001Okay. >> Okay. We're going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. And we always start with the >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We're going to pray if you'd like to join us. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the chance to be here tonight. We ask that you lead us and guide us as we make decisions. We thank you for sending your son and we just ask that you could continue to keep your hand on this community on everyone involved here, the students, the staff, the teacher, the community. Would Jesus continue to pray? >> I'm going to ask for a motion to approve the agenda. >> Make
002a motion. >> Have a second. Second. >> And one thing I did want to ask, we didn't need to ask for like additional appropriations or anything this meeting, did we? >> Right. Just down here resolutions. That's what >> Okay. Um move on to public comments. There's no public comments. We're going to move on to our action items. We're going to start with the approval of the November minutes and the financials. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> All those in favor? I approve. Max Smith is middle school ELA teacher and high school intervention list. Motion to approve. >> I have a second. >> All those in favor? Move on to approve Caitlyn Reese as elementary girls volunteer assistant coach. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >>
003Move on to approving Kenny Ellis and Dennis Ross as archery coaches. >> Make sure that's 50% like they're shared in the position. >> Do I have a motion to approve? >> Make a motion. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? I move on to approving Jeff Burke as the boys golf coach. Do I have a motion to approve? I'll make a motion. Do I have a second? >> Second in >> favor. >> Move on to approving Dennis Ross as boys baseball coach. Slow down. >> All those in favor. I and we're going to move on to approving Brandon Arnett as high school track coach. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I move on to approving Shane Schaefer as middle school track
004coach. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. I'm moving on to approving Daniellea Coats as volunteer elementary cheer coach. Have a motion to approve. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I approve the resignation of high school aid Tiffany Jones. >> All those in favor? Um, approve Jordan Costa, his high school instructional aid. A motion to approve. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I move on to approve Ashley Morris, the seventh grade class sponsor. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> approve the early um distribution of the tag. Have a motion to approve. >> I'll make a motion. Do >> I have a second? >>
005I'll second. >> All those in favor? >> I move on to our end ofear financial resolutions uh for the transfer from education. The first um resolution we need to do is to transfer money to our school lunch fund. Do I have a motion to approve that? >> Motion. >> Have a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. The next motion is to move money to the Anthem Fund. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? And the last motion I need on this resolution is for the supplemental life fund. >> I'll make a motion. >> Do I have a second? >> A second. >> All those in favor? >> I will move on now to the legal update. >> Welcome everyone. um those that are watching online
006and those people that are in the room, just give you a little update, legal legal update in terms of where we're at right now. Um with with our with the lawsuit here in keeping Union open. Um at the first 90 days, tomorrow marks the first end of the first 90 days already of this school year. Um really proud of our teachers in terms of the the changes that they have made academically. Um we we anticipate that we will be at state level or above state level in our grades three to eight testing. Um it's been changes have been that significant and so we're looking forward to seeing those results. In terms of the legal legal update, we're still at a at a standstill awaiting a court date for our um for our case and sometimes
007that can take a little bit of time. Um but the biggest thing right now I want to encourage people um to take a look at the landscape of what's going on around around the state um around Senate Bill One. The the the funds are drying up within schools. Um and so it's important for people to watch this in terms of their own school corporation and their own community and what the intent of it. In 2013, Governor Daniels said, "Well, if we can't get schools to to consolidate, then we can dry them." and and and and force consolidation. If you look across the state, that's what's happening in many of our small schools. Look, not just in our small schools, but also in municipalities and small cities and towns. Um, and be very clear that when
008a school goes, so does the community, the businesses around that community. Um, there's less scholarship opportunities for for students. As talking to Christie earlier today, um, there's just a lot that goes down. Recently, I was in a superintendent meeting and and this this subject came up and and every single superintendent there nodded their head when they understood the financial wears and woes that are ahead of them. But I don't think that people are really understanding the alarm of what's coming, the storm that's coming. We have a short session coming up right now in February. We don't anticipate many changes. The biggest push right now has been around redistricting, which is a push from Trump that was shot down from our Senate. Um but what's coming what comes what's coming then beyond that session and there's
009there is again a proposal on the table for any county with less than 40,000 students or population of less than 40,000 to be consolidated in one school. And so if you look at what that means for your community, understand that that's real, but also understand that that's what's that going to do to your community. The school's not there, which is the central hub of your community. and also typically the number one employer or the number two or the number three employer of your community. What's going to happen to a community if when that happens? And we just happen to be out front. I I feel phone calls every week, emails every week from from superintendents and schoolboard members across the state wondering what our case what that's going to mean for them. And so I
