001tree tonight. is 7:02. We have a quorum. I'll call the meeting to order. Uh we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay, hope everyone had a good holiday season. Uh, welcome back. The only amendment to the agenda tonight is the approval of applications uh for Brownsville Township and that will be um item number 11 under new business. A motion >> Jessica with a motion >> Michelle with a second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor? >> All those opposed? Okay, moving on to item four, uh, introductions. So, we'll introduce the board up here and then we'd like to introduce the Ohio board as well. >> Steve Jones, I'm
002the uh, new superintendent in uh, the new county, the DPS side of things uh, starting November 1st and very excited to meet y'all. So, I'm happy to be here and very I mean, this is it's a great place. As I shared with a couple people before when we were here from the penny supper supper, I uh took a shot from the halfway to the half court and threw out both my shoulders. So, but uh I got told I had to try it and did it. But, uh just uh you know, please come, you know, if you have any questions, give me a call and any concerns, let me know. Thanks, >> Matt Snder. Uh I think I know most of most everyone. uh second term on the school board. So, [snorts] just look forward to
003keep things moving in the right direction. >> We're just going Are we going around? >> Going around. >> Okay. Jessica Jones. Uh this is my [clears throat] second term on the school board as well. Happy to be here. Former teacher uh here at College Corner, so it's nice to come back here to where I taught for a couple of years. and um proud graduate and um student at Liberty Elementary at the time Liberty Junior High under Carl Hilton for anybody old enough to remember. Um Union County High School. So, it's nice to be here tonight. Thank you. Michelle Hill. Um, I'm Ohio board member and joint board member and I've been been on the Ohio board [clears throat] 20 years or so [laughter] and been on here for three. >> Drew Euing. Uh, first term
004just completed my first year. Graduated from Union County High School in 2006. U kids middle school and two here at college form. >> Valerie Hen also um first term. This is my second year for the school board in county graduate. I have kids in the school district also. >> Hello, I'm Susan Kurt Patrick and I am the Ohio representative Michelle and I posted on the Ohio board. My kids graduated from here and I have children in this building. >> Hey, I'm Bill Der. I'm the a new superintendent on the Ohio side, college corner here and uh retired from um Tri County North, which is up on the norththeast side of Pre County. I was there as superintendent for the last 20 years before I came down here. So, uh just appreciate that. I think Susan
005may have organized this or or mentioned that we should do this and I it's it's great just to put faces with names and be able to to meet anyone. And I I'll echo what Steve said. If there's anything that you need from the Ohio side, please reach out and we'll try to help you as best we can. >> I'm Lyn Ferguson. I'm the treasurer for College Corner and I started August of uh 2017. So, it's good to >> I'm Megan Murray. I am not from Union County originally. Um, but I've been here, well, actually I live in Ohio, so I don't actually live in Union County still. Uh, but I've been in the area for about a little more than 15 years. Uh, my husband and I have, uh, two daughters, both in this district,
006and I've served on the Ohio board for I think it's my fourth year, third year. >> Thanks for having us. Shannon, first meeting um graduate from college corner family's been here. Grandpa is on the board, graduated here. Mom on the board, graduated here. Brother on the board, graduated here. It's a family tradition. If you need anything, call me. John Cider lived right here in college been on Ohio. This will be 30 years this year. Appreciate you support >> and you girls also. >> Yeah. >> Um I'm Lisa Cox. I'm the administrative assistant for central office and I've gone on 15 years for the school district. >> I am Sarah Adams. I am the deputy treasurer in central office. I've been in central office for a year, but I was just appointed deputy treasurer back in
007July. >> I'm Jennifer Blakeley from the treasurer. This is my 16th school year. >> Okay. Uh again, thank you for coming to the meeting. I know these are always so exciting. Uh but we do have two uh board members that are absent tonight. prior obligations that uh pulled them away. Jerry Ashbrook and Daryl Barber are also on the board. Uh so we'll just keep things rolling. We will move into public participation. Uh the only one I have signed up is Mr. Ashbrook, but I know it's not something that's on the agenda. So that'll be at the end of the meeting. Uh so we'll move on to building updates. Uh and then building administrators feel free to introduce yourself to the Ohio board as well. Uh we'll start with lees one I have on top at
008Liberty Elementary. I graduated from Union County as well. Must be a thing around here. Um, I've been administrator for this is my fifth year. I know most of you. Good evening. Um, start with our attendance. We lost some, gained some. I think we're up three from December at 332. We have some upcoming events there. January's kind of quiet. Um, we will do the second round of testing for iLearn at the end of the month. students of the month. Um down there at the bottom for caring and effort. The next page shows we just finished middle of the year testing. It looks different this year because of the island checkpoint. So that middle of the year checkpoint will be at the end of January, but the um littles K2 did um MCL class and they did
009NWA. So, I have our MClass scores here. Just shows the comparison from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year. Um, MClass focuses on phonics and phmic awareness mainly. So, you can see um how that compares. Our kindergarteners um really grew a lot, which is pretty normal. Um they're all learning the alphabet. Most of them have the alphabet down and the sounds and now they're starting to read. It's crazy how fast that goes. any questions about that data? And then I just have some events I missed last month. So I put some things on here that have happened um from October until until now. So back in December before the kids went on Christmas break, we had the Discovery Kids Factory visit. They do all um hands-on STEM activities. They bring all
