001We have a quorum called meeting to order. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Just Just sure. Mr. Ashbrook, can you hear us? Yeah, I can hear Okay. Um Just real briefly, we do have another new face tonight. Um That's you, right, Nick? Stepping in for filling in for Dave Hoffman's seat. Um Would you like to introduce yourself briefly or Sorry to put you on the spot. >> Okay. Um I'm Betsy. I've lived in Union County most of my life. I went away to college and then came back. Um or Liberty. Um I have three children. I have a seventh grade son, Asher. Um
002a 10th grader, Braylon. And then a 18-year-old that graduated last year, Talon. Okay. And a husband. Sorry, Corey. >> [laughter] >> Betsy will be um finishing the remainder of Mr. Hoffman's uh time on the board um till the end of the this year. So, moving on to item three, approval for John Seibert conflict of interest disclosure statement. Uh what this is um since uh Mr. Seibert does um uh contracting on the side, uh in the order to um continue to serve on the board uh as well as still uh work his 9:00 to 5:00 job, uh that you need to fill out a conflict of interest disclosure statement, uh which you all need to vote on tonight to accept, and then I will turn it in tomorrow to the clerk of the court. So moved.
003Second. If there are all the motion Susan with a second, any questions or discussion? All those in favor? I. I. I. All those opposed? And abstain? Mr. Seibold, would you like to abstain? Yes, abstain. >> [snorts] >> Jerry, I would assume you uh Yes, I did. Okay. Okay, moving on to amend the agenda. Um So, I have the Union County 4-H organization proposal. Um I'll let you Well, um I went and met with the 4-H uh board uh last month and uh one of the things that uh you know, I I talked to Mr. McCurdy uh about earlier on before I even got down here to Union County. Uh talked about the 4-H uh the facilities uh that we have right there on our campus that I believe the newest building was what, 1951 or
004somewhere abouts. Uh and uh you know, when I met with them they they were trying to you know, figure out you know, what can we do with the space we have, what can we do if we had you know, more space uh which is part of the reason why they're here tonight. Um but you know, as I said was you know, my opinion was uh you know, figure out what you guys want and then go bigger. Um because I would love to see you know, personally, I mean, with uh as as I I I said earlier tonight, I've never been so welcome in any place that I would love to get to the point where Union County becomes the destination for you know, anything 4-H, anything you know, where we can have they were having
005a concert at you know, on the 4-H grounds to uh raise money for this you know the kids that are participating but just you know we would actually like I said be the destination where when you talk in the state of Indiana 4-H your thoughts is Union County. So we have our our some of our board members as well as our architect. So I would So they were wanting to do a presentation today? They were they were going to present, yes. Okay. So just to This was added on to the to the agenda? Yeah. So you're working on the amendment now. Yeah. To amend the agenda, so We need to move this to a different spot. So since they are here why don't we move this to item 10 push everything else down. >> [laughter]
006>> So moved. So I do have a motion by Drew, so Second that motion. So motion by Drew Darrell with the second. >> [clears throat] >> Any questions or discussion on the amendment to the agenda? All those in favor? I. All those opposed? So we'll get you guys in as quickly as we can. Okay, [snorts] moving on to public participation I do not have anyone signed up. Building updates we'll start with the high school. Hello everyone. Please to announce that we have gained a student this time of year that's an oddity so we are at 333 students. Um I don't have any idea if any kids are thinking about leaving, but staying steady at this time of year is awesome. I do have some pictures that I'd like for you to look at. Uh there's
007pictures of our FCCLA club. They spent some time out [snorts] of state at uh national conference. Or they were at state conference actually and uh I'll special attention to Trinity Collins there. She was one of 16 students in the state to receive the ultimate leadership award. Uh we think she's the only the second member in school of history to get that award. The other students pictured there, you can see they're holding medals. They won lots of awards. So, our FCCLA group is constantly doing things in our school, in our building, and sponsoring things. And so, they're one of our more active groups. On the back of that page, you see pictures of uh Tara and Nathan who were honored as Hall of Fame members or athletic Hall of Fame. Um Tara's from the class of
00829 2019 and Nathan is from 1997. I would also like to thank Ryan Overholt for doing such a great job of keeping our Hall of Fame and all the pictures of our athletes in the hallway. You don't see that in many schools and he does a good job of making sure we honor people every year. Next page shows our gymnasts. A lot of people don't even know we have gymnasts, but we do have two girls that represented us as gymnastics participants this year. They would always go with the Connersville team. Wherever Connersville went, they would follow. But our two girls not only uh followed Connersville, but they were very successful. They were able to advance from the sectional and uh they went on to regional. Uh in in in the Indianapolis area, I saw Eliana
009today. She told me she got 10th overall. Didn't advance to the state meet, but being 10th is awesome. And I believe that Autumn got 18th. I may have that backwards. Anyway, there were a lot of girls there. I've never been to the regional in Minneapolis area, and there were lots of teams and lots of girls, so I'm very proud of these two girls. They are very active in our school, but they spend a lot time with the gymnastics program in Connersville. I don't know if you watched, but last week our school was all about FFA day. There was so many activities sponsored by Cassie Red and Peter Volk. There was something every day. They had their usual green hand ceremony, but uh there was something scheduled each day, and the whole school participated in a
010lot of those events. I'd also like to congratulate Jordan Logue. Uh she was recognized as one of eight semi-finalists in the star uh state star agricultural uh placement program. She is trying to be one of the final four. She's trying to be a finalist, so she has that to to go through. And then our small engines team from the FFA group ag group has shown some success. There's a picture of uh Luke Ross and Rhett Logue, who placed second. Uh they advanced to the state contest in April. And then there's a picture of Colton Logue and Colton Ellis, who's actually an eighth grader. They placed first in our invitational, so our small engine team is doing very well. Uh I've included a picture of Nick Pett Watterson, who scored his 1,000 1,000th basketball point. Not
011very many people get to do that in their lifetime. Uh some of us didn't score any, so he's he's way above average. And then on the back page is something that came to us this week. Two of our students, uh they were invited to take some of their artwork to uh Changing Climates, Changing Communities Exhibition at Oxford Community Arts Center. That's the actual artwork of Colby Bruns and Madeline English. So, if you saw that in a larger scale, you would see how amazing their talent is. So, we're very proud of them. And then I have listed uh upcoming home events for you to attend. Of course, we've got the musical that starts Thursday. There's a show on Thursday, Friday, and two on Saturday. And uh all through the next month up until our next board
012meeting, you can see some of the events that are starting. Our athletic teams were outside today practicing for their first official practice. That was a great day. And they were happy to be out there. Let's hope they can stay out more than they have to come back in. Thank you. Uh we're moving on to the middle school. Good evening. Um our attendance our enrollment is at 283. That's the same as it was in February. We are still down five from last year this same time. So, but we're the same as we were last month. Uh first up, we are um using opportunity two checkpoint for our checkpoint two for I learn. Um we did not it's optional, so it's really just for your own school. Um but we are doing it the opportunity two um
013as like a check for our intervention that we're doing. So, we've tried to start this um intervention for our a selected group of students. Um and we want to make sure that that is effective. So, we're going to use um this checkpoint two to show our if our students grew or not and then evaluate our intervention process. So, we just have uh preliminary results for now. We don't even have everyone quite tested. But if you see um the corporation from the top one, um that's the bottom of the top section, is our opportunity one for our corporation, and the bottom one is opportunity two. We already have shown some great growth, and so our intervention that we're using for those students that have already tested so far um has been pretty effective, so we're really
014excited about that. We are going to do um opportunity three right when we come back from break from spring break, so um that'll be our next one. Our um GO Award winner for the month was Paula Farthing, who was recognized by Anita Carter for her unwavering support of her staff, her leadership, and her heart for her students, so we wanted to thank Mrs. Farthing. Um we had both choir and band performances um last month, so the eighth grade got to jump up and join the high school choir to showcase um their talents, and then the sixth and seventh got to hold their own performance um where they sing separately and then together. Um the bands um were also performed, and they packed the the gym full. So, we had I think more people come into
015the band performance than we had some of our last basketball meet our basketball games, so um it was really exciting to see so many parents come out and so family members support their kids. Um we hosted um a middle school wrestling local wrestling tournament. Six of our wrestlers placed in the top three for their weight class, and they just finished the TEC championship, um where eight of our wrestlers were podium finishers, placing in the top six, so our wrestlers have one more meet um this week, and then they're done for the season, but um they're doing a really great job. Then we have here our middle school dance. Student Council hosted a dance this last month. Um they we had a ton of parent and staff volunteers who came out and supported the kids on
016the Friday night of Valentine's Day. So, that was a big event for us. Um and then upcoming events are basketball's done, wrestling's almost done. So, um we really have track and golf that are getting started and getting up running, but they don't participate in competitions until April. So, kind of a little lull for us. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Moving on to college corner. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening um our enrollment has also stayed the same since last month. Um so, that's [clears throat] good. Uh we have Basket Bash, that's our big event coming up next on April 8th. So, after we get back from spring break, um we're finishing up I Read. Uh have most of our results, pretty exciting. So, I'll share those next month um when everybody's all done. We
017also are doing kindergarten roundup on April 10th. Um and we'll finish up I Learn Checkpoint 3 and then the summative window opens on April 13th. So, I'm moving into testing season. Um those are our students of the month for respect. We celebrated them on Friday uh with a pep rally. Um some February photos. So, Q and U got married in kindergarten, which is a big deal. They make the quack sound. Uh so, that was a lot of fun. We had an actual wedding reception um and bubbles and all the things. So, that was super fun. We also had our first ever we had um PTO sponsored an event at Gogan Ice Arena. And so, we paid for our students um and parents and they got to skate for like an hour and a half. So,
018uh they had a lot of fun. We had a lot of sore ankles for all week. Um but it was a it was a good time had by all. I I did not skate because uh I don't need to injure anything. So, uh >> [laughter] >> No, uh Oh my goodness. Exactly why I didn't, Bruce. >> [laughter] >> All right. Any questions? Any emilias? Good evening. Our enrollment is up by one, so we're at 333 students. I think we're tied with the high school. We had two wrestlers um participate in the middle school wrestling meet um and they placed pretty well for being fifth graders. Bryce Baker received a first place finish and Eli Helms a fourth place. We have lots of fun events coming up. We're finishing our I-Ready testing this week. We'll have
019a good behavior reward. Next week we'll have um family fun night from 5:00 to 6:30 and then the next day will be beach day for our students. And then when we come back from spring break, we start testing season. I didn't put it on here, but our kindergarten roundup is April 15th. We have some students of the month for last month problem solving and resourcefulness there. The next page just shows our family fun night flyer. We'd love to see you there and join our families. Our um kids heart challenge best year we've ever had. Amazing. She hit Mrs. Treadway loves to know we hit $20,000 donated to the Heart Association. So absolutely amazing. The kids had a blast. Um [clears throat] they played and jump roped and basketball all day in the gym and then
020they got popsicles as rewards for their hard work, so they just did awesome. Kindergarten wrapped up a unit on um camping and so we have kindergarten rooms that look like giant tents. They had campfires. They were reading by flashlight, so just a whole lot of fun happening down there in kindergarten. Thank you. Good. moving on to accept donations. We have a total amount of $600. So moved. Second. You have a motion just for a second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Okay, moving on to consent agenda. You would like to explain that? The claims docket or So, the claims docket on here is Yes, so it does not The claims docket is not listed on there. There was a few of the pending claims that was already done
021before I took office today. So, the previous February payrolls were not listed on there. Um on line item number 11, you will see the contract for administrative associates. That is Bob Covington is going to come in. He's a school finance guru who is going to help us and me be better for the April board meeting. So, sorry that the numbers wasn't exactly what you're used to, but that's also the claims docket why it was so low what it's compared to be. And then there's a few out of state trips, fundraiser, and some hires and resignations. And uh motion to consent agenda. >> [clears throat] >> So moved. Susan with a motion. Second. Jessica with a second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor? What's that? Yeah, the the coaching recommendations or recommendations. But yeah.
022Not for this month. It just stays in there then. Hm? It just stayed in there then. Yeah. Okay, so Susan with a motion, Jessica with a second. Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Any abstain? Moving on to old business, College Corner Board updates. I think John's going to do it. Uh Everything other than the massive amount of water that uh the auxiliary Brookville Lake that is in the east side. Uh you know. Other than that, board-wise, um everything is going very well down there. Uh >> [clears throat] >> Christina's looking forward to high turnouts for kinder- the kindergarten round-up. That seems to be very huge down there. So, you know, kids are looking forward to that. They're enjoying time out. And just a lot of good things happening
023down south. Is there any water damage to the school or anything like that? >> no. Do you have a projection on kindergarten? No, I think it was over 25 maybe right now, but that's it's still really early. Early? Yeah. If there's nothing else, we'll move on to new business. Uh 4-H presentations. Thank you for being patient. >> [laughter] >> Well, I I appreciate the the introduction, the opportunity to Yeah. I just want to say Either end of it. Thanks. Um >> [clears throat] >> I I met I had the pleasure of meeting Steve when he was still with Richmond and we worked together on a few projects. So, um that's where we crossed paths and he was asking what should I know down here about some of the things going on in New County. And
024one of the things that the 4-H board had reached out to was some thoughts about potentially other sites, you know, opportunities to expand. So, we were talking through some of those um at the time. And so, I I told, you know, Steve to be aware when he comes Sorry, Mr. Jones, I don't know how formal we are down here. Uh to keep an eye out for the 4-H group because I thought it was important if possible to stay on site. We've seen a lot of programs with schools where that overlap, especially in a community department community like this. I mean, that's a pretty important thing to have. So, you know, I'm always looking for what's the synergies and opportunities to to really kind of have a win-win situation. So, I thought, you know, if there's
025an opportunity to stay here, this makes sense. So, what you're looking at is really three options that are very similar in a lot of ways. The 4-H is looking group is looking for ways to really invest and rebuild the structures they've got. As Steve mentioned, the structures are getting pretty old there. They really don't work well. You know, ventilation's a problem, access is a problem for older patrons, you know, grandparents to come see their grandkids, things like that. So, they'd like to fix the structures up, but obviously parking is also a big deal there, too. So, the big thing that they would like, I guess some support, some help with, are opportunities to take advantage of some of that ground that's just there adjacent to the ball fields to develop some additional parking. I don't
026think I don't want to speak for anybody, but I don't think the ask is necessarily a financial donation. It's just the ability to do some work on that land. So, what we had looked at was you've got about 58 parking spots in that parking lot that's there adjacent to the current facilities. Um what we were looking at, and we walked the site again with Mr. Jones and the rest of the 4-H board a week or so ago, there's really two areas that are kind of flat in that ground. So, that's what's represented by on that first page with option one, the 241 additional parking areas that are indicated there. I think the question then gets to be to how do you get between the two parking lots. We'd originally talked, as you see on option
027one, of getting those drives away from the ball fields to the extent possible. I think the challenge that you see there are those little weird orange squiggly lines, which are the contour lines. And you can see them labeled. It's a little hard to see, but kind of down where the black dashed line is, you'll see a 1,020 and a 1,015. So, you're looking at 5 ft of drop between those two lines. I mean, that that's pretty rolly polly when you talk about people going up and down hills and pulling trailers potentially for 4-H uses. So, that was really what got us on to if you look at page two, really probably more pulling the drives over closer to the ball diamonds. You know, and that's getting pretty tight, but in fairness, that's a 20-ft drive
028that you're seeing going through there. So, that's 20-ft wide. You know, there's actually quite a bit more ground than you think when you start really walking it. That does start to cut into the parking, so you can see we only get 35 and 37 parking spots in each of those, but again, that's going to significantly expand the parking that's there. Then, you know, if once you start down a path, you just start adding things on. So, number three then was really looking at, you know, if we're thinking about that, what about the potential to You see a darker gray area kind of up a little further north of the ball fields. What if there's a potential maybe even do some gravel to really pull trailers in, do parking, really do a loop and get back
