SV School Board Meeting - 10.23.2025

001I'd like to call this meeting to order. Our October meeting for 2025. Please stand and join us in the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] >> Okay. First item this evening is uh recommendation to approve the agenda. Dr. Williams, I don't believe we have any agenda. >> We do not. So board members, I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented. So move. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion second to approve the agenda as presented. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All members in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Those opposed. Same sign. Eyes have it. Mot motion carries. Uh, next item, school

002spotlight for the month of October, the elementary art club. Dr. Williams. Uh Mr. Re would like to introduce Mr. Jenkins and Miss Golens at this time as we have an elementary art club that meets a couple times a month here. So Jenkins go. >> So uh members of the board, Dr. W, Mrs. Foster, thank you for having us tonight. And I do want to say before I go into the actual art club that a couple things. One, I appreciate Mrs. Skinner and Mrs. Kesler for allowing me to steal this one from my spotlight. I think it's awesome because this is something new for all the elementary students this year. So, it's not just a central program. I think there's over 120. >> Yeah, we have around 130. >> Yeah. So, Central Vand huge success for

003the first year doing it. And I thought it deserved this spotlight moment. Amy is a high school art teacher, so that's why I've invited her and some of her students who are helping out with it to attend, too. And the other thing I want to point out that just hit me at this moment is Amy is a former student of mine when I taught at the middle school. And actually Ava's mom and dad are former students of mine when I taught at the middle school. So it's all just coming together and I'm an old man now. But I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Mrs. Going and some of her friends to talk about their role in the art club and kind of what how it came to be. and then I'm

004going to have some of my students stand up and introduce themselves or I'll introduce them and talk about what they think about art club. >> All right. Thanks. Um, so I'm actually going to have uh the officers of my art club. They have a short presentation for you all. But the art club in general, I just since I found out that it was going to be non-existent, not having an art teacher. It just really hurt that to think of all these kids going through uh going through school without art because it's just such a creative way for them to release themselves. So, um, I just thought it would be like a great volunteer opportunity to offer that to them. And then it is ran by my high school art club. So, these are my main

005officers. So, if you guys want to take it over. Okay. So, hello for the officers. Um, I'm Ela Hammond. I'm one of the presidents for this semester. I'm Fanny Stevens. I am the second um, president. Um, I'm Lucy. Uh, I'm the vice president. >> I'm Angry. I was like >> and then Amira Thomas is our treasurer, but she unfortunately could not make it tonight. >> Okay. Okay. >> All right. So, our general goal for the elementary art club is to allow these younger students to be able to have some exposure to art since they don't currently have a teacher and let them experience some different kinds of techniques, give them some self expression and personal discovery. This art is a very great outlet for children to to be able just think of their mind, you

006know. >> Okay. So, some of our basics um we take students from both Central and Grand Elementary. Um right now in total we have about 125 students um and we can rely on about 10 to 15 volunteers to come um whenever we have a meeting. So, it's kind of a lot of kids who are volunteer. Um, the kids are bus here from the schools. Uh, and we separate them out by age. So, we have a K through2 group that meets um a week and then we have a third and fourth group that meets. So our elementary school art club expectations for the children are basically any any expectations that you would have for a child. Uh behave, keep your hands to yourself, you know, respect your authorities, respect others and yourself. Um we also rely

007on the parents cooperation to hold themselves accountable to pick our children up on time and in order fashion. >> These are just some of the we have and some projects we've been doing lately. Okay. So, the elementary art club was never really intended to be a permanent fix um to fill in the role for the kids. Um uh we're standing in place for art classes right now. Um and we're just doing what we can with what we have to give the kids some exposure to the arts at this time. >> So, I'm going to turn it over to my students. So on this side just to let you guys even out your neck muscles. [Music] >> So I have Eli here. He is in fourth grade with me. Eli Brandon and this is Ava Brining.

008Today was it's red ribbon week today and today was a cowboy cowgirl day to kick out drugs from everybody. So she's got her little outfit on. But I just going to kind of ask them some basic questions of what they think of our club so far this year. So maybe we'll start with you. What do you think of our club? >> It's fun. >> Yeah. And what what are you holding there in your hand? >> And can you can you tell them what what exactly that the project was? >> Scare and daddy. >> Mr. Williams was very He just scared really. He didn't think you guys scare him. Show them what it like to scare. [Music] Now, Eli, from your vantage point of being in the older group of kids is going like, what can

009you tell anybody about our club? What are your thoughts about our club? >> Well, I like art club because I'm able to show my uh creativ creativity and I like how I can show like what I think in my head and what I generally just talk about. >> Awesome. And looks like you have something that you brought with you, too. >> Yes. This is so what we did today. It's so first we fold folded the paper up and then we cut it to look like a pumpkin and then on the other side. And for me it kind of looks like they kind of like swap places. >> Mirror and artwork. And honestly for you guys, you know, being at the elementary level, you're being the oldest one in the in the in the grade in

010the school. What's it like working with some of the high school students that were in your places not just that long ago? >> Well, working with the high school students, I can feel like I can actually like talk to them and they can actually help me improve with my work. >> Is that cuz your teachers now are just so old, not >> What about you? Do you like working with the high school kids? >> Yeah. Was there anything else that you guys like to add about the art club fund? Well, >> you think about it and I'll come back to it. And I do want to say members of the board too, this program has been again a wonderful success for the first year to be able to still incorporate art at elementary levels. There

011are still some other ways that we are incorporating it. So all students even not involved in the art club are getting involved. um our guidance counselor is incorporating art into her weekly lessons is now been part of a rotation of our encore specialist classes and then obviously our STEM program which has position to steam. So our steam teachers are also incorporating the elementary art standards to make sure that all students have that opportunity to still get that exposure to be creative and have that artistic outlet uh throughout the week at the elementary levels too. So, um, again, I appreciate your time and I just I think this has been a wonderful, wonderful success, but um, do you guys have any questions that you'd like to ask the high school kids or my kids or me

012or Mrs. Cohen? >> It's very fluid. We learn, we learn something new with every meeting, I would say. So, it definitely every meeting we have changes. It first started, our first meeting had 130 kids in it. Uh, some since have dropped out, so it was crazy. So we had to end up uh initially the club was supposed to meet twice a month just K through four they would come twice a month but we had to split it because it was so many students. So even splitting it between the K through two was still I think we ended up having 75 kids there. So it was it's a lot. So we definitely learn what we have to do. We definitely make changes every meeting. So but we do love it and the kids love it. Uh

013today was a really really good meeting with our third and our fourth graders. They're just great listeners. They're just they I think they all had a really good time. So, >> how often are you meeting? >> We meet every other Thursday. So, initially it's supposed to be twice a month for all the grades, but we had to split it because we just we have to do what is within our means. So, we these are just my high school students that run it. They don't have any training on teaching or psychology or any of that. So, you know, when obviously we have all different types of students in the art club. So, we ended up splitting it. So, K through two meets one Thursday and then third and fourth meets another. So, they meet after school

014they get bus. So, thanks to Michelle Betto for busing them uh to our school and then they get picked up at 4:30. We tried to do 5 and there was a lot of tears. There's a lot of tears, a lot of hungry kids, a lot of I want to go home. So, we changed it to 4:30. Like I said, it's very fluid. We're constantly changing uh what we have to do. And we've had a lot of parent support. I'd say a few late pickups, but we're working on that. We have some systems in place to kind of make sure that the rules are followed. >> Mr. because I don't mean to steal your your spotlight, but I was actually going to have the art club. Um I talked to Miss G about it last year

015about coding. Um so while they are here and it's like I'm not having to ask you guys to come back. Um I do just want to recognize how much they have done the art club. It was just started last year. >> Yeah. Uh yeah, we started it so my first year teaching it. I started the art club my second semester of teaching. >> Very first year. >> Miss Goen is in her third year. So she's just now starting her third year. She started the art club last year. >> Um and starting from nothing. No, >> it has become a very large organization but not just in number in terms of impacting what they have done around the community. Um they are being bombarded and flooded with community outreach and I don't know that they've ever

016heard anywhere. >> We don't we don't just finish a project for Dean. >> Yes. So they have I know you guys did the Little Italy Festival, the huge mural mural in town. They just put flags up by the community center. Um they have done so many philanthropic um activities and projects for the community that it really is very very impressive. So kudos to all of you guys involved officers. I know that's a lot of work. On top of I'm sure you guys are learning that teaching is so much more time than just the time spent with the kids. there's a lot of planning that goes that's involved in that too and you guys are learning that. So truly thank you. Um my goal is always to make sure that every student in the school has

