eids PTO for unified game day and also Frank Hammond uh PTO uh for unified game day. With that um those are the donations as presented. Discussion any disc any discussion or questions at this time? None. All in favor? I I always ask. Any opposed? Passes four to zero. At this time, then we'll move on to 6.2 fundraisers. We'll ask for a motion to approve fundraisers as presented. Castro, I move that we approve fundraisers as presented. Sender second. Um discussion with that. We will have you'll see the fundraisers from Winster High School. Um a patron drive for theater and speech and debate as listed. And
040then we also have uh science olympiad and dance team from uh Wilbur Middle School. So those are the fundraisers as presented. I want to make sure I got Yeah, I got the whole list there. Any questions or discussion? All in favor? I vote passes. This time I'm moving to 6.3 chart wheels 2025 2026 renewal. Yes. All right. Um I asked sorry I apologize I misststepped here for my first board meeting. So give me grace for one moment. I ask for a motion to approve the Chartwell's 2025 2026 renewal as presented. Schwarz so moved. Second. Cinder second. Thank you Sean. uh school corporations that use a food service management company uh after going through an RFP process are able request for proposal uh process are able to use the food service management company for up to
0415 years before going through the RFP process again. We completed the RFP process in July of 20 2023 and can opt to use Chartwells through 2028. With the service that we have received from Chartwells, we recommend retaining their services for the 2025 2026 school year. Any discussion or comments? I would just like to comment. Dr. Heler shared a story with the board in regards to Chartwells and your student government. Do you mind sharing that story at this time? Yeah. So, we have our student advisory council. We have an elementary, a middle school, and a high school uh version. And during the elementary student advisory council throughout the year, our elementary students had a lot to say about school lunch. Um and uh they had a lot of concerns and they wanted to bring up a
042lot of um requests around school lunch and they brought it up over multiple meetings and it and they were all great concerns but it was a very big priority to our elementary kids. So uh I asked Chartwells uh if they would be willing to hold a special meeting with me and the student elementary student advisory council so that Chartwells themselves could hear directly from our students. And so Chartwells came in um along with Mr. Begley and we held a special meeting with our elementary student advisory council so that the elementary students could directly provide Chartwells with feedback on the food that's being served. Uh and Chartwell was very responsive. They brought in some new menu items. They were considering adding to uh the menu to get the students to taste test it and provide feedback.
043They listened very intently to all of the student feedback. Uh and it was it was a great opportunity, I think, for Chartwells to really hear directly from really the customers who who eat their food every day. And so I I appreciate Chartwell's willingness uh to be a true partner with us um as a as an outside vendor. Um it's part of what makes that relationship with them very very good. At this time I'll call for a vote. All in favor? I. Any naysay? Vote passes. Oh yes. Sorry. Thank you. Um moving on. any items that may properly come before the board at this time and tonight. Thank you. Uh we'll be moving to the general information and discussion items on our agenda. The first item up is 8.1 2026 budget calendar. Yes, this is forformational
044reason. This is a tenative board uh tenative board dates for uh the budget. There are rules that we must follow. So, if you look at our date that we're planning on September 8th for the budget workshop and permission to advert advertise and then submit it on the next day, we have we're doing it approximately a month ahead of time. So, it gives us some leeway if we need to. Uh, but there are you have to have 10 days between the day you post the form three and the day you have the public hearing and then 10 days again after the public hearing before you can do the adoption. So this calendar fits all those needs that we have, but we do have some flexibility if we need to change things. We try to use as
045many uh regular meetings as possible. That's it. Thank you for that information. We'll be moving on then to item number nine, director of financial operations report, Bill Melby. Thank you. I I want to start with the ambassadors. Again, what a great program. And I I I know a lot of people wouldn't want to sit for two and a half hours and talk about school finance, but uh they actually made it sound like they enjoyed it a little bit, but the the questions that came from it and the ideas that came from it, I was extremely impressed. They were at a very very high level. So I wanted to say that uh if we look at our education fund uh one thing that's a little bit out of the ordinary uh you'll see in other miscellaneous
046from Dell again that's our tech department bringing in extra funds by fixing our own computers for us. Uh so a shout out to the tech department. Uh another thing I will point out is a little different than normal is the pay uh payments to the co-op. We usually don't have two together. Uh last month's payment was actually they were behind in billing us. That was for last year and now they're catching up for billing us for this year. So uh that's where that extra payment came there. Uh we did increase our cash balance in the education fund slightly. The way we plan on a two pay month in the operations fund. It went very much as planned. Uh again the the big variance or difference in normal is under purchase of mobile or fixed equipment.
