001e to school trustees uh meeting let the record show that Mr Castro and Miss Cinder are not here uh this evening although we expect Mr Castro uh later on let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al flag United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible andice item 1.4 public comment information we currently offer two ways in which the community can participate in regular school board meetings the first public comments section on the agenda is for addressing current action items that are on tonight's agenda these comments must be submitted by noon on the day of the meeting the procedures for submission are posted on our website under Board of school trustees the second public comments section is for General comments and does not have to be specific to an agenda
002topic if you wish to address the board during the general public comments section of the meeting please put your name and topic on a card and give to Miss Deb Hayes at the start of the meeting Deb is Raising in 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 2.1 individual public comments on action items any dub item 3.1 Mr buan yovanovich W rights principles report um today we started our final iearn checkpoint um this will give us a chance to see where the students are uh before we do the real thing uh next month um since I spoke last we had a ton of things happening so I'll try to keep it brief um our
003Lego robotics team played 16th in the state at the state competition and won the motivation award um our debate team every single week wins High honors I think we're uh we're always like nine out of the top 15 every single week uh that is both novice and varsity our Science Olympia team qualified for State uh dance just competed they got second Fifth and seventh at the state competition um our cheer team is going to Nationals next week our eighth grade boys basketball team uh won the regular season and conference championships and then next week we have our an induction for the National Junior Honor Society um we we will have about 110 students a part of that ceremony that night um which is basically what we had last year so it's it's a lot of
004fun uh uh so that'll happen next week um a couple of things to save the date on our PTO parent night out at 313 uh will happen on a April 4th uh that is a big fundraiser for us in our PTO so uh if you guys are uh interested please come out to that that's a fun night um we will also have our around the world at Wilbur right um sort of our Multicultural Fair on April 9th um that'll be a ton of fun as well we did it last year with uh about 10 uh to 12 countries and uh uh represented so we're hoping to at least double that this year uh that is the hope uh we have the uh signups on our announcements page and in our parent email um we also
005uh this week will be notifying our 2025 wilright hall of fame indues um so those are past staff members uh one of them was notified today uh the reaction was awesome so uh we love doing that so this week we're we're reaching out to those three uh inductees and that that ceremony will happen late April um early May uh kind of has to work out for the three people we're we're inducting um also uh just like all of us here we're trying to get through these last few weeks before spring before Spring Break um we've had several events uh here to kind of wind us down um our PTO ran a dance uh two weeks ago last week we had our karaoke fun night which our student council does uh with a ton of support
006from students and staff members um and a ton of as I told the kids on the announcements today um really really good singing and really terrible singing uh but it was all fun singing it was it was a lot of fun um and then we've also have we have a ton of things here in the spring for our eighth graders um that will uh that that is kind of designed for our eighth grade students a couple of trips um their eighth grade breakfast so we're excited about that we also have our third quarter hour of Awesomeness right before spring break so that'll be in a a week and a half or so um and then finally uh some of the things that our staff our our spirit committee has set up for staff because right
007now um again at this time of the year it can be a tough time for staff and students and everybody so uh we've done a ton of different things such as uh 50 days left uh picture scavenger hunt the other day they put pictures of myself uh Mr Torres Miss L and officer around the building and then you found them turned them in for some prizes um which was fun um we also had uh we've had potluck um and one of our teachers Miss Perez started something called the Mustang minute every Friday where teachers and staff can nominate uh and give shout outs to other teachers and staff and that's it's really a nice way to end the week um and it's I I would say uh just a great addition uh and then finally
008we've one of the best New Traditions we've added this year and it wasn't even on purpose um is to prank Mr Torres so if you guys have followed us on our Facebook page um you can see some of those uh we actually have a couple that we haven't posted yet so uh be on the lookout for that uh he handles it really well really well um and the last thing I want to end with is um I I just want to give a big shout out to our instructional assistants uh throughout the building uh they're they're sort of an unsung group come to work every single day uh do whatever it takes to help the teachers students um they they do every little thing that we need them to do and it really you really
009feel it when one of those people is out for the day um they are amazing so uh miss alexu Mr Goodman uh Miss Gresham Miss McWilliams Mr Ramos uh Mr fuler uh Miss Smith Miss zonic and miss whttiger and some of those people have been here for years uh just doing the best thing for wilri so um that's all I have for now if there's any questions I'm happy to answer them not I'll go sit down all right thank you guys thank you boyan item four high ability presentation Miss ber thank you um Miss yo and I thought this was a um good time to review some of the changes that were made in 23 24 and talk a little bit about the impact that those have had um on our students um so we'll
010start just talking a little bit about high ability programming K to2 and then dive into a little bit more of the the high school impact so on the next slide um we are seeing our math third through 8th grade um math third through 8th grade um the Indiana academic standards were revised in 2324 there were changes made um our team sat down this summer as a three through five um High abil the high ability teachers along with the instructional coaches myself um we started on this last year finished it up this summer um and revised the curriculum for grades three and four um previously students so let me back up a second students are identified for high ability identification at the end of second grade which means that third grade if they qualify they are
011then put into high ability third grade they could be just math they could be just reading some are both um what we found with the math is that we were skipping the third grade standard so they went from second grade identified as high ability then put into third grade high ability the course but they skipped a whole year of math what's important to remember about high ability doesn't always equal High achieving it could be your cognitive potential so you could be a student that may be academically behind but you've been identified as a student that has the ability to be successful in a high ability curriculum and the state says that's up to us to help them gain those skills to reach their full potential so when we realized that we were doing our students
012a disservice by skipping a whole grade level standards um we compacted them in in the high ability world or the gifted education that's really taking those essential standards that are going to have an impact on their the continued course sequence and allows them um to get those in sooner so they can continue to accelerate through their courses so we compacted third and fourth about half of fourth grade standards are taught with third in third grade and then in fourth grade the other half of fourth grade essential standards and then those fifth grade essential standards which allows them then to be ready in fifth grade for the full sixth grade standard sequence the state then has us identify students um for high ability in fifth grade again going into sixth grade so now we have another