017an opportunity to connect and this art club has definitely provided that. >> I think we have 30 members right now so that's good and it's a range of kids and I love it. It's just great >> for them to here so I wanted them to be acknowledged for all the things that they're doing. Exactly. >> What an awesome spotlight. Great. >> Yeah. >> Well, thank you guys very much. Thank you guys for coming. [Applause] [Music] >> Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. >> I'll be back. >> All right. >> Thank you, everybody. >> Thank you. >> Have a good night. A he's happy. [Music] >> All right, moving on. Our next item, Dean, you're back. Our Lion our annual Lions Club vision screening summary. the greatest community uh service project I've seen. >> Thank you. >> In

018a long time. >> I just uh had one question for the superintendent of board. Why do I have such a rough act to follow here? You got to try to top that now. >> Yeah, that's not tough enough to uh but I will say this, they the art club uh art department over at the high school did a phenomenal job on those panels. Um, how I inherited that, uh, Mayor Gilpo had asked Amy to do a project. He wanted to cover the windows of the old JCP, which is now our community center, the Jack Gilpo Jr. Community Center, by the way. Um, and upon his death, uh, his wife approached me and asked if I would finish the project. So, I got with Amy and boy, what a job. We got them installed, I believe,

019last week. um if you haven't seen them, go by and see them. And we are going to um have a pizza party for the art club on I think the 29th of this month because that's the mayor's birthday and >> formally dedicate the center because he put so much time and effort into that. So, uh they did a great job and even the murals that they're doing around town. There's one at your old firehouse and then one on the wall there at the community center. So great community work. So need more of that in our community. >> Well, anyhow, thank you Dr. Williams, Mrs. Foster, and the board for allowing me to come tonight um for our 18th report, 18th year of our vision screening program here at South Vermillion. Um we began in 2007

020and uh this year we uh screened 420 students with 116 referrals made. Uh since this program has started in 2007 we've screened 9352 students with 19335 referrals. Um, in addition, we run into each year, and matter of fact, I'm working a couple of cases right now of students that we have found this year that are in need of either eyeglasses, replacement of or new glasses or maybe treatment. Uh, so we're working with, I think, three students here. There's three families here at South Vermillion. um and able to provide the financial aid where it's needed because they lack insurance or the means to pay. Um we've provided since we began in 2007 $24,170 in financial aid to those types of families and very happy to do it. Um this year we had a new item uh

021put into our tool box. Thanks to your folks, you folks here at South Vermillion who made a donation to the vision program through your community give back program. Um what I'm holding here is the Pulse X uh camera system. This camera system was designed and and manufactured in Germany. And we went through about a threehour presentation of online presentation with Dr. pan and all of our screeners with this uh camera. What this camera would do if I had it plugged in or if I had it charged this battery operated, if I had it charged and I was shooting there at John, I would or JT, it would focus on his eyes. If he was to pass, it would indicate pass. If it was referral, it would print me out. on our printer here a piece

022of paper that we could take to that family could take to the eye doctor and begin the exam from that examination here. >> This is our first year using this camera. Uh we've had a little bit of feedback, thank you from um Dr. Routan on six referrals that he has seen. um he confirms that we're 100% accurate >> with that camera. So, this is a great tool in our toolbox and I can't thank you enough. We partnered with you folks um Lions of Indiana um and the tissue bank in Indianapolis all provided funds along with the community foundation here in Bermain County and our own funding. we are the only club from the state of Indiana to have that camera. And we asked why is that? And they said simply because you folks have been

023doing it for several years. You've spent about 12 counties when you're really going hard at it. Um you take it to the next level. Most of the clubs around the state of Indiana once they get done with the screening, they turn the results over to the nurse. they go back to the clubhouse, they're done. We follow through with the treatment. As I mentioned, that gave us scoring points and with our track record, um they tell us, doc tells us in the doctors, uh we get some feedback from some of the eye professionals down in terote um that we're about 97 to 98% correct on our screens when we refer them or they get a referral. So, um been a good year again. This year, uh we went to um we're in three different counties right

024now. We had to scale back because the age of our screeners and plus the time getting to them and so forth. Right now, we're on the road about 3 weeks to get the screens done. So, with that being said, we screen here at South. The other uh beauty of that camera that we've never been able to do until this year, if we have a nonverbal student or an autistic or special needs child, it's very difficult to get a reading on autistic or special needs that count will do the work for us >> because the the non-verbal doesn't have to point or they don't understand that that will read their eye what their eyes are. We did 16 of your students here at South Pillion this year, special needs, non-verbal, and we found five that needed

025referred. So that's about 31% of those students. Um, we hope to expand this as this, like I said, we just got it this year. We hope to expand it in future years, um, and take it into kindergarten. Uh we're using it in our preschool um our Head Start and the um nursing or daycare centers. Uh because a lot of those children don't know the charts, don't know the numbers or symbols and things like that. So that camera does the work for us. >> Taking a picture, it takes about two to three seconds and we have results. It's that fast. Um, turning to page two, we went to Central Elementary. Um, of course, this year we followed the state law. State law says we can screen anyone in kindergarten to grade 12. However, the state law

026has that we screen grades 1, 3, 5, and 8. So, at South or at Central, we went to the first grade. We screen 50 of the students and 20 were referred which is about 40% of the first graders. The critical areas were 2100 which that tells us that they're at least partially blind and at least one eye and we had three students that fit that criteria. We had four students that failed the stereopus. Stereopus is a test that we give to determine if they have uh problems with uh depth perception. Uh test for eye disorders such as the floating eye, uh extropia or any of the other eye disorders that could cause additional workload to the classroom teacher if they have a student that can't see the word, that can't see uh something that she

027is presenting in the classroom. So it's very critical that we find those disease those problems by the time they reach the third grade. Uh and that's why we really uh use that camera and get into the nurture or the uh daycare centers and head start programs very early to try to detect any eye disorders. So at the third grade uh central we screened 60 of their third graders with 24 referrals about 38%. Uh critical areas again we had one at 2100 one at 2200 which is totally blind and at least one eye and four failed referred on stereopus. Um overall central um is about 39% of your uh first and third graders have some sort of an eye problem. That's pretty high. Um Van Dy we uh first grade we screened 41 students with 10

028referrals which is about 24%. again one at 2100 and two were referred at Steropolis. Uh grade three we screen um for 44 uh students with seven referrals which is about 15% um 2100 one and stereopus 2. So overall atine about 19% of their first and third graders have some sort of a eye disorder. Moving on to the middle school, grade five, we screened 105 students with 24 referrals, about 26%. There were four at 2100 and two at 2,200. So, um, something's going on there with their eyes could be strained on too much iPad or computer or iPhone, I don't know. Um, grade 8 had 104 that we screened with, 27 referrals, out 25%, two at 100, 2100, and to at 2,200. So, um, overall uh, with all that we screened at South Vermillion, uh, you

029came in about 28% of your students in grades 1, three, five, and eight, uh, have some sort of vision problem. Ideally, we'd like to see that no higher than 18%. Realistically, we'd like to see zero. You won't think we'll ever get to the zero. Um, that pulse optic that I told you about. We use that in the schools we went to in addition to these 16 that we did here. they were a part of 140 that we screened um that were either non-verbal or special needs students and 92% um of those I'm sorry 92 of the 140 uh were referred of the non-verbal uh special needs students that comes out to about 65%. So uh uh that's it. This year we screened,565 students all corporation wide all schools with 427 referrals. Um as I say

030we were out about 3 weeks. Uh we uh the screeners in expense we don't take that out of the club funds or anything that's out of room down meals trample and so forth. But again, I cannot express our sincere thanks and appreciation for your help in this camera because it's helping us more than that. It's helping those students. It's helping us identify those that have a problem uh with their vision and so forth. And hopefully we can get into those daycare centers, um the preschool that they have in most of the top of the school corporation we visit and the um Head Start and get those students corrected before they come in to the the main stream of the public school system. Um our two problems that we're experiencing with this program uh is the

031number of school students that uh the parents have opted for homeschool. We have no tracking of those. We have no way. We've been to health departments across the three counties trying to get addresses and uh names of people that are operating the home schools and so forth to see if we can get them in a group and bring them into our club or meet somewhere within the threeount area and screen those kids uh cuz they're they're missing out. Maybe the parents take them. I hope they do but a lot of parents don't. So, uh, and then the other problem we have is once we identify a problem, um, it's getting the parent to take that child in for help. We've had that every year in every school corporation. So, um, uh, I don't get involved

032with students names or parents names. If there's a referral from the school nurse, I ask Dr. Rutan to for them to contact Dr. rout and he takes care of all the information because I don't want to get into a patient confidentiality that is handled between Dr. Rutan rightfully so and the parents. So u I do appreciate your um your continued support and God willing we'll be back next year. I do want to share something that we've never ever run across and it was heartbreaking. Uh we were at one of the schools in Fountain County and uh the nurse or it wasn't the nurse and aid brought this young man down and he had a white cane and he was she was telling him where the nurses station was. He was a new student that corporation

