001It's much better than a few years ago. >> That should be our new school boards boring. School board meetings boring again. >> Statement. important. >> All right, Susan, are we good? >> I'm checking at the moment. >> We should be. >> Yes. >> All right. Welcome everyone to the Smith Green Community Schools regular board meeting of Monday, May 18th, 2026 at 6:31. Please rise to the flag of America and to the republic for it stands nation indivisibley and justice for all. Mission of Smith Green Community Schools. By focusing on excellence in education and providing opportunities for all students to succeed, we strive to be the best small school in Indiana. Please join me for a moment of meditation. Thank you. Staff spotlight. I am pleased to announce that Mr. Braden Simmons was nominated and selected
002as our staff spotlight of the month. And these are just a few of the things that people have to say about him. Most of them are his students. He is really nice and caring. He pays attention to all the students and treats them with respect. Mr. Simmons is a nice and fun and chill teacher. He helps me learn, but also knows how to connect with students. He is a great and his balances being a teacher and a coach for football. He always greets kids with a smile and is the best coach teacher. He's a super good teacher, best new teacher ever. He is a good teacher. Uh you are a great teacher and a great coach. He has a fun and very respectful and kind or he is a fun and very respectful person. is
003very welcoming to everyone who helped uh people who are struggling. During the first semester, he uh would make up uh teach he would wake up, teach all day, and then coach for another two hours knowing he had do grades when he got home, but he still took the time to because he wants us to succeed in life and do better. And it goes on to say that other people have said that he's a good teacher. He's a nice and cool teacher. He is very for giving and kind just one of many of our outstanding staff members here. It's interesting that of all of our staff spotlights, I believe this is the first year in the future. >> All of our other teachers had nominations for >> celebrations. Donations. >> Yes. >> We did our first
004round of ivory retest and additional kids, but it's a positive thing. We'll have one final at the end of summer school in June. >> Mr. uh our celebrations happen the next couple days. We got several awards nights with our junior high and our underassman and our senior awards night. So, we're getting ready to recognize our accomplishments for our students. >> It is the awards season. >> It is award season. Um, couple of things. One, uh, unfortunately we don't have a spotlight, a student spotlight. However, I would like to take the time and simply congratulate our valictorian, Vanessa Fster, and our salvator. Those outstanding seniors, obviously, and at the top of the class, so expect great things from them, and I'm sure they will not disappoint. We'd also like to congratulate our elementary archery team. We
005happened to be the 2026 Eastern Nationals 3D champions. Uh so very impressive uh for those young men and women who did an outstanding job. Uh we'd like to thank all the volunteers who worked on the journey of hope suicide awareness. Uh they are doing great things for our community and we appreciate them. Most importantly, we'd like to congratulate um all our seniors, the class of 2026 on their hard work, achievements, and we wish them the best. Congratulations. Our graduation is uh on May 31st at 2 p.m. High School. And then the last thing, uh we'd like to congratulate our men and women's track teams for winning the black division conference champion uh champions and our lady softball team. conference championship as well. So, a lot of good things going on. >> One more I know
006that I had heard was our livestock judging team I believe won the state tournament as well. >> I'm also on donations. I'd like to bring to your attention uh Marvel Monk and David Monk along with Mindy Hart uh donated $200 to sophomore class fundraising. CNA tool engineering $200 for PBI Soaring Eagles initiative. Uh Cher Busco Family Dentistry $100 to the soaring eagle initiative. Farmers merchant bank $50 to soaring eagle uh initiative. Uh Guardi >> Gardy, I'm sorry. Thank you. Guardi family and the Phillips family a little over they donated to combine the $50 $50 and uh Turtle Town Dentistry $100 to the Eagle Initial like to thank them for their donations. All right. Special presentation. Y presentation highlights the four pillars of our new strategic plan, curriculum and instruction, culture, uh community and marketing and
007campus which is finance and facilities. Uh this meeting the pillar uh uh today's meeting is the final pillar which is culture. Mr. Mr. >> All right. So, you guys got a copy of our full goal, four goals for the culture pillar. And then on the back side, you also have kind of just a highlight of what we have done and accomplished so far. the district and then what is still to come as well. So, um Jeff, do you want to read the four goals? >> Yeah. So, our first goal was to focus on workplace culture. Um our second goal was to focus on school and community engagement. Our third goal was student discipline oriented and our fourth goal uh was student support systems. So, also in that document, you got the action steps um and
