001Call this regular meeting of the board to order. Starting with the pledge of >> allegiance. [Music] I aliance 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. >> Amen. >> Adoption of agenda. It is recommended that the agenda of the August 14th, 2025 regular meeting of the board of school trustees be approved as presented. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? Apparent minutes recommended that the minutes of the July 10th, 2025 regular meeting of the board of school trustees be approved as presented. >> Motion >> second. All in favor statements, questions from the public? None. >> Administrative recommendation claims. It is recommended that the prepaid and July claims numbered 103479 through 103618 be approved as presented.
002>> Motion >> second. >> All in favor personnel recommended that Samantha Jennings be approved for hire as a bus driver for the upcoming school year. >> Motion. >> Second. All in favor? It is recommended that Candace Dohy be approved for hire as a bus driver for the upcoming school year. >> Candace has been subbing for us as a driver and due to um the need in our department, she's going to take a regular route for us. Motion >> second. All in favor. >> It's recommended that John Dulan be approved for hire as a bus driver for the upcoming school year. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor. It is recommended that Riley Garcia be approved for hire as an instructional assistant at Southeast Fountain Elementary for the 2526 school year. >> Riley is a
003recent graduate of Purdue University. Say that with pride. Um she is looking forward to using her experience as a camp counselor with us here in our resource department. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? It is recommended that Shelby Pierce Fisherro be approved for hire as a life skills assistant for the 2526 school year. Shelby has three students in our corporation. Um she was previously employed here uh through our transportation department and we look forward to having her in our life skills department. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? It is recommended that the resignation of Natalie Carneahan be approved. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> It is recommended that the resignation of Greg Dean be approved. Motion. Second. All in favor? It is recommended that the resignation of Kelsey Frzy be
004approved. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> It is recommended that the resignation of Tracy Minnik be approved. Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? is recommended that the resignation of Brian York be approved. >> Motion. >> Second. All >> in favor. >> Uh on to quotes. It's recommended that the quote from Bystate Asphalt Company in the amount of $29,800 be approved. >> This was one of the emergency approvals that I had to do before I was able to bring it to you because they were able to um repair several areas of our parking lot before school started. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? It is recommended that the quote from Acorn Sound Technology in the amount of $54,711 be approved. >> This is the company that did the sound in
005other areas of our building that we have enjoyed and appreciated. And this is to be done in our pool area where we currently do not have a very good sound system. >> Motion second. All in favor? >> It is recommended that a quote from Lee Company in the amount of $37,630 be approved. >> These are for bleachers in our pool area as we're upgrading the pool area and working on that. This is adding to that project. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? Uh other business, it is recommended that the restructuring of the maintenance department by eliminating the director of maintenance position be approved. >> Schoolboard policy number 201 says the execution of all decisions concerning operations of the school system is delegated to the superintendent. And policy number 202, review of administrative decisions,
006says in situations which arise where the board has provided no policy, such as if I can eliminate a position, the superintendent shall have the power to act, but the decision shall be subject to review by action of the board at its regular or special meeting. So, um, I'm asking you have had a chance to see what I'm doing with restructure in there and so I'm asking you to approve what I've done now that you've reviewed it. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor. [Music] >> Is recommended that the approval is granted for air to increase adult meals for the 2526 school year. Prices will reflect the following amounts. Breakfast $2.95, lunch $5.20. >> The way those prices came up, it was not something that Aramart comes up with. Each year the state sends out
007to school districts and food service providers, an amount that they have determined the minimum we can charge. The state looks at the federal reimbursement rate for free lunch, the menu certification rate, the value of the USDA donated foods, and um an amount for the severe need lunch rate. They put all that together, and that's where they get the minimum price amount. For example, the minimum adult amount um for breakfast is $2.94, but Aramark's requesting 2.95 just because of the penny. And the same thing with the lunch rate. So those are not set by Aramark per se. They're set by the state. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? It is recommended that the Southeast Fountain School Corporation Daycare Mini Mustangs Academy open their remaining spots to community families outside of the school corporation for
