SCSC May 2026 Board Meeting

001Need approval, a motion for approval of minutes of the April 9th, 2026 board meeting. Motion to approve. Eva's got the motion, a second? Do I have a second on that motion? Approval of the minutes of the April meeting. Everybody hear that? Thank you. Ethan Evan Ethan first and second motion. All in favor? I. Presentations to the board from the superintendent. >> Okay. My name is Sue Putnam and I am the superintendent here, but I need to set the record straight because I need my perspective paid to be known. The microphone is not it's just for recording. It is not for sound. I'm going to do my best. First and foremost, I need to clarify that I grew up on an 80-acre farm with my five siblings, my aunt, my mom, and my grandma in a

002small small rural community filled with family members and people that I still know today. We raised a few farm animals, mainly cattle, and we grew all the vegetables that we ate with help from our neighbors and extended family. I wore hand-me-down clothes. I started working in a local restaurant at a very young age. I know what hard work is. I know what hungry means. And I know that hard work and perseverance can pay off. I learned that from myself or for myself. But I have also observed that first hand from many of the people in this crowd. I did not return to this district with an agenda. I came here to make a difference in the lives of the kids in this community who supported me in reaching my professional dreams. I do not want

003anything from anyone in this room except the same respect and patience that I have given you throughout this process as I grow in this position. I have stated multiple times that I make mistakes, say the wrong things, and learn from them. If you look around this room at many of the people sitting in this chair, >> [snorts] >> you will see that I have turned to many of these people for guidance and perspective as I make both simple and the most difficult decisions. And I thank these individuals on a daily basis. And if I don't, I need you to know that I appreciate it. I appreciate the staff. I appreciate the kids. I appreciate the people in this community. Over the course of this year, I have repeatedly said that I do not plan to

004close the farm or construction trades class or the welding class. I agree with hands-on learning. And I would love to continue to expand that. I have mentioned on numerous occasions that we need to provide all students with the credentials that will give them a leg up on other local job candidates. Today, I'm going to talk to you about what drives decisions and conversations in our admin meetings and in our admin staff and sometimes just in my brain. But I want people to know that I'm using data and information from the DOE to make decisions on a daily basis. Back on the table, there's a packet. I made 25 of these. This is information >> Just continue on, Dr. Watson. >> So our our guiding principles are new graduation requirements, the credentials of value, our Indianapolis

005accountability system that is now returning post COVID, and the data related to academic performance. The new graduation requirements, they this first page on the front in the class of 2029, these are the graduation requirements to graduate after 2029. It's changed. There are more things on here. It looks different. I'm going to grab my notes because I have written all over mine. Okay? And I'm going to ask I saw Callie here if she has input to add, I would appreciate it because she has given me a lot of the information that I have and we are all still learning this process. This um Indiana's updating the requirements to be more flexible, more career connected, more student choice, and have real-world preparation, except for the front of this paper. We cannot veer from this. These are the

006requirements to graduate after 2029. This also plays into the new accountability model. Remember, how many of you remember uh pre-COVID how they had um accountability where it was an A through F grade rating for every school and every school district. Remember that? Guess what's coming back. It was it's starting this year. We will get our grade in December. It will be a held harmless for 1 year. So, that is and there's a lot of conversation and a lot of work that's gone into looking at student data related to that accountability model because every kid counts. So, this is just what is on this paper on the front. And on the back. On the back, these are seals. Now, students have three options. They can do an enrollment option and earn an honor seal. Once again,

007this goes into our accountability model. They can do an employment option and they can do an enlistment option if they decide to go into the military. Here is an honor seal. They can earn that. Going down here, this is the honors plus seal. This is where we as a school district, will get the most points on our accountability model when we move forward. There's a point value tied to all of these little pieces, and it's kind of a lot of um It's been a lot of work to try to wade through that. But, our administrators are doing a great job. We have to continue to offer high-demand career pathways that align with community needs. So, we've done a lot of work with Cosmos and ROI and these outside organizations, um Martin County um economic development

008with uh Jess Potts. We are looking at all of these things. But, if right here is called link to credentials of value. If you look at the second page, I have added this so that you can see what credentials of value means and how you get there. May, just recently, they came out with a new list of credentials of value. And what that means is our high school students leave here with credentials of value. This is a list from This is an old one. But, this is a list from the DOE. So, for example, for example, if you look at these credentials of value and you look under um arts, entertainment, and design credentials, there's a list of courses here, and then there's a list of trainings that they have to take or assessment. If

009they do that training and take that assessment, that will earn them a credential of value. The interesting part of all of this is over here there are numbers. And in order to go back to that graduation pathway, in order to be honor seal honors plus seal, you have to score a four or five. There has to be a total. These have to add up to four or five for the credentials of value. We are working to ensure that our kids have opportunities to graduate with these credentials of value so that when they look at this economic development for region eight, they can go in and they can find a career where they can take this credential and get a job. Or have a leg up on somebody else who's also trying to get that job,

010right? That's what credentials of value are. And now the newest one came out last week. They've updated this. So in that document that I gave you, you can go through and see you can click on these links if you Google this. This is just a brief overview of what that credentials of value means, what it looks like. Very brief overview. You can also come in and sit with me and I'll take you through it because I have had to have multiple people sit with me to take me through it and it's a constant almost every day conversation. The new accountability model, it's the A through F model coming back. And in your packet here is what the Department of Education has given us related to that. And it boils down to test scores. Um I

011learn proficiency. And over here reading proficiency. I read accelerated literacy based on I read. Regular school attendance. Then down here for the next level it's each grade band K through 3, 4 through 8, and then 7 and 8 over here. And on the back is the high school 9 and 10, and then 11 and 12. And this is that what they do for each student they will calculate the number of points they are given and then they add that up. And we as a district earn it's a mathematical statistical equation that we don't understand. That's where it is. We will get a letter grade that will be posted on the IDOE website and the um graduation Oh, what's it called? The GPS. Anybody can go in and look at our scores. So for me as

012leader I'm looking at that data every day. Every day. I have conversation with people about data. Test scores, attendance. I live and die in that data. I've been taught to do that. Because I need to make sure that these kids are ready and that these kids can shine the way they always shine every day. These things need to reflect the great things happening in this community. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. Because I need the people who might want to move to Shoals to take a job at Jefferson can look at our scores and say, "I want to live there because my kids will have the opportunity to do what they need to do to graduate and go get a job." This is what we're measured on. Academic mastery, career Oops. This is fun.

013Career and post-secondary readiness. WE DO A GREAT JOB WITH THAT. SO, WHY DON'T WE CELEBRATE THAT? We do. Communication and collaboration, work ethic, civic, financial, and digital literacy. They are now going to have a It's say this is Sorry, Mr. But, they're going to have a government um assessment. It's coming in the next couple of years. These are not choices that we get to make. I can't decide that we're not taking it. Schools may now be evaluated using student growth in reading and math. I'm looking at those test scores. How can we get our kids to grow? How can we make sure they pass I read? How can we make sure that they have what they need to be here every day? Graduation rates, SAT participation and performance. I'm going to show you some data

014here in a few minutes where it was projected that 42% of our juniors at some point between the year of 2021 and 2025 42% of our juniors were slated to pass or projected to pass or to do well or score a certain score on the SAT. These career certifications, as I talked about credentials of value post-secondary readiness. Are our kids that go TO COLLEGE READY TO GO to college? We have conversations about that all the time. I have people who question me. Are our kids ready? Why are our kids ready? How are they ready? Are we teaching them critical thinking skills? Are we doing depth of knowledge, learning how to uh teach kids to have a higher depth of knowledge? These are all education terms, but these are all things that I have been taught

015that that is the way for academic and career success for people. Whether you decide to go to college or not I'm going to tell you right now some of my best thinkers in my life have done a lot of problem-solving on the farm or at work or um deciding how wide or big to build a deck. There's These skills go all levels of life. But we have to prepare our kids to make sure they are ready to do what they Maybe they don't want to do it when they first leave, right? I mean, I don't know how many of you, but I learned right off I It took me a little while to figure it out. But when they were ready or if they ever decided to, they can move further with their education. Or

016they can get a higher level um salary on the pay scale. 50 cents an hour. I know Jasper engine a few years ago when I was working with them, they would offer a certain amount more per um if the kid came in with certain things. And could provide evidence of that. What does this mean for elementary? The learning starts early. Reading and literacy, math foundations right now. Math is the thing in the DOE. We have to The great thing about it is we have to enrich or provide opportunity for kids who I call it in the green or blue in math. In on I-learn, if they're in the green, specifically the blue, which is the highest you can go, we have to move them to the next level of math. Here's the question though that

017I'm asking. What do we get held to get to know they know those standards that they're missing in the other grade levels? It's a constant conversation of academics. We have to provide enrichment for those kids just the way we need to provide remediation for other kids. We have to make sure that we are providing for every kid every day. And that's where my brain lives. Every day. So middle school this year, and Miss Eubanks, feel free to jump in, but in middle school next year, they are going to have they get to take some of these CTE classes for high school credit. So they're they get introduction to ag, they have introduction to business, introduction to computer science, construction, exploring education professions, engineering essentials, or introduction to health care careers. And that is they basically

018the bottom level of class for high schools and they get high school credit for that. Is it one per semester? So they can take two of them. One per semester. They can just start exploring early. She's real excited about that and the kids are too. What does it mean for high school? They can earn college credits, they can explore career pathways, they can gain workplace experience through workplace learning. I'll go back to this right here, this honors plus deal. If you go to the column with employment and get an honors plus deal, they have to complete additional workplace learning, a total of 650 hours. In a in one or more experiences. That's a lot of hours. And that's a lot of work for our team on a daily basis. But they do it every day

019because they're doing what's right for kids. And that's where this all comes back to. But we have to make sure that when a kid walks across that stage on graduation day, they're ready for whatever. And I'm not going to lie. I can look around this room and I see people that were here the first time I was here. And my goodness, woo. A lot of great things happening. Every day the conversation is are we challenging being challenged and encouraged to grow? Are they thinking critically? Are they communicating effectively? Are they solving real-world problems and are they prepared for both college and careers? We know they're only eighth graders or ninth graders and they're are going to know, but at least we can give them the experience of exploring. They may We all know that likely

020they're going to change their mind 17 times, and that's fine. But we have to be there to support them along the way. Before they graduate, when they graduate, and after they graduate. Those doors don't ever really close. So this is kind of the progression through the years. Our goal is to increase the number of courses offered credentials of value. Some of these are welding, CTE expansion, and that can come for later conversation, and a CAD certificate. Bring back the farm-to-table program. Amy Money's really doing a great job in trying to work through that. She needed a little bit of time to get herself settled here and get our uh cafeteria the transition with that. Um they did a few things this year, and it was awesome. We need to make sure kids can maybe have

021safe serve certifications and continue to grow our own teachers. We're very blessed that Miss Cage has We have talked to her about teaching an education pathway because we have seen other schools doing that, and they have been growing their own students to come back and teach. And it's been a great experience for others, and we are going to start that pathway with the first class. Our next steps for 2026-2027 is we're going to work to develop district strategic plan. That was my goal this year, and I still haven't gotten it done. With members of the staff, community, and student body. We're going to continue to develop programs and coursework that align with regulations set forth by the DOE and the Department of Workforce Development. We're going to continue to improve student achievement and test scores

022through strong instructional practices and support. That is my phone number, 812-639-8831. I welcome anybody to dial that, come in and have a conversation with me, and let's talk about the academic world because it is a different beast these days. And every day over the past few months, it's been changing throughout the state. I'm going to introduce Chad Blacklock. He is a financial forecaster. It was highly recommended. Schools across the state are speaking with financial forecasters and making sure their finances are in line because of the new the way the new tax the Senate bill one and the way the enrollment trends across the state are going. So, Chad has been wonderful and very patient with me and really helping me to work through this process and understanding this knowledge. We also have our financial budget

023consultant, Brian Harmon. He has been helping our school district since 2022 with our financial budget. We have to get it right. We are following our finances with a fine-tooth comb. Half of the day I spend about talking about academics and college career readiness. The other half of the day I've got my hairy head buried in a spreadsheet with Kendra Wright, who I can't thank enough for. We are doing our due diligence every day. And I'm sorry if you do not think it's good enough. Chad, I will >> Yeah, I just need that. I just thought it might be bigger if we use PowerPoint. Here it is. Something in my ear and it won't Perfect, thank you. And I can I can run I can run it. Nope, thank you. Appreciate it. All right. I'll sit

024Oh, okay. You're good. You're good. You're good. Good evening everybody. Thank you for for coming out tonight um to learn about school finance. Usually Usually when the school finance guy comes usually less people come to attend to listen to school finance. It's not the most exciting topic in the world, but it is something that's very important. So I appreciate everybody coming out tonight and learning a little bit. This presentation I've given several times over the years to various community members at town hall type board meeting school boards different things like that. It's a little it's a it's mostly factual with a little bit of passion and emotion involved as well. And a lot of that is because I work with about 120 of the 290 schools in the state. Um The vast majority of the

025schools that I work with are rural Indiana schools. I'm a rural Indiana graduate. I grew up in Morgan County went to a high school called Monrovia High School. So that's why I'm very passionate about rural Indiana public schools. And so this is my bread and butter and where I like to be in the schools that I like to help the most. Just real quick a little bit about my background. I originally was a teacher. I taught for six years in Plainfield and then I got into the business side of schools. >> [clears throat] >> I was a director of finance and operations for Vincennes Community Schools for two years. And then I was at Franklin Township Schools which is up in Marion County. I was their CFO and COO for nine years. I then got

026into doing what I do now which is traveling all over the state and helping school board superintendents administration just really try to navigate the complexities of public school finance, how to optimize resources, and how to just make sure that we're keeping our public schools financially solvent and able to provide the community and the kids of the community um, services that they need and deserve. Uh, however, that has become quite the challenge over the last probably 10 years. Running a school district financially, um, this is my 18th year doing it. It's not the same as it was 18 years ago. It's not the same that it was 10 years ago, quite honestly. There's a There's a couple different factors that really start to play into that. That's what I want to make sure that all of

027you have an understanding of tonight. I want to do you to understand the work that your board and your superintendent has been doing with me over the last probably 6 or 7 months. Um, and I want you to understand a few major points about running schools financially. And maybe walk away with some passion about understanding this and then what next steps are that you might be able to do to help your Rural Indiana school. Um, because at the end of the day, we all want this school district to be successful. A lot of legislative changes that I want to talk about, um, are really starting to impact how we run schools. It impacts the funding coming to our public schools. Um, and I'm going to talk about a lot of those legislative changes as I

028go throughout, uh, this particular presentation. But a lot of the the At the end of the day, the revenue that's coming into our public schools is not keeping up with the expenses going out. And so, when you have when you have multiple years of revenue being under expenses, but yet, you know, as as, uh, Sue went through in her presentation, all these things, these new requirements and different things like that, they all have price tags with them because a lot of them are new programs, changing programs, might be adding staff. And so, as the finance guy, when I receive that presentation, I see dollar signs. And it I think, how are we going to afford a lot of these things? So, our our expenses are going up, just like when we all go to the

029grocery store, expenses have gone up. Expenses in school districts have gone up, but the gist of it is the revenue is not keeping up with the expenses. All school districts, every school district around the state, um our staff number one priority and we're trying to make sure that we maintain fair and competitive pay for our staff. We're trying to make sure that we attract, retain, um highly qualified teachers, principals, custodians, bus drivers, all of that. And to keep up with that, it cost additional dollars to do that. Um this is a big one that I think probably probably a lot of you in the room don't probably truly understand the impact that this uh bullet point that I just brought up is having on the majority of our rural Indiana schools. The fact of the

030matter is today that parents and students in the state of Indiana have a choice as to where they send their kids to school. That is different. I graduated in 1991 from Monrovia High School because I lived in Monrovia High School's boundaries. I didn't have any other choice. My mom every summer didn't come to me and say, "Hey Chad, where do you want to go to school in August? Do you want to go to Mooresville? Do you want to try Martinsville? Do you want to try a virtual academy? Like what is your choice because we have a choice." That wasn't a thing for me, so I went to Monrovia. The fact of the matter is today that our kids and parents have a choice. And the legislative changes that have come down from the state have

031made having a choice expanded upon. And so every one of my superintendents and school boards are trying to figure out how do how does that look for us? How do we react to that? Do we market our school district? Do we go try to attract kids from other school districts? How do we keep our own kids at this school district? Do we start a virtual school? These are all things that are While they've been coming down the pipe for the last five or six years, in the last two to three years, they've just kind of blown up. And now we're really starting to see the impact of this, and it is impacting Shoals Community Schools uh from a student standpoint, but also from a financial standpoint. So, as we go through, I want you to

032just kind of think about that and think how that is impacting our district and what we can start to do about that. And I'm going to give you some data, some numbers on what that looks like. Um I already kind of mentioned this, inflation. Like I said, we all see it. Um you know, just to give you an idea of somehow some of this is impacting public schools. Um we all we have to insure all of our buildings, like we probably have insurance on our properties at home. The insurance to insure all of our buildings in school districts, and I every one of my clients has told me the same thing, the premiums have quadrupled over the last four years. So, maybe four years ago they were paying $200,000 in annual premiums, now it might

033be $800,000 for annual premiums. Well, when you start to think about expenses going up that much on that one account line, and you think about how many teachers could we have hired with that amount, or how much could we have given in pay raises, those dollars start to really add up. A brand new 60-passenger school bus seven or eight years ago was $125,000, today it's $225,000. So, that is a lot of the way that a lot of these inflationary measures have started to really impact schools. Um the last one, we've got a lot of schools um in Indiana that are turning to operating referendums as a way to bring in additional revenue into their school district. Your school district is not talking about doing that. In the past, we've had probably about five-ish schools on

034a ballot running operating referendums. We have about 35 to 40 confirmed operating referendums in the November election of this year. That is mainly due to the fact that inflation, the cost of inflation and expenses is not keeping up with the revenue. So, one tool in the toolbox for a school district, if they want to keep up with these expenses and not have to make expense cuts, is they can go to the community and say, "Would you support us in giving us additional tax dollars?" Okay? Um A lot of words on this slide, but over the last uh probably five or six months, um the work that I've done with your school board, your superintendent, your business manager for your district, we are starting to create a three-to-five-year what I call a financial roadmap. Traditionally, most

035school districts budget on just kind of a year-to-year basis. And our budgets are a calendar year. They go from January through December. The work the the work that your school district has wanted to started to do is to say, "Okay, we got to be solid in our budget year-to-year-to-year, but we want to start looking three to five years down the road. What if enrollment drops by X, Y, or Z? What if the state gives us X, Y, or Z in in in new revenue?" Um what if we give X in pay raises? So, thinking about a lot of different variables based on historical trends and now starting to push that out because what we want to make sure of that we don't make any financial decisions today that put Shoals Community Schools in a bad

036financial position three to five years down the road. That is the work that we're trying to do, and it is good work. Not every school district in the state does it. So, I commend the board, I commend your administration for taking this on. I've met with the principals, I talked to your teaching staff, um and had numerous numerous meetings with these individuals here. They're trying to learn, they're trying to figure it out, and we're trying to make sure that we position your school district in the best financial position that we can moving forward. Um All right. So, I like to make sure that anytime I talk to a group when it comes to school funding, this is not something that the normal that just there are regular Indiana citizen probably really takes a deep dive

037into on a daily basis how our schools funded. So, again, I have a captive audience. I'm going to try to make sure um I get this out if I don't get anything else that the message out. Public school districts in Indiana have two main sources of revenue. The first source of revenue is what we call state funding. Every public school gets a dollar amount for every one of our kids. So, every kid that shows up, every student in the in state of Indiana is worth the same amount of dollars uh per kid. We count our kids twice a year. We count them in February, and we count them in February, that gets us a that gets us that revenue per kid times the number of kids for the first 6 months of the year. Then,

038we count kids again in October. That count gets us that that amount of revenue times those kids for the last 6 months of the year. The reason that that is important, the spring count in February might be 1,000, and the October count in uh at in the fall might be 950. So, if we lose 50 kids in that 6-month period, guess what? We lose funding for 50 kids in that 6-month period. And then, we take another count the next spring. And if enrollment drops down to let say 9:30, we lose funding for 20 more kids. And so, I'm going to stop I'm going to show you guys tonight what your enrollment trend has been. And talk about spring to fall, spring to fall, so that you guys really understand what your enrollment's doing because to

039me, funding and our kid count are the same. And that's why that that's that number is very important to us, what your kid count is doing every 6 months. Okay? The other type of revenue that we bring in, property tax. Property tax in Indiana has gotten a lot of attention over the last 6 or 7 years, mainly because assessed value has gone up. We pay property tax in the state of Indiana based on the taxable value of our of our property, whether it's a home, farm ground, a business, whatever that might be. Over the last 6, 7 years, assessed values, taxable values have gone up by historical amounts. Therefore, property taxes have gone up. The legislators are starting to put things into place to try to start to bring that back down. We're going to

040talk a little bit about tonight some of those things that went into place. I'm sure uh Martin County, you guys have all gotten your tax bills. I'm going to give you a couple things you can go home and take a look at on your tax bill um that you might see how some of this relief was given out um this year. Property tax in public schools in Indiana funds two things. If funds Number one, debt. So, Shoals Community Schools over the years has taken out some bond issues. When a school district wants to put on a new roof, or they want to rehab a building or something like that, they take out what are called bonds. Um and bonds is just a way for them to get a loan, and they have to repay the

041invest They had to promise to repay the investors. Well, those that loan or those dollars are repaid through property tax. We don't use any state funding to repay debt. It's 100% property tax that repays debt. So, that's one property that's one side of property tax that you guys are paying into your school district's uh budget is to repay the debt, okay? The other side that you're paying property tax on is to run the operations side of a school district. So, I want you to think about everything that is really non-instructional, that's what that's what we call operations. So, to run transportation, our custodians, to buy paper towels, utilities, maintenance, um our central office staff, utilities, copy machines, all of those things are considered the operational side of our school district. That is for the most

042part funded by property tax. The thing that's tough about property tax with funding these two sources. The amount of property tax that a school district levies on a taxpayer for the debt service fund, the the debt side of it, is is really calculated off the amount of payments that the school district brings on. So, if they have $2 million in annual payments, they're going to levy the taxpayers for $2 million and they're allowed to do that. However, on the operations side, the state of Indiana gives Shoals Community Schools, just like every school, a cap on the amount of property tax that it can levy the taxpayers to run the operational side of the school district. This is what has become tough for schools over the last several years because that cap, the amount that they

043can levy, so let's say that utility costs go up or we need to pay our bus drivers more or we need to buy three more school buses out of our operations fund. the The school district cannot just levy the taxpayer for for additional dollars to do that. They can't They don't sit down and do the math and say, "Well, this is going to cost us another $750,000. So, we're just going to levy the taxpayer for $750,000 more." Not how it works. The amount of revenue that they can levy is given to them, and they have to keep their budget or their expenses within the revenue amount. And that's kind of what I was saying earlier is that revenue amount is not keeping up with the expenses that are going up in the operations fund, the

044utilities and the bus cost and those types of things. That's what's driving a lot of school districts to either You have two choices. You can either A, run an operating referendum and ask the community to pay more in property tax to fund those things, and a lot of communities and school boards just don't want to do that. The other option is, you reduce expenses. And that's what a lot of schools are forced with. I read two more headlines this morning um on my news app of school districts making cuts that they've never had to make before. A lot of schools are having to do that, and a lot of it is because inflation is causing expenses to go up. The revenue isn't keeping up with it. School districts have no other choice. They have no

045additional way to bring in more revenue other than doing that. Okay? Okay. A lot of times in school districts, you might hear us talk about funds. I've used the word funds tonight. The state of Indiana says that public schools, they have to use this this prescribed state prescribed accounting system, okay? And all it means is that in our ledger or our software, we have to have bring in revenue and we have to put it in its own little a lot of times we refer to them as buckets. The technical term is a fund. Um so, one of our funds or buckets is The education fund, what the revenue that goes into that fund is all of this state funding. All of our state funding, 100% that we get for every kid, goes directly into this

046fund. The state of Indiana also tells your school district what they can and can't pay for out of that fund. So, the revenue goes in and what they can pay for out of that fund is teacher salaries and benefits, principals, speech pathologist, any staff member that is tied to a building and they are instructing or overseeing kids on a daily basis, they're paid for out of this fund. As well as copy paper, um curricular materials like textbooks, any software that we might use to run a school building, those types of things are paid for out of this fund. We don't pay for transportation out of this fund. We can't pay for debt out of this fund. Um it is 100% instructional cost. Even if we get to the end of the year and there are

047additional dollars left in that, we can't use them to pay debt or anything like that. It has to It has to run those instructional costs. We then have here in green the operations fund. I've talked about I've talked tonight about operations. That's property tax dollars that go into that fund and we run the operational side of the school district that I talked about. We then have the debt fund. I've talked about that. Property tax funded is the revenue source and we repay debt out of that fund. School districts that run an operating referendum, they have its own that operating referendum fund is its own separate fund and the school pays for out of that. When a school runs an operating referendum, they have to tell the public, "We're running an operating referendum. We're asking you