010the materials in. We offer three or four volunteers to help out and they can just um free play and free build from station to station. So, anything from making cars to race down ramps to building with blocks. They have pegboards and magnets and machines with air. So, they could just um kind of experiment with all of those STEM related items. Um, the Heartland Wizards fundraiser seems like forever ago, but it was a major success. I think the last I heard there were,300 people in the gym. We sold over,300 tickets. It was a packed house, and I think they had a lot of fun. It was neat to see uh the kids from all the way from kindergarten all the way up to high school um just laughing and enjoying that. And then we ended the
011year um with lots of celebrations. Um our superintendent came down and read the Polar Express to kind of set that day off for our kindergarteners. They have a whole Polar Express experience and they read the book and then they get on the train and make their way to the Polar Express and enjoy lots of fun activities. So that's a picture of um them in the lobby listening to the Polar Express there. >> Any questions? move on to college corner. >> I know all the Ohio board members. I am active in both boards, so I won't introduce myself, but y'all know where I am anytime. Um, welcome to College Corner. Uh, glad you could come and hang out with us here. It is kind of one of the places that are pretty near and dear to
012my heart. I did not graduate from Union County. Uh but my heart's been here the last 17 years. So here we are. Um enrollment's up four. So that's positive news. We um gained a lot of kids um feels like a lot anyways um over Christmas break, so that's positive news. Um Lisa kind of mentioned it, but Checkpoint 2 is coming up for iLearn. So we'll do that at the end of this month. You can see our character trait winners there. um for the for the month of December, we just celebrated them for joy. So that's our character trait winners. Um I couldn't figure out the screen that Lisa has for in class, so I shared in NWA with you. These are math scores. If you look at the top one, those are achievement um scores
013for the fall in math and we just have it for K12 now since we have island checkpoints. Um and then if you look below, that's the winter math. The biggest change I'd like you to take a look at is you have 24% in the orange in the fall. that drops to 15. The yellow didn't grow much. It it dropped which is good, but look at the green went to 33%. So, that's really positive. The red stayed, that's where we have some work to do. Um, so you can kind of see that. Um, that's a positive trend in our math data. Um, some December fun for kindergarten. Our fifth graders buddy with them uh once a month. So, you can see there they made Rudolph hats in the upper leftand corner. Um, Christmas concert pictures. And
014then the Grinch and Santa did visit on one of our dress up days. So, uh, we had a lot of fun in December and so we're just chugging along into January. Any questions? >> Thank you. >> Um, high school. Sorry, I'm just going stacked up. >> Hi, everyone. I'll start talking before I get up. My name is Randy Dud. I'm the principal at the high school and this is my third year as principal. I came from Connorville where I was retired for two months before I came to Union County Middle School as an assistant principal. I was there for a year and go to the high school. You didn't know it, but Carl Hilton was my principal when I was in high school. I was a charter member of the Carl Hilton fan club. And
015as it turns out, I followed in his footsteps because I was proud of Huntersville and also at the high school here. Um, I would like to thank both boards for your service. This is school board appreciation month. So, thank you for what you do with kids in College Corner and also in Yi County. So, um, have a few things just to highlight. our attendance or our enrollment has gone down a little bit. You see, we're down to 332. We are tied for the largest building in school corporation with less. Um, however, we are getting a new student tomorrow. That will put us back up in the lead 333. Our numbers dropped because we did have eight students leave as early graduates in December. >> So, that's not a bad thing. did the work, reach their
016goals and accomplishments and are they'll come back for graduation, but they are on to whatever they're going to do with their life. Um, there's some pictures of events that took place in December on the 16th. We had choir concert and band concert on the same night as our pay it forward dinner. It was a great evening. Uh there's a picture of our staff celebrating the holidays. Before we left for break, we made ornaments in Mandy Reed's art class. There's a picture of four of our juniors who are recognized as as rising stars of Indiana. And if you haven't seen it yet, you need to come and look at the new furniture and high school. Any questions? >> Thank you. >> Nelson Middle School graduate. I graduated from Nor Eastern. I taught for years at Rick
017and have been here for many years here. So, um for our enrollment, we're actually up by four as well. We're at 283. Um indicated there. We've had two eighth grade, one seventh grade, and one sixth grade enrollment. We also have had a phone call today that we got two more coming in, so we're pretty excited about that. Um we ended December with our choir concert. We um have been loving our music programs at the middle school. Our kids are just swarming to band and choir and so it's been really good to to see the growth in those programs. We listed our students of the month for we were a little bit behind. I left it off last time, but we had was our November student of the month. He's an eighth grader and June Meyer
018is our December student of the month. um both very deserving students. Also, on our last student day, we had an end of semester incentive. Um the students went to the Miami Rec Center um that had achieved those goals that we had set. Um there were a lot of students that that did get that um and are very excited to work towards our our next incentive that we're already planning. Then we have our GOAT um our staff appreciation um and there that Mr. Bill gave it to Miss Bev. Um we have listed on there. No one calls her Miss Shuffler, but everybody knows Bev Shler. She goes by Miss Bev around there. Um but he cited her tireless love and devotion to students learning um for his reason of selecting her and we all very much