008the 2526 school year. >> Okay. We will have an order of preference for accepting enrollment. First and foremost, it's for the infants and toddlers of Southeast Fountain staff or students. Um available spots. Second would go to Aramark employees who work at our campus. Third would be um to families who have students currently enrolled in our district who want to enroll their younger children at the daycare. And then if spots remain after that, it would be families residing within our district boundaries. The cost for staff is an employee benefit. So it is still the lowest cost um because that's part of their benefits. But the cost for others is just slightly higher and it's still less than the average cost of daycare in um the region. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> It
009is recommended that the donation from Master Guard be recognized and approved. U Mastercard has donated to me 50 Walmart gift cards with a total value of $1,250 to be used for some appreciation activities. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? It is recommended that the donation from Back Source LLC be recognized and approved. This donation will be deposited into the Fountain Central High School ECA. >> Um the donation is for $1,600 to be applied to the future purchase of football equipment. >> Motion. >> Second. All in favor? It is recommended that the fundraiser request from Fountain Central High School swim team be approved. >> They have two fundraisers. The first is to sell blankets, Mustang blankets. Um the fundraising goal is $2,000 and they're hoping to use that to for equipment, swimsuits, etc. And the
010second fundraiser is chucka duck. Um you'll throw a rubber duck into a hula hoop during diving warm-ups and it's a 50/50 for the winner who who gets it in there. They do not have a set fundraising goal, but um they would like to use the funds raised for equipment, senior night, and warm-ups. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> All right, time for our very first school year. Southeast Fountain Elementary School. >> We're glad to be back. Um I'm I'm sure if you set foot on the campus over the summer, it looks a lot different um than it did just a couple weeks ago. Um we underwent a lot of construction. Um and we want to thank Mr. Davenport for helping with all of that. Um you know, we like to take a
011lot of credit, but with construction a lot of bumps in the road and he handles those with grace. Um we appreciate because we think it looks really great in here. Um and that's also contributed to Tanya Keith um our head custodian and her team. They didn't have a lot of time to get all the dust of things um out of the classrooms and ready. Um but but they worked hard and our teachers pitched in. Um and we had a really great turnout for back to school night and a shiny new building for it. Um but we weren't empty completely over the summer. Um we had our first IE3 summer school back in June. Um Tiffany Hilby, Carrie Bowers, and Kayla Beavers hosted 27 students um who at risk for not passing the IE3. Um, and
012of those 27, eight of them passed at the end of that summer school. And that brings our incoming third grade rate to 69% passing already before moving into third grade. Um, and it also brings our third grade up to 91% passing. So, we're very, very proud of that and appreciate their work. Um, our life skills team um, from our school as well as Cington also went through teach training um, through Indiana University. So for two days um they learned a lot of new strategies and techniques to use in their classrooms. Um that'll continue throughout the semester. So the trainer comes back four different times um to not only give new information but also kind of observe and make tweaks um and support them in those roles. The school started we welcomed over 30 new students
013um a few of those kindergarteners that we didn't see at roundup. Um and we welcomed 87 kindergarten students. So a really nice big class that we're excited to see. So, um, overall, we think it's gonna be a really great year and and we're glad to be back. >> Thank you. >> That's awesome. >> Fountain Central Junior Senior High School update. >> Yeah, I want to echo um Mrs. Morgan's sentiments about our maintenance and our custodians and Mr. Davenport in terms of helping us to get ready for the start of school. I mean, a few weeks before we were ready to bring people in, it didn't look like we were going to get there. I was confident the people that we had doing those things. I I hope you know Mr. Dan important and I we
014we've come grown close working together over the last several years and I really feel like he's getting close to wanting to block my number and probably isn't probably isn't as thrilled to hear from you know when a call is coming through he's probably got a little trepidation but um no all jokes aside it it I'm super appreciative of what we've been what we were able to do over there to get us ready and our building does look good and and um our common areas with our new floor. Um the ceiling grids all put back together. Obviously, we're all anxious to get things wrapped up and move out of this construction phase. But, um I I'm I'm certainly appreciative. Um in addition to that, I just wanted to share some things that we have going on