010I don't want to be alarmist, but I also want people to be aware of what's going on, understand that legislators are meeting with different school districts saying that consolidation is just around the corner. We need those school districts to speak up and be loud about it and say this is this is the conversation that we just had because we're talking about the well-being of our communities and wellbeing of our schools. Be very clear, there wasn't a single singular not one legislator um that that wasn't from our area that stepped onto our our school corporation premises. Not one legislator that came and talked to any of our teachers, any of our community members, any of our business members. No students. They they they didn't they don't even know who we are, but yet they voted to
011shut us down. They voted and they didn't vote to shut down the school. They voted to shut down the community. And that's and that's why I'm so proud of this community, the school board, the students, the teachers. And it's like walking around with a sore toe knowing that there's you have a target on your back. And we don't understand why that target is on us. It that doesn't it's random and it doesn't make any sense. We just know that we may be first and there's other districts that are going to be right behind us. And so if you're a school board or if you have access to your legislator, my encouragement is make sure you speak up. Go find out what's going on because there's always a story behind the story. Decisions don't just spring
012up suddenly. There's a plan behind all of the decisions that are made. And my my encouragement to you is go find out what it is because we live in a democracy. It's important that that our people have the voice. And we were not given voice in our in our story. and we're hoping that this that this ends uh in our favor in all things. And so I want to encourage our board. I want to encourage our community to continue to hang in there. And I'm really proud of proud of everybody that's here. But I also want the other school districts around the state to realize what the agenda is. And the agenda is simply to shut down smaller schools. In the governor's terms, it is to be more efficient. But there's no research around what
013is more efficient. There there's no there's no dollar amount tied to anything. We have big schools that want to be small. We have small schools that want to be big. The big schools want to be small because they they they feel like they can't offer the same personal touch that small schools do. Small schools want to be a little bit bigger because they feel like they can offer more to the to the students. But if you look what happens with the small schools, some of the best people I know are schoolboard members and and superintendents of small schools. They their creativity and how they they meet the needs of each and every student and it's working for us. I my my advocacy is always to follow Iowa Ohio. A couple years ago, Ohio maybe 15
014years ago had put made a made a premise at the state level, the legislature lever to make an impact in all of the small schools across the state. They added money to the coppers to the funds of all their small schools across the state because they realized in order to really thrive as a state, they needed their small schools and they needed their small communities to thrive. And so they put monies back into the small schools. any small schools became new schools at that time. And so if you look at drive through Ohio and you see the small schools, you see the communities around those small schools thriving and that that helps Ohio's economy. And the same thing here in Indiana. Rather than supporting our small schools, we're trying to shut down our small schools.
015And what's that what's the economic impact of that down the road? It's it's not positive. everything around Senate Bill one. Hoosiers are starting to wake up and understand that Senate Bill one was a complete smoke show. If it if I have $300 in taxes, I still have $300 in taxes. I I may not have 150 from my own personal taxes, 150 from property taxes, but I if I the bill is still $300 and now I'm paying $100 in property taxes, I'm still going to have to come up with $200 somewhere else. And so it's still coming out of the same pockets. And so you look at you look at what's going on across the state. Hoosiers are starting to wake up to this and and in our last legislative session in the emergency session that
016was called for the Senate. Indiana has a super majority Republican and they voted down the the proposal from the governor and from from from the president. That tells you something that there's a lot of dis just rest um with how things are being done and how things were done in with our school corporation. The biggest fight that we have is how it's done. If if the legislators feel like it's best, remember the legislators work for us. They feel like it's best for small schools to be shut down in form of efficiency. Great. Then let's go through the proper channels and let's do it the right way. Let's not just throw it in on the last minute on a Friday night bill when there's 26 page document and turn it into 386 pages because they know
017what's best for the for for our communities. That's not why they're elected. They're elected to be our voice and no voice was given in Union School Corporation and there will be other schools that are right behind us and it's it's we just need to be loud about it. We need other people across the state to start opening their eyes, opening their mouths and speaking up for what's right. And so we will keep you updated on the legal update as we as we go through this process. >> Um I think we do need to say though that we tried sounding the alarm um that we weren't, you know, we're just the first. Um, I've been since contacted that others across the state have met with their legislators and they were told face to face in meetings
018that they're planning to consolidate all schools and counties with less than 40,000. That's the plan. It's not going to happen this time. It's going to happen next time. So, if everybody thinks it's just a union problem, it's not. This is a statewide problem. Um, and people need to start doing something now and not when they're sitting where we're sitting because we didn't have any any notice whatsoever to do anything. So, >> yeah. So, if there's any nothing else, we need a motion to adjurnn. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor?