Wabash City Schools Board of Education Meeting (6/16/2025)

001something right now. Okay, it's 6 o'clock. This is the Wabash City School Board of Trustees meeting. It is June 16th, 2025. Roll call. Everyone is present. Having a quorum, we'll call the meeting to order. Please rise. 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. W City Schools provides a relevant, rigorous education on relationships to ensure each student is college and career ready for success in the global community. Welcome. Um, we don't have any recognitions tonight or revisions. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to comment on an agenda item other than the DLI program? Because that'll come up in a little bit. Okay. Consent agenda. We have minutes from June 2nd, 2025. Um, claims.

002We have a donation of $360 from Wabash County Sheriff's Office to the Hungry Kids Fund and we have some financials tonight. Accept a motion to approve the consent agenda. So move second discussion. Uh first we'd like to thank the sheriff's office for their donation to the Hungry Kids Fund. Um then we will move on to our revenue and expense report. Okay. Uh we'll start with revenue and expenses. Um you can see that revenue was a bit higher than what we had projected. This was largely due in part to receiving a supplemental local income tax payment as well as receiving the enrichment grant that we received from the community foundation um by an anonymous donor that helps offset the cost of the certified specialist teachers at OJ. Um I believe that grant may be for one

003more year um but that is those are some costs that we are going to end up having to absorb. Um, we also received a very large Medicaid reimbursement for this month after the state fixed some errors with their submissions. Um, we have a new company that we are using uh that the state is using for Medicaid reimbursement and there's been some growing pains with them. Our expenses were also a little bit higher than projected. This was mainly due to higher operational expenses which included an -ate project to replace our internet access points across the district. For this, we paid about $25,000 for the project. Had we not done it through um it would have cost us about 125,000. Um and then payroll expenses were just a tad lower than what we had projected. So we

004ended up with a net income when we actually were projected to have a net loss. So that is a good thing. Um moving on to our key fund balances. Uh you can see they are doing better than they were last year at this time. Um our ED fund balance is 1,325,674. Our operations fund continues to be negative. We are negative $892,190. Uh we do get our June tax draw this month. Um and we believe it should be just a little over $600,000 after we pay half of the tax anticipation warrant. Um so hopefully operations fund looks a little bit better next month. reminder that while it will look better next month for the rest of the year, July through December, it will continue to grow um if it's negative because we don't receive any income.

005We get our income in June and December. Um and Rainy Day is $610,489. And just a reminder that as we are um using rainy day for some of our operational expenses that number will continue to drop for the rest of this year. Um now we will move on to our appropriations report. All right, we'll start with our education fund. Um, our target for this month is 41.6% of uh percent for appropriation collected or expended. You can see that our revenue is a little bit behind. Um and that is mainly due to when the budget was built, it was built on um a certain number of enrollment and when our enrollment came back lower. Um so that is why we have not collected enough or the full 41.6%. So, as we go through the year, we

006really need to keep an eye on that to see where revenue is at and we need to make sure that we're not hitting 100% of appropriations in our ED fund. Um, also, if you look at expenses, um, you'll remember that at the beginning of the year, because we had three payrolls, we had several of them that were over the target. Um, it's kind of starting to balance out. We have a few that are over, but they're just over by a little bit. So, this is not anything that's of concern. Um, athletic coaches because we do payouts just a few times a year, that's why that one is higher. Um, as we move through the months, that will balance back out. Right now, our um expenditures, we're at 39.2%, which is good because we know that

007we are not collecting the revenue um that we need. Moving on to operations. Um, our revenue again, we we collect our big revenue when we get our tax draws. We're at 32.2% so about uh 9.4% below where we would like to be. Um, several of these lines continue to be over. Um, these are ones though that we have moved to rainy day. So, as we move through the year, we will continue to see these starting to balance out a little bit. So in total we are at 46% of our appropriation. So again we just want to see that continuing to get lower as we're using rainy day. There any questions? Was there something that happened with the vehicle maintenance that were we had to have tires put on uh some of our buses that was

008we talked about that last month and they were if we did not replace them they would not have passed bus inspection. Oh I remember that now. Sorry. Thanks. And what's the purchase of mobile or fixed? Um, that is our lease payments for our copy machines and that's been moved to day. Okay. Okay. I'll accept the mo or all in favor of approving the consent agenda say I. I. I. All opposed. Motion passes. The next regular scheduled board meeting will be Monday, July 7th, 2025 at Wab City Hall at 6 o'clock p.m. There's some items of communication. There's no old bis old business, new business. Board will be presented with a recommendation to transition our current DLI program to Spanish language and culture for all program. need a motion. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um, so we're going