015in our building and what our focus has been for back to school. Um we adopted a theme for our students this year of be accountable, be respectful, and be engaged. Um, we opened the the year with this me realistically I was communicating with our staff throughout the summer. Um, we put out four newsletters that we asked our staff to to review um during the summer months. We gave them the option to review it then or spend that time reviewing it when we came back to school. Um, and we reinforced that message with our our first staff meeting. We shared it with students all week this week and they'll hear more about it tomorrow. We just want to continue to reinforce that throughout the year. our students should be accountable, respectful, engaged when they're in our
016building. It's been a really positive start to the school year. Um, and focusing on those things. As a staff, we're really focused on just doing simple better. Um, we've made some adjustments to our instructional and grading practices, so we had consistency. Um, obviously our electronic device policy, we we've been stringent on that since before it was even mandated by the state. However, technology evolves, loopholes present themselves, closed every one of those up. Um, and eliminate a lot of gray area. Uh, we update our discipline policy, which Mr. Wolf and I are are are pleased with what we put together on paper. Obviously, an idea on paper has to be put into practice as well. And then finally, we created a system to allow for improved academic intervention during our student resource time, which is um
01730 minutes four days of the week. Um you know, this is year 25 for me in education, and I I I hope I'm learning a little bit as I go along. Um our our business is a people business. We're we're we're teaching young people how to be academics, but we're also teaching them how to be productive members of society, to be good citizens. And then that takes a lot of care and a lot of a lot of finesse. It's the same when you're dealing with the adults in our building. Those things take a lot of care and a lot of finesse as well. That said, the approach over there that we're taking this year is a business-like approach and just creating consistent systems for us to operate in. And and what I've told our staff
018is those consistencies within those systems. It it it's not to stifle you. It's to give you freedom because then you don't have to worry about all the little details. We've got those systems in place. And I'm really excited about the direction that that we're trying to take our school. It's it's always been a great place. It was great before I got here, but I want to make it better. So, I I feel privileged to be leading the building over there and um looking forward to a great school year. >> Thank you very much. Um students will be will begin the uh student report next month. So, on to discussion items. Um, I just want to give you an a summary of the the um changes movement within our district. At the end of last year
019and before this year started, we had 12 non-certified staff either retire, resign, or um be terminated and four certified staff leave the district. since for the start of this year. I'm just going to quickly go through all of our new hires and welcome them again. Our new certified hires, Shelby Marshall, Taylor Pierce, Rebecca Thomas, Christopher Short. Our new non-certified hires, Maddie Jackson, Riley Beetle, Hannah Lamb, Samantha Mccclure, JT Scragggins, Jenny Jordan, Lewis Lift Fig, >> sorry, Shelby Fisero, Riley Garcia, Samantha Jennings, Candace Dohy, and John Dulan. our temporary hires. Josie Harshburgger, Katie Kraut is going to, she's one of our employees, but she's gonna do something else temporarily this year. Um, and other elementary movie movement. Um, Kristen Oppy went from life skills to special ed aid. Angie Young from fifth to second grade. Heather
020Earl second to fifth. Caleb Beaver second to third. Ashlin Geel from first to fourth. Abby Hogland fourth to fifth. Mandy C from fifth grade to third. Katie Kraut will be covering um Miss Hogland's maternity leave and Christa Webb will be covering Michaela Muna's leave of absence. So, so even though we didn't have a lot of changes, we do have a number of staff that are moving into different venues within our district and we're excited for them and for the the great things that will happen with those changes. [Music] Moving on with statements from the superintendent. Um, first of all, congratulations to Fountain Central. Um, first of all, Fountain County again for at least second year, maybe third year in a row, has the highest graduation rate in the state of Indiana. So, congratulations and thank
021you to the elementary school because those kiddos would not be graduating if it were not for the foundation that they got at the start of their schooling. So, good job. Um, I want to say thank you to all of our staff for flexibility as they're living through a construction zone. Things were in great disarray as staff returned. Some have had to hunt for furniture or other items which were moved throughout the summer. Teachers couldn't get in quite so early to prepare their rooms. Yet, the rooms and buildings looked welcoming and wonderful for openhouse and the beginning of the school year. Our teachers are miracle workers. Next, again, he doesn't like to take uh praise sometimes, but thank you to Josh Davenport, who is managing all of the moving pieces tied to all of the projects
022taking place. The floors look great. The pool renovations, new gym floor, and HVAC projects are all underway, and Josh is doing an excellent job of managing all of the challenges that have been encountered along the way. Josh cannot control delays and the surprises that are encountered throughout the projects, but he works hard to hold our contractors on task and accountable and works with building leaders to facilitate all of the movement needed for the projects. So, thank you, Josh. Um, thank you to Megan Fisher, our nurse at Fountain Central. She stopped me after school on day one. The Fountain Central Nurses Office was one of the first rooms where the new HVAC was installed. She wanted to tell me how wonderful it was to be in a room that wasn't too hot or too cool, and
023I truly appreciate her feedback. Um, I have a colleague acknowledgement to share from Angie Dohy. She had an unexpected last minute resignation from a driver after all route changes had been finalized. And it was on Friday. The school was beginning on Monday. Three drivers, Dwayne Bush, April Bush, and Tammy Pile, each reached out to Angie right away to offer support and to volunteer to transport students from that route that no longer had a driver. It is so wonderful to work in a district where we all want to support each other in any way that we can. And then finally, a thank you to Angie Dohy. There's a bus driver shortage everywhere and districts are struggling to find ways to cover all routes. Since the end of the school year last summer, we have had a
024number of drivers who have retired or resigned. And Angie has worked non-stop to revise routes and reduce the number of routes in order to save money and be more efficient. With the curveball she got on Friday, she worked throughout the weekend to come up with a new plan to get all students picked up until a replacement bus driver could be found. And miraculously, a neighboring district reached out Monday because they had an applicant but didn't have a vacancy. Angie immediately reached out to the candidate and was able to hire him for our district. But she has just continually worked to look how she can save um costs for the district with our transportation. I truly appreciate it. That's it. Okay. statements or concerns from the board. >> I just want to say um thank you
025for the daycare. It was exciting to get to vote for that. Uh all the work that went into making that happen. I think that's an awesome thing that our school is offering to our community. So, I think that's wonderful. And also thanks to the transportation department at Angie because these challenges are everywhere. And so really really appreciate her and all the bus drivers getting everybody here and great job on the I read percentage. That's awesome. >> I want I want to kind of link on to what Dr. Grimes said about thanking our staff and administrators. I know this was not an easy summer to get through and get back started, but as she said, as I seen um pictures and we walked through the school and and I didn't hear a lot of scuttlebutt the
026first few days. So, um it takes it takes a lot of work and we want to give you guys a lot of credit for that. um and know that you're all very appreciated by us to to run this school for us and make sure our kiddos are getting the education that they need uh and and the attention and the loved and you can see that in you guys' faces and in your voices when you're talking. Just know that's very very appreciated. Um I give a special thank to Josh. I know he doesn't like this, but he's learning a lot this year, not just about education. So, um, I know it's it's a struggle, Josh. This is this is good for your future. You're you're going to be a a veteran at construction projects by the
027time we get through this. >> It's going on your resume. You don't you don't need a resume. We're not allowing you to have a resume. Uh, but yes, seriously, thank you. And then, uh, second, I want to send a thanks out to Greg Dean. I know, you know, he's, uh, been our basketball coach for the last four years, I think. um had some good success here. Um and not just as a basketball coach, but as a person. Greg, Greg was a really good guy. Um had good relationships with his players. Um you could just tell he cared about the school and the players. Uh so I want to give him a thanks and wish him luck at his next venture. And then I want to welcome Coach Lou to the program. I'm pretty excited about
028getting him right. He's a he's a good coach, has a lot of history. Um and I think he'll be good for our program. So looking forward to to all the athletics, but um especially you know watching Lou take that program and move it to the next level. So that's all I had. Document signing we have finished. So got a motion for adjournment. Motion