033this year and she was telling she's all right how many steps and he was recording the steps remember how many from wherever she brought him to the nurses station. So she mentioned, she says, "Um, Nevi, there's bunch of Alliance members in here doing vision screening." Oh, I've heard about them. She says, "They are the guys that was given the charge by Helen Keller in 1925 to be a a light for the blind, 9 years old." >> So he asked me, he says that she introduced him to all of us. And he says, "Deing, how many steps did you come in the front door today?" I says, "Yes, Levi, I did." He says, "Well, how many steps did it take you to get to the nursery station?" I I have no clue. He's 47. And then

034he started to tell me where the cafeteria was and where the playground was and everything. So he went on back and he said, "Oh, he's by before I leave." He says, "You know, October the 30th." I said, "No, I don't." He that's my birthday. He said, "I'll be 10." He said, "I'm going to join the double digit group by that time. Be 10 years old." So when we left, we were leaving the nurse come up and she says, "Uh, been working with the family as he brought into the school corporation and they've indicated they would like to leave her dog for the boy if it's possible." And um I said, "Well, if possible, we'll make it happen." And um so I got home uh she said, "Well, the family will not be able to ride

035in there. That's that's not an issue." So I got home and I called up to uh Rochester, Michigan, the leader dog school, talked to the administrator in charge of placement of leader dogs and um I think we're going to give him a leader dog $75,000. >> Um >> but um they says you will not be a penny. Your club will not be out of penny and neither will your the family. So, we're working out to get him up there and his mother to get trained and have a leader dog. So, we'd never run into that. We run into kids that have partial blindness that this young man totally blind. And what an outlook he had. I mean, he knew baseball scores, he knew sports, he knew so many things. And uh the nurs says that

036he's a honor student. And I looked into it further and we have a program that I did not know was available to blind people, blind students. The teacher can send the classroom material over to the school for the blind and they will transfer that into braille and send it back to him at no charge. >> So that's another program that we have. So just want to share that with you. I might one more time. I'm sorry. >> Great story. Anyhow, thank you much and again thank you for that donation. You don't know how that's helped us and help the kids. Okay, NEXT team and thank you to your line. >> We always look forward to seeing them on Friday nights. Okay, we'll move on to citizens comment. If anybody in the audience would like to

037make uh would like to address the board, now be your first chance to do so. If you're interested in addressing a board, please stand to the podium. And seeing none, we'll close citizens comment and move to first consideration of the minutes. Those are the minutes from the regular board meeting held on September the 15th, 2025. And I actually had a comment to this. There was the uh assistance comment on from RJW. His uh his name spelled wrong. So >> what's that? >> Yeah. Donovan said any uh anything else otherwise I'd entertain a motion to approve the minutes as as amended. >> I have a motion and second to approve the minutes from the September 15th meeting as amended. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All members in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed. Same

038sign. Eyes have a motion carries. Moving on to finances for the month of October. Vouchers. Dr. Williams. >> Members of the board, I would request your approval. Approval this evening for vouchers 112555 through 112825. You have any questions? I'd be happy with this. >> I'll make motion to approve the vouchers 11255 to 1125. Second motion, a second to approve vouchers 112825. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All members in favor signify by saying I. >> Those opposed, same sign. Eyes have a motion carries. Q3 update, financial update. Dr. Williams. >> Members of the board, this is just an update for quarter three that ended on September 30th uh for budget year in calendar year 2025. Couple quick highlights include the education fund ending with a balance of $2,250,741. 91 which is about 15% less than what

039we ended with in September 24 which was 15.29 compared to 15.44% cash balance. Uh we already provided the raises from the classified staff members in September for July vote. So we will not have those coming out furthermore. So I believe we are about on track as we were last year. The operations fund ended the quarter with a balance of 1,255,65332 in September. Operations fund ended September 2024 with a balance of 97,15489 which was an increase of about 350,000. Remember we did close on a sold back iPads between the end of quarter 3 and 2024 and the end of quarter 3 in 2025. We also transferred 500,000 less from the education fund last year. uh or excuse me this year compared to 2024 which has allowed for more money to go towards educational staff and salary

040benefits. Um finally our count day was October 1st. Should be noted that our count came in 31 students less than predicted 1479 and so be about a quarter million shortfall than predicted but I'm confident we will be fine. So if you have any questions or anything please feel free to ask them at this time. Any questions, Dr. Williams, on the quarterly update. >> So, hearing none, let's move to the quarterly resolution to transfer Dr. Williams. >> Members of the board, this is the resolution is in your packet and I ask we have Mr. R and Mr. sign this this evening upon his approval. Um, but this is for $300,000 transfer from education fund to the operations fund. I'd ask for your approval at this time. >> For members, the resolution is before you. I would

041entertain a motion to approve said resolution. >> So move. >> Second. >> I have a motion, a second to approve the uh quarterly transfer from the education fund to the operations fund of 300,000. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All members in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Same sign. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Moving on to October's personnel report. Dr. Williams. >> Members of the board. I'd like to highlight a few personnel items this evening. As far as uh resignations, terminations, or transfers. Mr. Nathan Rosich, South Vermillion Middle and High School band teacher resignation effect at the end of the school day, October 11th. uh 2025. Dia James Central Elementary nurse termination for just cause effective October 1st, 2025. Shay Winkler, South High School termination for just cause effective October 3rd,

0422025. Under recommendations for hired uh and also voluntary transfers, Stephen Anderson, South Middle School and High School band teacher and band director, effective January 1st, 2026. Hannah Hoover, Central Elementary, voluntary transfer to fulfill the role at Central Elementary and her director of nursing position effective October 2nd, 2025. There also a number of ECA assistant coaching and sponsored positions listed in the packet for your approval this evening. I would ask for your approval at this time. >> Second. I have a motion and second to approve October's personnel report as presented. Is there any further discussion hearing? None. All members in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed same sign. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Back to Mr. Anderson's with us here tonight. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Welcome to South Kills. >> Fantastic.

043Very excited. >> All right. Uh let's move on to discussion and reports and first item is curriculum instruction assessment data presentation with Dr. >> Fever. [Music] the presentation. >> Yeah. >> Started already. >> Members of the board, the um assessment report is generally uh shared with you in August, but um spent a considerable amount of time with Mrs. Foster and Dr. Williams in their vision for how they would like data shared with you um going forward. So here's the result of that work. Starting with the elementary assessment data. This is a really important piece and a required report um annually. We do have to um across Indiana assess in grades K through two for traits of dyslexia to make it very clear that no school in the state of Indiana um can diagnose dyslexia. that

044is a medical diagnosis. We simply give um a universal screener in the first um 90 days of school to det identify risk factors uh for reading difficulties. Um so that is what you see the data that I have to submit um in an annual report to IDOE. It's also required to be posted on our website. um of of positive note. You can see how um our uh instructional strategies do seem to be um making a difference in the number of students who are determined to be at risk for dyslexia and then the number of students who are receiving interventions. If you look at the last three years, it's quite an impact. you do see the enrollment decline, but um it's pretty impressive to go from 67 to 24 students determined at risk. And whether they

045are diagnosed um if the families choose to pursue a medical diagnosis or we um just stay with our level screeners and go forward, we still deploy the same interventions. is just to help um mitigate reading problems um and help them as they grow so that they can be ready for um being able to read. So then the Dibbles assessment is given um also three times a year and this data is pretty interesting. Rebecca Cookun, our instructional coach, spends um a great deal of time in the elementaryaries working with teachers and the principles um in routine data meetings um and helping administer assessments and interpret the data and then apply interventions once we get the data. Um of one concern is the drop you see in the middle ofear data in both of our elementary schools.