009to go through this and I'm going to start by saying by no means do I feel that this program is not a good program. If I had a child that I would have brought in, I would have put them in the program as well. Um but I want to share some things with you that um as the superintendent of this district that I think I have to consider. Um first off is impending financial changes. Um we have seen declining enrollment. Um since 2021 we've dropped we went up a little bit. From 23 to 24 we had um a drop of about 53 kids. When you put that into dollars into our ED fund, our per pupil um amount that we get, that was a reduction of $467,500 for 2025, the coming year, we could be

010the estimate that the estimate that I have is 1,342. But if we just roll all of our students up and we look at the graduating class that's leaving and the number of kindergartens kindergarten students that we currently have enrolled, we could be as low as 1,320 students. So that's another loss of $460,500 in our ED fund. So over the course of last year and this coming year, we could see our ED fund budget dropping by about a million dollars. Um there were legis legislative changes in house bill 101 which is the budget bill. Um the new bianium bianial budget gave us a 2% increase to our funding in uh ed fund. However, they did move curricular materials to ed fund and I'm still not 100% sure if that two 2% increase includes that money or

011if it's separate. Some say it it's included, but I still haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe that it is. Um, they've also reduced the number of seats for on my way prek vouchers. Um, we get a lot of reimbursements for students in our prek program. That's um that and tuition is how we pay for our prek. So, if that goes down, our ed fund is going to have to pick up more um for prek. It also requires us to move the minimum teacher salary to $45,000. Currently, we have 36 out of 82 teachers that are below $45,000. Um, I went through and calculated just to move those 36 teachers up to the $45,000, it would cost us about $95,000. And that's just salary. That does not include any of their benefits. and

012it also doesn't include a raise for the other 46 teachers. Um legislative changes also um Senate Enrolled Act One which is the property tax breaks. Um this provides $1.3 million in property tax relief for homeowners over the next three years and it's changing the way they're calculating um money that goes into our operations fund. And the report that we have been given for calendar year 26, our operations, which you saw is still negative. Um, we are going to get 134,930,000 less had this legislation not been passed. The following year, it goes up to 154,000. And in calendar year 28, we are predicted to get $785,000 less than what we would have received. Um, so this is something that's that's very concerning because like I said, our operations fund is already struggling. So over the past

013several years, we've done a lot of things to, you know, work on saving money um getting getting that operations in line. Um, we combined our middle school and high school and this did uh rebuild cost savings with staffing. Um, we've re-examined extra funded positions. So, anything that was an added position during ESSER has has been done away with. We thought we were going to be able to keep them, but we've realized with our declining enrollment, less money in ed fund, we're going to have to do away with those. We've also done some operational changes. Um, we implemented walking routes a few years ago. We absorbed some drivers. We eliminated ESRE funded contracts and we've reduced administrative staffing by redistributing work. Um this is both at building levels and at the district level. So as we

014look to the future, we have to consider how our enrollment and legislative changes will affect our budgets. Um we can't keep doing the same thing with less money. So my recommendation is moving from a DLI to a language and culture for all. And some of the rationale behind that one, we struggle to find DLI teachers. Um, this is something that, you know, surrounding schools face the same issue. Um, districts that are in larger communities can offer higher salaries than we can. Um, the interest in DLI is not what it what it was when it started. Um, I was not here when it started. I was told that in the beginning classes at each grade level um we would have 50 40 to 50 students um between the two classes. The last two years we did

015cap the enrollment because we were trying to do a looping option to see if that might uh save the DI program. Um but we still had to talk people into enrolling their students. The state has also done away with the DLI grant because of their budget cuts. Now, it wasn't huge, but it did offset the cost. Um, so those are things that we're going to have to start picking up. Um, and the main rationale is we know that learning a language at a young age helps with brain development. And so, let's give this to all students and not just a select few. So the transition would be that all students that are currently in the program would be able to continue through graduation. So for the 2526 DLI would be in grades 1 through 8

016and then 26 27 it would rotate up to grades 2 through 9 and it would keep going 3 through 10 etc. So those that started it will be able to finish it. Um, beginning in the 2627 school year, we would add a Spanish language and culture class um at OJ as one of their specials class. They would no longer do library. Instead, they would do the Spanish language and culture. Um, this would start with first grade in that first year and by 2029 2030 all students at OJ would have a once a week um Spanish language and culture class. So, the benefits of making this transition, all students will have the opportunity to begin learning Spanish and about the Spanish culture. Um, will students be bilingual at the end of this? No. And we know