013whole cohort of students that may qualify um that missed all of sixth grade curriculum so when we began to change the course sequencing for the middle school this was something else that we considered and so we compa again we compacted um with the help of um Mr Jay and his team we compacted those sixth and seventh grade standards into a double blocked Math course for students newly identified during the end of fifth grade going into sixth grade so that way we know that these students have the potential to be successful in accelerated math courses we need to equip them with the foundational skills to then be successful in the AP courses in high school so it's kind of a it's backward design um so then in seventh grade they take those eighth grade standards and
014then in um e grade they have preap Algebra 1 there is another group of students um that Miss layard identifies that are ready to what we call double jump so that they have shown the potential to be they've mastered she has them take um sometimes an assessment or it's based on their NWA scores an assessment that allows them to take geometry preap geometry as a um eighth grader so there is an opportunity to double jump for those kids also on the next slide we have some I wanted to take a second and look at the preap courses in 2324 the high school um introduced preap courses which were developed by college board the purpose of the preap courses are to have teach the students the skills to be successful in AP um courses during high
015school we also know that when students at at minimum take an AP course they um the statistics I believe are there Bob you may help help me on this one but I think if you take an at least one AP course your increase in graduating from college in four years is higher um substantially the high school along with our support introduced um preap courses English 9 10 Algebra 1 geometry biology adding Algebra 2 and then we have world history and geography so there's a recommend mendation that students be at the 75th percentile when they um if they choose to take a preap course but they don't have to be college board says that we have to allow any students if we're going to offer their courses because they are free that we have to allow
016any student who want to take it I had the opportunity um to speak to miss wand's class along with um Kyle and Brett and of course me being me I had a group St after and I asked him I said who didn't take honors English as a eighth grader that's now in the preap 9 we had over I think there was like probably half the class were kids that didn't take it previously and some of them were very honest and say I was not at that 75th percentile in our NWA assessment but I'm in here and I'm doing well so it goes to show that sometimes maturity sometimes you know just over summer we grow we develop and it's important to be given those opportunities um the next slide talks about our impact so why
017are we doing this one and I'm sorry this did not look like this when I created it I don't know what occurred um so um one of the important parts to um definitely the high school and also our District administration is accessibility as you can see I've highlighted pre preap algebra 1 which used to be honors algebra preap geometry which used to be honors geometry preap Algebra 2 which was honors algeb number two we have biology with honors chem with honors same with English 9 and 10 so in 2223 those were actually honors courses um the majority of those became preap in 2324 but you can see how exponentially those numbers of students participating in those courses increased in addition to that you say calling that's great but how many remained in the course so
018these are actually second term numbers so first term versus second term I even went in and dug in to see who how many dropped from first to second um I'm excited to say that um some highlights well let's go with some in 23 24 we had 11 students that's between the middle school and high school because that course previously was not offered at the high school was only offered at the middle school um we had 11 students drop so that's a learning curve for us on some recommendations for kids is this a class you think you could be successful in this year we had four from Algebra 1 four um in preap geometry in 2324 from first term to second term um we had eight this year they only had three 23 24 Algebra 2
019was not pre preap we just introduced this year for Algebra 2 um we had four biology zero students we also did not offer preap or biology honors at the high school we do actually offer offer that now um and zero students dropped the course preap chemistry three in 23 24 one this year from first term to second term English nine last year there were five this year I think there were either one or none and then also in English 10 we went from three in 2324 to 1 and 2425 so although we're increasing the amount of students that are eligible to take the courses they're rising to the expectations and they're doing well so we're we're we're extremely excited about this on the next slide we have achievement when we look at achievement we we're
020looking what you're seeing here it's the PSAT mean increase so if you start on the right side and we look at the increase from Fall of 2023 so they take it in the fall the PSAT in the fall 2022 and 2023 compared to their 2022 scores we saw an 18o increase in the mean for the seniors that are current seniors and 25 in math go to the current Juniors class of 2026 in 2023 they saw a 12o increase in the mean and seven points in math this year in the fall we saw 41 and 35 that's a is a substantial increase there's a multitude of reasons but I can make a correlation between the amount of students that are participating within our increased courses and the rigor behind those courses and the academic success our
0212027 um are current sophomores they increased 13 in their evidence-based reading and writing in 2023 compared to 22 and in 2027 37 was the mean increase math we we I have some ideas of why we're seeing that Gap this group um of sophomores only specific kids were allowed the preap um algebra one and we didn't offer it at the high school I believe it was that year I'd have to go back through my data so they really D jumped to preap Geometry so they kind of missed that that year and then our current freshman um so they had the opportunity to take the preap uh algebra increased um 22 points and 56 in evidence-based reading and writing so it is having an substantial impact on our achievement I contribute that to the Innovative thinking of
022the high school and our teachers and our curriculum mapping they've done a phenomenal job so where do we go from here on the next slide we have some next steps we want to continue to progress monitor student a achievement to ensure it's having the impact that we would like it to um we're going to continue to identify some scores characteristics and um grades that are indicators once we have some longitudinal data seeing students who dropped being able to see what some of their previous scores were um so those are some strong IND indicators um the high school has a plan for some increased course options which include AP seminar and then also we'll do continued professional learning for our staff to ensure that the rigor and the high expectations remain um as they always have
023any questions um first thank you so much for all this it's so great to see I mean we we always say we're data driven and this shows yeah we're data driven and it's working so and if it's not working I know you'd make changes so thank you um about how many sixth graders do we have that come in for the first time into that high ability in the math saying they're going to do the double block so we so oh I didn't have that looks like he wants to say something go ahead buan no the moving into high first time high ability group in sixth grade that's a dou I want to say there was about so we also there's two different if you remember in April of 23 when we had the revisions in
024those core sequence not only did we accept students who were identified as newly identified as high ability but we also um identified NWA cut scores that would allow students into the course I want to say it's probably about a full class of 30 okay that's I guess I was wondering about the logistics of that of a full class versus 10 kids ver you know so that's also what Miss lard and I and and and um buan work very closely to ensure that we identify we fill those classes one so we're we're not having 13 kids in a high ability class and then 30 in a regular general education class we try to sure that we fill those um honors courses we'll identify and give kids assessments that we think will be successful to see if
