0016:00. We'll call our meeting to order 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. Christina Ashley >> here. I'm here. David Coffin >> here. >> Don >> here. >> John Payne >> here. >> Brian Tommy >> here. >> Jess McFarland >> here. >> Gretchen Thomas >> here. >> And Scott Croner >> here. >> And no. All righty. We will start with [Applause] the hearing special order business. So the first item on the agenda is is the board's second preliminary determination hearing on the proposed renovations and improvements to school facilities throughout the school corporation. These improvements include roofing, paving, HBAC upgrades, site and athletic improvements as well as the purchase of buses, equipments, equipment and technology.
002Collectively, this is referred to as the project. If you're interested in speaking during the hearing, please be sure you have signed in on the sheet located at the back of the room, which should include your name and address. Each speaker will be asked to limit their remarks to three minutes, and comment should be focused on the proposed projects under consideration. As a reminder, the notice of this project hearing the preliminary determination hearing was published as required by law on August 15, 2025 in the Warsaw Times Union and the Ocean meetings. At this time, I invite comments from members of the public regarding the proposed renovations and improvements to school facilities. >> Are you going to do a presentation at all? >> Um, would more like a presentation? >> It's one we've seen already. >> Yes,
003it's you guys have seen the spreadsheet. This is for school buses. uh the facility improvements that were identified in the park code bill in the study. >> All right, I don't think anybody has signed in, so we'll proceed. There are no further comments. The public hearing concerning the proposed projects is now closed. Please let the minutes reflect that the public hearing has been held. And now to consider the adoption of the resolution. Sorry. >> All right. Consider the adoption of the public resolution, preliminary determination resolution, and reimbursement resolution. >> So, I'll make a motion to approve project resolutions, determination resolution, and reinforcement resolution. Second. >> I have a motion from John and a second from Trevor. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say I. I >> all post same sign. That motion
004carries 70. Now we'll move back to >> proposed budget. Correct. >> The purpose of this public hearing is to give notice to the public that the community school board of trustees is meeting to discuss the 2026 budget. During this hearing, the board will review the proposed budget and provide an opportunity for members of the public to share their comments. This includes both objections to and support for the proposed budget. At this time, I will open the floor for public comments. If anyone from the public wishes to speak, please come forward. All right. If there are no further comments, the public hearing for the 2026 community schools budget is now closed. Please let the minutes reflect that the public hearing has been held. >> And finally, if you guys aren't tired of my voice already, that's
005strange. The next item on the agenda is a public hearing concerning the 202526 negotiations between Wani Community Schools and the Wani Education Association. The purpose of this public hearing is to give notice to the public that the Wani Community School Board of Trustees will be entering into negotiations on the proposed contract between Wani Community Schools and the Wani Education Association. If approved, this contract would be effective from July 2025 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. During this meeting, the board of school trust the board of school trustees will hear comments from the public, including objections to in support for the proposed contract negotiations. At this time, I invite anyone from the public who wishes to speak to come forward. >> And I would like the right to show we have Marcy Porter. She is a
006member of the union and she's part of the bargaining team. So, appreciate Marcy being here tonight. >> Thank you. If there are no further comments, the public hearing concerning the 202526 negotiations is now closed. Please let the minutes reflect that the public hearing has been held. >> Good. Thank you. >> Yep. And thank you for being present. Appreciate you. Have a good evening. >> At this time, I'll take a um motion for the amendments to the agenda that are at your seats. >> What? Oh, >> recognition of visitors and public input. >> And I don't think we have any sign in. >> Okay. Now, amendments to the agenda. Yes. Thank you, G. >> I make a motion that we uh accept the amendments to the agenda. >> Second. >> Motion from Don and a second
007from John. Any discussion or questions on those amendments? Hearing? None. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All post same sign. That motion carries 70. I'll now cons accept a motion for the consent items to include the amendments we just added. Move to approve. >> Second. >> Motion from Kurt and a second from John. Any discussion or questions on those? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All post same sign. And that motion carries 70. There is no unfinished business. Action item A. consider the approval of the following school improvement plans. Napony Elementary, Walkerooa Elementary, Woodby Elementary, Northwood Middle School, and Northwood High School. Before Peggy kept a copy of the school improvement plans for each one of those buildings, I'm sure you guys have thoroughly read each and every page
008of them. Um this uh there's been some changes in law. Um state law no longer requires board approval for the school improvement plans. Um however, as we've had discussion with our team, we think it's a good practice for us to continue to do. And so, um, we're going to continue to bring these forward to you just so you have an awareness of what's going on. Hopefully, none of that really, um, shocked you or surprised you. It's all in alignment with our plan on page. Um, but, uh, we recommend approval as presented and happy to answer any questions you guys may have. >> Make a motion to approve the school improvement plans as I'll second. >> Motion from Kurt and a second from David. Any discussion or questions on those school improvement plans? Okay, hearing none.