046um in the first grade year. You see significant growth at the kindergarten level as you go through the year. These um indicators in gray stand for beginning of year, middle of year, end of year. So um kindergarten is impressive and we see that similar trend in both of our elementarymentaries. um second grade has growth, but we we do want to identify um some targeted interventions toward the middle of the year and first grade because we we it's interesting that in both buildings we do see a dip. We we recover a bit but still not as impressive as at the kindergarten year obviously. So when you look um at comparison data, I remember maybe one board meeting ago um a gentleman asked if we discuss um how we stand for um you know recruitment and retention

047of our students purposes to know where we stand academically um several indicators and you'll see that in several points throughout this presentation today. It is Indiana's goal for 95% of all third graders um to pat to pass the I read assessment uh by 2027. And we rank fifth on the um 11 area districts that Dr. Williams wanted to showcase. When you um look at the individual schools, you can look at the last three years. you can see um how we've scored and um we want to note that we both of our elementarymentaries beat the state average. So that's a that's a great note, but we still know that by 2027, so we have um a couple more assessment years, um we need to be at 95%. And the state needs to be at 95%. So,

048we start that test in grade two. Um, we our district chose to administer when it was optional. Um, and then last year was the first year it was required in grade two. Those students who pass in grade two do not have to take it again in third grade. But what that gives us is that early opportunity to deploy interventions um to those students in one of the three areas of the I read assessment. So, um, in 2025, 62 out of 114 second grade students passed. So, 54%. And when you look at 2024, we had 50 out of 116 students pass as second graders, and that's 43%. So, um, there's another point of growth. Switching to a different assessment that begins in grade three. Um the I learn test is grade is grade three through eight

049English and math and then um fourth and sixth would be science assessment and grade five is a social studies assessment. In this um screen you can see that central and van the two years what their proficiencies proficiency rates are in 2024 and 2025. And then you have a copy of this slide presentation. Um I would like to encourage you to click on the links below where you can see um we are going to make a targeted effort to identify um classrooms of strength and classrooms um of well where we could provide greater supports um to teachers. And when you click on those and see the pie charts, um it's pretty helpful to see in two the subgroups that we chose to focus on, special ed students and our socioeconomic um need. So those are the

050students on free and reduced lunch at those two grade levels. And then you see here for math and science only administered in grade four at the elementary and then again in grade six which occurs in middle school. So then um each school provides interventions and this is the outline of what Van Dy does and um Mrs. Kesler leads that. She's the instructional leader of her building. She uses um the support of the instructional coach as well to meet with teachers um to identify students and um what I didn't dis what I didn't discuss was individualized reading plans that are also new um to students who don't uh pass the I read. Um and so that's an important point that I could probably speak on later including telling you um that students can take the IE

051test 14 total times between grade two and right before grade seven. Um the state allows us to give that twice in grade two, three times in grades three through six now. So this will be um that's a that's a big task. So that could be a whole its own presentation um about how I read is changing. It's really important to get that 95% literacy rate. So for central these are central's um interventions deployed also with the instructional leader of that building, Mr. Jenkins and the support of the instructional coach as well. Um the pie charts that you can see by clicking on the links at the bottom of those slides, those were created by um a tool we have in Google called um Google Gemini. And then we asked Google Gemini, we asked Google Gemini

052to look at iLearn data only for the sake of this presentation and create the pie chart so we could see the dichotomy of the whole group and then sped and then socioeconomic status how they're doing at um being below approaching at or above proficiency level on iR then we ask Google Gemini to create a narrative um please put into a narrative what you could share with us based on the metrics, based on the numbers and this is what was shared in these sections on the next two or three slides. At the school level analysis that was stated um by the AI tool that lives in Google, there is a distinct performance difference between the two schools. U Van Dy shows a much higher percentage of students achieving at or above proficiency. Obviously that is where

053our high ability classroom is and those students um some of those students were central students prior to grade three and four. Uh so that's a one contributing factor as well. High ability analysis remember this speaks of grades three through eight not just the elementary scope but the high ability program is showing effectiveness. The overwhelming majority of identified high ability students are performing at or above proficiency. This success extends all years of iLearn grades 3 through 8. That's really noteworthy because we've made great gains in our high ability offerings um in this district in the past seven years. Gender analysis. Gender does not appear to be a significant factor in this data set. Performance between male and female students very similar across the board. And then a group code analysis. What I mean by group code

054is the teacher in the classroom. When you click on the links that are at the bottom of the iLearn slides and you see the pie charts, there's a group code at the bottom. So, um Dr. Williams and I coded that. So we know which teacher each piraphph represents. Um and if a teacher had like we like um one of Miss Kesler's teachers um self-contained class has fewer than 10 students that data set is not in there. I cannot report um um a data set of fewer than 10 students. So that classroom is not listed in there but we have that in our data. So um the group code means the teacher. Some group codes have a higher number of students who are not yet meeting proficiency signaling a need for focused academic intervention. So that

055then um signifies meetings with the principal so that we can provide greater support in those target groups. And al also should be noted that some classrooms are um ability grouped. So to to see that some students some some classrooms or some group codes have a high percentage of at or above proficiency and some have a high percentage of below proficiency then you think well is that classroom ability group and in um two cases two four cases that answer is yes. So you have to you can't just look at the you know that the metrics of it you have to understand the story behind it which I'm hoping that this tells. So the special ed analysis, a large majority of the students in special education are currently performing in the below or approaching proficiency categories. This

056is a critical area that requires focus strategies that we are deploying. The gened contrast non-steaded students show a much more even distribution with a significantly higher percentage reaching proficiency. And then the free and reduced lunch, that's socioeconomic status analysis. Students qualifying for free and reduced lunch have a higher representation and below and approaching proficiencies. So um it's important then to look like I showed you the um comparison data on another assessment then we look at grades three through eight. Now this is a lot on one screen um but again you have access to this and this shows our rank when you look at three through eight al together. So, and the area uh the area district. So, the black uh cell at the bottom obviously because we don't put Indiana in that rank. So, that's

057three through eight as a group for English. And then this is math. So, seventh out of 11. Science were fifth in the group of 11 area districts. social studies fifth. And then just to specifically focus on middle school assessment, um when you look at English language arts grade 5 through 8, the first thing you see on this slide is like, whoa, those are low percentages. And then you look at the Indiana column and those are low percentages as well. Um but I want you to see this slide when you follow the students. I want you to look at the aqua color and know that in 2024 the 30% there in grade 5 they move in 2025 up to sixth grade C. So we have 30% passing last year that group of students to the extent

058which that they possibly could be the same group of students right with moving etc 30% but look at the state only grew 1%. When you look at the sixth grade students from last year and then look at them this year, we grew 14 that that group grew 14% in ELA. The state declined three. When you look at the purple group, last year they were in seventh grade. This year they're in eighth grade. Well, when I say this year, I mean last spring, right? Um the our um that the purple group grew 11% and the state only grew one. So then when you look at the percentages where where we're closing the gap at the middle school um with our pass rates and the state's pass percentages, it it does show some promise. Um we do

059have some work to do um in that class that well now they'd be seventh graders. >> So um then the math data the exact same thing. So I won't over explain because it's the same you know this you just looked at the English. So, here's the math. And then when you follow the students, you see um a very similar um story that you learned from English. U fifth to sixth grade um we did drop, but then so did the state. Then when you look at the orange, we increase, the state decreased. Then when you look at purple, follow that group statewide. Um and then follow just South Vermillion, we increased 4% and state only increased one. So there we're closing the gap. social studies. Look how South Vermillion beats the state. This has been a

060long-standing strength for us and and not one that is used in our accountability rating. It's just English and math. So, beat the state this year um for the grade six science test. So we have a great deal an exhaustive list of interventions that the middle school is deploying um and has been doing for several years. We are on TSI which is targeted school improvement due to our subgroup of free and reduced lunch um students not making enough growth on the past proficiency. So um some of these interventions are new and some of them are longstanding. So um Mrs. Crabtree and Joanie Mlan and their leadership team spend an a great deal of time um looking at student data, working with the instructional coach and um identifying strategies that are effective and then looking I mean

061it's just an impre their their school improvement plan is so much different than the our other schools because of their TSI designation. But the neat thing is it's a real good dial down into the data. Um and then this is the top row is the target group um that we want to focus on. And please note the the growth of the last two years. So we do have to have two years of sustained and continued growth in the category for free and reduced subgroup of students and so far so good. Not where we want to be but we are trending in the right direction as they say. Moving on to high school assessment data. Again, there's the comparison piece with the 11 area districts. Um, and and this data set is from SAT. So, um,

062the first category is evidence-based reading and writing. You don't technically get a passing score on SAT. You get a percentage proficiency. That means you are likely to pass this subject area in college at a C or above. So that's the um information and the purpose of the SAT is uh to predict college success. So we rank ninth um in math we rank eighth in among the districts in um the evidence-based reading and writing. So um when I referred to the high school's improvement plan um school improvement plan which is an annual document that we work out work to update and measure the growth of these are the seven areas that they've identified goals. Um and this is important because these are also the indicators for their accountability. So um when you look at the graduation

063rates for the last three years um you see our goal is on the right side where the star is and then you see where we um beat our goal. We don't have a date for it's to be determined because we're currently in 20126 graduation cohort. Um, it is pretty special to note that there were 31 honor diplomas granted in 2025. 11 of those were academic and tech together. 13 of those were just academic honors and seven with technical honors. 59 scores at the high school um of three or above on the um advanced place in in an advanced placement course. We have eight different AP course offerings in 2005. So that changes based on student interest and obviously staff availability. But in 2005 there were eight AP courses and there were 59 tests taken across