025they're ready um so once if we get to a list and we've only got 25 and we think we can find five more we'll do a score analysis maybe ask them to take additional assessments to see if they're ready thank you guys any questions colen the the double jump that's those students are identified in eighth grade um it depends um Miss slard works oneon-one with those students and does a score analysis usually there are students that are in the 99th percentile um for Math and then she also they may be at the 99th percentile but she also wants to ensure that they've had those foundational skills and that they've mastered them so they can be successful by jumping or accelerating in courses well they if he took if he or she took geometry when would
026they make up the preap algebra they take preap algebra one in seventh grade and then they take preap geometry in eth grade yeah so our double accelerated kids are taking they're in algebra seventh graders y they're identified earlier yeah okay actually Mr Dempsey I did I did have a comment so that thank you again as as Dr Schwarz wolf said for your work on this and and and the data um I just want to make a comment like it it's hard um uh it's a lot of work and it's a lot of work for the the staff and for the students you know and and sometimes I I I've heard from parents you know my kids's so bored in class and they should be in high ability you guys really do a lot of work
027to assess and make sure that the child is ready that the student is ready because I I I know as a parent sometimes you think well or my kids scores were great they were you know they're they're getting straight As in the class it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to achieve and you know to your point and and to what Mr Dempsey said like sometimes those kids are ready for a double jump sometimes kids get there there there's a maturity level there's so many other factors that when your kids's in second grade it's also not the end of the world if your kid's in second grade and doesn't get to high ability like some parents like oh we're ruined um we have an awesome district and and just we try to meet kids where they
028are so I just this was just a great reminder of that and that you're this is evolving constantly ongoing so thank you for that that was something very important to myself in the high school and the Middle School is that just because you're not identified as a individual that's high ability in second grade or even in fifth grade we know that just our gen genetic makeup as we get older and we mature and our priorities change that we should have the opportunities to excel um just as everybody else did previously so we're trying to make that happen if I can before we move on I just a couple things um I know I my high school student advisory Council uh group that I meet with um once a month has come up in that room
029a couple of times from students who had said they never would have they've never have never been in a high ability type of qualification class and now they're in preap and then because of that now in AP even as a sophomore um very few many of them have said it's changed the way I think about my own ability to do high level cours work and had I not been able to do preap I just would have stayed in the regular General classes which are fine but now all of a sudden they're they're seeing themselves in a different light because of the opportunities that they're being given um those score increases that you're seeing that were shown on that that those are you need to understand those are Big Score increases we're a relatively High achieving
030School District already but to see that type of mean increases on sat and PSAT scores is a really big thing I happened to be last uh week meeting with n meeting with superintendent from across the country and I was going through this preap program that we are doing to not only increase the level of access for kids but we're also seeing that impacting PSAT and SAT scores and though this is a nationwide program very very few school districts who are really have completely opted into preap I will I I we are on The Cutting Edge of this I think you're going to see more and more districts across the country going to preap because it absolutely is a game Cher for kids um getting and our our AP access has continued to go up because
031of the preap program uh and that's a good thing for our kids the statistics show when Once kids take an AP course their success in high school and After High School goes way up so uh kudos to everybody involved it's been a it's been a good program and we're continuing to get better at the program so thank you Brett thank you Colleen thank you Amy that was fantastic uh item number five consent agenda Dr heler all right so the consent agenda tonight includes item 5.1 which is the approval of the minutes from the February 10th regular board meeting and the February 24th special meeting it also includes the approval of the accounts payable voucher register as presented the approval of the payroll voucher register as presented the approval of the Personnel report which includes recommendations
032for employment resignations requests to ammend or extend a leave of absence terminations and professional learning requests finally the consent agenda includes approval of overnight field trips which includes monster chess club to Martinsville Indiana monster HOSA to Indianapolis the high school boys volleyball team to zionville Indiana the mster High School cheer program to West Lafayette and the mster high school volleyball program to their camp this summer in Louisville Louisville Kentucky with that the administration recommends that the board approve with one motion and one vote consent agenda items 5.1 through and including 5.5 as presented would any board members like any items broken down individually can I have a motion to approve consent agenda items 5.1 through and including 5.5 as presented Castro I move we approve the consent agenda as presented is there a second schwar
03312 second any further discussion all those in favor of of the motion please say I I any opposed motion carries 4 Z Item 6.1 donations Dr thank you the administration recommends that the board approve the donations as presented is there a motion to approve one donation as presented Schwarz wol so moved is there a second Smith second any discussion yeah so as you can see the only uh as presented tonight is a uh donation to the student council at wiber right Middle School in the amount of $765 from the PTO any other questions all those in favor of the motion please say I I any opposed motion carries for zero item 6.2 fundraisers Dr hel Administration recommends that the board approve the fundraisers for February as presented is there a motion to approve the fundraisers
034as presented Castro I move that we approve the fundraisers as presented and a second Smith second any discussion on the screen you see all of the various fundraisers at the high school that were submitted in February um these include a variety of athletic fundraisers um Boys Baseball boys soccer girls volleyball cheer girls volleyball you also see speech and debate culture Cuisine Club the theater program and boys and girls volleyball I would say my only comment which I've already emailed you is that I do have a concern that we have the two groups in the same season selling the same item and it would just be nice to coordinate so that you know not everybody wants popcorn so if we can have one team selling popcorn and the other doing Butter Braids or something um nobody
035wants Butter Braids Dr Schwarz come on uh but anyway if we can just coordinate that for a future it probably be better for the teams I agree there's some some streamlining we can definitely look at there do we have a motion to approve the fundraisers as presented we did all that okay do we just have to vote vot all those in favor of the motion please say I I any opposed moot motion carries 4 Z item 6.3 purchase of a couple Bluebird rear engine school buses Mr Melby the administration recommends that the board approved the purchase of the two Bluebird buses as you recall um at our budget presentation we have a uh a budget to purchase up to five buses in 2025 this is going right along that plan do we have a motion
036to approve the purchase of two Bluebird rear engine school buses Schwarz wolves so moved is there a second Castro second any further discussion all those in favor of the motion please say I I I any opposed motion carries 4 Z Item 6.4 new courses for Monster High School 2025 26 school year Mr Snider good evening um we've got a couple classes that we are pitching for the high school for next year you can see the document up on the screens um just to walk through from the top kind of down to the bottom the first one that's listed is Computing foundations for a digital age this is a new state requirement we actually ran the course at the middle school level um this past year for a small number of kids with the new diplomas