008what we're hoping to accomplish from those goals. And then if you go to that next page and you see year one, um just a couple of the things that have been done so far this year, uh we completed an engagement and traditions survey that went out to building and community in the fall. Um on the back of this page is a traditions calendar which basically um you know in the four years that I've been here the amount of administrators that have come and gone at that point. I remember several times teachers would come up and say why did you guys stop this tradition? I didn't know that was a tradition. So um we got about 72 total responses. Um and so we just kind of Ed those what's important to our community, what traditions are
009um something that maybe were here before we had even started um and something that our kids as they get into high school can either continue pick up go back to something that was important to a family member and you know a couple years ago we brought back the senior sunset and sunrise. So um even though some of them haven't been done in a while we we we've got them collected so that we can keep them going. Um, staff and student climate survey, quarterly data collaborations, PD on discipline policies and procedures. And we've also seen u some statistics uh just based on semester one specifically uh and and moving in here towards the end of semester 2 uh we've seen a increase of involvement in our students who maybe previously weren't involved in activities. We we're
010seeing a lot of our our clubs and schoolbased activities uh increasing. Also uh we saw especially on the secondary that we saw a reduction in the number of referrals in our semester one from um I looking at last year to this year we saw an improvement there uh we've seen a nearly 7% decrease in our chronic absenteeism um and we are seeing a 4% increase um in our schoolbased programs uh including some of our our programs like our counseling programs that we offer and there will be options that we're offering. So, moving forward, a few of the big projects, um, exit interviews for our staff that are leaving, why our staff leaving, we've talked in the last four years a lot about why kids are leaving. Um, and there's a lot of situations where there's
011a perfectly normal explanation and then there's some where we can see trends that can potentially be fixed. And that's kind of what we're looking those exit interviews and at the same time introducing stay interviews. Why are our staff that have been here for 5 10 years, why are they staying and how do we keep them? Um MTSS revamp Miss has been working tirelessly with our MTSS and what that's going to look like next year. >> What's that mean? >> Multi-tiered systems of support. >> Um and the big thing is going to be ing our MTSS with programs that we already have in place, specifically our PBIS that you guys talked about, the soaring eagles donations. Um, but at the beginning of the year next year, how are our procedures, our policies, how is everything aligning?
012Um, just to make things more consistent. >> Culture. the um one of your pieces of data on here was a decrease in number of students not involved by 41%. So what does that bring our involvement percentage to? I have it in my computer. I think it puts on the elementary side. I think it puts us at about 42% of students are participating in at least one activity. Um there was a bigger jump on the junior senior high side. I was thinking close to 70% are participating in at least one >> which was a big jump for them. And obviously that's the goal. We know that involved in something invested in the school behavior improves. >> I think the biggest thing with all of this is we've become much more intentional in looking at the data.
013Um how many kids truly are involved? How many referrals do we have? You know, we can make assumptions, but having the data and looking at what the trends are doing has been beneficial for us. And with our new accountability next year, that attendance piece is going to be huge. So >> public comments, we don't have any. We'll move on to the consent agenda. >> In that case, I'd like to draw your attention to trips. We have livestock and proposed fundraisers. August 6th and 11th we have from the volleyball team a ser that they're going to do. August 17th through October 6 is a t-shirt and bake sale sign up auctions for the volleyball team. And then October 26 is little Caesar kit for the freshman class agenda as presented. Next is couple of personnel that
014I'd like to draw your attention to. One is M. Julie Baker, a second grade teacher, along with Alysa Ger, a fourth grade teacher, and Madison Herald, a fourth grade teacher. Those three teachers have all the letters of recommendation. They've done great things for our kids over the course of a number of years. We appreciate their service. Also, this title one resource teacher is resing to employ him as our new junior high science teacher and Mrs. Richardson, our English and language arts teacher and I believe Richard >> Oh, is that who it is? >> But I see it as Abigail that did not ring a bell. >> Well, I guess >> his name is Yes. >> Got it. >> That's fantastic. Obviously, I'm excited to see Mr. Furley come here. He was >> well basketball coaches
015in the building is fantastic. >> Yes. Great. >> Any questions or concerns on the person? Not just motion. We're not in session. >> New business. >> Yes. We are ask for approval for our 2026 summer program. Would you care to elaborate? >> Sure. Yeah. Our summer programming will be similar. It's the same as we did last year. So, we'll target grades two and three students in reading at the elementary level. Uh, and then we'll do some credit recovery at the high school level. We did add one course at the high school. We have a few kids that are going to take preparing for college and careers, the PCC class. Um, that will give them open up another elective option their freshman year. So, some kids that want to get that done and Melissa wanted to.