047And I might even get an applause on this. That larger uh value there is from our new printers that we put out in our school. So uh we did a um our director of technology, Mr. Podskll, did a lot of research. I went with him for a lot of the research. We got a great price and we were able to get a great deal and put these in our schools. So that's where that uh difference came in the uh referendum fund and in the operations fund. Yes, we did uh lose a little bit in our cash balance compared to last month, but again, remember that's normal because they're taxpaying funds. We don't re re uh receive our tax draw until June unless we ask for an early draw. We did. We expect that next month.
048Uh so again, in the referendum fund, you will see a decrease in the cash balance, but that is as expected. Uh when you look at May, the early tax draw, that is a real big question mark. I have no idea where that number is going to come out. I look at the last three or four years and get an estimate from that, but it could be higher, it could be lower. It depends on how many people have actually paid their tax bill at that time. Uh other than that, um the big thing in our financial office, we're updating our revenue forecast through 2031 and then we'll update all the new projections through 2031 with all the new legislation. Uh we now have a pretty good standing of where we're going to be moving forward, so
049we'll make sure we have the information to update the board with it. pending. Any questions? That's my report. You does anybody have any questions? I did, Mr. Melby. Just generally, you kind of touched on my thought process at the end there. Um there is a lot of unknowns, not just from the state level, nationally. There's a lot of volatility in the markets right now, a lot of action bonds. Um just partially a reassurance that we will continue to to remain conservative. But I know we're going to look at these things in more specifics over the coming months as you get to to dig into this a little bit. But I was just kind of wondering some of your thoughts generally. Like I understand I know we are in good shape. I know we've been planning
050for this. We had some thoughts early on that this was kind of the direction that the state was going in terms of uh revenues that we'd received. So just kind of, you know, taking the temp a little bit just to kind of put the folks at ease. Right. So, and again, you know, I'm very conservative and I will always continue to be that way, but uh in the education fund, we we know where our revenue is going to be plus or minus. It depends on our ADM. So, we have a pretty good gauge of that. Even though it says it's an over 4% increase, really the school town of Monster is going to get less than a 1% increase if my numbers are correct. Um and Mr. Trippenfeld is he ran the same numbers and
051we came up with very similar numbers. Uh so the education fund, we know where we're going to be at over the next two years. In the operations and referendum fund, that's where the big question is going to be. Uh it's really going to take a parcel by parcel um check to see exactly where we're going to end up. Uh there are some things we can do to get in that. We can partner with Baker Tilly and uh policy analytics that can give us a better picture of what the future's going to be. looking at what the numbers that they gave us, we are going to lose significant funds in our debt bearing funds in our debt bearing funds for sure over the next seven years. Uh and it looks considerably worse after 2027 and 28.