037coming through including the current freshman this is a required class that they must take at some point in time during High School this is the the on semester option as you can see it's going to be available to kids 9 through 12 so it doesn't matter necessarily which year they take it it's just something that they would take at some point time in their High School experience we're going to continue to look at expanding its uh availability over at Wilbur wri middle school as well so that kids can take it in eth grade and the way the requirement works with the state of Indiana is that kids can skip this class if they opt into like a computer science pathway while they're at the high school so if they commit to doing like AP Computer
038Science principles AP Computer Science a um then they can forego this one semester option but this is still the most economical way for a kid to complete this diploma requirement it's part of the old diplomas and the new diplomas um it's tied to the cohort so that's why we're we're looking to do that um we're going to we're going to look at some PD and some training options for uh our faculty and staff over the summer so that we make sure we deliver the absolute best version of the course course but that's the first course that we're proposing does anybody have any questions about that one he we have an extra period there somewhere okay we will we will take care of that we periodically do that um oh nicely John nicely you like that
039that's for the people online all right uh second class is uh and would you like to buy some popcorn uh the second class we have up there is personal financial responsibility which again there's been a lot of chatter about this in the state of Indiana for 10 years um they're bringing it back as a requirement our current sophomores Juniors and seniors have to complete personal financial responsibility um and it's also going to then kind of carry down to our current eighth graders and stuff like that there's some debate as to how this course is going to be actually delivered so we wanted to make sure that we got the description into the course guide um but one of the things that is being discussed in conjunction with the new diplomas is that you can potentially
040embed this requirement into other courses that you already offer so on one case scenario we would run this as a one semester class kids would take it at some point time in their High School experience what we are trying to explore and we will have more confirmation later in the spring probably the Summer with the way the new diplomas are shaping up is actually taking this class and trying to embed it inside our econ requirment as the new diplomas come in and this is going to apply just to our eighth graders right now not kids currently in the high school um econ is not necessarily part of their diploma requirement anymore but we in our personal opinion believe that it is still in the best interest of kids for a number of reasons to take
041econ and specifically to take AP Eon I've presented in the past about like the Indiana college Corp where you get that year of free college AP Eon is one of those key classes for a large number of kids who complete that so we don't see the value in having kids step away from econ in favor of personal finance we want to see if we can marry or pair those two courses together um for kids what we'll wind up doing is probably issuing two credits out of the course um but we're going to look at how we're going to deliver that curriculum other schools around the state have been pairing it with like PCC or trying to do it like in a tutorial based setting um we kind of like the idea of tying it to
042econ it still keeps econ as kind of a required class for kids um it enables kids to be doing something that's math-based still in their senior year even if they're done with their math sequence um and we think it will make them the most competitive by way of transcripts and college applications so that's kind of our little creative solution for that right now um we can kind of follow back up probably in a summer board meeting uh once we're fully allowed to submit that and have that be approved at the state level but that's that's really the direction that we're leaning in we're not the only school that I think is going to do that regionally um I won't mention other schools but some other schools are looking to do that as well um so
043that's a again a new requirement so the first two courses are both classes that are requirements coming from the state and this is how we're looking at um kind of pitching or working them into the cataloges either at middle school or at the high school level we did not think it was appropriate to take personal finance and pivot it down to the eighth grade level we thought we could do like a a basic computers class there we think that maybe like that preparing for college and careers class is more appropriate there than than shifting personal finance Mr Sneider I just want to add to this conversation a little bit that this idea of adding personal financial responsibility into an econ class marrying those together we have to do the personal financial responsibility course that's now
044a new diploma requirement for our freshman group of kids econ is no longer a requirement for the new diploma for kids however Mr Snider Mr nol and their team have met with all of the Indiana universities in the state and they all have said econ is still going to be a requirement for them if a student is going to go to school in a public university in Indiana so for us not to still push econ as a course that we want our kids to take would set our kids up to not being able to be accepted into local universities in the state and so by doing these two things together we both accomplished the graduation diploma uh issue but we also set our kids up to be more successful ready to go to college yeah
045and and again we want there to be a monster Advantage if if I can double down so if I'm looking at two almost identical transcripts and one has econ which I think is generally considered to be a more rigorous option let alone if it had a econ which is certainly a more rigorous option compared to personal finance we think these kids have a better chance of acceptance so um the new diplomas are interesting they do provide um some flexibility depending on how you look at it they present some challenges um we've been encouraged by our educational associations to get a little creative and no one from the state level is is kind of turning down these opportunities to marry these Concepts together and we think it it leads to the best outcome for our for
046our students right now so that's our Theory uh we can follow back in the in the summer months and let you know if we're sticking with it but I think that's the direction we're like toe okay and then the last one is a little bit more um of an of an extension of what Mrs Beren was talking about with preap so um I'm I'm actually not going to start with the title that's up there I want to start with English kind of like as as seniors but we're we're ultimately proposing to add AP seminar English 10 so we're going to land here with this course in English 10 right now we have AP English for seniors we have AP English for juniors okay we have had preap English 10 and preap English n and what
047we're going to do is we're going to take this AP seminar class and sneak it in there between the AP Junior English and then we're going to bump the preap down okay so it means that preap curriculum it's like preap um English one is what it's called the College Board is actually going to sneak into the eighth grade level okay much continuing exactly what we were talking about before we're starting kids uh where it is appropriate and as they are identified appropriately to start tackling that curriculum and I think like our perspective at the high school has been the reason we do so much with AP or preap is because it's good okay so let's let's kind of start there the materials are good the research based the questioning is fantastic the projects the the
048educational process that kids go through is something that we would all endorse okay so that's the reason we do this we've always done locally developed like honors english8 curriculum or we've looked at like Thomas and Mary and stuff or William and Mary um curriculum and this allows this to all specifically align so we bump what we're doing in n9th grade grade to 8th grade make it age appropriate grade appropriate there we're going to shift that 10th grade down to 9th grade preap English too this class is then going to slot right in there AP seminar English 10 and then we're going to have our traditional AP englishes at the 11th and the 12th grade level so we think again this is an effort to kind of expand access and to round out the english-based experience
049that kids are getting from eth grade through their senior year of high school um this was a a pitch kind of made through college board and actually the state of Indiana they were asking schools to look at this AP seminar class and try to see if they could work it into their English 10 curriculum and the state came in and completely endorsed it um so we kind of agree with it uh we're already starting to figure out how we're going to chop and kind of move some things around so that again it's appropriate for eth grade appropriate for n9th grade and appropriate for 10th grade just so that we continue to do the things that we are we are actively doing with increasing access and making sure that kids have access to good curriculum so
050um we're really actually excited about it um this is in some ways this is new but it's also just kind of like positioning some things around as well so it's not drastically new or starkly new at the high school level it will lead to some things being a little bit different for eighth graders though as well but we think it's the right choice and I don't have a second page for once so um I think those are the only three classes that the high school is proposing um on the back side of that which is blank because we didn't know this at the time we've actually been contacted by pnw um about potentially expanding our American Sign Language curriculum at present we offer two years of that uh but there is the potential to um
051start offering a third year of ASL and this just happened last week so at the end of last week um so we're going to continue to explore that and I'm pleased to announce um that our instructor at the high school was also hired to work in the evenings at pnw so we we have a real good feel that this is going through for what it's worth um and it is going to be dual credited for kids as well so while it won't connect initially to the ICC we've actually started to petition the state for them to consider it in that way as a traditional World Language uh but we might be pitching prior to the start of school um some type of asl3 class uh we're starting to survey kids at the high school just
052to see what their level of interest is and if we can get one section running next year sorry that's not on there it it was it was not a possibility until it was a possibility one night at 5 o'clock and we got an email about it being a possibility awesome Bob this need a butter braid no yes this may be premature the too early to identify how many say seventh grade students going into 8th grade would qualify for the AP English I can't off the top of my head um 3ap English so 3ap so we're in currently on March 18th I believe the Middle School um current honors 8th grade um teachers are going to be um mapping with the current preap 9 to figure out there's some there's some text within the preap 9
053curriculum that even the honors 8th grade May struggle a little bit with so we we need to really ensure that it's the this is why it hasn't come to the board as a a new course to be offered because we first need to see if this is the the exact move we want to make or if we're still going to leave it as honors honors 8th grade English but infused with the preap curriculum so it's still work in progress um currently it would be the students who we talked Nikki's not here do you have it up about 90 kids that potentially would be qualified for that but we were looking and I don't know if she's added it yet but we were looking to expand from just the current seventh grade honors students her and
054I worked on those parameters and I apologize I don't remember those off the top of my head at the moment but to push more students into that honors English eight so that way we can continue to feed the High School courses AP courses um the the real benefit to looking at the preap curriculum is it's it's kind of a framework that you apply to what you're using in the classroom you can add to it you can maybe set a couple things aside from it but you're really taking like their structure critical thinking structures and you're applying it back over to the overall class so you get the flexibility to ju to do just what Miss Bergman talked about and I think we can do that well I think again the high school's done the preap
055English for couple years I think we're very proud with the way the courses have been going we're very pleased with it um and and we think we can you know continue that success at we'll be right with the teachers there I I think it's going to be uh well received to be honest um and English was kind of the thing that kicked a lot of this off I mean I know we were talking about data earlier but we were looking at about twice the PO so you have about 60 kids maybe 75 identified for high ability um at the high school level in grades nine and 10 traditionally um but then we were having 120 and 50 students taking AP English as Juniors and seniors so our kids were saying we want twice the opportunity
056or twice the availability than currently identifi identification is lending and um as we've opened this up again it's been great um our teachers are very happy I everything you said was correct about that um our teachers have been happy with it the kids have risen to the occasion the kids are thrilled about having those opportunities and being there um and you know even I mean last year and I don't know if you want to draw that comparison but you know 80% of our kids were on the SAT Benchmark um for English which is absolutely remarkable so but um this works for us this is a good like monster overlay to to the beliefs and the and the structures that we have in place yeah agreed any other questions is there a motion to approve the
057new courses for the MHS 2025 26 school year as presented schwar 12 so moved is there a second Smith second any further discussion all those in fav favor of the motion please say I I I any opposed motion carries 4 Z Item 6.5 Mr Snider are you doing the like don't go far proposed course guide um oh so this is more of the same um this is the bigger document that those classes would be um associated with this is a document that we've passed out to all of our families for scheduling this year including the um incoming eighth grade families uh so so again more more revisions than anything else some small changes that pullout document that we just went through are the big three changes in the document thank you Mr and I would
058just point out that there's a good chunk of work done and I think it's like page five through 12 trying to make it clear to families depending on which graduating class you happen to be in what your diploma needs to look like and what your four-year plan needs to look like so kudos to your team to trying to make that as clear as possible which is a very challenging task it is I'm I think we're looking for to three years from now when we're back on One requirement because it's not like the state changes that every five years so um so I I'm I'm really excited when we just have one set of requirements for kids so that'll make everything clear um it's it's a great document it's a great guide uh we use it
059a lot internally with kids we obviously share it with kids um everything we do grade level based by way of scheduling we take this and break it down by grade level two kids and two families so even though this is a big document it's 50 pages um we really boil that down to what's specific to a student and their grade level at that time so I just I want to say one thing I think it's important to note that the amount of work that you and your team have had to had to confront with respect to the new diploma in the 2029 class coupled with the three other classes that we have to go with the other diploma uh I can't imagine the amount of work that you guys have had to do in the
060last six months uh but thank you for all your hard work thank you and if I can can compliment him too um we've been sharing a lot of documents and comparing a lot of Powerpoints and a lot of notes and I want to give like Chris an Terry and Cindy kobasa who are both counselors at the high school like just an extraa if I can because they took the lead on designing everything that our parents saw um and I want to give you know obviously all five counselors huge credit Liz Keller Peter Gregory and Kristen Salon credit as well because um with the auditorium shutting down due to construction and the Fieldhouse not being a great place to try to do a presentation about this stuff I mean they were here four nights in a