064those eight courses that uh gave the students earned a three or above which means then they can transfer that into um a college that accepts the AP credits. Uh dual credits earned in 2425 school year. That's a big number. the dual credit um has been a a very important focus for the high school over the past few years. Um and then um IvyTech credentials earned by 2025 graduates, 28 of those earned either during the junior or the senior year. And then um the counselor of juniors and seniors, Mrs. Ciphers, she meets um during state required fall senior conferences to ask students what they plan to do after high school, employ, enlist, or enroll. And that's the spread for the last graduating class, those percentages. Now, those eight AP courses, here they are. And so those

065um 59 above, you know, tests that were above three, three or four um 3, four, five, 3, four, five. I bought a number. So that's pretty impressive. Um Nath is a strength. So that's really good. So looking at PSAT um which is this is PSAT week. Uh we just administered PSAT in grades 9, 10, and 11. Ninth graders take the one on the left. Uh 10th and 11th graders take the one on the right. And the um the one the PSAT9 is administered to prepare students for the end game which is the SAT in the spring of their 11th grade year. And the PSAT national merit qualifying test is the one we choose to give for um because you could give a PSAT 10. We choose to give NMSQT at 10 and 11 um in

066the fall because this one is what can qualify our students for the National Merit Scholarships. Lots of opportunities therein provided by college board. Uh 1520 is a perfect score on that exam. At South Vermillion last year our average score was 861. Then you can see the perfect score over there at the PSAT9. And our average score we had um at the 9th grade last year 47 students meet or exceeding the reading and writing benchmark. 20 meet in exceeding math. And then you can see how many sophomores met or exceeded uh reading and writing and math. And then for juniors the same. So when you um look into when you break into subgroups which is c which is um which is a data set that's really important to Dr. Williams to just not look at a

067great big number for a large group of kids, but to break down into um subgroups so that we can target where see where we need to uh provide some more support. Our goal um if you look at the high school school improvement plan was to earn a 54%. Last year in the evidence-based reading and writing, we were at 47.5 and our goal in math was 27% and we were at 12.1. So then you can see the subgroups down below. this this h this uh R and Mrs. Foster and I spent a lot of time um asking the story behind what you see in this particular screen and this particular slide and um so the question when you look at the male and female differences in the pass rates you ask yourself okay let's talk about

068are males or females taking what kinds of classes and and does that help prepare them or not what kind of opportunities and etc with the other subgroups. So this is a good conversation that we have with the high school too. So then the high school has their set of interventions as well. Focus um what they call focus during home room um for students not passing classes and then on down lots of interventions with a lot of stakeholders um providing support from a lot of different angles to support our needs. There is a large emphasis at the high school on students who are failing a given class at a certain time. Um, so we they don't wait until the end of the term, the end of the grading period to intervene. So that's of note. So

069that was 40 seconds. Any questions? >> Questions? >> Thanks. I lost four. he knows, you know, has a good vision for where he wants to go and and ways um to support and help our students. So, I appreciate that. >> So, when you say follow the students, I think you explain that, but just to be clear, that's not actually following each that's following the class, the group, right? >> Okay. >> Because if we just look at um fifth grade of 2024 and fifth grade of 2025, they're not the same kids. So it's like, well, why didn't they improve? Well, they're not the same kids. Um, I mean, we do say why didn't they improve because we have the same teachers and the same content are, same standards, same interventions, but it's important to follow the

070kids to see how they grow and change uh with our interventions. So, that's what I mean by follow students >> with A through F accountability grades coming back into play really quickly. Um, when I was getting my superintendent's license in 2019, I made a connection with a superintendent at the time, actually was a principal at the time, but he has a long history or schools and the AB schools because he really looks at the growth points of your subgroups that you have to look at to earn the points. Um, and we look at everyone as a whole for sure. Um, but we want to really break down those subgroups. And he said it's all about putting the right people in right spots as well. Um, and so if you find strengths in particular test scores

071at one grade level and you need to make moves or or do what you need to do that he's consistently taken for performance schools and to high performance. >> What is the latest on the implementation or re-implementation of the letter grades will be at the end of the school year? Friday, the second iteration of the accountability rule was released and I shared that with teachers because this is the second public comment period and they've made some tweaks and they really really implore um that public feedback is so key. So when you look at the slide deck and I can share that same information with the board that I shared with teachers on Monday. Um they they outline what they changed based on feedback and just like they did with the high school diploma redesign. They

072they really did it wasn't just a moot point to provide feedback. They really did take into consideration from stakeholders such as higher ed and community members and workforce etc. So the second comment period just opened um and you can provide input as well. So I'll share that with you tomorrow morning. >> Great. >> Thanks. I don't have a question, but I just want to say that I really appreciate all this data. It's for years we've said we're inundated with so much data and not able to really evaluate it and dive into it and see where we're at. Um, one thing I thought was interesting was when you look at the the rankings of schools from the elementary level to middle school to high school, how the schools have inverted, how you know ADICA at the

073elementary level was number one and then to the high school and they're 11 and just we're kind of doing that as well. But it's just to me from a high level like where >> where is that transitioning happening? Is it because we've changed our focus to ELA to math in the last couple years if we've really focused on that? And so when we track these students that are now at the elementary level when we hit that high school level like how how is that going to end? Are we going to still be number nine or is those kids as we follow those words are they going to go as well? So it just it's interesting. I love data. So I really appreciate this >> and I like the way you I like the way you

074explain that you look at that. Um, I can't tell you how many times I would run into his office with a slide and say, "Okay, look at this." And he's like, he would look at that. And I was thinking to myself, "What's he what's he staring at?" He's like, "What's the story right there?" And I'm like, "I don't know. Let's find out the story right there." Um, and so you look at and then I come in a few days later. I'm like, "Here's another, you know, slide with dating." He's like, "What's going on at such?" And I'm like, "I don't know. Let's go find out what's going on such and such." So, it's interesting how people different people look at what I've presented and you see something that is of note and needs to be

075looked at and there's so many different directions you can go. But appreciate um the the vision of the board as well because that helps us um know how to better inform. So, >> and the pie charts I just flipping through those talking to those are really illustrative of of what you hit on like the certain groupings and where the strengths are. It's really evident just looking at the green versus the orange and the yellow. It's I like it. >> You know, one thing I can see is this sets the stage well, but as the school year goes, I can see kind of break breaking it up in chunks and maybe coming back and and giving a focus maybe one month we focus on interventions at the elementary level and how and how those are u

076how they're progressing >> middle school and then and then high school. if we can kind of break those up through the rest of the school year. >> I think that's a great idea. Like I said, the I read could be an evening of its own. So, >> yeah, you think about that. >> Thank you. >> I should take off. [Music] >> All righty. Moving on. So, uh, for the month of October, the instru uh, instructional technology report, this is >> I should have chose something more narrative rather than data just like you. >> And mine's on paper. I put >> my boss likes data. >> He does. So, I put a paper at each of your stations and, uh, the past month has been uh, busy with October, the October reporting period. uh with DOE.

077So I've given you the statistics of what was reported and certified at the beginning of this month. October 1st was our count day. The membership report is the big one for funding and that is for students in K12. We don't count our prek students in that. We're still working um the secretaries and I on getting the missing proof of residency and other registration paperwork for uh mostly middle school and high school students. uh we've already put out one message through parentswear and I'll be gathering that data uh shortly again and putting out another message but just looking through the data the columns across really the two that are that we are focused on are the resident enrollments and the cash transfers the other columns really don't apply but you can see by school uh how

078many resident enrollments how many cash transfers those students who come to us from out of district and then towards the end there's a virtual yes uh column and those are our students who are attending um school virtually. Now we do not have elementary students who are attending virtually. You'll see two students from Central Elementary who are considered virtual and what happened is we had and there's a middle school student in there as well. We had new students enroll the day before count day or on count day and count day was an e-learning day. So that's a virtual day for everybody because we're doing that through asynchronous learning. So we had students who were enrolled for a total of two days who came the day before and one day for the students who came on count

079day. Virtual was yes. Um the ones who came the day before virtual was 50/50. If a student is attending virtual 50% of the time they're considered virtual. So we had some we had three students who we counted as virtual even though they're technically not. So the funding is reduced to 80%. >> 85 >> 80 Thank you. 85% um but in February if those students are still with us when we do count day again of course they're going to be here in uh in person not virtual. So we'll get full funding for them then. So it it was a learning lesson. I told Dr. Williams never again count day >> e-learning day. >> Didn't think about it and boom, it hit us. So you know we there was nothing we can do because because it was