052But I will say on the other side, the school town of Monster with the leadership of our superintendents and our board, we have put ourselves in a position that I can tell you a lot of schools around are not in. we have put ourel in a much better position to handle variances. Thank you, sir. Any other questions, comments? Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Um, at this time, we'll be moving on to item 10, administrative reports. 10.1, assistant superintendence report. Steve, uh, thank you. Uh, just a few things. Uh, Mr. Melby, our corporation treasurer, Jessica Espinosa, and our accounts payable specialist, Jennifer Daniels, and I got to attend the Indiana School Board Association's uh state convention last week. Um, I believe that I can speak for all of us and that the sessions were extremely useful
053uh and uh very helpful. As you can expect, as what Bill just said, many of our sessions were designed to help us better understand some of the changes Indiana code um that occurred in this last legislative session. Uh, I mean, I could go through the numerous changes, but uh, we're talking funding, teacher evaluations, teacher appreciation grants, school accountability, referenda, teacher compensation, student absenteeism, board, school board elections, and dozens more uh that we got to hear straight from a lot of people from the IDO about uh, which really helped us. Conference was extremely valuable. Um unfortunately to some of the people in my department I re I returned with several plans and ideas to implement so they always get frustrated with that but learned of a lot of good things. Um again we all were able
054to attend sessions based upon our roles and as I said the human resources sessions offered me some very actionable ideas and ways to improve our department. So it's going to be hopefully uh a very valuable session. Um as this school year ends uh we are actively working to prepare for next school year. As I mentioned last month, um I didn't mention this last month. During this summer, we have planned some informal negotiation meetings already. So, it's that time of season. Uh we're going to meet hopefully twice in the summer with the teachers association to begin uh informal discussions and negotiations for the next bargaining season as you all are aware, but maybe our community isn't formal bargaining. Actually, doesn't officially begin until after school starts in September 15th. and then we can begin working uh
055to prepare for that uh formal session. And again, for everyone's uh information, formal bargaining in the state of Indiana uh begins September 15th and has to be concluded by November 15th. So, uh we're going to need to be ready as Bill mentioned that he's already got some scheduled schoolboard meetings. Uh as our process goes through through, there will be some schoolboard meetings that we're going to have to schedule that are less announced than bills are because it really depends upon when we can re uh reach a tentative agreement. And then there are some things we have to do uh for meetings to go through those and go through that process. So want to make sure you're aware that we'll also have a few extra meetings of September or October uh in addition to the good
056old budget meetings. Uh and as I mentioned obviously at this time of year we're actively working to fill those open positions that we have for next year. Our department takes a lot to do with that. And I did want to take just one minute to recognize uh Vicky Swing, our benefit specialist. Uh, one other thing we do at this time is we review all of our benefits and claims throughout the year for medical insurance, medical premiums. And I think I can truly say that this has been a year and I need to find some wood to knock on. I'm not very superstitious, but with a lot of programs that our insurance consultant, Nick Napier, who works for Brown and Brown and Vicky Swing, we've put together some great programs that offer tremendous benefits to our
057uh staff, um with some cost savings for also the individual employees and uh for the corporation. And I've just been proud to work with Vicki and Nick as they've navigated some of these really tumultuous times when it comes to insurance costs and insurance premiums. And I think our my team has done a tremendous job. They need to be recognized. Uh we are beating national standards, local standards, and state standards when it comes to costs. Um and we're actually beating the types of benefits that we're adding and adding on there. So, uh Nick, if you're out there listening as our consultant or Vicki, uh thank you for all you guys do. It's those are the kind of things that go unseen that people just assume happens and don't realize the amount of work that certain individuals
058put in. So, I just need to say thank you to Vicki and to Nick. Uh and then pending any questions. This concludes my report. Thank you. Did anybody win any big awards last week? Uh there were I think there was at least uh one person that won a local award. Not a big award, but it was a local a region one. Yes. School business. Yeah. Somebody the person who just finished talking won a region one school business official of the year award. So thank you. Congratulations, Mr. Triple. Yes. And I appreciate them for being there. uh Bill and and Jessica and Jen had to sit through the awards presentation which is somewhat dry uh the whole time for that but thank you very much for that but congrats any other comments questions at this time
059we'll move on to 10.2 two director of operations report. Sean, thank you. I'll give you a update on construction going around on the different campuses. So, the baseball soccer field conversion is completed. So, our baseball team has been using it since the first week of April, but the Burm final grading and seam blank gets got wrapped up this past week. So, with the new field, including the new lights that we installed last year, our student athletes will be able to play baseball uh games and play soccer with less interference from the weather and a much improved facility. and pending town approval will move forward with the expansion of the storage and parking in the field and storage area uh just south of 35th Street. Uh fine arts, the classroom area is going into the final
060stages. Uh that includes putting in the flooring, the drop ceilings, the cabinets. Uh we anticipate getting the band orchestra and percussion rooms turned back over to us in mid June and that's a change from end of June. Uh at that point, the construction is going to retreat into the auditorium uh with the theater seats set for delivery June 30th and with the expectation again the theater back in early August of 2025. So we'll have that hopefully ready uh to go before the beginning of the school year. Uh as Mr. Nolan said, the bleacher scoreboard and sound system is ready to use. We are doing a few missing parts and um minor updates or fixes to the bleachers to get those complete. Uh the scoreboard is installed. We It is much much much much more capable
061than the old scoreboard. So it has the capability of video. I know Mr. Schultz has been uh working with Mckeen Solutions to the people that installed it. So he's going to be taking several classes that he can do advertisements, you can do videos, he can do all sorts of different things. Uh I'm sure Kim has got a lot of things that she's going to have up there for uh marketing or for our branding, but it is much much more capable of what we had. Uh the audio is is complete. Uh they they have to tune it in. So they have a acoustician coming in to make sure it's set just just right. Uh it is again much much more capable. Uh we used to have a little suitcase you would drag up and plug in.