048for this amount of money and extra tax dollars and we're paying for this with your tax dollars." So, the school district has to actually make it public and tell the community, "This is what we're doing with your dollars that we're asking you to give us." And that's what they would pay for out of an operating referendum fund, okay? The rainy day fund, um you guys do have a rainy day fund. Um the rainy day fund does not have an ongoing source of revenue. A school district can, if at the end of a budget year they have some additional they have some leftover cash in the rainy in the education fund, the operations fund, or the operating referendum fund, they can transfer it to rainy day. And they the board can authorize a transfer, it goes

049in there, and it just kind of stays. What most school districts do with rainy day funds is they will use it usually as like one-time purchases, you know, like let's say we need to, I don't know, resurface a track or we need to put some asphalt on the high school parking lot. They might pay for that one-time expense out of rainy day, um mainly because there's not an ongoing source of revenue into the rainy day fund. No property tax dollars go here, um no uh state funding goes directly in there. It's purely transfers out of the other fund. You cannot transfer anything out of debt anywhere else. It has to stay in debt. Um but you can transfer out of those other three funds into the rainy day fund. Um and so it it it's

050important, you know, throughout the rest of the presentation you kind of understand this basic kind of format of the revenue source and how what we pay for out of each one of the funds, okay? Um okay, I want to talk about this slide real quick. This goes back to property taxes and it's just another way to look at the property tax dollars. The debt fund that I talked about before, debt service fund, it's basically I like to say it's needs base because it's based on the amount that the amount of property tax is based on the amount of payments that the school district has. They're required to make their debt payments every single year. We make debt payments in June and December and so they're going to levy the taxpayer the amount of money to

051repay that debt. The operations fund over here, I like to put in there that it has a cap and we cannot exceed the cap. We have to keep the expenses really within that cap, okay? All right, I'm going to I'm going to for it for the interest of time, I'm going to jump through a few of these. Um I want to go to probably this slide right here. Um so this is the the the first slide that I have that kind of talks about property tax relief to our taxpayer, but it's also revenue lost to the governmental entities including your school district, okay? So back in 2010, the voters of Indiana voted something into the state constitution called property tax caps. What property tax caps do is they put a cap on the amount of

052property tax that a taxpayer pays on their property, okay? When we put a cap on the amount of tax that we pay, if a school district in their operations and debt service fund needs the revenue that would take the taxpayer above their cap, so each one of you have a cap on the amount of property tax that you pay on your your your piece of property and if you look on your tax bill, it will tell you your cap. It is a percentage amount of the value of your of your property, okay? And so, if that property says if it says your cap is 200 is $2,000 a year, and all the governmental entities do their budget and they say, "Homeowner, property owner, we need $2,300 from you to fund our debt fund, our operations

053fund." But you only pay 2,000, that $300 that you're not paying into the operations, the debt fund, maybe the police, to fire, to all the govern different governmental entities that levy a property tax, they're going to lose a proportionate share of your $300 cuz you're only going to pay 2,000. That $300 that you don't pay, the school district doesn't receive in revenue. These two lines right here, the 141,500 and the 13,300, if you sum those together, that is the amount that Scholes Community Schools is not receiving in property tax in 2026 because of property tax caps that were put in place back in 2010. This is nothing new. We've been working with a number kind of like that since 2010 because we voted these into the Constitution in 2010. But I'm just saying, this is

054revenue loss that your school district is losing in its operations fund through property tax due to property tax caps. What is new is this line right here. Starting in 2026, a piece of legislation put into place 2 years ago, says that every homeowner, so if you own a home and up to an acre of ground, that is considered a homestead, that you are going to receive in the tax bill that you just received a dollar for dollar homestead credit. The homestead credit states this. You are going to receive the lesser of 10% of your total tax bill up to $300. So, it's got a cap of $300. So, let's go back to my $2,000 example. If your home has a cap of 2,000 and your tax bill says you're at your cap and you pay

0552,000, you are then going to get the credit off of the 2,000. So, you're going to get the lesser of 10% or $300. You're going to fall in the 10% category, so you're going to go from paying 2,000, you're going to get a $200 credit, now you're paying 1,800. Okay? The $200 that you didn't pay is property tax revenue loss to all the governmental entities in your taxing boundary. So, um it's property tax relief for the homeowner, but it's revenue loss for all the governmental entities. The state is projecting that in 2026, that's going to be a new revenue loss of 64,400 for Show Low's Community Schools. That credit does not go away at this point. It's in place forever. So, that new loss of 64,400, that's something new that we're trying to figure out

056how do we work through how do we work through that because um you know, that's a pay raise, that's a teacher salary. Those are so, that's a revenue loss that in our operations fund that part of our long-range plan we've got to work with cuz that's not going away. Okay? So, you can go home tonight, look at your property tax bill, pull it out. It There's a line on there that says new supplemental homestead credit or something like that, and it'll show you what your credit is that you received off your bill. All right. Um, this is something a lot of numbers here. Basically, what this says at the top, remember me saying that every kid is worth a dollar amount that goes into our education fund. We call that the foundation funding. And all

057this is I keep touching that. All this is simply showing is what that foundation amount has been going back to 2022. So, right now we're getting 6,967 $6,967 for every kid. That's what every kid in the state of Indiana, not just Shoals, is worth. That is our That is our state per student funding right now. Starting in July, it goes up 1 and 1/2% to 7,071. The reason that I point this out is something new that happened over the last couple years. In 2023, we stopped charging for textbooks. We no longer charge parents the two, three, $400 fee that we used to charge for the textbooks and the curricular materials and those kind of things. However, the school district still have to buy the curricular materials. We're still buying textbooks. The cost didn't go away,

058but the revenue source did. Okay? So, in the first year, in 2023 and 2024, the state of Indiana was giving the school districts $155 rough roughly dollars per kid to help buy the curricular materials because we weren't charging the parents anymore. Then, after 2 years, starting in 2025, the state took the grant away. And so, that $155 that your school district was getting to help pay for the textbooks, those that's now gone. The curricular material cost is still there. So, that is another and we pay for those out of the education fund. So, that's a new expense that has come onto our education fund that your school district is trying to figure out again, how do we afford this? How do we pay for this? And it's part of kind of our long-range planning that

059we're doing. Let's talk about enrollment. So, this chart, remember me telling you we count count kids two times a year. We count them in February and October. So, I'm going to go back to 2019 and show you what your enrollment count has been. Remember, we lose one kid, we lose seven grand, okay? So, in the February count of 2019, your school your school district counted 616 kids. We received funding in our education fund to pay teachers, principals, instructional assistants, all of the people out of building on based on six 600 616 kids. In October, remember we take another count in October, and this was a pretty good year. We only lost one kid. So, if you go to my little chart over here, in the fall of '19, down one. So, that means we lost

060$7,000 roughly because we lost funding for one kid in that time period. Then, we go to the spring of 2020, we gained. We grew to 628. We were up 13 kids. 13 13 kids times $7,000, that's how much we got in additional revenue, okay? Then, we took our October of 2020 count, we fell down to 612. So, we lost 16 kids. So, now we lost 16 times 7,000, we lost that amount of revenue in that 6-month period, okay? Then, in February of '21, we were at 610. Then, we jumped up to 653. That was our all-time high, and so we were up 43. Great year, we gained we got additional revenue for 43 students, okay? So, you can start to see what that enrollment count has done since the since 2019. The most recent count

061that we took was in the spring of '26. We were down one from the fall, and we were down to 564. So, if you start to look at, you know, what our enrollment has started to do, really probably since 2022, is really start to take more of a uh a descending uh a descending path in our count. And so, since the spring of 2019, we've lost 52 kids, or about 8% of our total enrollment, okay? Our average annual change, if I go back to the fall of '19 and just kind of average out our ups and our downs, we are down on average eight kids a year. So, on average, Schools Community Schools between '19 and 2026 is losing on average eight kids every year, okay? If I take a more recent snapshot, and the

062reason that I do this is really our years prior to 2023. We had kind of our COVID years in there, which was kind of janky when it comes to education and enrollment. Things were up, things were down, we had virtual schools, I had a lot of stuff going on. So, really when you get to the spring of '23, that was kind of started to normalize a little bit. So, if I take a look back between spring of '23 and the spring of '26, we've gone from average of losing eight a year to now losing 20 a year. Okay? So, I need you to say do some quick math, $7,000 * 20 kids in a budget year is some significant dollars. So, that is a lot of conversation that I've had with this group to say,

063remember I started my presentation by saying all schools are trying to figure out what are we doing about this, and your board is doing that. What How does this impact Shoals? How do we navigate, let's say hypothetically, we lose 20 kids a year for the next 5 years? What does Shoals Community Schools look like then? And what do we do to navigate that? Because remember, revenue declining as kids decline, that means we either A, have to ask the community for more money, or we have to cut cost. Okay? Okay. Um Remember me talking about my second or third bullet point in I talked about school choice. We hear a lot about that now, school choice in Indiana. That means that parents have a choice where they can send their kids to school, and you do.

064We have open boundaries, and now there are multiple choices. I can pick up this phone and go to Facebook and type in where can I send my kid to school, and I'll have 10 options pop up. They might be virtual, they might be in on the north side of Indianapolis, they might be in Evansville, they might be wherever, but I can find quickly find choices for my kid, okay? This is the real data of how that choice is impacting you, and I always do this, I always pull the other schools in the county, so I've got Lagoda on here, too. So, here's what I'm going to show you. Remember we count kids every 6 months. I've got a three count period here to show you what you're looking at. I'm going to start here in

065the fall of '24. In the fall count of 2024, Shoals Community Schools had 627, and I refer to this number, a lot of people chuckle, I say eligible customers. Because we have to start looking at kids as our customers. These are our clients that are coming into our school district. We had 627 kids that lived in Shoals Community Schools boundaries that were of school age and had been or had were attending a public school of some type, okay? Of the 627, said, "I'm going to go to Shoals Community Schools." So, 627 were eligible, we attracted 559. We then had 35 kids that live in another public school boundary. They could have lived in Loogootee, they could have been in Dubois County, they could have been in Knox County, they could have been wherever, and they

066said, "I want to go to Shoals." They were the ones that their mom in the summer said, "Where do you want to go to school?" And they said, "I want to go to Shoals." For whatever reason, they chose you as their option. This is what I'm talking about with school choice. Back when I graduated high school, you would have all 627 kids would have come to Shoals because they didn't have another choice. But now, only 559 came to Shoals, but we attracted 35 from someplace else because they didn't go to their home school district. We had 68 of our kids go to another public school. 68 kids live in your boundaries in Shoals Community Schools boundaries said, "I'm going to go to another public school." So, another public school somewhere else. That means that the

067difference between the ins and the outs was a negative 33. We had 33 more kids transfer out than transfer in, okay? So, at the end, we had this negative net 33 and you can see Logoti, they had 821, they had 620 choose them, 118 come in and 194 go out. So, this is what is happening in your county when I talk about school choice, okay? So, let's just kind of fast forward down here. So, in the fall of 25, I don't have the spring of 26 up here yet, it just came out. But, in the fall of 25, our number of eligible customers dropped. We were at 627. Now, we're down to 615. So, that means we only had Now, we're down to 615 eligible kids that could come to Shoals. Of the 615, we

068attracted 529. So, look what happened. We went from attracting 559 down to 529. Logoti went from attracting 620 down to 593. So, they They're in a similar boat. It's not just you guys, okay? Then, we had 36 come in from another public school and that was fairly consistent. We had 66 go out. Why do I keep doing that? We had 66 go out and that number was down. We want that number to go down. We want that number at zero. We don't want any to leave. We want all We want that number to be zero, okay? So, we were at the end of the day a negative net 50, okay? Because we also had 20 kids, we hadn't had this before, we had 20 kids choose and use the voucher program. So, in the state

069of Indiana, we now have the voucher program, it's called the choice scholarship program. That means that parents can take state dollars and they can go to a non uh public school, a parochial school, and they can use that funding to help pay that tuition from the state. You hadn't in these two count periods had any of those and then we went up to 20. Okay? Now, you're probably all sitting there thinking like most people do, where are they going and where are they coming from? Which is on this slide. So, >> [cough] >> on this slide, I just have the two most recent count periods. This tells you where they live and where they went. So, >> [clears throat] >> I'm going to go you're losing the most kids to Loogootee. We were at 22

070and 24. Northeast Dubois, 15 and 10. And we went from 59 to 61 total. Now, the interesting thing as you start to look at that list, you probably look up there and go, well, there's some schools up there that aren't even near Martin County. Right? Here's why. Clarksville Community Schools has a robust online virtual academy. I would say those three or four kids are virtual. I would just guess. Um Beech Grove, that's in Indianapolis. Virtual program that they just started up. Um Union School Corporation, virtual school. Um that's the ones up there that I particularly know of. There could be some others up there. The report doesn't break it down virtual or in-person. We also had, if we kind of scroll down through here, we had some kids down in this area that um they

071went to another public school. Um this section right here, this would be our charter schools. So, Lawrence County Independent School, Indiana Connections Academy, Hoosier College and Career Academy. I would probably say those are virtual. The Lawrence County one maybe isn't, but I'm pretty certain that the other two are virtual. So, we're losing some kids to those charter schools. These three down here, this is the non-parochial school or the parochial the non-public {slash} the parochial schools. We went from losing none to these places to losing 20. So, Stone City, Shelbyville Christian, and Union Bible College, we've picked up the we're losing 20 of our kids to those um entities. This slide shows you where you're getting kids from. Okay? So, the interesting thing about this slide that that I pointed out to the the board when

072I met with them last time, let me go back over here. Loogootee, I know's in the county, your other county school. We lost 22 and 24 to Loogootee in the spring of 25 and the fall of 25. And then, in the same period, we gained from them 23 and 24. So, we have the same amount of kids almost just passing each other going from one school district to the other. They're almost the same amount of kids, but that's school choice. That's what having choice does. And so, you can see we are getting kids. We're losing some to Northeast Dubois, and we're getting some from them. North Lawrence, Mitchell, Loogootee, and Washington. You can see where we're getting kids from. So, those kids live in those schools' boundaries and are choosing us. Okay? All right. >>

073[clears throat] >> Um I'm just going to kind of start to close in on the last couple slides. I've taken up plenty of time. Um I want to talk just real quickly. The board has seen this slide multiple times for me. Um and so, some of the work that we've started to do, remember I talked about making a a 3-5 year financial plan. That 3-5 year financial plan starts with numbers, it starts with assumptions, um it starts with the the amount of money we think we're going to get per kid from the state over the next 5 years, and we also start to factor in to that some enrollment. Because you saw on average you've been losing eight kids a year for the since 2019, but we've been losing 20 kids a year since 2023.