017that. Um, but what it will do is it will allow students um to have the neural pathway connections formed later for learning a language. Um it will allow students um the curiosity give them the curiosity about other language cultures and people and it will expose our students um we know that exposure to more than one language is helpful in cognitive development. We would move from six teachers to two and we are still offering something unique. So our next step, this is my recommendation and I will say like I said, it is not anything about the quality of the program. It is based on one what is best for all students in our district. It's also about keeping good teachers we have. Um, when you look at what's coming down the pike for us in regards

018to our education funding, last year we gave a very minuscule raise to our teacher teachers. And if we don't do something where we are able to give our teachers better raises, we're going to lose good teachers in all the other areas. Um, it also considers our current and future financial condition. So like I said, this is my recommendation. Um, obviously the board will make the final decision. Okay. Now that Dr. Sibi has presented, we'll take comments. For board policy, we will allow up to 30 to 45 minutes for comments. If you wish to address the board, please come to the microphone over here on the right and form a line. You will be given up to three minutes. When it is your turn, please state your name and address. And uh a reminder, this is

019not a Q&A with the board. Um it's a time for you to have your comments heard. Does the board have any questions? We'll do that after. Okay. Good evening. My name is Marie Kaufman and I am a daughter of Camille that is in the Spanish program and has been from the get-go. I was here when I started so I have seen its fruition and coming to and all of the interest and excitement that was around it initially. Um, I know that it did take, I would say, a good year in market research and analyzing different options before we decided to go with it. And I would hope that before we decide to completely do away with it, that we would also take some time to give the community and parents and um, uh, the the

020people that are interested with students time to come up with maybe ideas. I guess my main thoughts are what's the conversation that we can have of what we need to do to keep this program. I understand all of the things and I know Dr. Sly the school is in tough times and you have done a great job in trying to find ways to cut, but it does make me think when things are hard and if it's hard to attract people. I don't know that that's the time that we want to be cutting a program that actually brings a lot of interest and gives water schools something that's unique. I know since the announcement just a few days ago on different forums on social media accounts, people have I've seen comments saying uh we'll pull out

021we'll send our kids to Manchester or Warsaw. I know that this is a big draw for many families and I know looking at the cost um saving salaries for teachers. I I am curious how that actually comes about because we still have to have teachers to teach them whether in English or Spanish. So, is the plan just making the English instruction classes larger? We're just kind of spreading those students into other classes and having more students with fewer teachers and that that of course is going to negatively affect the quality of education. I think we all agree that the program is a success, that the kids that take it are excelling academically, that it's a good thing for our community and a big draw. I was recently at an economic development panel speaking and I

022mentioned this program that Wadesh has and talked about other development programs going on and afterwards all of the the people there they wanted to ask me about this program they didn't care about the the commercial redevelopment and all these projects they were fascinated with this program and I think what it shows the community and world and economic devel investors or people that are looking into Wish that Wish City Schools is forward thinking that we are committed to making our students global citizens and improving their their education. And so I would hope we could have the conversation. What does it need? What needs to happen for us to maintain this program and I think we're all capable and smart and our community is very dedicated and hopefully we could have the conversation of what we need

023to bring so that we can have it and hopefully with marketing and pushing these special program. This is an amazing program that it would garner more interest. And I I hate to see something that's actually bringing so much interest to the school to leave and then those families possibly leave and then we're left with a bigger a bigger deficit afterwards. So, um I hope we can have the conversation of what needs to happen for us to keep this program. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Scott Long. You didn't know. Since I took office in 2016, I've stated multiple times, our education system is the foundation for economic development. Uh the introduction of the DLI program just exacerbated that in my mind. And like Marie just stated, when I travel and I'm speaking to different mayors, different

024companies that are interested located Wash. This DLI program uh is a big selling point for us. Our school systems about education and giving our students a well-rounded education. My son Tyler has been in this prek. He's doing very well in it and it's helping him in his other classes. fully understand the budgetary uh constraints that you guys are facing because our losses are going to be larger in the city than what the school system is. Um I'm here to fight to continue this program, not phase it out. I guess my question is have other funding opportunities been explored? Have we talked to our local manufacturers? Do they see a benefit of having bifable people coming out of our school into their companies? I just paid I think $3,000 for the two youngest children to attend

025preschool and pre kindergarten because I don't qualify for my weight prek vouchers. I'd be willing to pay $3,000 to have those kids enroll in this program at the prek level or kindergarten level. I'd be willing to pay for Wayne to continue on. And I think there's a lot of parents who think it's vitally important for their children to get dual language that they would be willing to pay for those classes. Also, I think that needs to be explored. This program sets Wast City Schools apart from the other districts in the area. And I hate to say make us unique because it's been stated already, but it does make us unique. I've shared Sarah Deado as a an employee with the city schools for a number of years. Um, I won't lose that asset. She does

026great work for me on international stuff and and she's valuable to me and the city. My only request is that you think long and hard about phasing out this program before making a final decision. keep Wash City Schools strong and a sales tool for the local government and economic development agency to attract business and industry. I don't want us to be just another school district. Thank you. Hi, my name is Amanda Schol and I have a son in the DI program. He's in the flagship class and he's here today. He and another uh DLER. Um we actually chose to hold Dimmitri back a year so that he could join this program with his now his friends. And when I check in with him like oh would you you know do you still want to do

027this? like what happens if you know he's a part of this class. These are his people and whatever happens for DLI whether it continues whether it continues to improve whether it doesn't we're we're here till the end and he's my youngest. So, I'm here to speak um because I'm a member of the community and um I'm not only worried about my kids education. Um I think that education is so important and we have every couple of years we've got a new big battle. Something gets, you know, worn out, derailed. We have a new program we need to replace another one with. And and I get it. Um, I've never really had many demands or high expectations because I know your plate is very very very full. Um, the job is too big. I get it.

028But we have decided to do DLI and we've been through some things over the years and we've lost some people. We've lost some interest. True. Have we done the work? Have we really given the program a chance? Have we said yes enough to supplemental programming and activities and planning that would have supported the program and retained the families who we lost that year. We lost a lot of families one year because they saw that we were going to kind of do the minimum with the DLI program that we weren't going to choose to afford to do more than we had to. and that wasn't sounding like a real commitment to them. I think they were right. Um, it's not too late. Obviously, we can decide to keep the program. Um, I think it's really important

029to ask what needs to happen that didn't happen before. And, um, you know, for all those good reasons so we can be global citizens, so that we can continue to stand out, so we can be special. Um, these kids do tend to be the higher scoring kids and maybe that's because they have parents who are more supportive and are putting them in this program. I get it. I was part of a special program when I was a kid. It's got its ups and it's got its downs to be so special. And I get it. It's it's not an easy situation, but we would be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn't continue to try or rather if we didn't begin to try harder. Um I feel that there is especially now that we're way more

030grades, we're we're kindergarten through 7th grade right now. That's a lot of parents. It's a lot of community. a lot of people with a lot of skills that we can draw from. There's definitely some brainstorming and creative, you know, thinking that we can do to work around some of the issues that we're dealing with. Um, I think there could be other places to look for cuts. I know everyone, you know, wants it to not be in my backyard, but um I feel like um the quickness with which the programs put on the cutting board kind of is a testament to what we've been feeling for several years, which is that it's not been prioritized very much. Um I I would love to help. I am a parent who speaks Spanish, who teaches all different ages.

031Um, but I'm also, you know, a concerned citizen and I think fundraising um is not something I know it's a tricky thing with education. You know, the schools kind of have their job to do, but um there are things um in including hosting students brings in some revenue. Um I know sports they make a lot of money for us, right? So, how could DLI be positioned to be bringing in, you know, we did the Lion King that one year, great things started by the teachers. Um, but by the end, we had a huge production and we see great productions from visiting students, the Japanese in particular. So I can imagine, you know, having more after school programming, enriching activities that maybe then turn into more um you know, whether we can sell tickets to a

032cultural event or um have, you know, put on a gala each year, what have you. you know, uh maybe we um partner with local businesses, maybe we partner with the city, maybe we um come to, you know, some kind of uh we we we just haven't had that yet in all of these seven years. We have not had coming together outside of what's going on in school. And so I think, you know, there are things that we can explore. Anyway, thank you. Thank you, Mindy. Um, hello everybody. My name is McKenzie Goldberg and I'm actually from Manchester. Um, but I'm here today as a county neighbor um to applaud the work that you guys have done with the DLA program and I know how hard budgeting and budget constraints are and you guys have a