009All in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose, same sign. That motion carries 70 act. Consider the approval of the IU affiliation agreement. >> The board packet a copy of an IU affiliation agreement. This basically outlines our agreement with Indiana University South Bend. um in order to allow us to take on a lot of our um practical uh teachers, instructional not instructional assistants, but those individuals who are training to become um classroom teachers. So, uh Chris Boatz has reviewed this document and had some conversation with their attorneys and uh we both would recommend approval as presented. >> Motion to approve the IU affiliation agreement. Second >> motion from Trevor and a second from John. Any questions or discussion? >> Is it the same type of program that fall state is doing? >> Uh yeah,
010we have several of these agreements. Um we had one already in place with South. They made some tweaks to it and so periodically you'll get updated ones that we'll they'll want us to have. >> Good. It's job security for our our labor team. >> This is not the apprentichip that all state was that Ball State though. >> Thank you. I'm sorry. This is um IOSB students coming here to do field experiences. >> Right. >> Thank you. >> Do we have to have that with each college to do that? We're sending observations or a few teachers. Do you have to have an agreement with them? >> We will have some kind of an agreement either. We'll have an agreement that kind of over overrides all of them or anou or when they if we don't have
011something like this and the college will send an individual one with that individual student. agreement that outlines what they can and cannot do. We will not permit. >> Any other questions, discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose, same sign. That motion carries 70. Action item C. >> We don't have any. >> Okay. Oh yeah, we do. >> We do. >> Oh, is that >> I apologize. Okay, so we have one overnight field trip. It looks like it's for sore camp. Um, oh ship. Um, we reviewed it. It does meet all our policies and we recommend approval as as presented. Thank you for that. Motion to approve the sword camp. >> Motion from Trevor and a second from Brian. Any questions or discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor say
012I. >> I. >> All oppose. Same sign. That motion carries 70. And the final agenda is considering the approval of the recommendation to purchase three conventional buses and one special means lift bus. I'll >> let Amy present on this one. according to the menu and according to our bus replacement plan that you've already approved. Um we did a study on bus replacement again and um the propane came out again as the winner. So that's our recommendation again to stick with that plan. Um we are excited to let you know that we are seeing a great savings through propane. Um it's about 29 cents per mile that we're saving as we run a propane bus. So that's a great savings. Um, as I looked at extracurricular travel, we spent about 109,000 in extracurricular through sports, music
013at the high school, and at the middle school. And if we were running all 33 routes, we'd be saving about 106,000 a year running propane. So, I think it's still a good choice for us to keep the propane project moving forward. That's what we decided as we sat around the office in the last I'm glad you asked the question, Kurt, because we've been sitting around the office debating this and we have a really great calculator that we use. I actually brought the numbers with me, too, if you want to have a flyer that I brought with me. So, yeah. So, it was a good opportunity for me to come and bring that good news to us. >> So, so where are we at by now with the motion? Sorry. >> Oh, yeah. Do you have
014a motion? Motion to approve the threedimensional buses and one special needs workplace. >> Second. >> Motion from Trevor and a second from David. Questions and discussion. >> So, where are we at diesel versus propane? Now, as far as numbers, >> currently this year, we're at seven uh seven gas. That includes the little white mini buses we have and two little yellow buses that we use for preschool. 24 diesel and 25 propane with the addition or that will be the addition this year when we add those four. >> So is the the the gentleman we have doing maintenance on buses. Is there issue with him with either propane diesel preference one or the other? >> We yeah we had a discussion today. He said he would absolutely not go to diesel right now because of the
01527 emissions that we are seeing coming forward. We don't have the software available for the new diesel coming forward in 27. If we were to look at a different engine right now, we would look at gas, >> the Rous gas engine. Although we don't have really have the infrastructure for a big gas fleet because we have a 6,000galon gas tank and that if we were to grow the gas fleet, we would have to consider flipping that gas diesel uh current tank that we have now, which is feasible. We could do that. If we move towards gas next, that's feasible. We could flip the current gas diesel tank that we have because we have more capacity on the diesel side than we do gas. The problem with diesel right now is it changes with whoever sits
016at the White House. And if it flips back, then we're going to see diesel emissions flip back to more uh stringent. So, it's volatile depending on what happens in that world. >> And >> there's a significant price increase on diesel engines right now. So, >> yeah. >> And the unknown what's going to happen, >> right? >> Diesel and gas also that fuel industry fluctuates. We know with politics and with the holidays and and who travels and when. Propane's very consistent. The last two fuels I've had 88 cents, 89 cents, 90 99 cents. So, my goal is under a dollar and the last three fuels have been under a dollar. So, I'll see higher fuels this winter, but I mean our average has been under a dollar >> for the last three fuels. Do we get