029[snorts] out to really allow that 35 and 37 to be parking for cars and potentially visitors to the fairgrounds or frankly even the ball diamonds. It really kind of serves everybody at the end of the day. And the gravel would pretty have a pretty low impact. I mean, you still, you know, run and do cross country and other things up in that area where it really wouldn't impede anything and again, allow for additional school parking on off times cuz reality is 4-H just get out of pretty minimal impact on that area most of the year, but this would greatly expand the potential for how that space is going to be used. And I think what the fairgrounds is really looking for is they would like to go start doing some fundraising. I mean, they've got
030the goals to make this all happen. They just needed to understand, [clears throat] is this even a possibility to entertain any of these options that are presented here. In addition to the parking, then they're looking at again rebuilding some of the barns. You see the sizes that are indicated there. Looking at 260 by 120 barns and then maybe like a show ring in the middle. It's a consolidation to the 60 by 20 to maybe a 120 by 120. Um and then there's been talk about what to do with some of the arena space out there. Does that have to stay? Does something get done? Does nothing get done? I think it's all going to be contingent on fundraising and what can or can't they do. And we did look at other options, too. Was there,
031you know, a strategy to reorganize some of the buildings to expand? At the end of the day, starting to move buildings was going to move them farther west towards the north where the parking is, which didn't make a lot of sense when you're really trying to bring families together and really show things in one common area. But I think the the good thing about this is it's really, you know, it's parking, so it's pretty minimal cost, pretty minimal impact. It allows for multiple drives to get around the barns, you know, increases the parking lot for the school at the end of the day. So, that's really I think what the ask is is just is this even a possibility the school board would be willing to entertain as allowing the 4-H board and I understand
032there's going to be a whole lot of legal stuff that somebody can have to work through. But would it be a possibility to entertain this to kind of help the 4-H and internally help the school with the additional parking area? And nothing you're looking at is set in stone. These are very high level. We're just kind of looking at it spatially what can or can't work. I mean, if the answer was yes, we'd want to have, you know, a group get the two sides together and talk a little further about what this would look like. We were just trying to understand from 4-H's standpoint does this even make sense? Can we even get stuff in here or not? So, and I think the answer is yes, we can. It would just be further exploring that
033if there wasn't interest in moving forward, a willingness to move forward in this dialogue. So. So, we're not voting on anything tonight. Has the youth league been I mean, are they aware of any of this yet? >> We have not talked to them yet. >> Okay. Then obviously the athletic department here are not aware of anything. Okay. It's just the very beginning stages to even see if there's even a possibility to even use the land. Okay. Exploring our options, what options are available and what we can do. Cuz I think it's a the board would say no then none of those other conversations make lost sense. We didn't really want to you know, it's this chicken and egg thing. Who do you ask first? We felt, you know, it's really the school's land. That was
034the first stop before we really started to engage other folks on any of these conversations. Last thing we wanted was you all to hear through the grapevine, "Hey, did you hear that 4-H is talking to everybody else?" And >> [laughter] >> Did anybody look up the deeds to that ground? Uh I mean, we just looked up on GIS and the ownership and kind of adjacent ownerships and all that, but haven't gone any further than that. Every time that uh they wanted another ball field, they would come and they would come they would go back though and find out what the deed says. >> That's true. I mean I think it was kept it was it was all written down in there. Davis family gave up gave up ground. But they didn't want to make it
035exclusive way from anyone having it. Just as long as you'll check that out and Well, presumably >> See if we're okay there. Presumably that would have to be part of the legal, you know, confirm and there'd have to be some kind of a long-term agreement, you know, that's going to get set up. It'd be predicated on all that. So, you got to understand, there's a whole lot of processes that we'd have to go through with. I mean, even if at some point the board said yes, we're willing to explore this, there's probably months of stuff to go through here to even understand what this could look like. So. I think it's nice you're looking at staying around cuz I know there's been talk about, you know, moving. And I think that 4-H is definitely one
036of those programs that a lot of our kids participate in. Um and I'm also glad to see that it's not like expanding it so big that, you know, when you take your kids to the fair, you can drop them off and they're they can literally run around there the entire day from 8:00 in the morning till 10:00 at night and you know that they're safe. Um so I think this is a nice presentation to to show us the idea behind what you're hoping for. What's the 90 by 200 up in the horse arena? It's the existing horse arena right now. So that's that's the area. >> it. It's It's actually oval shape, but we talked about enclosing that to make the make a larger space where we could have events and things happen there. But
037it just that's going to be a funding thing, you know, just deciding what we could do in that space. But right now that's the area the horse arena. >> [clears throat] >> When you do these improvements, are you hoping to do things like these by phase? Is that more than one stages, yeah. As as funding dictates. Is this parking just going to be strictly for 4-H? Like is it going to be closed off when 4-H is not when the fair's not in session? It's just going to be open parking. Well, we do have gates to limit it if it's necessary. Like right now we work with the ball fields and stuff on the gates to so they can't just like drive around the whole lot. There's a lot of grass around our buildings and right