033lot of tough decisions. Um, but I'm here as to keep cheering you on. I know that so much work, so much funding, so much energy, and so many resources have gone into the creation of the DI program. Your DI program is farther along than the one in Manchester. You guys are already seeing the benefits on test scores for both students in who are native English speakers as well as non-native English speakers. We're seeing those benefits that everybody else talks about. And so we see the lawgi program as like something to aspire to. So first off, I just want to congratulate you guys on how much you've invested in this program and say I also understand a lot of the tough decisions that you guys have on the table and appreciate the work that you guys

034are doing. Um and this openness to to brainstorming with the community about other possible solutions other than eliminating the program. Um, I should say too my PhD is in Hispanic linguistics. So I have a doctorate in Hispanic linguistics with a focus in second language acquisition and much of my research is on emerging bilingual which is young bilingual and what are the benefits of learning a second language. So, I just wanted to talk about some of the benefits that I know are happening in this DI program and then I wanted to propose some additional potential solutions of ideas to brainstorm over. Um, and yeah, so I'll kind of jump in. Um, so, um, I know that one of the things that you guys are thinking about and that we all have in common also in Manchester

035is we want to close our achievement gaps for our students. That is something that we see in these DI programs is they can close those for students. Um DI programs result in higher academic performance for everybody partly because even for native Spanish speakers having a strong foundation in their native language can boost them but even it boosts to English speakers too. Um it can attract more families especially if we're bringing in businesses from other places around the world. These DI programs are a huge attraction and sometimes people say they've been created this like magnet effect and sometimes that can take a couple years just as we don't always see those benefits of the DI programs in kindergarten, first and second grade. Maybe some of those benefits for attracting families are delayed too, right? So maybe

036the word is just getting out about how awesome this program is. Um they can also reduce attrition. So, as we heard from Mandy and some of the other families that I know are here, it gets parents deeply invested in schools in a way that they might not be otherwise. So, it can help reduce attrition because they have this kind of special attachment to the school. Um, it supports your English language learners. I know sometimes teachers have to hire or not teachers, schools have to hire additional teachers for English language learners. And with the DLI program, many of your DLI teachers act as those Latino leaison for your schools. And so it actually reduces the need for for you to hire additional DLL teachers. Um, it can enhance your school reputation. For example, it kind of

037improves the school's overall profile. It can build cultural ties within your community. I know that we've been in dialogue about the upcoming Hispanic Heritage Festival and how we can collaborate with the DI program. I wouldn't necessarily have reached back to the schools if that program wasn't if there was this culture program for example that wouldn't have been on my radar but knowing that the DI program was here was a reason we're like ah we should try to do something with Wash city schools um it also um there's some additional cognitive benefits to this that I think are really important and I know you touched on a couple of these as well but um there's increased cognitive flexibility specifically We often see this research in DLI programs. We don't see it in the same way in

038like the cultural kind of this one class for everybody program, but um cognitive flexibility in terms of switching tasks. I don't know if you guys are as susceptible to scrolling on your phones. We know that social media and iPhones are kind of a huge issue right now, right? It's been a lot lot in the news. Um learning a second language to the degree that you do in the DI program really helps students with that cognitive flexibility. It also helps them with their inhibitory control. So being able to focus um just because of some of those neural pathways that we're getting inside a program like a DI program. It can help with their working working memory. So how we can hold information when we switch to a task. Um it can enhance students problem solving skills.

039And one of the big things I think is interesting, we talked about these short-term benefits, but it can one of the long-term benefits of these DI programs because of the degree of bilingualism that students get to in a DI, it can delay the onset of Alzheimer's and dementia, which we know is a huge thing. Um, and so that's a big one. Um, a couple of the there's also these economic benefits kind of as Mayor Long mentioned, a more competitive workforce. You guys are going to graduate. if you can keep this, you will graduate students with this huge bilingual capability that is so needed. Um, we have seen a huge increase of Spanish speakers in Wash County through my work. And so, if you can continue this program, I think Wash will be particularly competitive students

040and the the parents of the students would be really excited about that too. Um, a couple of the solutions I wanted to just bring up. Um, I spoke with the Manchester Community School superintendent before this and I was like, you know, would you ever be able to share something? What would And I don't think at this time that would be a possibility. But one thing that um we did think of was I know for example when I was in elementary school, we combined third and fourth grade. Like I was in a program called Gemini. It was some other added benefit program and we were in a third and fourth grade class. And that was one of my thoughts for your higher level classes for something like fifth and sixth grade is if those sections are

041small, rather than eliminating them, why not h have them combined so that they can share a teacher potentially if they were small um rather than eliminating this program because I think you've just dedicated so many resources to it. Um or for example, I imagine teach at Manchester University. I know there are several Manchester University grads um and that are going to be graduating with degrees in Spanish and education. Why not have university grads do some of their student teaching in your class? These are just ideas for how could you kind of supplement this funding um or kind of work around. So, just wanted to say congratulations on having such a wonderful DI program. Um, I hope that that you can brainstorm some of these options and um, yeah, thank you so much for having me.