080a virtual day. So just a little bit of less funding there for those few students. And then of course Dr. Williams gave you the totals uh at the bottom 1479 counted. You can see total um resident enrollment, total cash transfer. On the second page, I took that data. The state provided us with 2425 numbers to compare to just to make sure that our numbers are in sync and we aren't missing a huge um subgroup or uh listing of students. But you can see I've put in green or yellow. Um green of course is an increase compared to um between 24 or 25. What you can see in this data is that our cash transfers at Bandine and the middle school have increased this year. I mean we're looking I know at lower numbers but we

081did increase uh this school year with cash transfers in those two schools. Central it was a wash. it was the same number. And then um the high school, it was just a drop of two of the cash transfers. We did actually increase um by about nine students if no 11 students if my math is right. I'm horrible at math, but anyway, we increased in cash transfers for this school year. >> Everybody is compared to >> you do the math for me. Um so yeah so we increased but then the net change you can see by school uh our low our biggest drop was central and the high school as far as a decrease in students. Band nine was actually the only school who increased uh this school year by seven students. Our net drop was

08238 students. So that was the membership comparison between the last two years. We also report on graduate. Even though we do the graduate report for 2425 in July, we have until October to report late graduates. We actually had none. So sometimes over summer school, uh students finishing credits, we'll have students who we report as late graduates in October, but the high school did not have any this time, so no graduates to report. English language learners. We have uh seven um and three of those are are foreign exchange students. So anyone on their home language survey who reports a language other than English being spoken in the home uh we do weda testing to see if we need to provide interventions for those students. So uh we have a total of only seven students um who

083are doing that. Uh then the next page is the pupil enrollment report and again this is a comparison um from the state between 2425 and 2526 again just to make sure and this one it was a good thing they did this for us because we noticed a huge difference in our free and reduced lunch data. So, had we not caught that and checked with uh our food service director to see what's going on, she had to update direct certification right before count day. Uh the numbers then increased significantly and got us closer to where we were. the free and reduced lunch um percentage that helps us with grants, federal grants, state grants, and also our e- rate, our telecommunication discounts that we receive for internet uh and uh internal wiring. So, we receive an 80%

084discount based on our free and reduced lunch percentage on those bills. Our current socioeconomic status percent is 59%. It is a slight drop of 4% from last year. I don't think that that will affect our e-ate discount. Um I spoke with another area tech director and she says theirs dropped significantly uh this year. So I'm not sure uh what the reasoning is, but uh you can just see the student count of course dropping uh on free and reduced lunch. And then the last page is the pupil enrollment. Just the total similar to membership broken down by ethnicity by grade. Of course on the pupil enrollment we do count preK students in that. Um if you see in the um I don't think this one has the excluded column. No it does not. Okay. um you'll

085see that the total number certified is 1505 which is more than the um membership because of the prek students. So that's what the difference is. And then coming in December we'll have the special ed report which is our count day for um special ed students students who are being service or receiving services. That's a funding report. Uh that's December 1st and there's been a big change this year. So, previous years, CoverBridge would send me a monthly report of all of our students. There are primary, secondary exceptionalities, their placement, the location of service, and I would compare that to what um we had in Harmony. And anytime there's a case conference, they would send those results to me. I would enter those in Harmony. If a student no longer received services, I would put that in.

086If a student was evaluated, I would put that in. We no longer maintain that data anymore. It's now in a new state program called Power School special programs. So all of that is being maintained by our special ed teachers and Coverbridge. I don't have access to it anymore. I feel a little blind when it comes to uh the data, but um I send Coverbridge now uh what the state is showing if we have conflicts with another school um what it shows all of our special ed data and they are uh reconciling all of that data. So, it's going to be uh different this December. Uh they're doing most of the heavy lifting on that report. So, that um special ed data in Harmony is currently not updated. What Harmony has told us they'll do once

087DOE gives them the go-ahad is they'll pull that data from the data exchange website from DOE and they're going to pull that back into Harmony so we'll have up-to-date information. So right now it we we do not maintain that the special ed teachers and the administrators have to go to the powers school program to look up special ed data. And then lastly just a little narrative. It is digital citizenship week. I've asked the uh STEM and steam steam teachers to share what they've been working on this week and they've been doing lessons various lessons on how to keep their students safe while online. I'm going to feature that in our newsletter tomorrow. They've been working on lessons in cyber bullying, protecting personal information and maintaining safe passwords. Those were just a few of the lessons

088that they shared. So, I'll have that in your newsletter tomorrow. Any questions over the state? Mine's not as thorough. It's not going to be here. >> Just one quick one, Jenny, on the uh on the transfers, student transfers. At one time we had a report that showed kind of where they were coming from. >> We still we have that up to date. >> We can we can Yeah. I don't think we've done it yet this year. Have we? >> I have. Have you? >> I don't have it since probably the first two weeks. So we >> And we Yeah. And we've asked the secretaries when they do a new enrollment or a withdrawal to give more data about why they're leaving us. They're they do put what school they're going to. I've asked be very

089specific. what's what is the name of the school, what's the city if it's a different state or so forth so that we can have the best data as we can because of doing that mobility report. So, um we should see an improvement as far as what data they're giving us. Um one thing I failed to mention in the membership report there's an excluded column and so you're seeing high school students excluded, middle school band, some of those are students who've withdrawn. So the excluded they're just not in that count. Thank you. I had one quick question. >> Yes. So on the free and reduced lunch, I feel like we are often asked about why does not have free lunch for the entire corporation. What is that percentage? Is it 75% that we have to hit

090for the school to qualify the free? >> Well, not necessarily. Um so we're at 60 as a corporation. Um but with you know there's couple couple corporations around us who have done that. >> But when that money goes away then you put the bonus back on the parent. Um and we don't really want to revert I don't think um to having them go back to pay because a lot of that money is being cut. Um, but yeah, I will give you a percent of qualifications. >> And I know and I know the district, one of the districts near us that is 100%. Um, they still calculate, they still have to report if they if they qualify for free and reduced lunch and there's a lot of confusion right now with that because they get free

091lunch. They don't think they have to complete that application. So a lot of people aren't completing the applications their free and reduced lunch data way down and it's affecting like their discounts and their other >> Yeah. So they're it's it's been hurting them. So communication probably >> Thank you, Mrs. Fauci. >> All right, we'll move on to student services for the month of October. Mrs. Thank you. Um, in your packet you had the most recent board policy updates volume 38 and that the updates include revision of 13 policies, four technical corrections and one replacement policy. These are given to us by Nola with um any changes within legislation um state statute federal level decisions, court decisions or the office of civil rights changes. So those um that was in your packet for the first reading.

092If you have any questions, I can entertain those or email me with any questions or concerns. Maybe you saw the changes. >> There's a few things in there we need to get together on. So, let's get together before the second reading. >> Okay. Absolutely. >> And also in your packet, you um have a um Indiana youth survey. The high school 10th and 12th grade uh classes were randomly selected to participate. The survey does require parent consent and then also linking that survey to the website. So parents can have the right to look at that survey prior to the students taking that and we will do that through the website through parent square and that will be at least 31 days prior to the scheduled survey date. Um so it's important that they participate because again

093that data is used for grant writing funding of other um supports that we feel is important for the high school. And that window of opportunity to give that survey will be January 26 through April 17th, 2026. And then also at your place setting you have the attendance insights that is through October 21st, 2025. So that I just give that to you each month where we're at by each building corporation and comparison to the state. That's what I have for you tonight. Thank you, Mr. Foster. Any questions for Mrs. Foster before we move on? >> Thank you. Moving on to facilities for the month of October. Mr. Zuka multitask. >> Yes, always. >> Okay. Um got a few project updates. Um and then some recent repairs of things we have completed uh since the last board

094meeting. Um, biggest item is going to be the hot water project for the high school. Working with Sycamore, talking to them to make sure the timeline is still good. Uh, last update was that the equipment should arrive at Sycamore by the end of this week, if not early next week. Um, they have been on site over the past couple weeks to look at preliminary work that we can get done ahead of time. So, hoping to get the new boilers in, get as much done as we possibly can, and then looking at Christmas break time frame before we actually make the switch over. Um, so hopefully we're looking at maybe a day, maybe two. Um, we'll coordinate with the high school on that because we'll have shut water off the entire building. Um, but hopefully that's

095like hopefully if we all plary we're done, we can look at a one day turnover and and be good to go. So I'll let you know as that continues on. >> You have to shut it off. You can isolate the high school and don't have to shut off the middle school. >> Should be able to. Yes, that that's my hope. Um I I'll definitely let you know if that if that changes. I think you I think you >> we should be able to. Yep. And like I said, hopefully it's going to be just a one day process and then once everything's cut over, then we can start removing all the old equipment. >> Okay. Um another project of the high school we've been looking at is the gym wall up in the blue gym. Um