062this you can um you have to be in a specific spot to be Bluetooth in. I was walking around with my phone playing my playlist while I was walking around the gym again is a great improvement to the facility. Uh we'll now start uh replacing the bleachers at Wilbur Wright at the end of school. So we'll start the demo and install there. And then uh the the people we're using for the installation for the scoreboard noticed that we had a wireless capability at the high school and we're going to recycle that and put that where we had the wired connection in the middle school. So where it's been kicked and that wires um fails often, we're going to completely replace that with much cost to the school corporation because we're recycling some of our parts.
063And kind of going back to um Chartwells, Chartwells does a very good job of of providing food for the students and uh with the money that's produced in the uh cafeterias, we're able to use that money to do purchases and do some improvements to our cafeterias. So, we are going to be able to put a a new combi oven in Elliot. Uh we're looking to replace uh some of the tables at the high school. Uh we have some that the seats are failing, so we'll get the replace those. Eid's combi oven. We want to get that done over the summer also and replace the serving lines. There is a wait time to that. U but I'm working with Jessica to make sure we have a healthy food service balance and then we can um replace
064some of their things that are aging out and those serving lines at Eids are well past their their prime and need to be replaced. With transportation, our uh three 72 passenger buses are coming in. One came in today. We'll get one tomorrow and we'll get one Wednesday. We have the state police lined up to come and do inspections. So, we'll be able to immediately get those into the um bus fleet and get those taken our students home. Uh we still have two 84 passenger buses that we're waiting on and we expect to get in fall of 2025. But with the three new school buses, they will help serve the many many athletic and field trips that we are going on. We are I think we're trying to set a record this year. So, thank you
065principles for submitting all those requests. But we're we're all over the state. We're all over um you know, our conference and and taking our students all over the place. So, those new buses will be very well received. And any questions? That's all I have. Questions of Sean? Um I just had a a quick question for you. I think I touched on it last month, but the tariffs that have been put in place, put on hold, put back in place, changing changing numbers. Um I know we had a lot of projects that were in motion already. We had a lot of uh equipment and a lot of uh product already in store. Is is this affecting you long term? Is this how are we looking at that with in terms of some of the materials that
066we have? So it it it does kind of depend on on the vendor. I'll say this with the buses they just factored in. I believe it was a 10% tariff fee. If it was needed, it was needed. If not, we weren't charged it. uh where we saw it with the steel uh for some of the projects. Um we didn't see it. They said, "Wow, we're lucky we got this in." Uh so we didn't see they the cost that was bid was honored. So we haven't seen it there. Moving forward, there are some people there are some vendors and some services that are saying, you know, expect this to be incorporated into the the the fee. Uh but that's why we put it out the bid and we look for the most competitive bid. um before
067we ward a project and we we are seeing our our costs so far have have come in to where we expected. We've haven't put out when we put out some of our bigger projects coming up um that includes central office um multi-purpose building those types of things we may see an increase in that in those. Thank you so much. At this time we'll move to 10.3 director of exceptional achievers report VANG everyone. We had our unified game day and it was a huge success. Uh as you could see lots of smiling faces and lots of participation. This year was so fabulous because the peers were so attentive, so empathetic working with the children. It was just a wonderful, wonderful experience. But we would like to to take the moment to thank all the people who