042Good evening. My name is Maggie Wley. I reside at 141 East Hill Street in Wash. I attended Fort Wayne's first magnet elementary school from 1980 to 1985 where I received one hour of Spanish instruction per week from the simulator beyond 5 years 1 hour a week 36 hours a year. Fast forward several decades and my husband and I enrolled our daughter Rebecca in the dual language immersion program in the fall of 2019. Even with the disruption to her kindergarten year caused by co, she surpassed all expectations for both fluency and prof proficiency after just one year. This is not surprising. While I received approximately 36 hours of Spanish instruction per year, DLI students receive that same amount in less than two weeks. The impact of that difference is profound. I urge you to reconsider your

043proposition. Eliminating or scaling back this program will come at a great cost at fear. Future students will lose a valuable educational opportunity. Families considering Wash may choose instead to relocate to communities like North Manchester or Warsaw that offer thriving DLI programs. And the rich cultural connections this program has fostered within our schools and communities will begin to fade. For our family, the DLI program has been the primary reason to stay anchored to Water City Schools. I believe that many other participating families would wholeheartedly echo the sentiment. Thank you for your time. [Applause] Hello, my name is Lacy Taylor. Um, my son has Asperger syndrome. So a lot of times that ends with very high academic skills but low social emotional skills. My son has a third grade level but socially emotionally still in preschool. He

044struggles a lot with these things. Due to the dual immersion program, my son has been able to stay at an academic level that is suitable to his age and still be challenged. I know that my son is not the only one that would benefit from this program. I know there are a lot of students in the area that they struggle with things being smarter than other kids or, you know, they behaviorally can't handle it. But being able to be challenged in the classroom has changed my son's academic career. We went to South. It wasn't a good fit for us. He couldn't handle being in a regular classroom and being able to do what they were doing and move on within just a few minutes. This program deserves to be fought for. Thank you. Thank you.

045Hello, my name is Tracy Griffith and I have two children in the DI program. One that's in going into the eighth grade and one that's going into the seventh grade. So, I'm very familiar with the program and how it works or what is going on. Um, I'm not going to make this very long and I know there's not question that we're not supposed to direct questions, but I have some questions and I have a little bit of concerns or whatever. But, uh, as a parent, I would have to say that I was super excited when we got the opportunity to enroll in this program. I was so excited actually. I thought what a great opportunity for Wash to be 100%. We're not really known to be very inclusive or diverse around here. Um, so the

046fact that somebody had thought, let's start this program and let's see how this works. I was excited. But since then, I feel like the program has never fully gotten support. I feel like we are really good about uh telling people that we offer the program. I feel like we're great about reaching out and just bragging about it, but when it comes to support, it's just not there. 53 kids dropping in the 2023 2024 school uh school year is absolutely ridiculous. I mean really that's ridiculous. 53 kids in a small program like that. Why? Why? Why did 53 kids drop out? Why do 53 parents not want their kids to be in the program anymore? I can tell you personally that my two children uh maintain A's and B's in both of their both of them

047in their Spanish classes and I have forced them to stay in Spanish for the last three years. Why? Because I believe in the program that much that I'll invite my own children to stay in it because I know what it will bring for their future. I know when they go out into the world being a part of this program will make them better people. It will make our community a better community. It will make our state a better state. It will make businesses want to come here. It will make people want to stay here. So my question is, is a solution completely unattainable? And why are we just now bringing it to the parents attention and to a bigger scale attention that this is where we're headed? I mean, this clearly just didn't happen overnight.