096there's that it's that south exterior wall. Um it's starting to show some moisture issue both internally and externally. Um so I've actually met with three different contractors. Uh the third one actually came out this morning and and looked over with me. He's going to come back next week and do some testing on the brick to see how much water it is actually absorbing. Um and then he'll give me an idea of what we're looking at to get that fixed. >> Are the water waterproofing type cont >> waterproofing? Um there's been a couple different approaches which is why I wanted at least three. Um the consensus for most of them has been the control points. They want to look to make those wider. So basically cut out what's there, make it wider, and then reseal it

097completely because control points right now are probably quarter of an inch. >> And they're saying at least 1/2 inch, maybe even 58 of an inch is what they recommend. Um, so I said that a couple different opinions on it. Um, we'll wait and see when I get the official quote from the third gentleman that came out this morning. But so I will hopefully have an update for the next board meeting as far as comparing all three together and see where we're at and kind of get a plan of attack. My my plan is to at least look at the exterior first, get that resolved before the interior gets any worse. Um the one benefit is all three contractors have come out and said that there's no risk. It's structurally sound. Uh this is more of

098a maintenance issue though and then I'll recommend getting it addressed now before it does become an issue later on. Um, the only other outstanding project I have is central. Um, back in the spring, I believe that tree on the south end of the building fell. Um, took out a chunk of guttering, tore up a little bit of the roof. Uh, the roofing was was temporarily patched and good. I've been working on your homes. Um hopefully get on the schedule probably next week if not the following week to get those repairs done along with a couple shingle repairs on the west side of the building. So I'll work with you Mr. Jensen let you know when they're going to come out and get that taken care of. Um recent completed projects um I had roofing come

099out for the high school and the middle school. Uh we had a small leak a room above room B3 that that whole corridor there. Um Steve went there and put a temporary patch on it. Um, but we went through Sentry came in and actually cleaned it up and patched it correctly the way it needs to be. So, that seems to resolve that issue. Um, over at the middle school, there's been a long-standing issue on the west side of the gym. That hallway that runs down there, there's been a lot of water that just makes its way down and runs down the wall. So, I had sent look at that while they were here. Come to find out there, the way the building is, the block sets out below the guttering on the west side of

100the gym. So there's you've got your guttering, it dips in a little bit, and then you've got a royal block that sits there. Well, the sealant on top of that block um that basically eroded. It's original to the building. Uh between that and some patches that needed done in the guttering, that water would hit the block and then run all the way down behind every waterproofing, everything we have down there. Um they did that right before a couple days before the big storm that we had all that rain and there's not been a drop of water sets. So I'm hopeful that that's going to take care of it. Um custodians I asked them to leave the ceiling tops out for probably the rest of this week just to make sure um we'll get those back

101in and hopefully that issue is is no more. Um also the middle school we did carpet installation. Uh, so there's now new carpet when you walk in the gym entrance. From there all the way down just past the teachers lounge where there's another gate that comes down. We kind of use that as a transition. Um, they removed all the carpet, put new carpet in, new trim. We also bought some new entry rugs to kind of help clean up that that entryway and hopefully prolong the life of that carpet. Um, and that was that was Smitty's carpet. And then they also did a small project for us at band nine as well. One of the kindergarten rooms and then a section of the library got replaced. And then let's see lastly uh who's your homes did

102look at the guttering for me on the transportation building. So the original portion of the building had 4in guttering. Uh the additional part on the west side of the building had 6in guting. the foreign covering had it it started to rust and it had a lot of a lot of holes. Maintenance cleaned it out last week and you could see from the ground there was just pin holes all over the place. Um which leads to concerns for people walking in the transportation department if that water comes through the gutters comes down it's going to freeze essentially make it fall that so I had him come out and he replaced all of that with these 6-in seamless gutters. Kind of impressive they put it up in one big piece. Um, so hopefully that will will that

103issue as well. That's all I have for for this month. We'll keep you posted on on the big project. So, great. >> Any questions for Mr. Zug? >> Very good. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, next on under discussion reports, staff, community service or staff and community survey results. >> I know this has been a rather long meeting, so I'll try to keep this short, but I do want to communicate the results back um from the recent survey that we put out. Uh, Mrs. Foster and I have been in our role since July 1. We kind of wanted to do a 90-day review to see how things are going uh from a community perspective and a um staff perspective. Our goals coming into this were transparency, visibility, and trust. So, I'm just

104going to follow through the questions here real quick. Number one, I believe communication Dr. Williams from Dr. Williams and Mrs. Foster is clear and timely. 81.6% of the 125 community members and parents agreed or strongly agreed while 3.2% disagreed or strongly disagreed. 96.3% of the staff agreed or strongly disagreed. uh while 0% uh disagreed or strongly disagreed. So um if there's a gap in the percentages here, that would be a neutrality standpoint. Uh number two, I feel as if Dr. Williams and Mrs. Foster listened to concerns. 74.4% of the parents and community members agreed or strongly disagreed. 5.6% disagreed or strongly disagreed. 88.1% of the staff members agreed or strongly agreed while 1.9% disagreed or strongly disagreed. On number three, Dr. Williams and Mrs. Foster are present, divisible in the community and events. 75.4% of

105the parent community members agreed or strongly disagreed. 2.4% I'm sorry, strongly agreed or agreed. 2.4% disagreed or strongly disagreed. 90.7% of the staff agreed or strongly disagreed. 0% disagreed or strongly disagreed. On number four, I believe that Dr. Williams and Mrs. Foster implement changes that are necessary. 66.4% 4% of the parents and community members agreed or strongly uh agreed while 8% disagreed or strongly disagreed. 86.3% of the staff agreed or strongly agreed while 3.7 disagreed or strongly disagreed. On number five, I trust Dr. Williams and Mrs. Foster. 783.8% of the community members and parents agreed or strongly disagreed while 8.7 uh I'm sorry, agreed or strongly agreed. 8.7 disagreed or strongly disagreed. 89.7% of the staff agreed or strongly disagreed with that and 1.9% disagreed or strongly disagreed. I'm getting all my disagrees. So, uh,

106number six, I believe our school corporation is headed in a positive direction and I'm genuinely excited about the future. 76.2% of the parent community members agree or strongly agree while 12.7% disagreed or strongly disagreed. 88.8% 8% of the staff agreed or strongly agreed while 5.6 disagreed or strongly disagreed. With these results, we see that there's an overwhelming amount of positive coming in. We've already began addressing uh the comments and concerns that were left, but we're happy to see that we're being supported by parents, community, and staff. We hope to continue that trend. >> Thank you. >> And thank thank you, Dr. Williams. I think from board standpoint just to you know let everybody know um from Dr. Williams and Mrs. Foster have uh certainly shared all that data uh with the uh uh with the

107board. We've been able to see direct comments that people made. We appreciate that and look forward to hopefully make use of that in the future. We app there's some great comments in that and I know uh I know the administration team is uh is certainly going to take those consideration moving forward. So we we certainly appreciate it. Anyone else? Okay, that concludes discussion of reports for uh the month of October. It's probably the longest meeting we've had in a long time. >> Uh moving on to decision items. [Music] And first item is uh our monthly SB gives back. Uh this is a good one tonight. Uh Dr. Williams. >> Yeah. Members of the board, students, and staff are happy to be giving back to the Park Vermillion Humane Shelter. Uh in the amount of $918

108this evening, probably one of our biggest, if not the biggest. Uh upon your approval, um we'll present the check. I don't see a representative here, but we'll get that to them. Should be noted that this has put us over the $12,500 mark back in the last two years. So, appreciate all the administrators pushing this in their buildings and parents contributing to their students and students and staff. We truly appreciate it and as Mr. Sh said tonight, that was one of the projects that they were able to fund due to that. So, we appreciate your support. >> All right. So, we do need to approve this donation. I would entertain a motion to do so. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion and a second to approve the SB gives back donation of $918 to

109the Park Villian Humane Shelter uh for the month of October. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all members in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed, same sign, eyes have a motion carries. Uh next item to discuss is extra duty. extra duties, extra compensation. Dr. >> Yeah, members of the board, Mrs. Hoover, our director of uh school nursing services, has voluntarily taken a transfer position to the nurse opening. We had Central Elementary in addition to her current duties of director of nursing. We are requesting an increase in salary by $5,000 per school year. >> Second. I got a motion and a second to approve the extra duty extra compensation recommendation as presented. Any further discussion? >> Yes, there's one more underneath that. I'm sorry. >> Mrs. Falum fulfilled two positions at the high school

110level with Mrs. Strayer on maternity leave and requesting a $1,500 sip be approved for her extra duty. >> Is that okay with you? Uh that motion. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. >> All right. So, motion a second to include all the extra duty, extra compensation recommendations. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All members in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed. Same sign. I have a motion carries. Uh, next item, early childhood education curriculum resources. Members of the board, the early childhood education courses at South Vermillion High School are in need of updated uh curriculum materials in order to remain in compliance with the IDOE early learning standards. The Wildcat Den Advisory Committee reviewed curricula and provided feedback on several options in consideration. Uh we'd like to recommend the adoption of the Pearson product