017like we do with resold prices? Do we do the same thing with propane? Do we lock that in for a year? That doesn't really work in the propane world. >> Uh we can lock in. I have been not locking in for the last year because I've been so success successful with a not lock. I'm going to play that for another year and see how that goes because of the volume that we have capacity right now. It's been working. So, I'm going to see what another school year looks like with this capacity and then decide if I walk in. >> Is it kind of more competitive? We get more competitive edition. So, with our specs, it gets a little bit more. >> Yeah. Yeah. We can we can get pretty competitive with propane because there's several
018vendors >> and um they know what my goal is under a dollar. It was pretty clear at the last um bid that we went for that my goal was under a dollar. We got really close. So, but our average right now is under a dollar. So, >> repairwise, where are we at diesel versus propane? >> Overall, it's always less to repair a propane because it takes less filters and you can go longer miles on service. And I have spreadsheet to share with you. >> I'm chuffling because this is like two weeks ago, three weeks ago, our weekly checking with you guys questions that we're going to ask. Well, >> hey, at least we're on electric because I just heard that somewhere like cities and places using electric buses. They're having big problems. >> Well, Amy's
019a big fan of electric buses. >> We're not going to burn down. Yeah, that's that >> that ship is sailing I think in the world. >> Yeah, sounds like there's just a lot of problems they're having. >> Yeah. Um one one major forrunner in that world we just went out of business. >> I think that's what problems with >> Yeah. >> parts and service and all that. >> Yeah. And the application for school bus is just it just isn't working. >> Um right. Yeah. And school bus application for propane is great just because you you don't need the range. It's not like hauling, you know, over the country. You're not trying to get from here to Texas. So, um, cocaine range for us, we never really go outside of the range that we need for
020the fuel tank that we need. Um, we have good partners if we do need to fuel when we're out and about. Um, the engine use that we use this for is stop and go. So, you know, that's why we don't really get the long-term use out of an engine. I mean, we're getting 12 years out of it now. I think that's as far as I would ever want to go with the engines that we're using because of the application stop and go. It stretches us to that 12 year mark. Um, propane so far has been very successful. um typic schools down in Lafayette, they were the first adopter of propane and they've gone through their first 12ear cycle. They got good resale value on their first trades. Um they were the first in the state
021to go through they've been through a full 12 years. and they saw these savings then nationally they say it's about 40% savings propane over diesel and no matter where you are no matter what you're paying for diesel and propane 40% seems to be the mark and that's where our numbers came out to 40%. So we hit right within that sweet spot >> and this is just the uh the fuel cost um you're seeing as far as repair and >> that's the overall cost per mile. Yeah, that's factoring in paying a little bit more for the engine up front, then the the overall cost of what it costs to maintain, you know, filters, oil, service interval, and then cost of fuel, and then the um a little bit less efficiency, mile per gallon, because you get
022less efficiency with propane, but when you factor in all the other savings and fuel cost, it still comes out, you know, 29 cents per mile better. Is that world fighting grant still available? >> It is not. We're at the tail end of that sixyear stretch. Um we took advantage of a half a million dollars of grant money for propane. Um I just found out that at the tail they were using that for 2010 and older. That's the only thing they were allowing and we ended up cycling out to the point that we were done with our 2010s. I did find out the last grant because they were finding fleets that were too new to be able to take advantage of it. They did award grant money to urban areas 2011 and newer. So had they
023gone rural 2011 new and newer, we could have gotten some money in the last year of that. Um right now I'm probably we're probably not going to see a lot of grant money. Maybe, maybe we will. I'll see. Um I don't think there's a big push for the green world right now, but I would like to see a new EPA grant come out. But I'm not crossing my fingers right now, but it'd be great because >> How many years ago was we got our first >> 2020? Drivers love them. They start right away. I don't have to worry about the engines not starting cold weather. We don't like right now we're trying to figure out what to do with the fuel that's in the diesel tank and having to think about winterizing that fuel because