048I've been to multiple meetings and I've brought up this question before. What happens if we keep losing kids and they dissolve the program? And every time I've been told, "That's crazy, Tracy. That will never happen." Yet, here we are. Here we are. I'm just so disappointed. I understand that funding this program is a is an expense. And I know that we've gotten grant money up until this point and some grants and money are in changes. I get that. I don't know the whole financial side of it, but I feel like we have to reach out to the community and the parents and let them try to help us. At least try. I feel like just this option of just like, oh, let's let's go down to 1 hour a week is not even trying. It's

049giving up. And that's not fair. That's not fair to every parent sitting here. That's not fair to every child who has worked that hard. It's not fair to future children in this community. So I just is it unattangled completely or are we just not looking for solutions? Uh I think that uh there are some a lot of great solutions that were suggested before by the people fundraising maybe other grant writing maybe business outreach partnering with bigger businesses promoting the program then I know we're again we are pretty good about promoting it but promoting it and supporting it. I don't feel like bringing a teacher here from another country three days before school year starts and says, "Here you go. Here's a classroom full of kids and have zero support backing them." Like that's just crazy

050to me. I feel like all of our kids matter in this community and all languages matter and here in Wabash we can represent both. So, I just really think that we need to just pause for a half a second and kind of come together and maybe talk this through and see if that we can't come up with a solution because I would really, really, really, really hate for this to end over money when in the long term this could be the one of the greatest investments has ever had in their community. So, thank you. [Applause] Wow, that's a hard act to follow up. Thank you for your passion. My name is Samantha Lopez. Um I live at 1086 Mint Drive. I have a son, Luke, who's in fifth grade now, rising fifth grader, and has

051been in the program since preK. And he absolutely loves the program. And what I think is so interesting about the program, in addition to his ability to actually learn the language and speak so well with his accent and dialect, is just his global awareness and appreciation for other cultures. And I absolutely do not think he would get that appreciation with a week, an hour a week of exposure. He loves learning about all these other Spanish-sp speakaking countries and cultures. I believe part of that has been the opportunity to have teachers from other countries that our students don't get that opportunity and just the deep deeper awareness that they get through this exposure and inclusion and I think just think about the citizens that we are be able to raise and the future leaders that we're

052able to produce for our community. So just wanted to share that personal perspective and love for this program. It's also interesting, my daughter Victoria, who is going into in ninth grade and just missed the cuto off. The program started right after her, but she started taking Spanish this year in 8th grade, um, offered for eighth graders. And her fourth grade brother would correct her Spanish and would be the one to teach her Spanish, right, which no older sibling wants to have. But that just shows the level of I mean, he was literally his or her Spanish teacher at home doing homework, practicing for a test. she probably would hate that I would share this, but it just shows the like high level that they're learning. So, I just wanted to share I also have a

053couple of questions um that I'd like to pose, but then also maybe some solutions. So, I do want to know specifically how much extra does this program cost? So, we heard, you know, very large bleak financial outlook and that this program does cost extra through additional staffing, program fees. I want to know actually what does it cost and what do we need to raise in order to supplement that. So we had an individual in the community who valued the appreciation of having licensed special teachers and we figured out what was that extra cost to have a licensed art teacher licensed gym teacher and member of the community came forward. So what does it cost to continue to maintain the DLI program as it grows. So then we as a collective community understand what are the

054funding streams both shortterm and long-term to sustain that program. I run a a consulting firm called transform consulting group. We help organizations including fundraising and fund development. We work with nonprofits, schools, foundations. I'd be willing to volunteer the services of our firm to help a school determine what are some funding traits and mechanisms. So, please let me know. Um, as you shared, the horizon for public school funding is bleak and unfortunately it's not getting any better. And as much as we're trying in our community to grow our population, right? And education is one of those core principles in our 185 plan. We have strong schools to attract families here. That's a long-term solution. So, I think we need to start looking creatively at our public school funding. the the situation has changed. We see that

055at the state level. We're seeing it here locally. So instead of shrinking and cutting, what can we do to grow our pie and think externally and that's where leveraging your community is the way to do that? And we could be a leader for that in our state. And I especially think rural communities are even more challenged with our financial constraints. So I ask the board please take some time to engage the community to reach out to leaders to supporters to have us come collectively with you. This is a big issue. It's not going to be an issue you need to talk on your own. Have outside perspectives come together and let's all come up with a collective plan because it's a big problem and we need to have multiple solutions shortterm and long term to

056be able to continue the the program. Thank you. Hello, I'm Jared Cuff. I'm Jared Kaufman. Speak loud. I'm Jared Kaufman. Um I have one student in the program and um you know just we've heard a lot of of um a lot of opinions and a lot of comments and and you know we heard about testing and how you know this helps educationally and and I I've heard rumors I've never seen the numbers but I've heard rumors that um you know the students in this program do better than the ones not in the program. So you know and all the other benefits that have been talked about tonight. We've talked about um you know the the benefit to to people that to speaking multiple languages. Um you know as as an employer in the community um