019agree. Then on the back page we have all of our upcoming events for January. Um which you can see that we have we are double book. We have two games a night, four nights a week for all of January. So, we are busy. Um, but come out and watch um our fifth and sixth, seventh, and eighth grade um compete. They're doing a great thing. Any questions? >> Okay, we move on to accept donations. We have a total amount of $22,900 including 22,800 uh to the UCS World Travelers from the Union County Foundation Jack Thompson Fund. >> So move the motion. >> Second Susan with a second. Any questions or discussion? Where's the Where are they traveling to this year? >> Italy and Greece. >> Okay. >> What's that? >> Pompe. >> Okay, sounds fun. We
020have a motion by Drew and a second by Susan. All those in favor? >> All those opposed? Okay, moving on to consent agenda. We have a claims docket of 1,688,000 $699.75. Entertain [clears throat] a motion. >> Michelle with a motion with a second. Any questions or discussion? Okay. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? Any abstain? >> [clears throat] >> And moving on to old business, college corner board updates. >> We uh started out tonight having our um elections like where we nominate our do our officers and everything and got all through that. Then um they said that there Ohio has a program where the school actually pays for their students to their the financial part of their classes at university and we finally had one that took advantage of it and
021she is going to be taking two classes at Cedarville this year and she has to have a in the class right for us to pay for it if she drops below I don't think that'll be a problem. >> Okay. >> So, she will be attending two classes at Cedarville online. Um, and we got notification that we have to update our emergency operation plan, which is basically our school safety plan. And so, they'll be working on that for the next couple months. And that's about it. >> Okay. >> Um, good evening everybody. Uh, I just have a couple words to say and there'll be a test at the end of it. Um Mike Sims is sitting in the audience tonight. It is the first time in 45 years he has not been at one of these
022seats. Um Mike has done so much for our school. In 1985 um he was instrumental in um with the teacher strike. Mike um got people together. He negotiated and he helped end that strike. In 1988, the state of Ohio tried to close College Corner School. Uh Mike and several of them uh from College Corner went to Columbus, Ohio. Um they pleaded the case. Uh the school was saved by a judge's ruling that still stands today and will keep the school open forever. Uh, in the early 1990s, UC Local and College Corner Local began a joint board with Mike Sims leading the way with negotiating those two together. In 1995, he started his 27 years on the joint board. In the early 2000s, we were remodeling College Corner School. Um, heating and air, there was no
023air conditioning. Um so heating and air conditioning were it's on the very important everybody. Uh with Mike's knowledge on geothermal uh it was geothermal was put in this building with his leadership. Um it was a lot better for the kids. They then had air conditioning and heating consistently through the school. Uh Mike was also on many negotiation committees um representing the board uh with the union and he did that for years which I know um everybody appreciated that. Uh Mike spent has spent those 45 years during the 45 years he was on the board. He worked full-time, went to school, raised a family. He spent a lot of time in this gym coaching little kids basketball for years. He was a coach. Uh when my daughter was in the third grade, he coached her and
024to this day she calls him coach. Mike's knowledge and experience about finance negotiation and the running of the nuts and bolts of running of the school, especially electric um makes College Corner Union School a great place to learn today. Thank you for your time. [applause] Mr. Sims, would you like to stand up and say anything? >> Just for clarity, [laughter] I didn't call strike, but there were many challenges during that time, but there was, as you all are, great people, good teams. You tried to figure out what you needed to get done, you got it done. We live in great communities. Very good support from the communities. You know, that's obviously what's made this school special is the support. I enjoyed it. Time got away. I realized I got older. Needed to slow down, did
025my time, but always enjoyed it. And you know, I thank people for I guess electing me to to represent the California local school board. We've had great superintendents, great treasures, good board members throughout, easy to work with, but I can certainly say this in 45 years, the focus was always on the education. We tried to do our best. Okay. Um, so moving on to new business. Um, typically this isn't how it is, but typically we don't have um a situation like this. Um, Mr. Mr. Hoffman, Dave Hoffman is resigning um from the school board and I will just uh read the letter that he wrote. Um it's brief [snorts] um but I'll just read it. After many meaningful and rewarding years of service, I'm writing to formally resign from my position on the school board
026effective January 9th, 2026. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to support our students, staff, families, and community, and I am proud of the progress we have made together over the years. I will continue to support the district and its mission and wish nothing but continued success in the years ahead. With sincere appreciation, David Hoffman. So, with that being said, um we have to formally um vote to approve his resignation from the school board. So, I will entertain a motion. That's item 10. >> Jessica with a motion. >> Mallerie with a second. Any questions or discussion? Okay. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed carries 50. And then moving on to item 11 is just the approval to accept applications uh for the Brownsville Township seat uh vacated by Dave >> Hoffman.