068helped with unified games to make it such a success. The unified game day had a planning committee and we'd like to thank Stacy Vukadinovich and Julie Massud, Jana Merrick, Tammy Catalinic, Marian Orphanos, Rachel Zabani, Alli Dawson, Buon Jovanov, Claire Starovich, Matt Brandt, Jason Hill, Grace Meyers, Carrie, Taylor Watropka, Kathy Kowalsski Kowalik, um Beth Rosapovich, and Karen. Andis. Uh those were the behind thescenes people that were helping to put this wonderful opportunity together. We also had numerous staff volunteers who were out there helping out as well. We had parent volunteers. We had 19 parent volunteers that showed up and were helping to run the games and helping things to go smoothly. So a big thank you to them. We had the school high school band. uh Adam Bo pre sorry who um he brought the entire
069band. Uh I've seen the stampedes where they've had maybe 10 12 band members but we had the entire band and it was just absolutely fabulous. We also had the cheerleaders led by Aubrey Velasquez Noel and we had the mighty Mustang leading our parade. So that was huge as well. We had a torch runner, Riley Gal Galosk. We also had the choir at Wilbur Wright Middle School singing the national anthem led by Stacy Augle. We had Miss Kathy Curtis who did the sign language and interpreted not only the national anthem but also our Olympic oath. The Olympic oath was led by Mrs. Ramos's class. So the entire entire class led that. We also had all the athletes and all the unified partners and we had 168 participants in that were competing. We'd also like to put
070a big thank you in to the Monster High School booster club for helping us to purchase the t-shirts. Also, the Monster High School PTO, the Wilbur Wright Middle School PTO, the Eids PTO, the Elliot PTO, and the Frank Hammond PTO all contributed to helping us to put this program together. We would also like to do a big shout out to Jason Hill, Matthew Brandt, and Grace Meyers because they were our event coordinators and they did a fabulous job. We would also like to thank Kim Pyrick for taking p pictures for us. Also, the principles because uh Boyon, he we were able to use his gym and that was f both gyms and that moved very smoothly. Um Mr. Nolan for helping us with the band and cheerleaders and Mighty Mustangs and getting that all organized.
071Linda Beville, Nicole Gernzie, and Kelly Borisma who helped us with all of the scheduling to make sure the buses arrived and and left on time. Tanya Nelson and all the transportation department and the drivers who did a fabulous job getting our kids there on time before the parade and smoothly getting them back to their schools. Uh Mr. and Mrs. Vukadinovich who donated all of the water uh for the events. And then finally, Victor Torres and Beth Raspapovich who are were our MC's for that day. and they did a fabulous job. So, we would hope that everybody enjoyed themselves and we hope that um everybody will honor us again next year and come and enjoy the festivities again next year. Thank you so much. Any questions? Thank you. At this time, we'll move to 11.1 individual
072public comments. This is for general public comments. As a reminder, there's three minutes time period and we have one submission. Colleen Avis A I B A Z I A N. Sorry if I did not pronounce your last name correctly. Apologize. Thank you. Thank you. I'm here to speak in regards to the ongoing investigation into the structured learning program at Elliot. Out of respect for this investigation, my husband and I have remained quiet while a tiraate of false statements have been publicly made in an attempt to emotionally manipulate the parents of special needs children. incite anger in the Monster community and continue a monthslong campaign of harassment and defamation against my husband. Prior to coming to Monster, my husband had an impeccable 10-year record teaching special education during which no complaints were ever filed against him.