074So, some of this lot of numbers, but I'm just going to start to give you an example. 21 through 25, this starts to These numbers down here, they're not going to mean a whole lot to you and they're really small, I know that. Um this just kind of shows how we actually ended those budget years. We talk a lot about how much cash was in the fund at the end of the year, but more importantly we talk about did we have a budget surplus or did we have a budget deficit and what that starts to look like. And some of the work that we've starting to do together um shows us and in 2025, we ended with a budget deficit. And then we started to talk about, "Okay, if we ended 25 in a budget

075deficit, we're losing eight or 20 kids a year, what is the future start to look like?" Okay? And this is kind of the the beginning of the work that we've been doing, kind of peeling back the layers of your financial picture to say, "If we keep losing just eight kids a year based on our current level of expenditures in your school district, that means no pay raises moving forward, um the cost of insurance doesn't go up, the everything just kind of remains flat as a baseline. If we're currently spending into our budget, we're just going to keep spending into the budget. And so, when I kind of come down here to this line, this starts to show me that our ending cash in our education fund, we just continue to eat into that. Losing eight

076kids a year kind of at our current spend level. So, we've had a lot of conversations around that. And so, that puts us out in 2026, we're at a negative $1.8 million in cash in 2026 through that picture. If we pump that up and we say, "We're going to now start losing 20 kids a year," which is what we've been doing since 2023, now that puts that ending cash at a negative 2.7 mil. So, not great news. I know that's a little depressing. A couple things to think about. I talked about you guys declining in enrollment. 2020 not 2019 through 2025, 68% of the 290 public schools in the state are declining in enrollment. So, I'm going to say that again. Over the last 5 years, 68% of the 290 public schools are declining in

077enrollment. You guys are one of those statistics declining in enrollment. This board and your superintendent and I hope our community and our administrators help to figure out, how do we stop that? How do we stop losing kids? How do we keep Shoals community kids going to Shoals community schools? I think that's number one. My hometown in Monrovia, same thing. They're dealing with the exact same situation. They're a little bigger, they're about 1,500 kids total. Um, I have these same conversations with them. They were growing in enrollment, and now they're declining. And so, they're having the same talks. I unfortunately give the same presentation a lot. This is what we are trying to navigate at the end of the day. How to keep ex- how to keep funding expenses, keep providing the services, but we know

078that enrollment, thus funding, is declining moving forward. Okay? I'm going to stop there. Anybody You guys want me to add anything? I've spoken probably over my allotted time. I have a captive audience. I'm happy to You guys good? Did I cover everything? Okay. I do really appreciate all of you coming tonight. Um I mean, you probably necessarily didn't come because you saw on the agenda that the finance guy was coming to talk. I'm not the life of the party anywhere I go. Um but I hope you do leave here tonight with a little better understanding of school finance and how it works. Um there are tons of resources. Again, I probably know in your spare time you're not perusing Google for Indiana public school finance. The DOE website, the Department of Local Government There are

079tons of resources out there for taxpayers, for community members to find information about your school. This the the enrollment report that I showed up here, um this enrollment data, this is a public report. But you got to go to the DOE website and you got to dig to get to it. And then you have to kind of analyze it. So all of this data is public and you can find it. Um if you want to do some light reading when you can't sleep. Okay? I'll pause there. Thank you everybody for having me. I appreciate it. And I'll stick around for a little bit if anybody wants to ask me questions. Okay? >> Thank you, Jeremy. >> You're welcome. >> Mr. Harmon, do you have anything to add? I appreciate it. >> Thank you. My name

080is Brian Harmon. Uh I am the owner and operator of Harmon Consulting Service. I graduated from Scholes in 1977. Um got an excellent education while here. In calculus I've copied off Steve Searles' paper a couple times, Steve, maybe. Not sure. Steve was really good in calculus, by the way. And I help 32 school districts. So, in my opinion, you just heard from the best school finance mind in the state of Indiana. Chad Blacklock. He's fabulous. His forecasts are spot-on. He's good at that. He comes in, works with the board, and good for the board and superintendent in order to work with him to start planning out. I work with 32 school districts, and while Chad primarily works at the 30,000-ft level, mine is more nitty-gritty in teaching the budget process, which is complex, making sure

081it gets input for the Department of Local Government Finance without mistakes. They are not kind to those school districts that make mistakes in that process. I'm a teacher at heart. That's what I went to school for. So, it's kind of my teaching gig that I do in order to teach superintendents the process, how to avoid mistakes, how to organize that, and again, work with 32 districts. Of the 32 that I work with currently, 30 of them are having the exact same discussions. The conversation that Chad just had with you, when your student count is going down, that combined with circuit breaker, and now the Senate Bill 1 homestead credits, that is lowering revenue at a tremendous pace. And schools have to deal with it. And at the same time, expenses are going up. Health insurance

082is going up on our staff. Uh if you give increases, and we were forced to give increase. When I say we, school districts across the state. They put a minimum amount that first of 40,000, then 45,000 the teachers had to get paid. And certainly, I'm not against, nor I think is anybody against, teachers making more money. They should. The The young people of any community are the most valuable recess or resource that any community has. It's by far the greatest resource you have. And this group through their dedication and you as a community owe that to those kids that we represent. Unfortunately, the legislature over the last few years has put us, and when I say us, all school districts, in a very difficult position. When I work with 32 schools, and most of them

083are in Southwest Indiana, and 30 of them have declining enrollment, and $7,000 base dollars into education fund is going in to pay for those. And if you're losing 20, 30, 40, 50 kids uh a year or count, that's significant dollars. And you can't right-size a teaching staff quickly. You just can't do it. Cuz you didn't lose those 20 kids in one grade level to where, okay, well, we lost 20 kids in third grade. So, we're going to have to cut one third grade teacher. It doesn't work that way. Those 20 kids were spread out through the through the areas. And you saw that Mrs. Landon gave the information on the pathways. You have to have curriculum in place to be able to offer those pathways or you're not a school district. So, operating referendum or

084what a lot of schools are attempting to do, they there will be a record number of operating referendums that will attempt to be passed this next round. It'll be a record that the state's never seen before. Why? Because many school districts are having the same discussion. I have this discussion all the time as I know Chad Chad does as well. So, I appreciate the opportunity. Scholes has an outstanding school. Always has. Outstanding programs, innovative programs, no question of that. Doing things that many two or three A schools don't do as far as offering programs and the depth of that curriculum that they offer. And that's what this board and superintendent are trying to keep going. But, it's going to be it's going to be more difficult. Two things I think that I that schools can

085do that I advise schools to do assuming they're not going to move forward with an operating referendum and that's market your school district. Market, market, market. It's a competitive out there. The second thing is contact your legislators. They have got to at some point stop the pressure particularly on small rural schools because it's it's devastating and it and maybe maybe that's the plan. I don't know. I'm not necessarily a conspiracy theorist, but I just know over the last several years they just keep cutting back the revenue and expenses just keep going up. Most of you know, many of you know me. If you have additional questions, or certainly if the board has additional questions, don't hesitate. I personally can talk about school finance all night. I know you just had a great presentation and you

086don't want me to talk about school finance all night. So, I certainly will pass the baton. Thank you for the opportunity to work with you and to make comments as well. >> Appreciate it. Put that back to you. >> Okay, now the building principals, reports from those. Building principals will be reporting now. >> At this time, I'd like to recognize a friendly face at Scholes Elementary over the past few years. Every Tuesday, Mr. Worrell has generously donated his time, supplies, and talent to teach art to our first and second grade students. Um on behalf of the Scholes Elementary team, we thank you, Mr. Worrell. Um the elementary would also like to thank the River Rat Retirement Readers Club for donating 1,200 pencils to our kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms. I would also like to take

087time to thank local businesses and individuals who showered our teachers and support staff during Teacher Appreciation Week, including Bauer Family Coffee Shop, Hawkins Healthcare, Catherine Treadway, and Bee Sweet. I'd also like to acknowledge Ms. Ashley Montgomery for her years of teaching at Shoals Elementary, and Ms. Kendra Hovis for her leadership and years of supporting Shoals students and families. The month of May in an elementary school can be described as organized chaos. Um our students are very excited for the end of the year and summer break. Our teachers are, too. But, we also like to hold on to those last few moments of what makes elementary school so memorable. May was filled with fifth grade wax museum, fourth grade Mother's Day Tea Awards programs, preschool graduation, field day, and even a foam party. Students enjoyed nature

088hikes, visits to the farm, STEM field trips, author visits, classroom glow and camp theme parties, survival day activities, and visits from DNR officers. Some of our youngest students even were able to watch baby chicks hatch right in front of their classrooms. We are also very proud of 15 Shoals Elementary special education students who participated in the special special event track and field. As we close this school year, I just want to simply say thank you to our teachers and staff, classroom aides, office staff, who continue to show up every single day for our students. Your patience, support, and dedication are what makes Shoals Elementary so special. Any questions from the board? >> How are we doing with the valley? >> Um >> Is Sandy doing okay? >> Yep, Sandy and Mira were able to attend

089our field day this past Wednesday. >> Good. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> If you don't know me, I'm Carol Eubank. I'm the new middle school principal. Some of you may remember me as Ms. Bollington because 16 years ago I left here as a teacher and moved back to my hometown of Fayetteville. Now I'm back. I I my nerves short so I'm going to try to keep this real [clears throat] simple. I would like to give a shout-out to the leaders behind several of our school programs that we had in the last month. We did participate in Make a Difference Day. 48 junior beta students assisted with repainting that sensory sidewalk at the elementary school. You may see it when you pull up to the school. Our middle school student council students unified

090the outdoor classroom planter boxes and our intro to ag class, they went down and cleared a trail down at Hind Austin. So we had a few projects going on uh for Make a Difference Day. The other shout-out goes to our students and our staff. If you [clears throat] don't know what school is like these days, it's testing season and thank god it is over. We have I-Ready and I-Learned and I-Ready and I-Learned again. And unfortunately, because of the new accountability model, those scores will not be back until fall. So we won't know how the summative came out until we get back. So we are eagerly awaiting to see the improvement of our students. If you've been watching or listening over the years, the middle school has been making significant improvements in both reading and math

091and we're hoping to continue that forward progress. We also had a shout-out to the students who participated in our PBIS event on Thursday, May 14th and they enjoyed an afternoon of inflatable fun and games outside and we just had a great day. In terms of teacher accountability, we had we have PD scheduled for all of our math teachers in the middle school on June 3rd and 4th and they will be attending a state provided professional development program to talk about how kind of like the science of reading just rolled out in English language arts over the last couple of years. Now there's a new movement for math coming and so the state is rolling out I think it's 42 hours of professional development that our math teachers will begin this summer. So it's a lot

092for them to endure. We also have other middle school teachers who will be coming in for PD to finish our curriculum selection for our new WIN classes next year. So we have we're revamping basic skills. If you don't know what that class is, it's an opportunity for kids to kind of work on things they've not learned before and when I came here it was done on with an online program called MyPath. And the research proves that nothing beats a qualified teacher in the classroom. And so WIN next year basic skills will be titled WIN for what I need and it will be taught by teachers and they're going to be teaching the essential standards that kids have to know and they have to know how to read beyond a third grade level. They have to.