027Susan with a motion, Drew with the second. Any questions or discussion? >> How does that work? >> Uh so we will set a timeline. Uh we would like to have it filled by March because we'll take we'll look at applications first for anyone from Brownsville Township. Um they'll have to they would serve the remainder he's got this year and then he would have to file again or whoever would replace him would have to file again in the fall. Um so they would just be finishing out this year. Um so we'll look at anyone from Brownsville Township first. The board would conduct the interviews. Uh if we don't get anyone from Brownsville Township, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, we can open it up to anyone in the counties. Correct. But we have to look
028at Brownsville [clears throat] Township applicants first. >> That's correct. >> How is that announced so people know? >> So, we'll share it social media. Um, we'll put it on the website. Um, I mean, word of mouth. I don't know if we can throw something in the newspaper. Uh, probably be a good idea. Um, so yeah, as much as we can get it out there, we will. >> And I don't know if you guys been uh I looked on board docs. I did not see any kind of application for board member. So I spent last Friday just kind of going through this weekend trying to find some some applications that would be kind of fitting. Um, I just need to, you know, get some feedback from you guys on what you're looking for. Okay. >> And
029like I said, we the board would conduct the interviews um probably sometime in February. So unless anyone's opposed to application timelines at the end of January or we can if anyone wants to push it back further, but we'd like to have the seat filled by the regular meeting in March. >> I think that gives us plenty of time. >> Okay. So, we have a motion by Susan, second by Drew. Any other questions or discussion? date. Do we want to go January? The end of January. Okay. Susan, do you want to amend your >> I'll do a date January 30th. January. >> Okay. So, we'll start trying to advertise this beginning tomorrow. >> Okay. Okay. So, I have a motion, amended motion by Susan to approve to accept applications for the Brownsville Township seat. U we'll
030accept applications through January 30th. And then second by Drew, you're fine with that amendment. Okay. Any other questions or discussion? >> Okay. All those in favor? I >> all those opposed carries 5. Now moving on to board reorganization. So we will start uh nomination for board president. >> I would like to nominate to continue as board president. >> I'll second. We have a motion by Susan and a second by Michelle for myself to remain as board president. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor? >> All those opposed carries 50. Okay. Moving on to nomination for board vice president. I'll nominate Jerry Ash to continue as the vice president. >> Okay, I have a motion by Michelle, a second by Drew for Jerry Ashbrook to remain board vice president. Any questions or discussion? >> All
031those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? Does he want to be the vice president? >> Yeah, he hasn't voiced any opposition to it. >> And then a nomination for uh secretary of the board, which uh Dave was secretary. I'll nominate Drew. >> I'll second Drew. >> Okay. I have a motion and a second. Motion by Michelle, second by Susan for Drew to be secretary of the board. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed. >> Abstain. >> Want abstain. >> So, do you have to vote? >> Uh, yeah. And I will vote in favor. Okay, that t care of board reorganization. Continuing with uh new business. Moving on to board approval of volume 38 number one and volume 38 number one file two. And again these are
032stuff we had uh previously. Michelle with a motion. >> Mallerie, is that you? >> Okay. Mallerie with a second. Any questions or discussion? Okay. All those in favor? >> All those opposed? Carries. 5. Moving on to item 14. Appointment of corporation treasur and recording secretary to the board. Uh Jennifer Blakeley. So >> Jessica with a motion. >> Second. >> Sh with a second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed carries. 5. >> Item 15, appointment of corporation deputy treasurer Sarah Adams. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Jessica with a motion. Susan with a second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor? All those opposed carries 5. Uh board committee assignments. I apologize. I forgot to bring the list of what committee everyone's on. Um I mean there's
033no new members. Obviously, we will have a new member. Um so things can stay as is with the committees everyone was on. So that's that if anyone wants to make that motion, I'm not telling you to. Um, I did I forgot to bring the list of all the committees >> from the January >> has a problem with the committee they're on. I just moved everybody. >> I second that. >> [snorts] >> the ISB. >> Okay. >> So, who had the motion? >> I did. >> Okay. So, Michelle, you have the motion to keep everything as is >> and add Drew to the ISB. >> Okay. And add to the delegate. >> I second that. >> Jessica with a second. Any questions or discussion? So just making sure no one nothing changed. No new relatives or
034anything to any that would Okay. >> Relatives to her. Well, just to anything that would affect what committee you're on like elective bargain. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, I have a motion by Michelle, second by Jessica to keep everything as is except add Drew to the ISBA delegate uh representative. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed. Okay. Moving along to item 17, recommendation to approve annual monthly board action calendar. Again, that's just breaks down every month. Uh those are in your files. Um basically showing what needs to be accomplished each month at every board meeting. And that should just the file is under monthly action calendar. You're at your computer. >> Yes. >> Okay. Susan went with a motion. Drew with a second to approve the annual monthly board
035action calendar. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed. And then recommendation to approve proposed board meeting dates. >> Second. Drew with a motion. Michelle with a second. We confirm that the figure does not line up with the >> That's the hog show, >> is it? So, are there going to be any conflicts with anyone missing? Does that one need to be moved? I know Daryl definitely July seems like it's been the one that has to be moved. So >> as of right now, I won't be there. >> I don't think I'll be there either. >> You can at the July. But so you can be okay. >> But I can't either. >> So, would it be a better idea to move it back one week just to make
036sure because we don't know who is going to fill that seat. We don't know about Jerry. >> It's easier to move it now than try to move it right before. So >> anybody going out right after the >> fair >> like July 6th I was like, I think it's a six. >> So, the first Monday of the month of July, I was going to say the 4th of July. >> Festivity should be done by then. >> I can't. >> Okay. I can in August. >> We can just wait till the May meeting and see. >> Okay. So, we're >> J, you had the motion. You want to just keep it as is and we'll figure out as we get closer. >> Okay. So, Drew has a motion to approve board calendar dates as is. Michelle,