061row meeting with uh eighth grade families from Wilbur Wright St Tom St Paul's um meeting with about 80 to 100 people at a time um and I think they did a very nice job they did a very thorough job um it might be too much information but these are the times that we're living in and we're just trying to show people um that there's a way there's a path and if they can communicate with us we can map that all out for them so but they they really did a great job so thank you Mr D thanks Mr Snider is it okay to go sit now yes okay okay is there a motion to approve the MHS 2526 proposed course guide with the new DC chart as presented Schwarz wolf so moved is there a
062second it's Miss second all those in favor of the motion please say I I I any opposed motion carries 4 Z Item seven any items they may properly come before the board no n item eight general information and discussion items Dr yeah so as you see in front of you you have the proposed school board meeting schedule for the 2025 2026 school year uh this is purely Just for information and discussion at this time we would likely bring this back at our next meeting in April to confirm these dates and get them um start getting them posted uh I would draw your attention specifically to October's meeting which is earlier than normal because um of the because I think because of fall break I believe is why we had to move we move that one
063up so these are the recommended dates for board meetings for next school year um just I would ask that you review those uh if you have any concerns specifically to those reach out to me or Deb so we can make sure that we get the appropriate um board schedule ready for the April meeting for approval any questions item nine director of financial operations report Mr Melby yes thank you uh I want to start with the basic Grant Revenue you'll see that that went up for the month of uh February significantly and that's because the state they estimate uh where they think some of our numbers are going to fall uh in this case in the special education grant if they estimate low we receive they sh up the numbers at this time in February so
064the amount that we received in February it will dip that back down down and stabilize where we think it will be in March and April and May uh if you go to the supplies line uh you'll see a significant increase and remember we will see a significant increase in this line item all year long because now curriculum materials are thrown into this uh pile uh I could tell you the money that was spent there a large portion of it was for Monster High School keyboards we updated our keyboards that we had at the high school and then the rest of it were curricular materials uh also notice that this is a two- pay month so yes we did increase our cash balance this month approximately where we thought we would be at the end of
065February if you go to the operations fund uh there's only a couple items I will point out to you um first is the purchase of a bus a bus came in this is a bus that we got approved like nine months ago so it's taken a long time to receive that bus the thing I really want to point out to you is the price of that bus uh you guys just approved two other buses and the in price of the bus has gone up over 15% in that short period of time so if you do receive the same amount of Levy and buses are going up 15% and utilities are going up 177% that means you have to cut somewhere else in the long run uh the other thing I want to point out is
066our purchase of fixer mobile equipment we negotiated with Lao which is our financial system we used to pay every month and we talked to them we said hey we'll pay it all up front if we get a better price and that's what we did and that's why you see that larger amount there in our referendum fund there's really nothing out of the ordinary again I just do want to point out in our tax bearing funds our cash balances like in the operations fund and a referendum fund will decrease every month until we do receive our tax draw which is usually in June and December but we also ask for early tax draws so we may receive it in May other than that that's all I have for the financial report any questions item 10.1 assistance
067superintendence report Mrs bergren I I'll be very quick um just a reminder and just so the board is aware we are in deep into testing season um I three is wrapping up this week um we then go into the third round of I learn checkpoints starting they started today they end March 21st and then we go into our main summative assessment of I learn on April 14th through May 9th um tomorrow is sat day at the high school um Good Luck to all of our students and also we have added a PSAT spring for 910 and 11 not 11 I'm sorry we're nine and 10 um Bob did we land on a date is that tomorrow also that's what I thought um this was important for the high school in setting goals we were having
068we were struggling with a growth measurement um to see how much kids were growing within one academic year um so in collaboration with college board and uh myself and the high school administration we will be starting the PSAT for 9th and 10th grade in the Spring tomorrow so that's all I have thank you Colleen uh we are not having a director of operations report this evening we skip to 10.3 can we say where he is though I'm sorry can we say what he's doing uh I do not know where Mr isn't he repres isn't he recruiting for us right now no Mr Tri Feld is recruiting Mr Begley is not yeah that's what I meant Mr Tri andelt is out trying to hire some teachers for us I think he should get credit for that
069he's working right now item 10.3 director of exceptional Achievers report Dr chalis good evening last Thursday March 6 the best buddy bowl at the high school through the best buddies program had their bowl and it was fabulous and so we have some pictures up there to show you of some of the activities that were done they raised over ,000 for the Special Olympics we even had if you'll notice the the one of the pictures up there has graduates from previous years who have come back to celebrate the diversity and friendship with all of their students what a testament to our students our staff and our community that they are coming back and spending time with the students uh pictured there is one of our postgraduates named Joey higgison and he comes back every year and
070that is just a huge Testament also March is developmental disability awareness month so if you'll notice we have some students up there who are working with peer buddies and they are gearing up and preparing for the unified games so they're all getting ready for uh a month from now to work on those unified games and that's all I have today thank you Dr jalis item 11.1 individual public comments we have three uh Mr K kones good evening board members and administrators um just want to give a disclaimer I want to stress that my wife and I are actively seeking to participate in my child's educational process yet here at the school school town of moner we're treated as if we're not allowed so I just want to highlight that it takes a village uh between
071parent and educ uh institution to to make that happen um I have some comments that I'm going to read relatively quickly because I have two and a half minutes to get by it so I hope that you guys can keep up um but again my name is Luis konz I'm here tonight because my son has been removed from the mini Mustang Mustangs program and I need answers I need to understand why the district's response to his challenges have been been removal instead of support I understand that prek is different but that does not mean the district should ignore its own mini Mustangs handbook when it comes to discipline and support before removal the handbook lays out steps for addressing Behavior yet those steps were not and are not followed instead of not instead of working
072with my son communicating with us as parents and putting a plan in place the district's response has been simply to remove him so I asked where was the support before remov where were the interventions where was the collaboration when a child is struggling the answer should be to help them not remove remove them your team will say they did everything and I promise you all that no one in this room outside of the employees would agree with that statement Beyond his removal I have a ton ton of concerns that I'm going to highlight relatively quickly I've requested fura and for request in regards to some documentation and some uh video in regards to some buses that I'm I'm being at an pass in a roadblock that I haven't received them um it was one video