093I I in good conscience let them move beyond that. Right? So. >> [clears throat] >> Um The other thing I need to share was actually sent to me by Megan Hawkins. Um she wanted me to share some early college statistics with you um because we have an outstanding early college team here. So fun facts about the class of 2026, approximately 401 college students during their high school career or college credits, I'm sorry, during their high school career. That is approximately $115,050.91 that were saved by your kids taking college courses in high school. The senior with the most college credits earned 45 college credits in high school. That's a year and a half of college already done. Five seniors received the Indiana College Core, which means that they have their freshman year completed. 20.5% have earned

09415 or more college credits. And 50% of the seniors took at least one college course. So that was shared by Megan and the outstanding curly early college program you all have here, so. >> Thank you. But I can stand. Thank you. Originally we had comments from patrons going to be at the end of the agenda, but we moved it to now. So everybody can have comments uh concerning audience on the agenda at this point. So I've got a list here of folks that wanted to talk. Uh Mr. Jeff Jones would be first. I I could Okay. Mike Jones. Kim Showalter. Oops. I'm so sorry. You want to come to the mic, please? >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> Yeah, I don't I don't like I don't like them either. >> Is this one on? >> Yes,

095it's on. >> Um I did have a question. This stuff all came about last summer, I think. Late last summer. Why wasn't the public involved in a meeting like this then? I just I just want to get that out there. Cuz this stuff all came about last year. All the cuts and stuff like that. >> [clears throat] >> As far as the cuts go, there's not >> really been any cuts, but as far as the budget goes, that's been going on like Chad and Brian said, that's been going on for >> I know, but the stuff >> the stuff going on there. >> through over the like the different pathways and stuff like that. All that stuff. My wife works with it also in college. Because she is she's the VU nursing instructor. And she

096works with it all the time. And she started last last August. When all this stuff got passed down. >> I guess I'm not >> [snorts] >> understanding the question. I mean, what what's the the far as the pathways? >> Well, all the rumors and everything like that started last when school started last year. About you're going to shut down this, you're going to shut down this, you're going to shut down this. And we never had a meeting like this. >> And that was not generated from anybody here that we were going to shut anything down. So, just just so you know that. >> Okay. >> That's never been a plan to shut anything down. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Kim Showalter. Oh, I'm sorry. Olivia Garrett. >>

097[clears throat] >> Um my question is for the pathway classes that you're not shutting down. If you don't have teachers to run those classrooms, what's your plan? >> It would be on the administration to find replacements for those teachers. >> I said [clears throat] um if they're not planning to shut the pathways down, but they say but there are known teachers that are leaving, what's the plan for their replacement? >> I said that it would be on the administration to find someone to fill those positions. Right? I mean it it it creates a vacancy, so you have to find somebody to fill it. >> As of right now, we don't know of any known vacancies other than one at this time. >> Okay, and my next question um you said you're really big on data

098and statistics, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself um to what the community is so upset about? >> Mhm. We're having this meeting for information to feed information. >> But did you ever ask yourself I'm talking. Did you ever ask yourself what the community is so upset about? >> Yeah, frankly, we have. >> You've asked that question to yourself? >> I I've asked several different people in this community that have that question. What that is, and I get I don't know. So, >> I was never asked. I You live on my road. >> I really don't talk to each and every person in the community. I don't make it a point to go to everybody [clears throat] and talk. >> was actually talking to Ms. Lanham. >> So, I don't know what you're what

099you're wanting there as far as >> asking if you've [clears throat] ever thought about what the community is upset about. >> Yes, we have. >> Cuz we just had an hour meeting on finance. Mhm. Are you Have you >> Yes, we have. I I can say that. >> Okay. >> All right. >> And then, um my next question is for the principals, um have you been thanked by your board and um superintendent for what you do? Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you. Cecil Ragsdale. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. This next one, I'm not sure. Shirley Holt, possibly? Come forward, please. >> [clears throat] >> So, my name is Shirley Holt. I appreciate everything you do for us. But, my question is this. There's been a lot of stuff on Facebook. A lot of tearing

100apart. And uh how do we go about putting it back together for one thing? And there's been issues there that are really kind of even I question. One is like are you cutting classes, combining kids? You know, that's that's an important thing to know. I don't have the answer to that. I did not get the answer to that tonight. Like so, kids with disabilities, are they still going to have that class where they they get the one-on-one? That would be a question for me. Uh or are you going to integrate them in with with the other kids? >> I can I can say this and I think I speak for for all of us up here that no services for any student is going away. >> Okay. >> The services that we have for each

101student will be there. No No student will be without services. >> Okay. I I and I appreciate that. Uh the other thing is is uh the bullying. I have encountered that this year from management. I have six grand children, two that are not biological, but they still are my grandchildren. And uh out of that three of them have been taken out of this school. The one main reason is the bullying. Uh I have went to teacher. I went to the principal. I have went through the volleyball coach. And I can honestly look you in the eye and say nothing was done. To the point where we finally had to take the little girl out. When a child gets off the bus and she comes to her grandma and she's crying and says, "I don't want

102to go back." There's a problem. >> I would agree. >> as teachers, and as administration, and even as us as parents, and I know myself and my daughter, we have encountered this and we felt like we went through the channel. We went through everything that we would possibly could do. So, we had no choice but to take her out. Now, with that being said, where it talks about no kid left behind, um still when you got a single parent, they can't afford to really take them and put them anywheres [clears throat] else. And she's coming back this next year. I am scared to death of that. I'll leave that with you. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Courtney Taylor. >> Good evening. My name is Courtney Taylor. I'm here tonight because I believe

103the parents, staff, and community members of Shoals Community School deserve transparency, accountability, and leadership that operates professionally, ethically, and legally, especially when decisions impact vulnerable students and staff advocating for them. Over the past year, I've personally witnessed and experienced what I believe to be a culture of retaliation, intimidation, selective enforcement, and a severe lack of transparency within our this corporation. Specifically involving Superintendent Dr. Sue Lanham and Special Education Director Dr. Emily Dykes. Many teachers and staff members are afraid to speak openly about concerns because they fear retaliation. I know this because I experienced it myself. I had no prior disciplinary history, no write-up, not one prior occurrence. I have consistently went above and beyond for students and staff. I stayed beyond my contracted hours to help children in crisis. I gave up lunches to support

104classrooms and students. I treated this work as a calling, not just a paycheck. Despite that, I was disciplined and eventually terminated after publicly advocating for transparency regarding concerns surrounding the whole child classroom, and after addressing behavior I felt was inappropriate and disrespectful from district leadership. Not one school board member reached out to hear my side of the situation before my termination. Not one member asked for my perspective, my documentation, or my account of events. That failure matters. And honestly, I feel fail failed by this board. The members sitting here tonight were voted into these positions by the public to represent and defend this community, not to remain silent when serious concerns are repeatedly brought forward by parents, staff, and community members. The superintendent works for this board. And this board works for the people. Your

105responsibility is not to protect leadership from criticism. Your responsibility is to ensure transparency, accountability, legality, and ethical leadership within this corporation. Right now, many members of this community no longer feel protected, heard, or represented. I was called into a meeting with Superintendent Dr. Sue Lanham and Special Education Director Dr. Emily Dijkstra regarding a social media post I made that contains factual information intended to keep parents and community members informed about concerns involving the whole child classroom. During that meeting, when I calmly and respectfully asked not to be interrupted or talked over, I was met with yelling from both Dr. Lanham and Dr. Dijkstra. Dr. Lanham slammed her fist on the table while repeatedly stating that she was in charge. That is not professional leadership. That is intimidation. I also witnessed Dr. Emily Dijkstra speak disrespectfully

106towards elementary administration and discuss me negatively while I was not even present in the room. At that time, I'd been requested by parents to participate in a IEP meeting, which is completely within parental rights. After I addressed Dr. Dijkstra's disrespectful conduct and stated that that behavior towards staff would not continue to be tolerated, I was denied participation in the following meeting. The message sent to staff was very clear. If you speak up, there'll be consequences. I also want to directly address the reason for my given termination. I was told my employment was terminated due to unprofessional conduct towards a supervisor. However, I believe this board community deserve the full context behind that statement. The in- The incident being referred referenced did not occur in isolation. Prior to that moment, there had already been repeated instances

107of what I perceived to be disrespectful, intimidating, and unprofessional behavior from Dr. Emily Dijkstra toward myself and other staff members, including elementary administration. I personally witnessed dismissive behavior, speaking negatively about staff when they were not present to defend themselves, interrupting others repetitively during meetings, raising her voice, and creating an atmosphere where staff felt uncomfortable speaking openly. In one particular situation, I was not even present in the room when my name and role were being discussed negatively while I had been requested by parents to assist in IEP meeting. Some Something parents are legally allowed to request. When I later addressed the disrespect and stated it professionally that the behavior toward myself and other staff would no longer be tolerated, that moment became part of the justification used against me. What is deeply concerning to me is

108the imbalance of accountability. I was terminated for allegedly being unprofessional toward someone who not who was not even in who's not even my direct supervisor, while repeated concerns regarding the conduct and professionalism of district leadership appear to have resulted in no consequences whatsoever. So, I have to ask, why are staff members expected to remain perfectly composed while being interrupted, disrespected, spoken down to, or intimidated by leadership? Yet, leadership is not held to those same standards. Why is respectful self-advocacy treated as insubordination? And why are employees with no prior disciplinary history removed so quickly while documented concerns involving administration continue to go unaddressed? I'm not standing here tonight claiming perfection. I'm standing here saying there must be equal accountability because professionalism should apply to everyone, not just the people with less power. I also believe that

109there has been a troubling pattern of concerns and recommendations from elementary staff and administration, including concerns raised by Audrey Gibson regarding her own elementary building not being generally considered when decisions involving students, staffing, and programming are made. The community and staff are not upset over what has repeatedly been labeled as budget-related concerns. We are upset over the constant lack of transparency, the contradictions, the disrespect, and what many perceive as leadership attempting to force outcomes and narratives without factual accountability or open collaboration. There's also been a repeated pattern of wordplay, selective wording, and misuse of terminology depending on the audience being spoken to and the outcome leadership appears to want to achieve. Staff members hear one version, board members hear another, parents hear another. And too often statements are made without meaningful follow-up, clarification, or accountability

110afterward. In my own meetings with Dr. Sue Laney and Dr. Emily Dexter, I frequently had to repeat the same direct question multiple times before receiving a clear answer if I received one at all. This is not transparency. That creates confusion, mistrust, and division throughout this corporation. And if budget truly is the concern, then the community deserves transparency there as well. How much has Dr. Laney overspent the school budget? Were those financial decisions approved approved by the board? Why are there employees within this corporation making salaries reportedly higher than principals without administrative roles? Were those wages board approved? Is there documentation available to support and justify those decisions. These are fair questions from concerned community. I've documented every serious interaction instance I I have experienced involving district administration because I no longer feel I can fully

111trust what is being said behind closed doors or later represented publicly. I've kept documentation, written timelines, emails, and recordings when legally permitted because accountability matters. I've even sent emails directly addressing statements I do believe I believe to be inaccurate or misleading from Dr. Lanham and received no response. What we allow is what will continue. Meanwhile, there appears to be a completely different standard of behavior expected from administration versus staff. Staff members can be spoken to disrespectfully, interrupted, talked down to, or intimidated. But when staff professionally address that treatment or advocate for themselves, discipline follows. Even more concerning, my direct supervisor would not sign off on my termination. I ask this board tonight, why are staff members afraid to speak? Why are concerns repeatedly dismissed? Why are community members and parents left without transparency? And why

112are employees with no prior disciplinary history being removed after speaking out? This community deserves better. The students within this corporation, especially students with disabilities, deserve decisions made legally, ethically, collaboratively, and transparently. Parents deserve honesty. Teachers deserve protection from retaliation. And this board has a responsibility to start asking harder questions instead of remaining silent while these concerns continue to grow. I also want to make clear that I remain open to respectful contact, honest conversations, and full transparency with anyone willing to generally listen and communicate truthfully. I have nothing personally to gain from standing here tonight. My goal has always been the same, to ensure the right thing is being done for these children, the staff supporting them, and the families trusting this corporation to serve them appropriately. I'm speaking tonight because remaining silent would make me

113part of the problem. Thank you. >> Seth Taylor. >> My name is Seth Taylor. I graduated from Shoals High School in 2007. I care deeply about this school corporation. My daughters have attended Shoals for the past 4 years, long before we moved back into this district because we believe in this community and in the people who serve it. I'm here tonight to stand stand firmly with the teachers and building staff who make this school what it is. I'm a former teacher and will forever stand in support of good teachers and I ask this board to do the same. For 15 years, I've worked as a public servant, including in classrooms from kindergarten through adult education. Public service is not a title, it is a responsibility. This board was elected to serve the public and it