037you had the second. >> Was it Mallerie? I thought >> I had Michelle written down. So, >> I have Michelle first and second. It was close. I thought I heard Drew first. >> Drew, did you have the motion? Okay, you had the motion. >> Michelle, are you fine with the say I? >> I'm fine. I'll take a second. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> All those opposed. That carries 50. Okay. Approval of board pay for meetings. Um, the pay per year is $2,000, which has not changed, and $25 uh for any extra regular stated meetings, which nothing has changed on that. >> So, Michelle with a motion with a second. Any questions or discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed. Moving on to item 20. Uh conflict of interest statements.
038You should all have uh one of those. Uh just we're not voting on that. Just make sure get those filled out and returned. And moving on to item 21, recommendation to approve year end transfers. Okay, we are tableabling that till February. So item 21, we were tableling that to February. Okay, moving on to brings us back to public participation. So, Mr. Ashbrook and Mr. Easter, wanted to speak. [clears throat] >> This wasn't on the agenda, so it wasn't really, but we had the idea we were supposed to do this tonight. So, we're going to go ahead and do it. Um, we're going to give you a little bit of update on some school safety stuff. Um, you may not be aware, but school safety has kind of veered away from being under the umbrella of
039the Department of Education and it's now under the under the Department of Homeland Security. So, they're the ones who are kind of in charge of school safety nowadays. Um, on January 6th and 7th, Mr. Ashbrook and I went to Indianapolis to a conference. And this conference was based on digital concern assessment, behavior assessment. Um, if you look at this paper here, this paper here represents the pathway to violence. Okay? And just like you see on on the paper, it is a windy and curvy long road. Okay. But everybody's got to get started on this road. And one thing that generally starts someone on the path of violence comes to a grievance or a perceived injustice. Somebody's done something to them. It could be a grudge of family life. It could be something done physically, verbally,
040mentally, emotionally. Could have been done by a single person. Could be done by a group. But anyway, this person feels that something's been done to them and it sets them on this path. And just like any other road you see along this road, we have markers. Okay? It starts with agrievance or injustice. It moves to an ideation, moves to the planning period, the preparation period, and then at the end of that road is the violent act. Now, some key findings. Attackers [clears throat] usually had multiple motives. The most common involving a grievance at 83% most of those people had a grievance. So something happened to them or they felt something happened to them where they felt lower than everybody. They felt, you know, they just weren't mentally ready to be where they were at. So
041they felt maybe they needed to do something. All attackers experience social stressors involving relationships with their peers or romantic partners. Again, something to start someone else on that path. Nearly every attacker experienced negative home life factors. Okay? So, maybe they're poor, maybe parents aren't home much, maybe parents aren't there at all. Okay? something that's going to make you feel less than everybody else, something that's going to want to start you down this path. Most attackers had a history of school disciplinary action or had prior contact with law enforcement. All attackers exhibited concerning behaviors. Now, some of these behaviors when I go down this list, I'm going to start at the top. The top had the highest percentage of visibility down to the lowest. Okay. The first are threats to targets or others or an attempt
042to attack. Intense or escalating anger, an unusual interest in weapons. Now, we live in a rural community. A lot of our community members hunt. Some of our students hunt. Their interest in weapons aren't going to be your usual hunting weapons. They're going to be weapons of high capacity in terms of, you know, long clips, multiple shots per per weapon. Okay. Interest in those weapons. Sadness, depression, isolation or mental illness, suicidal ideiation or self harm, changes in behavior or appearance. Okay? the way they dress, the way they look, the way they act. An unusual interest in violence. Okay. Some may do things such as harm animals. Um, you know, do different things to cause cause harm to something else. talk of being bullied, a negative change in their grades and their attendance, and harassing others. Now,
043on the outside, when you look at this list, you see a good majority of the things on this list are something that's going to give that person feeling of power. Okay? you have harassing others, threats, um an interest in weapons, you know, changing the way you behave to be noticed. On the outside, those are those are things that show power or want to give them power. But if you look from the inside, what do you see in that list? You see cries for help. You see struggle. Majority of all attackers, believe it or not, wanted someone to notice them and wanted to be caught. How do we avert how do we avert school violence? First, we got to identify warning signs as early as possible and intervene. How do we do that? Be present and
044be observant in school. And by be present, I don't mean just being there. Be present in the hallways. Be present in the classrooms. Be present in their lives. Be present in their conversations. Hear what they're saying. If you don't listen to what's being said, you miss a lot of things. To just slow down and be present, I think can make a big difference in what we hear and what we know. get all of our resources in the building involved. Okay, I say in the building, but it's going to be in the building and out of the building. You know, our students, majority of the attackers had friends. Hence were dropped. They just didn't hear them. Students are going to know change students going to not notice the changes in their friends as they happen. Teachers,
045if they know their students, they're going to see changes as they happen. They're going to notice changes in their schoolwork. If you're an English teacher, their writing may become darker. Feelings may the feelings they express may be different. If you're an art teacher, the artwork becomes darker, becomes a more gothic feel. [clears throat] We have counselors, SRO's who interact with students, janitors, and aids. But also in there we need to throw in parents and grandparents of the latest attacks that were averted was because the parent called in and the grandparents called in and turned in the student because they noticed. Now what if the signs aren't right in front of you? What if they aren't the physical signs? 63% of all attackers had an online presence and this is where I'm going to let Mr.