073now I'm requesting a whole month's worth of video because no one can give me any answers so I'm hoping that I can get some support there um my son was requested to put on a harness that no other no other child my understanding is being asked to do so I'm only asking for support to show me why he needs said hardness I've asked for said video um still don't receive it um uh my son comes home telling me he isn't the issue constantly um and I'm asking for some answers there as well not receiving those um also I want to highlight unprofessionalism from the staff I have come in regards to to you offer assistance to help my son because I'm a big advocate in his education and instead of highlighting that I'm being met
074with comments about my marital status right to about my wife and and our and how we're not helping one another and how we need to go figure stuff out that's other something I also want to address I also requested meetings with the assistant superintendent and other key decision makers and every ad um but I have been turned down at every corner right I've got way more I hope this I I I don't want to go through it but I want to leave you guys with one thing if success is truly by six then why are we setting up my son for success for for failure right thank you thank you Mr konas um Miss Keith hi I came here tonight just to talk about the exceptional Achievers program my son is in the program and
075the program has experienced significant turnover they have lost seven leaders in their classroom this year and with that we are not getting notified timely my child was involved in an inquiry related to bullying and I was never notified which in the handbook is mandatory and I was not notified um additionally um let's see I just want to know it just creates just this lack of faith in this in the school and my child is non-verbal and I'm coming here with asking the board support to look into how you can support the school this program the teachers and the students I mean primarily it's my son right like but I do know that this issue has got to be fixed it's a small program within the district but it is an important one to us to
076our students um they just want to make sure that it's stable and he's safe in his classroom and he is able to learn because it disregulated these students to have such turnover in their leadership and it is very disheartening to parents to not know that their child can come to school safely and to be respected and to get that support thank you Miss Keith Mr Hearn I come today as a concerned citizen parents and Educators uh must work together to ensure house growth and ACH partnership partnership depends on a collective support Partnerships I'm sorry it just really breaks my heart here hear that because you know my my my family members going for this AC he he's not getting the support he's he's he's not getting what he self-d deserves the most vulnerable of us
077are the ones that are not getting support this is easy to to put people marginalized people who need to support we are a village we need to work together we need to hear people uh like like this young lady here and this this gentlem here who who are begging begging for help you can't just look down at your computer you need to look at me sir you need to look at me sir you need to do that you need to pay attention to to what the constituents are doing and by you looking down is very disrespectful this is what I'm talking about this is the issue that we're facing we need to work as a collective to to help our children don't let them fall by the wayside I'm here as an advocate for for
078someone who can't speak for himself we have to do that we have to be stewards of that and again you sitting there typing is just the most disrespectful thing I've seen and with me there smok smile give these people the attention they need they are taxpayers I'm a taxpayer we want your attention sir that's all we're asking for nothing more nothing less I would do the same for you if you spoke up here I would give you my full my attention we're talking about children the most vulnerable in our population that don't know that we have to show them a better way that's that's all we're asking for today not asking for you guys to to change anything get work problem that's it we need to come together I shouldn't have to come here to
079speak for a family member this should be Tak care of but when I hear this I I I had to come tonight and to speak please please please Recon your decisions and help these children thank you thank you item 12.1 individual board member reports Dr Schwartz wolf uh good evening um I attended the town council meeting last week with Mr Castro who made his statement on our behalf and the IT agreement that we voted on on February 24th was then now approved by the uh town and I wanted to go and show support we love the idea of the town and the school working together as it should be in one Community uh Dr Helen and I attended the Indiana School Board Association State House day on February 18th down in Indie and that was
080a great dat there about 150 either legislative leaon or superintendents from around the state we heard from the Indiana Schoolboard Association uh lawyer and director giving us updates which are now all outdated because that was a few weeks ago but um we also heard uh had panels where we had uh eight different legislators come and talk to us and we could ask questions um it was very insightful in that uh not all school board members think the same way for instance I'm personally not for uh making this a partisan position where we have to get politics involved and there are Schoolboard members that want this to become uh political and are actually already making it political in their communities which is turning out to be why the state is starting to support this but politics
081and schools my personal opinion um so right now as of Friday the list of bills that Indiana school board uh Association was tracking at the beginning in January was 184 and that is down to 69 so that means a lot of the bills that we were concerned about um have either died or been combined with other bills which is good I guess um highlights are you going to talk about the okay I won't give you the property relief one that sounds like a good idea but is messing over local government uh I'll let Dr heler say that one um also the referendum bill um Senate Bill 518 where referendum dollars would be from public schools would also be shared with Charter Schools is probably going to get put into this Senate bill one um everything
082about that is just going to get ugly and then uh as I mentioned the school board election uh making it partisan and having a a Schoolboard people run in partisan or excuse me in the primaries which would increase cost and then um definitely becomes a political machine bottom line is there's a lot more I'm not going to go through every one of these but I've also been following all the bills now just because I'm on this legislative L as I'm and if you go to Indiana government IG um in.gov you can follow any bill so if you're interested in education obviously me um Healthcare I've been very interested in that you can type those in and see what the bills are where they are who's supporting them and write letters I wrote 14 emails last
083week and we'll continue to do so every week depending on where these things are in committee and I do hear back from some some I do not I get the form letter but they need to know if you if you're passionate about something whatever it is write to your legislators they want to hear from you thank you thank you do Dr Schwarz wolf Mr Castro thank you Mr dempy uh first of all uh as the liaz on to the town of mser re development commission um they actually did have a presentation of the annual report to the the Redevelopment commission uh no motions required it was just the president of the Redevelopment Commission uh order the report accepted and placed on file so I do have a copy of that if anyone would like to
084see exciting stuff um as Dr Schwarz wolf mentioned we did attend the town council meeting um and I was able to make that statement uh it was well received by the Town Council um they did vote in favor of that agreement and um it was a great show of um working together of that symbiotic relationship that we often speak of um with the town and the School Town um they were very supportive and uh it was it was nice to see some some Harmony between the two entities um I want to talk just quickly about again thank you for the work that everybody has been has put into the guide book the classes the graduation Pathways this isn't a choice for us I just want to reiterate that this is something we have to do
085the state is mandating we do this and I I just I know we've said that before but I want to remind people because I think sometimes still people are like well why are you choosing to do this why does Monster want to do Monster doesn't necessarily want to change what we're doing always want to improve we always want to evolve he want to get better but the state is mandating this so now you see the chaos that's creating um Mr Schneider made that remark it probably will change in another five years uh people don't necessarily know what they want down state they try to throw their ideas so it's tough to now you're kind of in this transitional phase as well um it's difficult I have an eighth grader and I have a junior so
086we're we're looking at both of these scenarios but I just want to say thank you to all of you for the the the work you're putting in and making this as as painless as possible because it's it's a lot of work um furthermore it just a a reminder that people put a lot of hours into this this isn't something that people that that our staff takes lightly this isn't something that the board takes lightly these aren't just off-the-cuff decisions there's a lot of discussion um with everything we do uh and I uh appreciate all the time spent and um the work that we do that the district does and uh the attention paid to affect our district so thank you very much thank you Mr Castro Miss Smith um thank you I sit on the
087park board on behalf of the school town of monster and on Monday March 17th I think I reported this last month we're having a ribbon cutting ceremony for some new buildings that will be opened um in addition to that the park board will be revisiting some of their strategy um that they had agreed upon um in the fall of 2024 um as a result of public input and care of monster residents that have given ideas as to how some of our Parks should be used um as some of you may know they had the view which is a building that was um deemed un unusable so that build that building will be demolished uh once that building is demolished we'll leave a significant amount of green space in that area so they're trying to determine
088what to do with that space and how it will benefit the residents of monster as well as other Park users um in addition to that um I know like all of us we go to a lot of events and such um for our our own children the community students Etc um I had the opportunity to go to a dance um Regional Dance Competition which I don't have any dancers um even though I have four daughters I have no dancers and um I have to tell you these young U women from Wilbur wri to the high school um my understanding is they have 52 days off a year from their um Sport and they blew me away the professionalism the talent the hard work the dedication was outstanding as well as that of the coaches um
089Sarah sharp I understand brings her mom comes and her sister to every single event um which is amazing and Elise was named the coach of the year at the high school from her peers is my understanding I don't know if I have that exactly right but close to it um but it was outstanding um I also recognize that um a lot of our students have been I been told about um outstanding professionalism from our students kindness Etc so it is good to see that um our monster families are continuing to instill hopefully good behavior in all of our children um and be recognized for such um as part of that um Mr Snyder as one of the F parents that is very supportive of having sign language and advancing that for higher levels too bad
090my oldest graduated but still very much appreciate continuing to pursue that yes you're welcome and um it's amazing for these kids to have that opportunity at Monster High School um I also just want to say thank you to those that came and spoke at our meeting this evening um the only way we can be better is by learning from our families and um thank you for speaking thank you Mrs Smith uh I'll be really really short um the monster Education Foundation in collaboration with the the school town of monster we be hosting the teacher of the year award on April 23rd at the center for Visual and Performing Arts this is the second year that uh we'll be doing this and we'll be doing it uh for years on on down the road and with
091respect to the booster club reverse raffle dinner uh that's been going on for decades I believe that reverse raffle dinner is April 25th also at the center for Visual and Performing Arts um all the money all the proceeds that go all the money raised that evening goes towards all the the clubs and the sports um uh in the school district so it's a fantastic evening um and that's all I have Dr hel thank you Mr Dempsey so first I I do want to apologize for anything um that was perceived as disrespectful that was not my intention I whenever there's public common I'm trying to take notes so that I can best respond and meet with staff afterwards to figure out what some of these issues are so that's what I was trying to do I
092apologize for any disrespect that that was perceived um we're just over halfway point in the legislative session this year for Indiana General Assembly as Dr Schwarz wolf alluded to in her report I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because there's not a lot of good news currently and especially in relation to school funding um I will just go into a little bit of detail on a couple items I think it's always good for our community to be aware of what's going on down in Indianapolis when it comes to the legislation um Senate bill one which I'm sure people have heard of which is um commonly referred to as being a property tax relief bill um as currently being proposed um down there right now that bill passed the Senate is now in
093the hands of the house and they're making some adjustments as currently proposed that bill uh would cost the school town of monster somewhere between 2 million and $4 million each year um out of our operations expenses and just for people understand the operations fund is for things like bus drivers custodial staff maintenance staff purchasing buses purchasing the equipment that we use to keep our schools clean really any equipment that we buy um comes from the operating budget these are all the areas that are also dramatically impacted by inflation as Mr Melby talked about buses have gone up 15% just since we purchased the last set of buses since I've been here they have nearly doubled in cost over the last three years um everything in the operations fund has gone up from building expenses to
094contractor expenses everything that we do in that budget has gone up significantly and we will be taking based on this bill a significant hit this also does not just impact schools it impacts every taxing entity in the state so school or the town of monster civil um will be taking significant hits to their budget as well based on Senate bill one um so we have concerns there House Bill 101 which is the school budget bill um most most districts in the state despite what you will hear um will be seeing either flat revenue or a decrease in Revenue based on House Bill to 101 our Revenue in school town of moner will be less than a 1% increase based on the current proposal this will make it very challenging obviously for us to do just
095simple things like giving raises to our staff that are commensurate with inflation just to keep our staff um paced with inflation um this budget is also glaringly short on funding for students with disabilities that's always been an area that is somewhat unfunded but it's even worse in this current budget uh I also want to highlight that within this budget while public schools are getting very little new money this budget has a increase a proposed increase of $183 million to private school vouchers this proposal essentially would provide vouchers to pay for private schools for All Families in Indiana regardless of their wealth level originally the voucher program was intended to provide those amilies with the least financial means opportunities to still go to a school of their choice even if it's a private school but now
096it's diverting tax dollars directly from public schools to fund the wealthiest families to go to private schools uh so again we're very concerned with just those two funding bills alone and then there's a lot of other bills including partisan School Board some bills in regards to math um some bills in regards to um referendums the the list is long and that very few of the items on the list are seen as positives for public schools right now so I do encourage our our community to engage at the state level as well and finally I do want to have a little bit of a positive which is Mr trip and feldis um received the iasbo region one business official of the Year award that just came out I believe today um very welld deserved as a
097human resources person but he's also very obviously involved in our financial side of things with Mr Melby um our negotiations with our teachers every year um welld deserved honor for Mr trip and felis item 141 announ our next future EXC our next meeting is ail schwar wolf so moved castra second all those in favor please say I I I log outs