114seems some of you need a reminder that you work for this community, for us. I have seen a broken school turn around in a single year and go from a failing F school to a passing school in 2 years. What I'm watching here is the reverse, a functioning system unraveling because of poor leadership and a lack of accountability in supporting teachers and staff. Many teachers have raised serious concerns about leadership failures and ongoing issues this school year. When those elected to support them refuse to act, teachers feel abandoned, unheard, and pushed out. A lack of support is harmful. The superintendent works for the board and the board works for the people. Yet, teachers, staff, and community members have been misled, dismissed, or disrespected by the very individuals entrusted with leadership. I appreciate the financial presentation,

115but this community is not here tonight for a financial problem. We're here because of a leadership problem, account- an accountability problem, and a basic respect [clears throat] problem. Your words do not match your actions, and your actions or refusal to act have eroded trust across the board among teachers, among students, and throughout this community. Some of you have concerns about the direction of this school just as the people in this room do, but concerns without action are meaningless. Leadership begins with integrity, transparency, and the courage to hold people accountable. Rebuilding trust requires action, not excuses. Right now, the president of this board and superintendent are leaders in title only, and their behavior does not reflect leadership. One points fingers and blame at everyone but himself while ignoring his duties, another pounds a fist on the

116desk and declares, "I'm in charge." When a leader has to announce they're in charge, they have already lost the authority that comes from trust and respect, and are in fact not in charge. It is clear that not all members of this board have reviewed the open door policy. Since August, there have been 20 executive sess- sessions, and as of today, each one of of them violates the Indiana Code 5-14-1. 5. Not a single agenda includes the related certification that no subject matter was discussed beyond what was listed in the public notice. We can assume that that statement is not included because it was not true. That omission [clears throat] is not a clerical error, it is a breach of public trust among many. Indiana Code 5-14-1.5 is not a suggestion, it is a law. I

117understand that matters must be discussed privately, but making decisions and conversations outside of public meetings is not only inappropriate, it is a violation of the responsibility you were elected to uphold. Some of you may be hoping this will fade with time. You may be worried about the optics of the past month. Some of you may be upset by the criticism, but that is what you signed up for as a public servant. If you can't handle it, I encourage you to resign and or remove your name from the upcoming ballot. Last month, this board said we needed to market our school all the while failing to support the very teachers and programs that make this school worth marketing. Only a few members of this board have maintained the teachers of this corporation and the community's trust.

118Others have their own self-serving agenda and search for someone to blame. But, the truth is simple. You are the elected leaders. We are here because [clears throat] of your inaction, your lack of leadership, and your transparency. The only fault of the people in this community is that we care more than the ones we trusted to serve this corporation. But, I sincerely hope that you prove me wrong in that statement. >> THANK YOU. SCOTT CARR? >> GOOD EVENING, EVERYONE. UM IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME, my name I apologize I'm going to read off of this. My name is Scott Carr, and I am currently the band director here at Shoals Junior-Senior High School. I began my stay here at Shoals January uh 2020 or 2024 when the position was open. To put it lightly, things were

119in poor shape. The kids were in our great, but they needed some to be some things changed in order to improve. I knew I had my work cut out for me, but so I jumped right in. I'd like to talk I don't like to talk about myself, and I usually quiet outside the band room. I make a point to stay focused on my job and not let outside noise creep into the way I into my my I have great kids, and when they come to class, they get ready for the day's rehearsal. That was definitely not the case when I first got here. I really hate talking about myself and trying to stay humble. It's my job as an educator to provide my students with proper examples on how to act and how to behave.

120Um I'm from a small town just like this one and I was very lucky to have an inspiring and caring band director always setting an example for me. To say that I am lucky is quite an understatement. Um my father always said that the quietest person in the room is usually the smartest one and I asked him why. He said, "That person is usually listening, learning, and remembering." This is some advice I took and I had ser- and that it had served me very well from the past. Things that are going on here in the great and the general atmosphere has been one of gloom and doom. We all know this is We all feel that this will probably end up getting blamed on the teachers in the end. It's not true. From January 2004

121through summer of 2005, things were going as smoothly as they could all with all the high school administration drama going on and trying to keep a principal. Just a side note that all the scheduling issues made me lose almost 15 kids from the band program. The entire eighth grade band was eliminated. That would be at least 10 to 15 more students that I would have in my high school band currently. Okay. The one thing that was constant during that time was Ms. Kendra Hovis. I will not speak for other members of the faculty, but I will but I feel without Kendra, the place wouldn't have it would have imploded. Most people in the community hear all kinds of things and nurture an opinion based on rumors, astute hearsay, and many other unreliable sources. For three,

122maybe four semesters, Ms. Hovis was a superintendent and high school principal pretty much at the same time. In conversations with her, she said that she never wanted to be superintendent but accepted based on the confidence and support from the board and the community. All she ever really wanted to do was be the high school principal again and that came true for her this year. The beginning of the year was dubious from the start based on things things we had discussed and fixed on behalf of the kids. I don't even remember all the details but we spent most of the day on our first day talking about lunch schedule for the kids. If you were to ask me what was going on by 1:00, I would have I wouldn't have been able to tell you. I

123had zoned out at that point. Um I was just ready to go back to my class and prepare for the school year. I recall the whole thing made no sense and the students would have hated it. The whole thing seemed like some John bad John Hughes script. Uh something from or something from Rock and Roll High School. It was just Don't we have enough problems in public education that we can focus on different things? And the first meeting of the day was in the cafeteria and that's when we all knew things were different. And not in a good way. I've been a teacher for 25 years and I have never experienced anything like this. The whole time you felt like you were being yelled at even though the person who who was talking was just

124speaking. The closest thing I can relate to was all of us sitting on a big rug being talked to and telling us the year is going to be great and you guys are doing such a good job and if you're good, you'll get a pizza party at the end of the year. Right? And this is where with the term Jug Rock family was used many times. Um the term Jug Rock What What does that even mean now? I think it's just being said to check a box. Okay? Morning Jug Rock family. All right. At this point, it seems like something you just say to check the box. Needless to say, the vibe was not good. Everyone was looking at each other and wondering what was going on. I cannot speak for everybody, but I know

125the attitude of the people around me. My year started out great with my numbers increased by almost 30% for the year and a half that I had been Plans were in place for a busy year with lots of fun and educational plan educational, you know, things fun. One thing I had planned was was in the summer of 2020 2025, I wanted to take my drum corps kids to an to a my my kids to a drum corps show in Evansville. I submitted that in May, it got tabled in June, and I came back in July to have it revisited. Nothing. You said, "Oh, we forgot." And you said you'd talk about it. Never heard back from you. So, my kids did not get to go on that field trip because of your incompetence. All right.

126One thing I um My band booster president was there and she may not have spoken up, but no one really asked her any questions either. Okay. Uh fast forward to July and I attend a board meeting, you know, the one I just told you about. No one said a word and I even stood up. I said, "Wait, what about?" And they were like, "Oh, we forgot." And I was like, "Okay." That was my first impression of the school board and that's the only school board meeting I've ever been to besides this one. This is my first time ever speaking at a school board meeting in my 25 years and I wish it was under better circumstances. I must revisit with my experience with Kendra. In all my years, I have never met a more genuine

127and truly caring administrator than than Kendra Hopes. You come to her with anything and she listens, reacts, helps you in the best way she can. Anybody who's been a teacher for a while can tell you if your boss is genuine or not. Kendra Kendra is as genuine as they It was hard to pin Ms. Hovis down this year with all the meetings she was with all the meetings and everything else that she had no control over. It seemed that her job was made harder than normal with all the stuff she had to do other stuff she had to do than actually be a principal. She's been here 17 years and climbed the ladder to the top. Started as a student. If anyone in the school corporation needs to be listened to, it's her. You don't

128dedicate half of your life to something and then become a non-factor when it's all said and done. I know all of us here is truly wondering what is going on here and what is the end game. Kendra Hovis, I want to personally thank you for everything you have done for me and my students. You deserve better and the people who are here every day know it. Nothing but love from me. Now the elephant in the room, all the cuts that are being planned and implemented for 2026-2027. I cannot speak for the other teachers on how they feel, but I can say that I I am the unsilent majority. My position as band director is planned to be reduced by half next year. I simply cannot afford to work half-time and pay my bills. It's hard

129enough to work to have two full-time working adults in a household. I have grown very fond of the kids here and I will and I will have nothing They have done nothing but improve over the 2 and 1/2 years I've been Right now I have between 45 and 50 students in the Shelby band program. That includes the color guard. That doesn't include the 15 to 16 kids that will be joining in the fall of this fall as fifth Also, please remember these numbers don't include the eighth grade band members I lost in the fall of 2005 due to the scheduling kerfuffle. If you don't know what that is, ask the band All right. If we If these things were done correctly that summer, I could have had 70 kids in my band. How many kids

130do we have here at Shoals? 70 kids in the building. In the past year I've had four interactions with our new superintendent while at school. Once in the hallway, passing by two others, when she interrupted my class to give me candy and and once when she stuck her head in a student conference to pop in and say hi. Both times our kids said, "Who was that?" Not sure what that was, but for me it felt like it was staged or just the way to show how much she cares. If we If we are so worried about money, then let's look at the numbers. Large schools in the state of Indiana pay their superintendents. Now, these are these are like Carmel Clay, Greenfield Central. They pay their superintendents $200,000 on average. And that rounds out to

131about $15 to $25 a student. There. That's a school with at least 10,000 students. Small schools with smaller enrollment 10 to 1,000 200 students, we pay them around $133 per student. Our superintendent makes and I rounded all the numbers down, $166 per student based on superintendent contract. Our current enrollment, and I rounded this up, 600. And that $130 $166 is for 600 students. We don't have 600. We have several groups here at the school that are going to be dramatically affected for the next year. Ag, construction, and welding are some of those most important things we teach here at Shoals. If you don't understand that, then you don't care or you just don't have the ability to read the room. You're not going to find anybody better for those jobs than Ben or Ethan. Now,

132let's be clear. Nothing's being cut, but nothing is being made easy to succeed. Our small little agrarian community needs classes like this to grow and prosper. I'm not so blind that I don't see these programs as flagship programs at this school. The program is about to The band program is about to take off, and I still and I still cannot get chairs from the administration uh because the ones of mine if you've been in my band room, they look like something you pull out behind the bend of a big lots. Okay? But we can still get brand new, you know, faux leather black chairs all around the back for the board and all the administration to sit during during uh graduation. All right? Also, other people I have to talk about Sarah. Sarah's doing a

133wonderful job here. Some of the things that she's had to do, she's created a catering company cuz the school doesn't give her any money to buy food for her class. All right? And they're her They're messing with her schedule, too. So, I don't I apologize to speak on behalf All right? Also, I mean, it it's it's just an absolute insult that if you run any kind of extracurricular activity, that you should not be compensated for your services. Miss Crystal Taylor, who was my color guard director, taught winter guard from like July all the way to April. She got paid $160. Three nights a week all summer. And she can't She sent us emails and other stuff to the athletic director and to Dr. Lanham, and she still has yet to get a uh a confirmed

134response. Not one reply. So, and she's planning on moving on. Oh, by the way, our color guard was in state finals in the second year of their existence. Mhm. I know technically they're not cutting a program, just reducing it to half time or making the schedule in such a way that they don't want to return. It's no secret, these positions will be very tough to fill with no urgency to do so before the school year begins. These halls are going to be a ghost town. At least we are saving money and being fiscally responsible. Uh bussing people to shop class and ag class in Bedford. Really? We have the best ag program here in the state. Okay. Um this is an opportunity for you guys to step up and try to figure this out for

135all of us. I don't personally know any of any of you personally or Dr. Lanham, unfortunately. Um whatever you do here today, it this is what you will be remembered for. Your legacy is in the hands and I wish you would take input from the rest of the staff and community. One keeps hearing the same things over and over and doesn't want to believe them. Uh lots of administration, they just don't listen uh to other administrations, teachers, and and the board already had, you know, the board already, I think, might have their mind made up. I don't know. Rumors. I don't go off of rumors, but once it If you hear something so many times, then, you know, there's got to be something to it. These are the things that are being said and and

136I, for one, would like the truth here today. I appreciate your time and I wish you good luck. >> THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> BRUCE HAWKINS. >> I DON'T ORDINARILY attend school board meetings as probably most of these people out here don't either. As they pretty much trust those folks to step forward that wanted to sit in these seats and do what's best for the students in the community. But evidently, people are concerned about what's going on. As all you can see. I think the important things have been said by those folks closest to the situation here. They know it much better than me and most of us. We've heard bits and pieces, and that's why so many people are out here. Um being not going to school board meetings. Is this the normal setup