046Asper take over and talk about the digital part. >> Good evening. I want to start by thanking you for allowing me to go to this training is very eye opening for me as well. Um my journey the portion like Mr. Reer said I'm focused on is the online and some of these things might shock you. I mean we all know there are goods and bads to online. Uh, one of the biggest groups they have is called the 764. Okay? And they target students to join their group, their social committee or club to then do acts of violence on schools, churches, all these different uh places, but they're really looking for what they refer to as failed joiners. So, a student that has tried to, let's say, sit at the cafeteria table with a group of
047students, students allow them to to sit there, but they ignore and he's kind of a failed joiner or she's kind of a failed joiner. Uh, two of the big platforms they use to recruit the quoteunquote failed joiners are actually Roadblocks and Minecraft. Okay, so there is a really dark portion of roadblocks where you can go in and they have Coline simulators, they have other school shooting simulators that you can go in and play. Uh millions of students or whoever's on Roblox have done these simulators uh game. So some pretty dark and twisted uh things. 90% of attacks have what is called online leakage. Okay. So, hence that they are going to commit an act. The number one platform for leakage. Any guesses? >> Snapchat. Nope. Pinterest, believe it or not. Use uh pin boards. I
048don't know. Pin. Is that what they're called? Yeah, I haven't been on Pinterest in like a decade. But um boards like pinning boards with leakage of plans or just dark material that is related to past shootings. They are very copycat is a word that you could use. They do a lot of similar pictures that they'll post that have different meanings from like combine shooters or any of the other shooters that might have done something that they consider iconic. they like to replicate and leak out to the public. I mean, there is a whole another world of verbiage out there that I had not heard of that eventually I went up to the guy like, can you just print out a glossery of all these red flag terms that we need to know and that we
049put in our system so that way we get red flag emails sent to administrators when they're using those. Um, there were three big things that I put in all caps in my notes. The first one was when there is a threat, we need to make sure that people know to report, not repost, because that turns into a social media frenzy and a panic and that's leading into the hand of the attacker. So we want to make sure that we kind of keep it on the down low, get it to the administration, make sure that they have the report to then go through and determine if the threat is [clears throat] credible or if it is not. Okay. Threat reporting mechanism. I know we have a bully report system uh throughout the school district. I have
050my SRT and I like to pull my SRT and ask them questions and kind of get a sense of the student. knowledge base on this. So I yeah I just asked today I go who raise your hand in here if you know how to file a bully report. I didn't say anything about a threat just a report. Handful of them put their hands up. Um the reason they know this is because they were told back when they were in sixth and seventh grade. So a lot of these new students that were getting might not have that same knowledge. So being able to make sure everybody knows where to go to report a threat is huge because majority of our threats were made from 400 pm on during the school day. So if they're hanging out
051after school, they know they learn of a threat, they have every capability of going and knowing exactly where to go to report the threat to administration. Uh what is considered a threat? They said there are two big things to determine if it is a threat or not. If number one, did it disrupt the learning environment? And number two, are people concerned about it? So if it raises one of those two questions, then we go into the threat assessment. If you want, I've got one copy. I've got a digital as well that I can share with everybody. It's a pretty thick stack though, so I didn't want to take all the paper at the copy machine today. Um, as soon as you determine it's one of those two things, you need to assemble a team. This,
052uh, BDTA assessment should not be done as an individual. It should be done as a team. Those include admin, SRO, mental health professionals, uh, special ed expert if needed, a gened teacher if they have a relationship with the student that is the supposed threat. So that way you can get a little more insight. And then when you bring that student in, they're more likely to talk to a teacher they enjoy than a teacher that they don't. If I've learned anything in my short time of working on getting admin license, whether it was at this thing or with meeting with Mr. Judge, it is to document everything. It does not did not happen unless it is documented. No matter how big or how little threat change in behaviors, anything that you observe, document it so that
053way you can go back and reference it later. when it comes to images. So, let's say that we found online leakage on their Snapchat. Let's say they sent a Snapchat with a weapon or some kind of threat. A lot of these threats are secondhand pictures. So, it's not an original image. It's something that that they have reused. So, they gave us multiple resources. Two being site engine and was it AI to do AI image checks to make sure it was an actual image and not an created by Aad because it is getting scarier and scarier how accurate an image you can make with AI. And then [clears throat] you can also reverse image search to make sure it is an authenticated image or an image that has been reused. So it is not uncommon for