038now it's really soft, so if you open [clears throat] it up wide open people would just, you know, tear up the grounds. We all agreed to put some gates in to kind of limit that traffic, but we with this parking lot, you know, that opens up a lot of opportunities for the ball fields, too, so um we would we would 100% love to work together utilize that, you know, make it more available for everybody. So if we don't vote on anything tonight, what's the next step? I think we would just need to see probably more what you guys are looking towards, like what final option would be, and then obviously the discussion with the youth league, the athletic department would need to occur, and then check in the deed on everything. Um Do we need
039a vote tonight on this to at least grant them I believe Yeah, we can do that. That's what I mean, I just, you know, Creek Point that I mean 4-H, FFA, and the effects so many kids and so many families are um our community. I mean, it's uh and I mean, I look, you know, as we get the we right now we have a Division 1 pitcher that we're going to have plenty of people come to see, and that frees up a whole thing, and gives you a whole lot of parking. Uh we talked about the, you know, like a nice overflow come fall nights with football that it's not a bad walk coming through the you know through the woods past the uh 4-H grounds into the football stadium. So, I mean it's I
040think it's a win it's a win-win for for everybody. So, Should we check with the first just to make sure like we can grant this? I mean Well, and You said Davis was And Mr. Harvey brought up a good point. This uh the When we did our walk-through, there was some communication between that you know that this one point of belonged to 4-H, then it got you know annexed by the schools, but there was still question which that would be a trip down to the clerk's office to find out where It's titled as school, but they want to make clear in there from what I remember that 4-H had access. So, to all of where the parking lot is currently or sitting like in these drawings. Is that what you're talking about? That was still
041part of that, yeah. Okay. All the way to ball fields. Anything you've got outlined in that in that black. It's kind of orange most of that area where the ball fields and that parking lot that was ground to the Davis family. Mhm. Donated produce for the 4-H and you know kids activities there. Like you said, there needs to be some exploration to find out what the deed says just to make sure that if something was implied there that we need to follow that. Should we look into that before we say that we can grant any if we can get an answer before the April meeting, maybe we can put this on the April meeting um to at least approve to move forward with the project. Not necessarily I guess the plan, the exact plan, but
042at least move forward with exploring the project. Is that fine with you guys? Absolutely. So, we'll we'll do some digging on our end and take a vote in April to at least give you guys a yep, go ahead and move forward with trying to figure something out. Okay. What about another ball field, is it I don't think a ball field's going up anytime soon. When is your next meeting? April is the first Thursday in April. So, that'll be before we meet. So, you'd probably narrow down like a plan. Which one you We we probably could, I'm guessing. But we want your input too, you know, what if if we're to use that ground it kind of furthers [clears throat] the plan. And we could talk to the youth league as well. And the parks department
043to see if they would be interested in doing it as well. I guess I know the cross country course I think runs through there so the option for I think the cross country course runs through there in some fashion. >> There's there's trails kind of weaving through all that, yeah. So, I don't know if any of that that big lot would be blocking any of that. Um I guess that'd be the question. Is there enough of a comfort level that we talk with some of these other groups in the meantime while you're looking at legals? Are they comfortable with that and kind of meet maybe in the middle in April when we come back and we can probably in advance of the meeting >> See, I don't see any problem with that. For clarity, who
044looks at the legal part? Sounds like you all wanted to. Yeah, I mean it's McCreary. We can start it where I can we can start this tomorrow. So, I mean it's tech it's really your property so ultimately at the end of the day, I mean, it's going to be what you're legally comfortable with. I just want to make sure the language is correct before we say, "Yep, go ahead." So. Well, and at the end of the day, it's going to kind of like all these projects go, I mean, it's going to take a village to raise this project, you know, because my experience is what's going to happen is there's going to be some grant funding opportunities that 4-H can't take, but maybe the school can or maybe the foundation can, and there's going to
045be money coming in in various fashions. But you need this kind of vision. And and more than that is probably, you know, some 3D pictures and things get people excited about it, and that's when you start getting the funding. So that's the steps that I see happening in probably another 12 to 18 months before there's really any traction and funding starting to come. So that's why I say it's going to be a long process that we're going to be going into. I just want to get off on the right footing that we all are comfortable with where we're going with this. So you want your copies back? I'll take them if you want, or you can hold on to them. Might as well. And I can send digital copies to you though in PDF. I
046can just send them over. Yeah, we'll get something on the agenda for April 1st. Thank you. I'm a visual person, but do you need it back? No. Can I can I keep it? I'm a visual person. So am I. I like it. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. I'll say you don't have to stay if you don't want to. It's real exciting stuff. All right, moving on to item 11, uh contract with the administrative associates. Uh what we're requesting the administrative associates, they are a basically a firm that um will help in our restructuring reorganization of our central office. Um they uh Bob Coddington is he'll be uh uh once we sign the contract get the contract signed and get it to them, they can they can start with us and it
047will help Sarah and Lisa learn their roles as well as get us on on track with where we need to go for Bob Coddington was one of the architects to um get Muncie out of the hole they were in. Uh so we're looking at just making sure we can start fresh and get everything in order. Make sure our house is in order so we can get moving forward. So uh they uh the contract is for 50 hours. Uh they don't believe they need the total of 50 hours. It was just easier than having to come back to you guys and hey we need 10 more hours or you need 20 more hours. So this this be the blanket of you know we have 50 hours but they don't figure it's going to take 50 hours.
048But we do want to get started to make sure like I said make sure our house is in order. Um and we'll go from there. So moved. Daryl with the motion. Second. Daryl with the second. Any questions or discussion? This was recommended by our attorney. Yes. >> Yes. Yes, sir. Okay. And the 50 hours is just the total time. >> That's the total time. Okay. Yeah, because if what we were working we would have said all right let's do it for 10 hours and then we hit that 10 hour mark, we couldn't do anything until we come back to you guys saying hey we need 10 more hours. So this just be in the uh I I talked to Steve was it was it this that he said we're we'll bill you for the time
049we have. We're not going to you know if we say 50 hours and we only use 20, we're not going to give you you know we're not going to say 50 hours. It's going to be what it used. So, we will we will keep that track. It's just this will be a good way to start this getting our you know like I said our house in order and internal controls and checks and balances that we need to have a place in central office. Any other questions or discussion? When would this start? We can start tomorrow. He's going to come on introduce himself tomorrow and then we can get this sent we can sign off on it and get it sent you know tonight I can you know scan it and send it to him and
050we can be ready to go so we can get started. Is this mileage from his house to here or >> Uh from Richmond. Richmond? Yep. Any other questions or discussion? Motion by Daryl, second by Drew. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? And moving on to item 12, approval to designate Sarah Adams to perform all district treasurer duties necessary for the proper operation of the office. Uh basically what I'm asking is that we grant Sarah Adams the power to be able to pay the bills, you know, write checks and you know, she's going to be mainly working with Bob Coddington to make sure she gets to know that role as well. You know, as I said is that I I'm a big fan of having a succession planning to where you know, somebody go
051out and get hit by a bus and you don't have somebody that knows that position and I've asked the guy to remember it for all the people in the office to learn each other's jobs. So in the event that something catastrophic were to happen we're not missing a beat and we can we can just move the the next person up. So I would I'm asking for Sarah to be given the the power to say get write checks, pay bills, all of the um activities that the treasurer should be doing. So moved. So moved. Jessica with the second. Any questions or discussion? For the sake of minutes does it does it does this need a formal resolution or does it have to be read? Um I'm good with not but Meredith is probably good with not.
052Just read it over make sure. If this were in put in the minutes like this Yeah. Both things. Then we wouldn't have to. I think we'll be all right that way always it's in the minutes. Cuz this is what we're recommending or what the recommendation is. Question. Yep. With that how would we have a bigger responsibilities? I mean does this change like do we need to look at what we can do or what you know all the things that go along with that? Yes. Right now we're just trying to make sure we get everything filled in till we can. That would be a discussion item too. >> [clears throat] >> So your title at this time is not changing. The responsibilities are. Yeah. So. That for the next meeting to see how this is all
053going and go from there. Any other questions or discussion on this? Okay, I'll have a motion by Susan saying I got one. Are you looking at maybe restructuring that in the central office cuz you talked about everybody knows what everybody else is doing and that may be a different situation than we just have one treasurer. Well, we I just want everybody I mean we're not changing the titles per se right now. Um right now we're just trying to get um let's say get out of the hole and um get back on track with this organization-wise. Um but what I'm I'm asking is that like I said for each person to know what the other person does. Um and I'm not saying that you know to exact every day every minute but the fact that if,
054you know, like I said, if if Sarah, you know, or something were to happen to her, that at least I can kind of get somebody on track until we get somebody in there, but we keep things going and not miss a beat. So, I just want to make sure that we're we're >> disagreeing with your idea, but cuz I I think it's probably important not to just have one person know what's going on. I think Well, and like I said, that will help with internal controls that we can make sure that like I said, we have as I said earlier, checks and balances. So, we can, you know, stay on top of uh any any kind of uh expenditures and uh receipts, things like that. I just want to revisit it, too. I just want
055to make sure that it's noted that I I'm just one member of the board, but if these ladies are doing extra work and and we have you know, they're trying to do their job and extra jobs, that we compensate [snorts] them appropriately. And when we bring in a new business administrative associate at a rate that we're willing to pay that, I'm willing to pay our people so they stick around. I I love that idea. Okay, so again, we have motion by Susan, yet second by Jessica. Any other questions or discussion this time? You're are you asking like we're not eliminating a position or anything, right? Correct, is what you're Right. Okay. Okay. Just It's just a Yeah. It's like Steve said, checks and balances. I wouldn't have that idea before Okay, so we'll move to
056a vote. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Okay, moving on to item 13, approval to add superintendent to bank accounts. So moved. Daryl with the motion. I'll second. Second, Mallory. Daryl with the motion, Mallory with the second. Any questions or discussion? Who's currently on the bank accounts? Currently, um our treasurer or the former treasurer was, um and they've been removed, um and now, like I said, we've been through the process, but we're going to get approved by you guys for for myself as well as uh Sarah. Can we add those? So she already Are you already on it? I am already on it. He just He just needs approval to be on our bank account. Second signature. Yes, he needs a board approval before we can do a signature card. Okay. So then