016So, but yeah, that's our summer school. Any questions on what we're doing? pretty >> motion to approve the 26. >> Next, we ask for your approval for the technology purchase. This is our come school. >> Good evening board. Um, so on May 13th, the state board approved common school loans. Um, and for us that was amount was 109,760 with a loan rate not to exceed 4% uh to be paid over a 5year period. This purchase is for 265 Chromebooks. Um, this one's a little different in the fact that the price of Chromebooks has dramatically increased. Um we are almost double where we were two years ago. Uh two years ago we were paying 312. Now we're paying 388 per device plus licensing. Um so the 109 doesn't completely cover the amount of those Chromebooks. So
017the difference of $1,434 is going to be coming from the education fund. Um, so tonight we're simply asking for approval of the 109760 for the common school to purchase those Chromebooks and licensing. >> Are we accounting for those kind of inflation numbers like that a little bit? >> Um, one of the issues and I brought this up with Dr. Voy is the common school loan. uh we get $100 per student and it has been that amount for years ever since we've started doing this. Um and there's not been any talk to increase that amount to account for inflation of any type. Um so I don't know if there's anything that we can talk to legislators about increasing that amount because it would have to be a legislative act I think to get that amount increased
018for students. But that would certainly be helpful for us. Any questions? I'll make a motion to reapprove the school for this year. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Appreciate your support. >> Thank you. >> Next, we ask for your approval for the joint service agreement. This is the year of the special. Any questions or concerns motion to approve the joint services agreement? >> I'll second. Next, we ask for your approval for a resolution authorizing administration regarding audit certification for potential referendum tax. This just requires certain procedures when corporation is considering placing a referendum on the ballot. Gives us permission to talk to the county. By no way, shape or form is this approving a referendum. >> This is just discussion. >> This is just giving us permission to talk to the to bring it up
019and discuss it with the others. >> When do we have to make a decision on this? >> Uh we will probably do it in June at the absolute latest in July. Any other questions? Make a motion to approve the resolution. Discuss public comments. Do I have any board member administrative principal reports? >> Days are winding down. Teachers are still working hard. Kids are still working hard. >> High school. >> That's always a plus. >> When do we get that information? >> That's a great question. >> That is a great question. >> Right now, the appeal window is open, which would meaning that you would think you would know what your score is. So you can appeal it. >> Oh, >> but we can't get scores yet. They haven't been determined. So >> it's a standard
020setting here because the test is new again. So they want their time to calibrate. >> It's a nice word for >> it's the curve. Yeah, just real quickly, we are working on some summer professional development. So, we've got about 30 staff members, RSVP for those, which I'm excited about. Um, I think people are I think our culture of valuing professional development and learning is is evolving and I I get excited about that. Um, so I think did I provided the P the PD menu? Did you guys see it? So, we have a high ability consultant coming in. Um, Brett talked about, we've all been working on MTSS and with the new legislation that your tier 2 and your tier three have to be built into your daily schedule. We've made some minor shifts at the
021elementary with what the daily schedule looks like and we've met with teachers and are working through that. Um, we'll plan some professional development when we get back in August so they understand what that is going to look like. we can work in teams. But we're excited about it because we know that we have um some room to grow in terms of collaboration between our intervention staff and our classroom teachers and making sure that we're providing um timely and appropriate support for all of our kiddos. So, but that's the point um or that's the goal for August 10th when they come back is we'll talk about that daily schedule and um our tier 2 time which is called our win time. Uh we We have some new teachers coming in already to work on some curriculum
022and some mapping and we're super excited. We have a good group coming in. Um they're really excited. Uh I think staff it's been kind of a breath of fresh air as we staff right now retired but getting to know new colleagues and having new colleagues come in has been awesome. Um and then this just today we submitted our parade entry. So this year's theme is welcome to the jungle. So that's going to be fun. We'll figure out what that's going to look like. I assume that we'll be through the summer laying out like all the groundwork and detail work for that additional resource in the junior middle school. >> We always say junior senior high >> the transition person. Yes, >> she actually already worked on curriculum this week. I tell you that is pretty