137for a school board meeting? >> Usually in the library. >> Yeah. With do you not having to face the people that are here to speak to you? >> No, we it's the chairs are out front of us. >> Well, that's kind of what I would expect it to be. That's why I was kind of surprised when I saw this that you don't have to face the folks here tonight. For some reason, I don't know. And I can see the screen set up. That could be But anyway, people have evidently furious or upset about what's going on. You said at the beginning that the ag program, welding program wouldn't be closed. Why are those two instructors considering resigning? No idea at all. >> I have I have no >> Something must have changed. Something's going wrong

138for them wanting to resign. >> I have no idea. >> No idea at all. >> Nothing's being cut. As a matter of fact, we're going to we're going to expand the CTE programs. >> And those two instructors have done so much, been started in 8 years ago, I believe it was. Done a lot. Kept kids in school that otherwise may have quit and not finished school. So, I think you ought to be able to see that something's not going right. It's not going in the right direction. Can those folks that spoke and asked questions and they expect a response from the school board or the superintendent? Probably just like the response we get right here. No, maybe some I don't know. >> Well, I think I'm not going to get into to personal issues or

139or any anything like that, but cuz I'm not going to I'm just not going to talk about that. But I'm We're not going to We're not going to talk about Here's >> I'm those individuals that have asked questions, could they would they re- Could they expect a reply? >> What What reply do they want? What does everybody want? What's the question? >> They asked several questions. The question is the big overall question Why are so many people here tonight? I believe they feel something's not going right. >> So, so the teachers that you say are say they're going to leave, we haven't We haven't received any any notification from anything from anybody as to why. No exit information. >> Evidently, something's not going in the right direction, making it pretty difficult for those folks if

140they want to after putting so much time and they decide, well, I don't know if I'm going to stay or not. >> And I don't know what the reason is, to be honest with you, Bruce. I I don't know what that reason is. Pardon me? I don't know what that Nobody can give me an answer. Give me Give me an answer. >> I think that's what a lot of people are looking for, an answer. That's what I'm wanting. I'm wanting an answer. Everybody's telling me all this stuff is wrong and you don't see it. >> You don't see that happening? At the principal just resigned for some reason. >> No, not actually. >> And I've heard Others have We've heard consideringly there young people that have left, went to college, came back here to this

141school to teach to make it a better place. Cuz they want to live here with their families. It looks like uh somehow or others making it pretty tough for those people to stay here. Maybe somebody else would like to speak. >> I can't read the next name very well. Tonya Brown, maybe? Huh? But it it was you though? Okay. Um Jeff G, maybe? Did you sign? >> [laughter] >> Come on. >> Is that a no or >> I think he said he did. >> Oh. Oh. Why don't I I can't >> He thought he was >> Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Deanna Hurt Uh Courtney Moffitt Hope I got it right. >> I have plenty of nieces, nephews, and cousins that are here. I've been trying to get my kids in here for 3 years. And

142I've got denied every time. And I had four kids sign up last year. Because my kids are disabled and they deserve a school that they can learn in. But as far as I'm concerned as of right now, the special education is going down in the school. Where's the extra help for the teachers that need it? The special education teachers, where's the extra help for them? My mother has worked here for years with special education. And she's not getting the help that she needs, either. Where's the extra help? Why aren't we looking at them? Yes, the other students matter, too. But special education is really needed. And we're not getting it from the other schools, which is why a lot of kids come here. But now we're not going to get it here, either. >> I

143think we will get it here. I don't think any of that's going away. >> They can't be in a normal classroom. You know, because it's going to disrupt the children in that classroom. They're not, you know, they're going to be overstimulated. They're going to act out. Teachers aren't going to be able to teach. You know, I mean, we're going to need >> I'm not a special education teacher, but I don't claim to be. But the services are not going away. >> But they need help, too. They They need more teachers to help them. >> Well, I I think we're looking into to seeing what what's needed. I think that's an ongoing thing. What's needed all the time. But at the same time >> Exactly. >> And I think >> These teachers that are trying to

144help the special education are being pulled left and right with multiple different kids with multiple different needs and they're not getting looked at, either. >> Okay. Thank you. I cannot read that name. >> Last name is Jones. You signed up right after 4:15? >> I don't know. I can't >> [laughter] >> I can't tell. I don't have I have no idea either. I have no idea. I can't tell. >> Call for me. >> State your name. Please. >> Okay, my name is Janelle Hoffman. And I sit right there on that board for 8 years. I started That was I haven't been on for 2 years. So uh So when I started, when I ran for school board, this school in this community was at the place where you would ask these kids where they were

145from, and they would put their head down, and they say they chose You saw no kids wearing Jug Rock's apparel anywhere. But in the time that we were on the board, that changed. I have so many Jug Rock's t-shirts, I can't get them in a drawer. And I think our kids do, too. And I am proud to be a Jug Rock. I've lived here all my life. My kids went to this school. I have nine grandkids in this school. They didn't go anywhere else. And it makes me deeply saddened that there's so many people here. There's got to be a reason for this. When we started, we wanted to bring the vocational kids to Shoals. There was hardly anybody going to Bedford. And we saw a need for the vocational to be here at Shoals.

146So that's what we did. And it has flourished. We got kids wanting to come here. We did, you saw the numbers. They got over 600 kids at this school. Exactly. They want to be at Scholes. And that is why that is the future. The future is not always college. It It just doesn't work for some people, but we give them that option. We've got to keep these classes. And I understand the presentation. I understand that. I know the budget needs cut. I get it. But we've got to cut it somewhere else. You know, how many social workers do we have? I mean, there's how many do we need per child? Maybe we need to cut a social worker. Maybe >> worker for 250. What 250 kids? >> we've got like four. You know, we've got

147a curriculum director. Do we Do we need that? We need a band. We need a drama club. >> Yes. >> We need We need these. Our kids I was in band. That was my favorite thing. That was my husband's favorite thing. I love band. You know, and I It just hard to see the band where it is now. It just kind of makes me sick to my stomach. You know, I see Brad Albright here. He was a drummer. I mean, he was the drummer. And Brian Harmon, my son Matt, my grandson Colin, they were the drummers. And now we got a good drummer, but uh Yes. I I I know that. It Yeah. But anyway, okay, that's just some of the things I wrote down. Um Uh three principals, you know, we got one leaving.

148Are we Are we going to go back to the days of two principals? That was bad, bad, bad. The middle school needs her own identity. She's doing great in the middle school. Audrey's doing great in the elementary. You cannot replace these people. They're homegrown. They came from here. They know our kids. They know our grandkids. They know what they go home to at night. You cannot replace these teachers. These teachers have been here for years and years and years. That are sad, that want to leave the school. We cannot lose them. We just cannot lose them. But they're not replaceable. They're just not replaceable. Um That was something that was important to us when we got on the board. We've got to hire our kids first. We got to let them come home. Just We

149just want them to come home. There's so many kids like Sarah, you know, you're you're doing a great job. You're teaching these kids things that I tried to teach my kids, but they didn't pay attention to that. Anyway, um Anyway, that's what all I got to say. Um I think the biggest thing is micromanagement. We always believed in the chain of command. Let Audrey be the principal. Let her be her principal. Let these people do their jobs. Just let them do their job. And you do your job, Sue. You be the superintendent. That let them do their jobs. And there's the library's a vacate The library's vacating that building in in town. Maybe we should rent that and put the superintendent there, out of the building. That way everybody does their job. Everybody just needs

150to be able to get their job done. And uh And I And I've said this before, and you got to look at me like I've got horns going out of my head. Bad time. I don't think one county superintendent is a bad idea. I think that saves a big salary. I'm not saying consolidate schools. I don't want to consolidate schools. I'm for shows till I die. But I don't think it'd hurt to maybe consider consolidating a a superintendent. >> Lisa Green. >> She's on a separate sheet. >> Um I'm coming from Bruce's talk and question to um Director, I think you were the only one that spoke, but he said um did you have any idea or why Ben and Ethan might be leaving? Um did they ever meet with you and express any concerns

151prior to this? >> We had I haven't talked to Ethan. No. >> Okay, but you have talked to Ben. >> We had uh a teacher meeting at one point in time. That's all my which I'm not going to elaborate on. >> Yeah, that's not the issue. Did they ever express concerns um or anything that might uh worry you about maybe they would be leaving or the direction of the programs? Remember we prayed before we started this, so. >> I can't believe you went there. Uh I don't know that he expressed so much concerns about leaving. He expressed concerns about a certain individual. That's all I'm going to say about that. >> But whenever we asked you, you said, "I have no idea. I want answers." >> I do want answers. I want I want direct

152answers. I want direct answers from What do you want to see happen? >> That's what we want. We want direct answers. >> What do you want to see happen? >> Not just questioning us with other questions. >> What's the end game? >> I don't know, you tell me. >> Lisa Green? >> Yeah. Hi. Good evening. Okay, so a few things is your data and your letter grade, Dr. Lanham, that doesn't have anything to do with the worth of our children. And from what I'm seeing from all of you, y'all don't give a crap about our kids. Because if you did, you wouldn't be getting rid of our our teachers that have built programs from the ground up. You wouldn't be letting getting rid of our um childhood education program when you have a perfectly licensed

153teacher to teach it. You wouldn't be cutting our band program to half days. Why? Do you know that music actually lets kids use the other part of their brain? They're highly intelligent. I know that because I had at least two kids in band and I had another one that wanted to start band. My oldest daughter is a self-taught pianist and she learned how to play the trumpet when Joel was here, Joel Whitecamp. And she continued and she found even more love for that program because of Mr. Carr. So, you cutting him is, in my opinion, ridiculous. You cutting the ag program back, you telling them, Mrs. Lanham, excuse me, Dr. Lanham, that if they didn't offer dual credit in their programs, you would find someone who would. That to me is bullying. Is that how

154you teach or talk to your staff members all the time? Behind closed doors? Huh? I didn't hear it either. Okay, but so my thing is I understand that, but if they're willing to pay for one person to get a degree, then how come they aren't offering to help the other teachers get the degree? I wasn't, but I know who's getting the degree and who's it who it's being paid for. No, but you know what? They can still take that information and that education that they do have and go and uh do an internship with a You know what? They're working towards it. But also, um let's see. Okay, uh I do have a question about one of the board members here. So, as a county employee, I myself can't work as an employee for the

155county somewhere else. So, how come it is that we're paying one board member as a bus driver as well as a board member? Is that I thought that was double dipping. >> She's contracted bus driver. >> Okay. Okay. And then, um the social work the uh human services um that was offered through Cosmo. The teacher that you had Let's see. >> Let's see. >> that you're offering through Cosmos. Yes, so why um it's available Let's see. You have two other social workers that are available during the 1-hour that she's teaching, that Kelly's teaching. So, why aren't they using those other social workers? I'm sure they are. But, you're in court, but you're wanting to incorporate all the special needs classes into a regular classroom. Okay. Well, the fact that you're cutting programs and you're integrating

156special needs children into a regular classroom where that is going to disrupt a regular classroom. And they're not going to get the one-on-one. If you're already having issues with people Mrs. Riggins if you're already having issues with getting her any help That's for you to figure out. You're not figuring it out because if you were, you'd be able to tell us exactly what you're doing. The transparency isn't here. >> Also, um at the end of June 30th, 2025 the end of cash and investment balance of Scholes was 6.4 million dollars. Where is all that money? What How is that appropriated to out for the whole year? Since then? 6.44 million. >> I don't even know what you're looking at there. I'm not sure where I'm not sure where you're getting that from. >> Well, let's

157see. >> It wasn't even that much. >> Brian, this could be in that, but that's probably basic grant dollars and it's used to pay >> teachers >> things that they talked about. Teacher salaries, curriculum instruction materials. >> Do you have an actual layout of that so everybody so you can be transparent with everybody here in the community for that? That definitely needs to be transparent for everybody to see. Okay. That's all I have for now. >> Okay, moving on with the rest of the business of the board meeting. I'm sure. I think it was Bruce. I think he left, but he mentioned a while ago uh what is the issue there? I do you know for a fact >> public some of the teachers are paying the board members in executive meetings to complain about

158one individual. And you have like and you guys have the audacity to say you don't know what the problem is. You guys all know what my wife was doing. Today her claim was got denied by Dr. Wayne. After after we signed a mutual agreement, no fault on the school or my wife. One One thing that she checked was she quit. My wife did not. She did not quit. That was an error on the school. You asked her to work 30 days before that. She has that. Bring me four emails saying she did that. I'm not blaming them. Daryl, I'm not. I love her to death. But you denied me unemployment is false. >> [applause] >> Okay, moving on. New business. Yeah. >> I'm going to attack you guys. I'm not going to do that at

159all. But I have I'm one of those kids >> Could you state your name for me, please? >> Jason Riggins. >> Thank you. >> I I live in Legoti. My four kids have come here to this school. My four kids We we came here because we left Legoti because of bullying. My my eldest daughter who's now 24 and lives in Tennessee and helps with special education uh children are down there, which I think is a wonderful, admirable thing. And I thank the school for doing that for her, for giving her the foundation and the love for people who want to do that. Mr. Carr my youngest son who doesn't really care about much in in life. He really doesn't. He cares about band. And he cares about Winter Guard. And I realize that money is

160finite. There's only so much money to go around. I understand that. But that man right there my son went out of his way to collect money and he's a he's a sixth grader, going to be seventh grader next year. He went out of his way to collect money from his classmates to throw that man a going away party. Had my wife order him a trumpet that it was orange online. I didn't even know they made such a thing. But apparently they do and all the kids signed it. I mean, that's genuine love for a man who spent a year with him. I hate seeing him go. I hate seeing any of these pro- programs go. I think this is a wonderful community and I think everyone showing up here, even though there's a lot of

161anger in this room, there's a lot of love in this room cuz they they care about their kids. And this school cares about their kids. And if we can't find a way to save communities like this, why are we even here? Thank you. >> I didn't sign the paper. I don't like to talk in front of people, but I do have a couple genuine questions. Um my first question is so it was brought up that the kids that are taking the welding classes through high school for 4 years are ending their high school career without a certificate, right? So that's a concern, right? That's an issue. They can't leave out of here and do do with that besides experience. So after a quick Google search, I found that the only thing that Ethan would have

162needed was a certificate from the American Welding Association to be able to give those credentials to those kids when they graduate. So, if it comes down to money, National Gypsum gave the welding program $35,000 in 2024, I believe it was, where that money could have been beneficially used so that these kids could all be graduated with that certificate. But, why wasn't it done? Why wasn't it thought about? Why wasn't it an option that was put on the table? Because now you have kids that are graduating after 4 years, and they put all this time into welding, but they have nothing to show for it. That'd be like going to college for a degree for 4 years and not getting your degree and have nothing to show for it. But, you had the funding to get

163the credentials is what's frustrating. Did anybody offer it to Ethan? Did anybody look into it? But, but that's what I'm asking. Was Ethan offered That's what I'm just asking. Was Ethan even offered that option to be able to expand his program to give his kids something beneficial in the long run? No, I don't I'm I don't think that's what I was saying. I think what I would Yeah, I'm just saying that maybe we should think a little bit outside of the box when it comes to these types of situations. And I know over the last 5 years, National Gypsum solely has given the school $90,000, which is a substantial amount of money. So, when it comes down to finances and that's what we want to talk about, then understandable that those are going to specific

164programs, but then when there's an issue brought up with that specific program and we see that it's not being used beneficially. Right? You can see how that can be frustrating. Okay. So, that's my first question. >> One question I will I one thing I would like to say is those um that data that you looked online to find, that is very recent that we have that new list of credentials of value. I I can't speak exactly the date of it, but it's within the past couple of months that we have that that list. And to be um honest, we've been trying to work through what that looks like. >> Okay. >> Absolutely, yes. >> That I mean, that's what I'm asking. I mean, I didn't see that it was a new thing, but if it

165is, then >> of value lists are pretty recent in the like the one that I have printed off was in March, but I know and on that link um the uh this one the link that is on that new document was just recent in the past couple of weeks. They've made some adjustments to it and things like that, but yeah. >> Okay. And then my my last question is I am the epitome of your example. I moved here to work at National Gypsum. I was not born here. I was not raised here. I did not go to school here. I this area appealed to me because I graduated with 800 kids in my graduating high school class, which meant I was nothing but a number. And that's not what I wanted for my children. So,

166when I moved here in 2017, I moved to Jasper, and then I have since moved and relocated to Shoals because that's where my husband has grown up his entire life. And looking forward to sending our kids to Scholes in the future. And I'm here today with not even a kid in school because I have so much concern about what's going on in the school board right now. And in the school system. So my question for you all is as somebody who doesn't have a kid in school, right? We want to market our school. We want people to come to our school from other communities. As a person who is in that position currently, with everything that's happening on social media, how do you guys think that it affects what you're trying to do? Right. There's

167zero appeal. I'm here today to figure out if I need to start looking at other schools in the area to send my kids to. Yeah, I mean I I want to know like what is the like how you guys can't tell me that you don't see what's happening on social media. Okay. How do How do you not know? You're on the school board. I I don't think that I'm necessarily talking about the teachers. The The teachers that that's their business. Um I hate to see a lot of these teachers go. Um, like I said, I didn't grow up here, so I don't have the ties to the community that a lot of people do. Um, my husband is related to a lot of people in this room, but um, >> [laughter] >> so I I

168do have ties in that fashion. However, I think that the concern that I have is that you're trying to appeal to all of these other communities, yet these other communities see exactly what's happening on social media and shows to be quite frank, looks like a complete hot mess that nobody's going to want to touch with a 10-foot pole. Right, but the school board's not doing anything to nip those rumors in the bud. No, I don't know that. I'm not necessarily talking about that. I'm I'm talking about I don't know whether it's they need to go in and they need to have a conversation and say these are the things that are not true, these are the things that we're doing, but the lack of addressing any of the information, I think is what causes it

169to run wild because it is a small town and the rumors spread like wildfire. So, the lack of addressing in everybody else's eyes, the silence is enough for them to run with. And I think that's the concern lies. But, that's all I had to say. >> Okay. Along with the normal business, new business, under personnel, we have approval of early college summer stipends, $500 each, to Tina Root, Malik Thurman, and Eric Page. Resignation of Aubrey Bratcher, effective May 21st, 2026. Resignation of Ashton Montgomery, effective May 22nd, 2026. Resignation of Emily Dick, effective May 8th, 2026. Resignation of Ruby Harder, effective May 22nd, 2026. And Allison Taylor has withdrawn her acceptance of the corporation secretary deputy treasurer position, which was to begin June 20 June of 2026. Need a motion to approve those. >> I'll motion.

170>> Ethan? Second? Ethan's got the second. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Approval of the following 2026-2027 school year: Jeff G as volunteer coach for boys varsity soccer, Glenn Hoffman as volunteer assistant middle school uh soccer youth development coach, Rebecca Rollins as assistant high school volleyball coach, and varsity cheer coach, Andy Purdue as varsity girls soccer assistant middle school girls head soccer coach, Cathy Overton as varsity cross country girls coach, our cross country coach, sorry. Reva Troutman as a volunteer middle school girls soccer assistant volunteer. Approval of the summer cleaning crew: the Kyle Wineinger, Stephen Holt, Mason Ball, and Turpin. Uh separation employment for teacher assistants for 2026-2027 school year. That'll be Lillian White, Courtney Taylor, and Hannah Smooth. Approval of the mutual separation of employment of Phil Jones. >> I'd like to uh table

171number nine. I have no information on these people of why they're being separated. >> Table item number nine. >> Who, me? I asked to table item number nine, the separation of employment, because I have no information of why they're being separated. I can't scream. >> It was a separation of employment issue with, uh, three teaching assistants, and we're tabling that item for further discussion. Other than nine, which is getting tabled, I need a motion. >> I'll motion. >> Ethan, I need a second. >> I'll second. >> Annette, all in favor? >> Aye. >> And before of three, Steve Steve has stepped out. Uh, review stipend request for Kendra Hovis, that's tabled for discussion. Trip request, high school robotics selection in Kentucky, May 28th through 30th, for the first FIRST challenge. Uh, middle school baseball team

172to Jasper, June 19th, to watch the D'Iberville County Bombers. Motion to approve those trips. >> I'll motion. >> Ethan, second. >> I'll second. >> Annette, all in favor? >> Aye. >> Going to be a four three oh one vote. That's the old robotics, Orange Grove abstained. Field usage, junior high school or junior high baseball to use ball fields on April 27th. Waffle Fire Department to the parking lot on May 9th. High school boys basketball to use both gyms for summer shootout on 20th the 22nd and 23rd of June. Motion to approve those facility usage requests. Lorna, second. Eva, all in favor? >> I. There's more. High school boys basketball >> [clears throat] >> both to use both gyms on July 3rd for the Tri-County Catfish Tournament. Potential 4-H fundraiser with the Wizards on October 30th

173to 26th requesting all fees be waived and more information to come. Senior Beta Club to host American Red Cross blood drive on November 3rd in the 26th in the practice gym. [snorts] Permission to allow Julia Harper to park a family health center vehicle in the boy parking lot over the summer. Uh the district will not be responsible for any damage that occurred due to the vehicle being on on campus. Catfish Festival steering committee to use the school facilities for the queen contest in the event of rain. Motion to approve those. >> I'll motion. >> Ethan, a second. Lorna. All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Uh events, high school volleyball to attend the camp in Bloomington 10th 23rd to 25th. Also to participate in a Bloomington League along with a scrimmage in July with

174L- LCA in Orleans. Rock on the run summer conditioning throughout the summer Mondays in June. Uh Catfish Festival 5K run and running camp for grades three three through 12 in July. There's no commitment to join a team. Motion to approve those events. Eva's got the motion. Second? >> I'll second. >> Ethan. All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Fundraisers. Doug Rock Doug Rock Robotics to host a spaghetti dinner or supper on May 16th in the cafeteria. High school volleyball to hold a car wash fundraiser in the month of June. Class of 2029 to hold Mercury's Meat fundraiser September 29th. through October 13th. Athletic Booster Club to host annual fall festival on October 24th. And class of '27 to paint the parking spots. July 31st through August 14th, $25 per spot with prior approval of

175artwork. Motion to approve those fundraisers. >> I'll motion. >> Eva's got it. Who's going to second? >> I'll second. >> Second. Eva. And Annette. All in favor? >> I. That's going to be a 4-0-1 vote with Annette abstaining. First reading of the '26-'27 proposed high school handbook changes. Board policy update, wireless device prohibition. Policy state mandated and ground groundskeeper job description. Those are all first readings. >> [snorts] >> MOUs for Vince Sims University College of Health Science and Human Performance and Parents Square communication contract and launch. Motion to approve those MOUs. >> I'll motion. >> Ethan. Second? >> I'll second. >> Annette. Annette will second. All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Miscellaneous, [clears throat] non-certified pay scale beginning rates, elementary and junior senior high ECA treasurers to obtain a credit card for use

176of the club. Only to be used with prior approval. Motion to approve. >> How would that prior approval be given? Is it like a blanket approval for a certain amount or is it with each buy? >> through a purchase order. The purchase orders turned in. >> And then the person has to sign off on it. >> Okay. >> Any motion to approve? All right. Eva. All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Information only. The state has approved the waiver days to our delays. Previously board approved on the 26th 27th school year calendar. Items after four. Is the fourth policy first reading staff technology acceptable use and safety policy. And authorization for audio, video, and digital reporting policy. The approval to dispose of the sixth grade National Geographic teacher books and workbooks as they are

177outdated and do not align with state state standards. And one other item, the resignation of Megan Hawk. Motion to approve both. >> I'll motion. >> Ethan. Second. All right. All in favor? >> I. >> Bring us to the financial reports. You all have any questions or comments on that? Anything other than what we already heard on the financial? No. Everything is all laid out already. And I need a motion. Approval to pay claims. Motion for that. All right. Second. >> I'll second. >> I'll be the >> Okay. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Next meeting is May >> scheduled for June 11th, 2026. >> Next, I have three things to read. >> Okay. >> I'll try to be loud. I'm not very loud, but Uh dear Shows teachers and staff, I want to officially

178say thank you to all of you, but especially Mrs. Boyd, Mrs. Bruce, Sarah, Mr. Hope, Reva, Mr. Dolan, and Rasha. During this this last school year, I have learned so much from all of you. Now, I know how to write a scientific essay. My view on world history was significantly expanded. I learned how to pre- preserve and can my own food. Mr. Hope taught me completely new concepts of math. Several trash cans and buildings were painted and the lessons on eighth APA formatting and ci- citing will definitely get me through college. My coaches, Kathy, Rasha, and Reva made my experience really unforgettable. For the first time in my life, I have enjoyed sports and been part of a team that cheers each other on. I also appreciate the work of Mrs. Hovis, Kelly Firman, Allison,

179and Mrs. Cornett, who did all the paperwork to register register me, find a free locker, free locker, and get me ready for both SAT and AP testing. The most obvious differences between Shows and my school in Germany is the teacher-student relationship. Here, teachers are friends who care about you and your life outside of school. They want you to succeed. This environment is what makes Shows so special, not only to me, but also to the community and all the students. I will miss going to school here and wish all you the best. Also, I hope you know the difference a good teacher has has on kids' life. You have all made an impact on me. Thank you, Lena. And uh thank you for the thoughtful uh gift. We are grateful for your thoughtfulness and support, the

180family of Rose Bernstein. And a thank you card. Thank you for the picture frame. I found an old picture of all the siblings in younger, more carefree days. David and April Sutton. >> If nothing else, we are adjourned.