054them to use images from five years ago. People forget about rebringing to the surface. when it comes to our teams and I've really talked about that gened teacher, that student that has that relationship. I think a lot of this can be averted with relationships. Uh an idea that Mr. and I talked about at the committee would be, and I've done this at other schools, a relationship list where at your staff meeting, you print off your school roster, every student, and then your teachers just walk through and they just initial kids that they have a relationship with. It's a great way to see who needs somebody when they come through our doors, who needs that relationship, who are we missing out on uh that we can reach out on? And then Of course, like I said
055before, if something were to happen with the student, you know, a trusted adult that has a relationship with that kid as well. They said the biggest issue uh with all this training is actually staff turnover, which I think we can all relate with making sure that all of our staff is trained and that our staff knows what to do because just like you could ask Mr. Shoemaker when we have our meetings, it all goes back to you resort to your training. So, the situation gets tense and we are properly trained, we should be able to resort back to that training and know exactly what to do, but we need to make sure that that would be part of their new new hire policy or training along those lines. And then my last one is for
056policy. Our policy looks pretty rock solid. Um, when it comes to all of this, I know Mr. Rester and I will be working on the the new uh handbook, so making sure that that's all covered on those and it being board policy. Just making sure that everybody can access that and see what all is in there. And that's all I've got. Like I said, that's being passed around, but we do have links to a digital copy of that assessment as well. And that is a blank assessment, which the SST, which stands for Safe Schools Together, is a free resource that if we do have a potential threat or we know we have a threat, we can call them at any time. and they have experts that are trained in this to help walk us through
057and honestly could help us get through a threat faster, especially on that pathway to violence. If we discover a threat and they have planned and prepared and the only step is the violent act, making sure that we get that resolved quickly would be important and they're a great uh a great way to do that. As far as the uh BTA teams, I know you mentioned several like resource officer. Uh I would assume principal would be a part of that. Do you guys have established teams per each building? >> Back in the fall when we had a safety audit, the Department of Homeland Security sent somebody down. We sat and talked and that's when they told us that each individual school has to have their own interdisiplinary threat assessment team. So each building in our corporation
058has >> Okay. And then is this something that some of this information can this be shared at the start of each school year as far as like do will you guys get updates from this say for school as far as any changes like maybe Pinterest isn't the place to go anymore and maybe now it goes back to Snapchat like would they keep you guys updated in the loop like as far changes >> a yearly conference. I think if it's not a yearly, if it's a yearly conference, I would say yes. >> Yeah, >> this was the first one of those they had. >> Okay. >> So, they never said if it was going to be I'm assuming it'll be a yearly, >> but they never said for sure. And then they never really hit on
059whether, you know, we would get updates. >> Okay. >> Yeah. This was the inaugural one, the very first. So, it was >> just to keep parents in the loop what to look for at home, too. So, >> correct. You said Participation is key. Making sure that they are invited into that group. Now they might they might say no invite it >> but a parent has no say whether we do a threat assessment or not. It is not up to them. It is up to our building administration and our school administration. And then another thing on special ed was one of the seminars as well. A threat assessment and a behavior plan are completely separate from an IEP and should not be linked whatsoever. >> So, can I ask a question? Matt just mentioned this, but
060is there a presentation to the parents? Is that a possibility? I mean, this is really interesting stuff and like if I had a kid in high school, I think I would want to just an idea. Is there I know you want to keep the parents involved, but is there a way to >> I mean I'm sure I'm sure we could put something together. Like we just went last week, so it's it's still new, but >> Oh, yeah. I mean, >> yeah, it's definitely something that we can that we can put together. >> I mean, and even if 10 people showed up, >> at least we're trying. >> We're trying as a school. >> Some kind of community outreach where at least we're talking the big ones. Make sure you report, don't repost, was a huge
061one for parents and community >> because instead of hitting the share button on Facebook, we want you to hit the report button on the website and making sure that even people in the community know where to go to report a threat, >> whether it's a student or even just someone working at a restaurant. >> Yeah, >> it's actually I had difficulty finding it. It's actually not labeled bully report. You have to go on it's on the top bar. You have to go to Clever and you have to log in to Clever with your school email and then you are able to enter report. The kids said that it's also on their canvas. Um but I can't tell you exactly where it is. I can't see. >> You can change the student when you're on the
062page and then you can see >> I want to thank you guys for doing this. You know, then another thing they said was if you have a parent who's reluctant to be on your team and do the things that you asked, >> remind them that the last two incidents, the parents were also charged along with that. >> Anyone else have any questions? Thank you. >> Okay, moving on to superintendent comments. >> Well, this goes right into uh those two gentlemen. Um uh over Christmas break or winter break, um I had the opportunity to take part in an active shooter drill at the elementary school. Um, and uh, that was by far one of the I don't want to say best because I I hate using that word when you're talking about that, but it was