023cool. We have staff who aren't officially once the school. >> I keep asking >> I think she's coming to the >> Well, there was one thing on the schedule something about surprises. So maybe I don't know. Maybe >> she has been busy doing interviews and she just has another far as superintendent report. I just uh let you guys know last student day is May 28th. Last teacher day is the 29th and the staff recognition breakfast will be that morning as well. 7:30 and we have also been uh as pointed out we've been working on plans for the summer school summer uh teaching and training and also the new teacher orientation which is August 5th. So all the new staff can bring in orientation then we have several meetings throughout the year. Uh and then uh
024we do have senior awards on Wednesday May 27th at 6 p.m. We still representative from this board that night. Happy Saturday night. >> What time? What's the time? >> That's it, sir. >> Okay. Uh, I'd like to say congratulations to Mr. Simmons uh as well as thank you to uh our donation individuals and groups. Once again, another big list of people from our community, you know, contributing to our school system, which is always fantastic to see. Congratulations to our archery team uh as well as our livestock judging team and our sports as they start to with the spring here start to wrap up uh and have their end of season competitions. So good luck to them uh as that those dates get closer and closer. Hopefully they can reach their goals. Uh congratulations to the
0252026 graduates. Certainly one of those events that as part of my work I look forward to every year having that being involved in that beyond that that's all I got everything he said and I did see this morning the softball team is number six this week in the state so kudos to them for a strong finish uh in the heading of great things are happening here two things uh Suicide Awareness Group is doing a QBR awareness event tomorrow night. It's the second of five plans for this year. So that's really starting to grow. So things are in place. I had a good event. So that's good. But that did not fade away. Uh the library is not in deconstruction phase. It's that project is still alive and kicking as well. So uh the post I
026saw is if you're bored from 8 to noon, but you're not. But uh any day of the week you can go over and they're working on deconstructing the inside to set it up and uh if things continue down the road they're gone. They that might be functional sooner than you think. So that's all great things happening in our town that that has kind of resurrected and revived itself and I'm looking forward to where that can go. >> And that's all I have. >> Congratulations to the 26. I'm sure they're being very anxious here as we're down to our last seven or so days. Six, you guys counting? Um, days of school left. Yes, kudos to the archery team. I thought they were champions. That was very exciting for our community. I think they they've really
027made a name for themselves over the last few years. Um, I too am happy to see the journey of hope, suicide awareness continuing to move forward and it didn't just fade away as Brian said. Women's track team have had a great season. Congratulations to them and continued success there. Women's softball conference champs. That was a that was a great night for them. They wanted that pretty bad. Um so kudos to them and hopefully a good finish of their season. I think also baseball has had a fairly good season. >> Is their conference championship coming up? Do they start later than the girls? >> No. >> Okay. >> Oh, awesome. Good job for them to be runner up. Um, livestock uh team making it to state and winning state is awesome. So, congratulations to them. But,
028you know, we keep hashtaging great things happen here and it's it's really we hear a lot about that. So, that's awesome to hear. Um, the donations, we're very thankful to everybody that that donates to, you know, from the smallest amount to the largest amount. It's every little penny helps and it's nice to have that in this community. We want to welcome the new personnel that's that's coming on board and also thank you to those that are leaving. Um you know Miss Gerald School we're here for for quite some time. So congratulations to them on on their next journey but also thank you for the time they put in to our students in our school. That's all I have. >> Our next board meeting is June 15th. And with that, we will close the regular board
029meeting of Smith Community Schools on Monday, May 2026 at 7:03. Excellent job today, friends. Thank you.