057at that point it'll just be the two of you on the bank account. No, our current district treasurer is still on there at this time. Okay. But does not have any access. Correct. Okay. Okay, so we have motion by Daryl, second by Mallory. Any other questions or discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Okay, moving on to item 14, approval of new SRO, Shawn O'Brien. Sheriff, would you I'd love to. As I was listening to Randy Rudd give his report, I heard him say something about Nick Watson reaching a thousand points, and I got to thinking about my glory days at Kitchel. So now you know how old I am. And I played center and guard at Kitchel. I sat at the center of the bench and guarded the water bucket. So,
058uh But, no, uh after months of interviews and uh applications and Facebook posts and uh talking to a lot of people, I'm very pleased to announce that we've hired Shawn O'Brien as the second SRO. And uh not only is uh he going to be a big asset to the both the school and the sheriff's office, uh he's also a 26-year veteran of the Richmond Police Department, retired recently, uh member of the SWAT team, and him and Deputy Shoemaker uh know each other very well, so I think they'll work very well together here as well. So, uh I'm pleased to introduce Shawn O'Brien. >> [applause] >> Okay, I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Student made a motion. Second. Now there was a second. Any questions or discussion? So, how long is Is this like through a
059grant or am I mistaken? It's been a while. A large part of it is through a grant. Okay. And how long is that Is that sustainable? >> grant so far. Okay. Might be renewable. Yes. Okay, any other questions or discussion? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Mr. O'Brien, would you like to introduce yourself now? Absolutely. Uh my name is Shawn again, Shawn O'Brien. Uh I'm coming here to the Richmond Police Police Department. Uh I've been married for 29 years. Uh I have two children uh ages of 20 25 and 22, so we're empty nesters now. Uh Uh, my wife works for Northeastern School District and uh, Northern Wayne County. Obviously, I'm down here in South and Union. Uh, we do live in Richmond, but we are invested um, not only in our
060respective communities. But, the southern and now northern. So, we're we're invested in the in the region. Um, yeah, I retired from Richmond PD after 26 years. And heard through Mrs. Adams uh, that there was an opening down here and applied for it and I was lucky enough to be hired by the sheriff. So, I'm excited to be here. This is a my sixth day at work and I um, am enjoying it immensely. Still still taking all in, taking learning a lot, but um, it's really been a great experience and a great transition. Welcome. Thank you for taking on the position. Thank you. One of my first field experiences was in Richmond with your wife. Oh, okay. Many years ago. Okay. 25 years ago. >> [laughter] >> Not Kittle time, but Thank you. Mr. President, I
061also last also like to add that the week of spring break, Mr. Brown will be attending the SRO school. Okay. Okay, moving on to item 15, recommendation to approve the 2026-2027 school calendar. All right, as you see in your board packet that we put it out to you, staff and went across, we had 96 responses, which is quite increased from the 15 people that were on the on the committee. And as you see, we had 59.4% of people wanted the the first choice, which was that start on the uh the the teacher day on the 3rd and the 4th, and the students start on the 5th. So, what I would like is for um you to accept the the early early start on the 3rd and 4th for teachers, and uh go along with 60%
062of our It wasn't just the teaching staff, but all the support staff as well had the option to uh We I mean we actually had people come down. We showed them how to get onto on the on the uh web or on the uh drive to put their vote in. So, custodians, uh kitchen staff, everybody had an option, you know, an opportunity to uh to vote on this. I think you're the third time here. Oh, yeah. Oh, the calendar? This this It was done before. There are handouts. I think you can ask. It's common. Really? Oh, it's common. Are we Are you guys questioning which So, it's the same as A and B last last month. Okay. Okay. Any changes to that? No, it was A, B, C last month. Well, C was thrown off
063the table, I think, last month. We did that? I thought we just tabled it. I'm pretty sure that C was I thought we just tabled the whole thing. I think the discussion was C was not even going to be considered. How many Like I know there were 96 responses, but how many did it go out to? It went out to everybody. But how many around about, do you know? What what's the number that we're announcing? 1.7 Somewhere in the late 30s-ish, 1.7, 130 somewhere thereabouts. Uh so I mean we had a lot of responses. Um you know, and we learned a great deal about the process that once we start looking at the '27, '28, um after we get some other things taken care of, we'll start looking at that, but we had some thoughts
064and ideas for how we go about the process for the the to move forward in the future. It was a great learning experience for everybody. I don't think it's ever been to where you just come into meeting with calendar recommendation that ever went smoothly. But I don't know why that came such a surprise last time and and get up got up and left, but when we started, I still I still object to starting that early. Well, and >> And I'll vote accordingly. And like I said, I mean we we it was it was like I said, it was a great learning experience for for all of us. Um and how we can do things better and you know, as I've said is that we wanted to do things better. Um >> [clears throat] >> so
065as we continue to look at the '27, '28, um and I I'm sure I can speak on behalf of our administrators that we will put the invite out to board members if you'd like to attend the when we when you look at the calendar. Um I know you guys are crazy busy already with life in general, but uh and we do appreciate all the time you guys put in to help make this district such a great place. But like I said, a great learning experience. Okay, before So, is there a calendar option? Go ahead. Well, just before any more discussion, I think we need to I'll entertain a motion. We have a recommendation, but So moved. And your the recommendation is to approve option A. Correct. Okay, we have a rec- a motion by Drew
066to accept option A for the '26-'27 school calendar. I have a motion by Drew. Second. I don't know who That was almost a tie. Who was I didn't I was going to Okay. Susan with the second. Any questions or discussion? Okay, thank you. Sorry. Is there a calendar committee? Yes. And how often do they meet? Uh we had uh We had Uh well, we had three meetings scheduled. We got snowed out of one of them, so we had two meetings. Um which we looked at all possibilities. Um we met in the A 400. Um just broke down as many as we could, because I mean like for instance that uh third option that got taken out the uh first semester was going to be like 75 days or something like that, and then second semester
067was going to be a whole bunch more. So, it was like wasn't feasible because we have like dual credit classes we got to be done by Christmas break. Um so, um we also take into account the um the Whitewater Career Center on you know, what their schedule looks like. Um you know, so we took into We as many different things we look at and we talked about state fair, we talked about band day, we talked about I mean it you know, we we put as much out there. Uh like I said, there were six six administrators, myself, and then nine nine teachers. Uh and like I said, we're I be more than happy as we go into next, you know, when we look at twice at 28, we will invite anyone that would like to
068join us. I think it'd be great to add a few parents to the calendar committee just to get some input. >> That was also brought up and [clears throat] I'm I'm good with that. So, like I said, it was it was a good learning experience. Uh, you know, as we uh, went through, realized that our uh, teachers that were on the calendar committee didn't really take it back to their buildings, which that would have been greatly beneficial. So, to get the I mean, and that's why we ended up putting Lisa was good enough to put it out uh, on uh, Jeremy to everybody through a Google Doc. that made up the the committee. So, it was a I mean, huge, you know, you know, much more information was was given back to us. And then
069the last thing is I know I wasn't here in February and I know you we it was talked about, but Valerie, I think specifically of you like with your work schedule, don't you have to put it in in like January? Which I guess it would be for Yeah. like December. Like it's Yes, we have to start prioritizing getting this in a little sooner. I I know that they're just Everything's kind of new right now, but I know I remember your mom would send me messages about, "Did you guys approve the calendar yet? Because we're we need to pick our vacation." Just little things like that. >> I I agree 100% with you. Okay, so we have a motion by Drew, second by Susan to accept option A as the calendar for the 26-27 school calendar.
070Any other questions or discussion? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? I. >> [clears throat] >> I. Thank you to all involved with that. Thank you to all that participated in the survey. So, we will move on to item 16, which is public participation. Anyone signed up? So, we will move on to item 17, superintendent's comments. Um you know, I mean, once again, I mean, we're I I apologize to me tonight. We're we're trying to I said reorganize this as best we can right now and get things taken care of the the best we can. Um so, I mean, it's uh it's going to be a little bit of rough patch, but we'll get through it. Um you know, I I greatly appreciate all the support I've gotten from every single one
071of you sitting at the table. I mean, uh you know, we uh we we had meeting Thursday and Drew limped in. I mean, has major surgery on on Monday and and still came in. So, um shows the dedication, but uh I just look back at, you know, this this past month of just more opportunities I've had uh with I mean, I I first time I've ever been in a tractor and uh happened to be with Harvey's tractor and uh you know, he said he said, "Was that seat big enough for you?" And I said, "No." Wasn't wasn't, but it was uh it was just I mean, just a grace for me. I've just taken this all in and uh as I've said and I continue to say is that I I have still I've never
072been so welcomed anywhere I've ever been and uh I just appreciate it. I mean, any of the our administrators, the teachers, uh the board, it's uh uh just they've been phenomenal. And Yeah, I look at you know the partnership we're trying to get with 4-H and get things going there because I I'll be honest with you I I don't remember who said it to me, but I was talking about you know this kind of a more getting a more competitive football program. And I don't know where I was at, but somebody said, "You know what? Our kids are going to take more out of 4-H and FFA that they will take with them throughout their life than a win on a Friday night." And that I mean that hit me hard. It was like yeah,
073you know what? I mean that's that's a really I mean that's that's such a solid point. And you look at our FFA program at high school. We have 333 kids and we have 121 of them in FFA. And as you look as they are competing, I mean they are I mean they're I mean we we had I was at lunch the one day with the high schoolers and our kids walking around with medals around their neck cuz I mean they were that I mean they were so proud of what they what they accomplished and I mean you should be proud. I mean the level of work and what you guys put into that is is paying off. So, I just once again I just appreciate all of you and just it's it's going to keep
074getting better. Moving on to board comments. Hey, I got to add something. Um to your surprise when I saw the high school and the middle school choir and band concert, I saw Mrs. Albright on there and you know just a a staple to our school program about working through hard times. I also wanted to thank Sarah and Lisa for what you needed to do over the last year. I think Betty and I probably agree it's cool to hear about all the wrestling success. So many times that's where it hasn't gotten the credit it deserves, but also just sports in general. What you just said about FFA and 4-H, making sure our coaches understand that you're going to get great football players out of FFA boys and farm boys, and being okay with them missing a
075practice to take care of their animals. That's been a problem in the past. And what a great opportunity to to partner more with 4-H so that we can have a real community place for all of us to gather together, which is becoming less in these bigger communities, and that's not really what we want to pride ourselves on. We want to be Union County burgers, and so I appreciate all that. That's it. Anyone else? We will adjourn the meeting at 8:08. There will be an executive session to follow down in the team conference room. Team room? Okay, team room. We can do that.