063just so informative. Um, just going through the motions uh, working with the not just the Liberty Police Department, but also our our Union County uh, Sheriff's Department. uh just there was so much that you know I've been a principal I don't how many 20 years and there was stuff I was like oh yeah I didn't think about that and uh you know when um you know when I found out these gentlemen I had the opportunity to go to that conference I was like man that fits perfectly in um and I will say is that we I mean we have an outstanding support staff outside of our schools if whether you're talking about Liberty Police Department uh Union County or SRO So I mean it was just the level of attentiveness and just the focus on
064what if this happens, what if this happens, this I mean you know going through everything um it was just just an amazing experience. Um but uh just as part of it but uh the rest is that uh got some notes here. The cafeteria as Mr. Jud talked about earlier at the high school. If you haven't had a chance to get over there go see it. I'll say that to anybody. I mean, we have teachers here. The cafeteria looks amazing at the high school. It just looks I mean, just uh I mean, I didn't go to Union County, but man, it makes me proud to just be part of all that because it just it looks great. So, um, the other thing I would say is that I don't know how if having never been anywhere
065else, if you don't know how lucky we are, the students we have here in this building and and here in in the district because um, you know, I I said it before break, we had a basketball game and I took the garbage can over and I told one of the kids, I said, "Hey, can you you make sure you just pick up something, you know, out of the student section? And they all did. The other night I was there and I just wheeled the garbage can over and I said, "Hey, you guys know the drill." And they started picking up and only left on the on the on the bleachers was popcorn and I was like, "Where else can you go where all you could do is ask the students, hey, can you guys help
066out?" And they were all over it. And um so I mean we are very fortunate how how great the kids are here. Um, with that in mind, I will be starting to call because one of the things as as we're going into the next three years is we're just gonna we're gonna have some budget issues. I mean, it's there's a there's a crunch going on, but it's not just us. It's across the state. But one of the things that can get us out of that is um or alleviate some of that. I won't say get out of it, but alleviate some of that is getting some kids back because right now, and I mean the list is a little bit old, and I know uh couple of principles shared they're getting students. Um, we were
067down at some point 51 52 kids and of those 37 of them were online. That's what we lost lost them to was online. And I was like, there's no way because I've walked around all the hallways of of each of the buildings. There's no way that any online program is offering the same quality of education that they're getting in whether it be college corner Union County wherever in this area and it's time to start inviting those families back saying hey come come back and see us and it might be the cafeteria over at the high school that's awesome could be you know see Miss Barnheiser I mean it could be a number of things so it's time that we start you know inviting them back um And you know, I know there's some schools that
068are going door todoor. Not going to be that intrusive, but I am going to start making those phone calls now that we're into the new year and trying to invite some of those famil talk to me. Things has changed since last year. Um, I think we're on the right track. Uh, or at least we're getting there and it's time to start bringing some of these families back and get back to that feeling of community and family that we have in this district. So, I'll just leave it at that. That's it. >> We'll move on to uh board comments. Just want to thank the Ohio board again for coming. Um it's always good because there's times I have people ask like who's on the Ohio board and I'm like I mean think about it like so
069now I know. Uh so again, thank you uh thank you to everyone. Uh here we go with another year. So, let's keep things moving in the right directions. >> Just want to publicly thank uh Dave Hoffman for his years of service. Thanks also for the commitment to school safety. I mean, that's obviously huge. We also have a very interesting position right here at College Corner with Indiana and Ohio. Um, and I know Mr. Reer, for years you have been a part of, you know, keeping all of these active uh trainings going and you should be applauded for that. It's very serious. Um, a huge thank you to Jack Thompson because he does so much all the time and I would never want him to not be thanked. And then there's a huge calling for a
070two-hour delay after the IU game on Monday night. So, I just wanted to throw that out there in case we wanted to consider that >> hint. It's really cute. Have you read it? >> What's that? Which >> the letter that the kid wrote about asking to have the two hours. I have on my phone. I'll show it. >> I I would love to see that because I I I know I've gotten, as some of you know, I do a lot of things on TikTok just to kind of show all the great things we got going on. And occasionally I'll get a message from somebody that says, "Think we can have school off tomorrow?" Like, no. Too hard to at least. No. No. So, Any other board comments? Okay, we will adjourn the regular meeting at
0718:15 and we will go into the finance