024it's summer fuel now and winter's coming and we have to strategically plan on what diesel to put in that tank to make sure it's ready. And we don't have propane can sit there for 24 years and we don't have to worry about the quality of it. It's propane is propane and it's it's going to start no matter what. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Canada, they're they're running propane and that's just a really great benefit to know that buses are going to start no matter how cold it gets. So, >> some farmers are taking fuel. >> What's that? Oh, I know. Yeah, maybe I should sell off that summer fuel. I should. It's actually a good idea. Sell it off. get rid of it so I can bring in the tanker full of winterized fuel, but they're not winterizing
025it yet. And we're need diesel right now. So, but they don't winterize it till November. So, you have to get in those sweet spots of when they're going to sell winterized fuel. And I don't like to splash blend at the tank because then you have to play chemist at the tank. And I don't like to I'm not a chemist. >> I thought our sparks were so that we have to worry about that somewhere. They well they are but the um like Country Mark won't start blending until November. They won't start doing winterized fuel until we're we're our interest is peaked on gas. We'll see. But the savings still is even with the savings of the engine up front, propane still beating out gas. So >> any other questions or discussion? >> Hearing none. All in
026favor say I. >> I. >> All post say sign. That motion carries 70. That ends our action items. We'll go on to discussion and enrollment update. >> Just the last item uh present just our enrollment update. Uh I'll skip down to the bottom kind of most important piece. Um you'll see there on our spreadsheet uh where we're standing at right now uh 2,822.4 students that decimal points because we have some students that attend school at a partial day. Some school part. Um we do have two students that are not accounted for yet. So we still need to track them down. They do show up. But uh right now in the actual number we're showing that they're likely not going to show up. That's down 24 and a half from where we were last fall. Um
027down 13 and a half from where we were last spring. Um but it is up from our conservative estimate that we had um projection into the fall. So um again the cohort survival method is not as uh dire as what the last five years have been. But we're still um unfortunately graduating more students than we're bringing in right now. Um in front of you I did uh give you a spreadsheet just to kind of give you a sense of where kids are going. These are kids who have left the district. Um most of which have moved out of the district. Uh however u those that have not moved out of the district probably our biggest one right now is honor school and home school. Um honor school really no big surprises there. Those are kindergarteners
028that uh come for a year of school and then uh the families enroll them into their their home honor schools. The homeschool ones. Um, I needed to run a comparison because I do know the principles had said they felt like we had more homeschool students that were coming back this year. So hopefully that's a wash, but that still is kind of the the one of the hype ones. Uh, you will see a lot of different names that are on here. Um, anything that's K12, Indiana Connections, Indiana Digital, Indiana State, um, probably see a virtual prep academy. Um, there should be like a union. Basically, those are all online schools and that's probably the biggest driver is is families who um are enrolling in online virtual programming. Um that can be a myriad of reasons. Um
029you know, they could be having issues and concerns with attendance issues. Um getting their kid to come into school. Um it could be just life situations and so they're choosing maybe a more flexible um online curriculum. Um there has been some discussion amongst schools around the state to exploring um online programming. Um I'm I'm reluctant to it. Um you know when I think about Wani, we offer amazing in-person uh relational instruction. Um and I guess I just would really struggle you know kind of maybe venturing away from that just at the hopes of you know maybe boosting our numbers. Um so again certainly open for a discussion amongst the board about you know what your desires would be but I think uh you know as far as our school district goes I think we offer
030amazing inerson learning our out of district enrollment numbers are the highest they've been in the eight years nine years that I've been here so I I still know we are providing um an outstanding instruction in the environment and families are choosing to come here um but certainly we are graduating more potatoes then uh then we're we're bringing in each year and that's something we just need to continue to be be aware of. So happy to take any questions you have this time. How much do the the the kids from out district that come in um how much does that offset you know piece because I'm sure there's a lot more homeschool and online but like does that I'm sure that helps know about how >> traditionally we're about 100 students more than we bring in
031than leave that reside in our district and go to because the online schools are considered living in our district or going to another district outside of our outside of ours. Um and traditionally we have ranged around 100 students more that we bring in than decide to leave. Um, does that answer your question? >> We will get the report. I reason why I can't answer that right now is the state always gives a report after count day. So about late October, early November, we'll get that that final report for this year. Other questions? >> All right, that's all we have this evening. >> All right, everybody. No further business come to the attention of the board. A motion to adjourn is in order. >> Second. >> Motion and second from all in favor say I.