073He became nationally board certified and one year his IEPs became the standard for the entire Chicago public school system. He continues to be friends with many of his former colleagues and parents of his students. Many of his now adult former students have reached out to thank him for being a positive role model in their lives. In his short time at Elliot, he demonstrated the same care with the structured learning students. Ahead of the winter program in December, he arranged for one of his students to be seated in the front row with his family to minimize anxiety and then helped that student comfortably participate on stage. He did this of his own goodwill, not as a requirement of his job. When Kylie McCoy, his former co-teer, wouldn't let a student's snacks be used in his room,
074he asked me to purchase snacks and bring them to school so that student wouldn't go without. Meanwhile, to shed some light on the character of those making accusations against my husband and who have been referred to as good educators who are no longer with the system, Kylie McCoy quit three special education teaching jobs in the span of seven months, each time without notice. Two of those were the same job at Elliot. Kylie repeatedly failed to create a schedule that complied with required IEP minutes for students. I watched my husband spend three weekends in a row fixing the schedule to be compliant, only for Kylie to change it again on Monday mornings to maximize her own needs. Within weeks of my husband being hired, Alex St. Pierre helped initiate a false and malicious rumor that my
075husband was having an affair with another co-worker in his classroom while our daughter was present. Kylie, Alex, and another aid acted aggressively toward me and my daughter simply for my picking my family up from school. Alex snapped at my daughter in her classroom. Alex and another aid were fired following their theft of my husband's notebook, which they read through in the hallway along with Kylie in full view of security cameras while neglecting their students. Alex threatened my husband, saying she knows where we live, stating our address, and that she's driven past our home. Alex told another aid to watch her back because she didn't do enough to get rid of my husband. There's a recording of one of the aids apparently grabbing a student's hand, causing the student to cry out in pain, and then
076mocking that student. Kylie and Alex have spearheaded a campaign of harassment and defamation against my husband, continuing to make false allegations for no discernable reason. They've demonstrated contempt for him and this district by choosing to take their complaints public instead of respecting the process of the investigation. If the school town of Monster takes disciplinary action against my husband, it sends a message to every staff member that this district not only condones harassment and defamation, but will actively choose to make it worse. I am almost done. Please allow me these few extra seconds. It also sends a message. You can email it. Your words, Kristen, at DAR graduation today said a lot. Please make the better decision. Be the better person. Be the kinder people. Thank you for your comments. At this time, I will move
077on to item 12, board reports, individual board member reports. John, thank you. Um, attended the uh, town council meetings of redevelopment commission. Uh, there was nothing that came through uh, that would be of any note for our district. Um, but one side note, as I attend the meetings. Um I'm usually there during the town council meetings. The town council uh has selected a new town manager. Um hopefully we'll get the chance to meet that new town manager uh within the next month or so. Um I know we have a lot of transition. Um so new town manager and we'll uh we'll see how uh if we can continue that symbiotic relationship that we have with the town. He seemed very enthusiastic. So we're we're looking forward to interacting with him. Um had the chance to
078attend uh the ISBA regional meeting uh was last week. Um it's it's always very informative. Uh it's a good meeting. Um we get to see other board members and superintendent from region one uh kind of interact kind of see how things are going in other districts. Um this was a tougher meeting. Uh there was a lot of as I'm sure you're all aware legislatively things that we've been able to and the Indiana School Boards Association has been able to kind of fend off over the past boy four years um are coming to fruition now. uh things like uh as we were discussing earlier, the financial issues that we're going to be facing um partisan schoolboard elections um and some of the the court cases that are pending um are just making it more and more
079difficult to be uh an educator, to be involved with public education, uh to be an administrator, and quite frankly to be a schoolboard member. Um they're it sounds to me as though they're trying to discourage people and as difficult as possible. Uh I just we've said it before. I none of us up here take our positions lightly. We know the trust that has been given to us by the community. We take the time and the effort and spend long hours away from our families and put so much thought and care and passion into the decisions and the actions that we take. It's hard to see sometimes when there's a 4-1 vote, a 3-1 vote, a five, a lot of 50 votes that you're just kind of putting things through, but so much time is spent
080with my fellow board members, with the administrators trying to make the best decisions for our district. So, we will continue to do that even in the face of the difficulties that are pending. Um, and I'm proud to be a school board member. I'm proud to be with this group. to be in this district. So, thank you very much. Thanks. Um, on Friday, April 25th, I attended along with the other school board members and our superintendent uh a school board retreat which proved to be both informative and valuable. The retreat provided an in-depth review of the code of e ethics that all board members are expected to uphold and we discussed best practices for effective board governance. We had the opportunity to build stronger relationships with each other. Uh the time spent together fostered better understanding
081comm camaraderie and I think that'll continue to to positively contribute to our future collaboration. That evening, my husband and I attended the Booster Club reverse raffle, which was a great event as always and wonderful to hear about the many myriad projects that booster club supports. On May 6th, alongside John, I attended the Indiana School Board Association spring meeting. This meeting really centered on legislative updates, as uh John mentioned, relevant to the school boards across the state. Out of the 244 new laws that are have been enacted this session alone pending the governor's signature, 43 directly pertain to K to2 education policy, school or local governance or child related legislation. So these changes highlight the dynamic nature of educational policy and the need for ongoing awareness and responsiveness from school boards. We're fortunate to have excellent
082resources and support to help us stay informed on these developments. The insights gained from both the retreat and the spring meeting will help guide thoughtful decision-making as we continue to serve our community through these challenges. Thank you, Kristen. Um, I would first just like to thank all of you that um publicly spoke. I know it is not easy to do that um no matter what your feelings are. Um, we do appreciate it. Um, it's it's a nerve-wracking position to be in up there. So, thank you for sharing your ideas and thoughts and concerns. Um, I am the legislative liaison and I'm not going to do the doom and gloom for the legislation. But I think what I'm going to do is something we're going to now probably do with our strategic plan is that every
083time there is something that happens up here related to finance or a new policy, I'm going to tie it to legislation just to show you how affected we are by our government and limited and financial. So I don't have a I'm not going to go through all the list of the things that affected K to2 today but throughout the meetings in the future I'm going to start tagging those things so we all are that much more aware. Um I did uh was a judge for we the people and I know if I don't say this Dr. Heler's probably going to call me out on it. Steve you're going to like this one. Um, I met so many great young people, fifth graders, and uh, one of them made me cry. And I cried dur I
084know I'm not a crier. Um, it was, uh, I don't know, I just maybe because I don't have little littles anymore, but there was one student that was able to connect her life to a Supreme Court law or judgment. And it's it just was heartwarming to see that um where people can really how much that connection and we the people uh really helps our students and it was it made me very emotional. And then so shout out to Carrie and shout out to Tommy. Um Tommy is going to be president of the United States someday. That's all I'm going to say. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Um, at this time I'd just like to give a brief update on the park board as I sit on that board as per my role
085here on the school board. The park board at this time is undergoing a significant review of we hired a facilitator and a strategic um person, parks professional to review all of our park district parks. Um, all including the pool, which many of you have probably seen on Facebook. The pool is not closing at this time despite comments made on social media. Um, it is being evaluated as part of our entire park system here in the town of Monster. In addition to that, the view is in the process of potentially being removed by fall and we are considering ideas and plans that will replace the view. It will not be another building. It will be a place for family members to go and it will have some type of water feature, some type of area that
086families will be able to go and convene in monster that will allow you more opportunity to enjoy our park system, lake, etc. out in that area. Um, so I encourage everyone if you're ever interested in learning more about the town and the parks department in specifically and how they're evaluating all of our parks, what gets updated, how it gets updated, when it gets updated, including the pool which is at its lifespan of 25 years. That's why it's being discussed um which is our responsibility to evaluate that as the parks board. So just like to make that comment. The park board meets the typically the third Tuesday of every month. We will be meeting next week. Um otherwise I attended very similar events to my board members and um similar thoughts and feedback to all. Thank
087you for all coming. Thank you for your comments. Thank you for participating in our school district. That what makes us unique and strong here in school town of Monster in spite of challenges and um growing pains that we are all facing here in our district. So, we don't take that lightly. We obviously take it very seriously and we feel like we've had very solid staff in place to help guide us including Dr. Heler who will be leaving us unfortunately, but um we wish him the best of course and still have another board meeting left. So, um thank you. Yes, that will be a different type of meeting at that time. So, thank you. Anybody else have anything else to add? Comments? Thank you. Um at this time, I'd like to turn it over to Dr.
088Heler for our superintendence report item 13.1. Thank you. So, first I'll start just to provide a brief update on the situation with the structured learning program since it it came up tonight at Elliot Elementary School. I think in terms of the primary work for the investigation has been completed. Mrs. Burgerer and Mrs. Yos who conducted the investigation have uh I believe almost completed all of their meetings with all of the parents to review those findings with parents. We're now to the phase where additional conversations and steps will continue to happen over the next few weeks as we finalize um discussions with staff about those findings and make decisions u based on all of that going forward. So I know it feels like it's taken a long time. I will say that is because of the
089truly comprehensive nature uh of the investigation done by Mrs. Burgerer and Mrs. Yos. um they did exactly what I asked them to do, which was be as comprehensive and thorough as possible and that takes a lot of time and um so I applaud them for their work. Um they both may need some time off after this is done. They are very but they they've done such a great job. Um we are still in the in in stages of finalizing everything, but I believe um we're we're close to being able to finalize all of our findings and decisions going forward. Switching gears, uh we have a lot of great things happening in the district right now. Um this time of year is busy. Uh I also had the opportunity to judge we the people at Eids
090this week as always. It was an amazing experience. The teachers do such a great job. The students um never um they always are just so so amazing, so insightful some of the things that they they bring to the table when we ask them questions. Um today, uh I had the opportunity to attend Elliot's, uh fifth grade deer graduation event, and we'll be attending the same one for Eids on Friday and Frank Hammond on Monday. Hopefully weather holds out because that one is at Centennial Park. Uh it's always an exciting time to see our fifth graders as they finish one leg of their uh educational journey and get ready to start the next one as they move into middle school. are we are blessed to have Sergeant Grace who does such a phenomenal job with the
091DARE program and has for so many years. So much appreciation and thanks to him for all of the hard work and making that a really valuable program. There are lots of districts who do DARE. Not all districts do it with the level of uh engagement and value that that our community does and Sergeant Grace is a big part of that. Of course, there's all the end ofear field days and yearbook signing and finals schedules. um the things that make the end of the year both stressful and exciting at the same time. Um that's all going on right now. Next Friday is the last day of school. We have nine days left. Um which is hard to believe. Which brings me to another topic, which is uh my departure from the school town of Monster, which
092I think everybody knows by now that I'm leaving Monster later this summer, uh moving to Colorado. I do think the word bittersweet was literally created for times like these. Um, while I believe this decision is in the best interest of my family, um, the opportunity to get closer to our family, especially our two older daughters, our granddaughter, um, became even more important to us throughout this past year for a variety of reasons. And the opportunity in this district that I will be leading next is also a great opportunity. Um, with all that being said, uh, Monster will forever be a part of who I am. Sorry. Um, it's impossible to come somewhere uh and give it your heart, your soul without it becoming a part of you. Uh, so many amazing relationships that I've built
093in this community with staff, with parents, the community, with our students. Um, I've had students come up to me since the news has come out. I've had lots of staff. I've had lots of kind words um shared. I've had some people say they're mad at me. Um um some people say they're not willing willing to talk to me yet, which is just okay. I understand. Um it's it's uh bittersweet is the one word I will continue to use. Um I still have a June meeting, so I'll have save some words for then. Um but I just want to thank everybody uh who has been so kind over the last week. Um most people have been very understanding uh of the fact that we've made this decision. Um I appreciate everybody. Thank you. Thank you. At
094this time, um, our final announcements, we will be holding a special board meeting on Thursday, May 15th at 6 PM. Our next regularly scheduled board meeting will be June 9th at 6 PM. And then we have two upcoming ISBA meetings. The June school law seminar, June 13th and June 24th is a budget finance seminar. With that said, we will conclude our meeting tonight at 7:19 p.m. Motion. Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. I was ready to go peace out everybody. No, I'm not. I'm just kidding. Motion to conclude our to close our meeting. Schwarzwell. So moved. Castro second. All in favor? I any nays? No. Meeting meeting closes. Thank you. Log out, please.