111called Early Childhood Education Today, the 15th edition. This curriculum will provide weekly lesson plans with scope and sequence for a full year of learning in the early childhood education course. Um, your approval is recommendation kind of requested. >> We don't need a first or second reading. >> No, not for second. I have a motion, a second to approve the early childhood education curriculum recommendation as presented. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All members in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Same side. Eyes have. Motion carries. All right. Uh, chances for youth. Dr. Williams. Members of the board, this is a recommendation to approve Alana Williams uh andou with Cassie to be this sitebased teacher for chances for youth. I would ask for your approval at this time. >> Make a motion

112to approve that. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion, a second to approve theou with chances of services for youth as presented. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All members in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed. Son eyes have a motion carries. Moving on. We have several field trips that need approved. Dr. Williams. >> Yeah, there's several field trips uh in your packet this evening in attachment 8. Uh please let me know if you have any questions on any of those, but ask for your approval at this time. So move second motion and second to approve field trip the field trips as presented. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All members in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed. Same sign. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Uh next item

113is transfer request. Dr. Williams. Members of the board, there are student transfer requests for the 2526 school year attached in item 8F. We would ask for your approval at this time. >> Second motion, a second to approve the transfer requests as presented. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All members in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed, same sign. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Donations for the month of October. >> Members of the board, this is recommendation uh to approve the following donations uh for central headphones to various classrooms and for the middle school, Mr. Alan Grange cash donation to SDMS athletics and family attach donation to the SDMS dance team. Ask for approval this time. >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. That motion second to approve the donations as presented. Any further

114discussion hearing? None. All members in favor signify by saying I. >> Those opposed? Same sign. Eyes have it. Motion carries. Okay, moving on. Next item is approval of the 2025 20226 collective bargaining agreement with the SDA. Uh members of the board, this is a recommendation to approve the 2526 collective bargaining agreement. A public hearing was held in compliance with Indiana code 20-29-6-1B on August 18th, 2025. A public meeting in compliance with Indiana code 20-29619 was held on October 2nd, 2025, and the contract was ratified by the SVA SVA on October 20 October 9th, 2025. We would ask for your approval at this time. Make a motion to approve. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second to approve the 2025 2026 collective bargaining agreement with the SBA as presented. Any further discussion? Hearing

115none. All members in favor signify by saying I. >> Those opposed same sign. Eyes have it. Motion carries. All right. Next item, approve insurance increase. Dr. Williams, >> members of the board, this is recommendation for the corporation to approve the full 1% uh increase in insurance rates as presented by the WPWC trust for 25.6 school year. >> So, I have a motion and a second to approve Dr. Williams recommendation on the insurance increase for all employee groups. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All members in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed same sign. >> Eyes have a motion carries. All right. Moving on. Surplus items for the month of October. Dr. Williams. >> Members of the board, this is recommendation to approve the item surplus by Mrs. Skinner high school gel dryer, salad

116bar, metal teacher desk, and stretcher. Ask for approval this night. [Music] >> I'll make a motion second to approve the surplus items as presented. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all members in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Those opposed, same sign. Eyes have it. Motion carries. All right, that concludes our regular portion of tonight's agenda and brings us to our last citizens comment period. If anybody in the audience would like to address the board, now be your chance to do so. Jackie, please step up to the podium. Step up to the podium. All right. >> Uh Jackie Roberts, president, South Education Association. Just want to formally extend my thanks um to you all and uh especially Dr. Williams and Mrs. Foster for a very successful bargaining. Um we were um we were

117excited to receive the offers um and and the discussion that we did. We thought the discussion portion was very productive this year and we didn't want that to go without being noticed and acknowledged and so thank you. Um as well as the transparency. So, thank you very much. We appreciate it. >> Thank you, M. >> Thank you. Sorry to sit. So, >> I'm here for the rest of them. So, >> she's used to sit there now. >> Go full circle. >> Here I am again. >> All right. Anybody else? Okay. Hearing seeing none, we'll close this comment period and conclude with first Dr. Williams has comments and then board member comments. Dr. Williams. >> Members of the board, I'd first like to take a moment to remember coach Ben Blank, defensive coordinator for our high

118school football team that passed away earlier this week. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and the North Familian community as he was a coach and currently a teacher there for the past several years. Please join please join me at this time as we take a moment to remember Thank you. I would also like to echo uh Miss Roberts and her comments. Um we Miss Foster and I enjoyed working with you guys. We thought that communication was open. We appreciate that. We hope to continue that. So appreciate it. Uh we'd also like to welcome Stephen Anderson again as our new band director. He was uh the 2025 future music educator of the year award in the state of Indiana. So we are proud to have him lead our band program. Thank you to

119all who have part and that process. Uh thank you to our school spotlight tonight, the art club for your efforts and presentation. Uh you will see many districts across the state going to the steam program. Dr. Bieber has worked with Mrs. Pitts and Mrs. on standards uh and they visited Northland as they implemented this program for the past few years. Mrs. reached out to us today to let us know the science lesson regarding leagues and painting lessons taking place in Mrs. Wood's classroom. So, we're excited that it's evolving, but we're also excited that they can hone in on some of those more detailed art skills with high school students. Uh I would like to congratulate our uh cross country teams and Mr. Sebastian, coach Sebastian as they had seven students qualify for regionals this weekend.

120Good luck up to Aiden Lawrence, Kaitlin Mendoza, McIntyre, Rachel Plank, Dave Dowy, Ella Turchy, Logan Drake, and Alex P as they compete this weekend. Good luck to our football team tomorrow night at home versus Sullivan in the sectional. And finally, thank you to Dean and Lions Club. Um, great services they provide to our community and always looking to get involved here, whether it's through Lions Club or school events or or whatever. So we appreciate that. Uh also one last thing um we have started the process of the 26 27 calendar options academic calendar options. Um and so we met with a vision team uh for our staff this week and took into account some of those things. Uh we were able to put together three options. I'll meet with the parent uh and community vision

121team next week so they can provide their feedback as well um to see if we want to tweak any of those um options. But I sent that out earlier this evening to SB staff um to let them have a little feedback for us to see what they their thoughts are. Um and like I said, not one of those three have to be the option, but we'll take that feedback. Uh and then at some point we'll push it out to the community as well. So appreciate that and thank you guys for attending this rather long meeting. >> Thank you, Dr. Williams. All right, we'll conclude with uh board member comment. Mr. West, >> thank you. Um I just want to echo the comments made on the Clinton Lions Club. Kudos to those folks. Uh they serve

122this community well as well as several other communities. Uh I think Dean did an excellent job of following the art club. uh he met that child and uh I was I was impressed and I hope we see him next year and for many more years after that. Um, again, I think we've made some decisions tonight that are setting direction long term for this corporation and the value is is maybe a little cloudy uh of what we're going to get, but I'm sure that the value is there and you folks are leading that and uh you've got my support, you know, 100%. Uh here again, we've also uh uh brought in some good people. Uh Mr. Anderson uh is an ace. Uh he's going to turn some things around for us that uh we we probably

123needed for a long time and uh think we should continue that trend bringing in quality people. So thank you so much. >> Thank you Miss West Mr. Gner. >> Yeah I would just like to thank all the presenters tonight. A lot of great data. I know that takes a lot of time to kind of pull all that together and present to not only us but the citizens here of our community. A lot of good data there as well. Show a lot of good growth in certain areas and then some opportunities. So made it real easy to follow. So you know I just thank you for the time spent putting all that together and presenting to us. >> Thank you Mr. Ger. Mrs. Stler, >> I think everybody's covered pretty much everything I want to say,

124but thank you all all of you for all your presentations and for sitting through this very long almost my bedtime meeting. >> Thank you, Miss S. >> We want to get Kelly out of here. Thank thanks for your reports and I know that there's been a lot of demands I'm sure for data with our leadership which is challenging but we do appreciate and we appreciate the the presentation of it and just to be able to understand that and see that I thought it was good so I know that's a lot of work but and I was thinking that that Jerry would have appreciated >> exactly like that. So, so thank you and good school spotlight. >> Um, as you said, ditto ditto ditto. But, uh, thank you to the SBA. Um, great spotlight tonight. And,

125uh, man, what would we do without those lines, man? They are, uh, >> they do it. dollar vision program. They I know they're uh they're always there in that concession stand on Friday night. So really appreciate that >> around our school community. >> Anybody got anything else before we journ >> otherwise entertain a motion? Someone. >> Yes.