057I often find myself the only person in the office that speaks Spanish and we're having increasing number of people come through um you know Spanish patients that I find myself overtaking vitals because none of my MAS speak Spanish so they can't take the vitals. They can't room a patient. Um, and I would love to have opportunities to to hire Spanish speaking people. Um, there's there's real tangible benefits to this, but but ultimately with this, I mean, from the presentation and everything else, it seems to be coming down to numbers. When you're running a business, um, and you decide, okay, we're in the red, we need to cut things. We need to streamline or or change things to to get back in the black. The things that you cut are the bloat and the fluff and

058the distractions and the inefficiencies. And the things that you keep and that you streamline and you you focus on and you advertise are your your assets. And to me this seems like an asset, not globe, not an inefficiency. And then going back to, you know, people have also talked about the actual numbers. You know, none of us have any idea what those numbers look like. Um, you know, how much do you really save by cutting shutting it down and and what is the actual number of additional students that you need to poach from other schools to cover that deficit? Um, and then look at the the population that's in there and you've locked them in for 12 years and and do you really not recruit enough students from other from other schools to cover that

059that increased expense? Um, and maybe maybe you don't I like I said I don't know those numbers. Um, but if I were sitting there I would want to know those numbers before I voted. So just something to think about. Thank you. [Applause] Thanks Joshua. I live at 176 now. It always cost six. Anyway, so um I have a whole story to share about Spanish. We can talk about that afterwards. You guys put in a lot of time and I know how excruciating it is for everybody up there to sit through these really long things. Um I've been a part of this in different roles. husband, attorney, and all that. Um, happy to talk about that later. But, but really the only one of the main points I came up here to talk about and as

060I got the line, I just kept piggy back when it was there. It was there. It was there. Before you kill this, before you put it out to pasture, you know, give this group an opportunity to take our best shot at it. Let us leverage our checkbooks, our networks, our brain power, our checkbooks. Um, and let us give a shot. Um, you know, but one thing that we're already gonna be up against because I see the way this is being framed and whoever framed it this way, if it was intentional, check made. You got us. But but framing this as staff salaries against this program, man. We are up against it. We're up against it. That's got to have a corrosive effect on morale. And if that's already out in the water, which probably is,

061man, that makes our job that much harder. But it was never easy to begin with. So give this group a shot. Let us try. Thank you. [Applause] I don't have much fancy stuff to say. My name is Catherine Kramer. I am actually from Miami County. My parents were born here and I went to Southwood, but currently my husband and I drive crazy amounts different directions and we still drive our kids here because um my son who is eight right now was able to start this when we were at LA and um we just absolutely love this program. I think it was great. I've gotten a chance to travel travel to Nicaragua and um wish that I could have spoken better Spanish when I was there. And I don't know if you guys any of you

062have tried to learn a new language or if any of you are bilingual, but unless you learn it as a kid, it doesn't stick as well. And I think um that there's just really an imperative to get that language into our children like so many other countries do. It is a requirement for so many other countries that are trading partners. Their students are bilingual. They're already a step up in the business workforce and just so in general because that's what they do as a general. Everybody does that. I don't know why it's an exception in the US, but um I don't mean at all to sound confrontational, but I went to a DLA meeting in a library at OJ within the last year and asked very pointed questions about finances due to the very apparent

063attrition rate when kids are falling out. And I was told you can't jump in later in the program. My question was, well, what happens when you know that junior class of kids has 10 people in it or five people in it? You're going to have to fund a teacher for that. And I was again assured just like other people. Oh, not a problem. Not a big deal. So, the thing that frustrates me at this point is I already knew that was a thing almost a year ago and we could have started dealing with these issues prior to this. I don't know why it's been one week and suddenly the program is ending. And that's the first I've ever heard of it as a parent program having asked those really specific questions prior because you know

064we understand funding is all it is and I'm so sorry you have to deal with cutting those sorts of things but I um you know I took an hour of German when I was younger. I learned the names of animals and colors and that was really cool. And I also now know how to ask for a beer in many different languages, but that doesn't get me anything when it comes to actually having a meaningful functional conversation about anything. You can ask where the bathroom is, and that's really good. But if you're my cousin who goes down to Costa Rica to sell water pipelines, get into nowhere, he has to be fluent. If you're a fellow named Noah that I know was hired at court leader box in part because he was bilingual and able to,

065you know, fully go through the entire transaction process with people from other countries selling goods and I mean that's what we need and that's what our kids need to learn. All right. Well, anyway, I will get out of here, but um I do get the funding is the issue and I will say I know that there's a lot of cuts. I won't get political, but I know you guys are going to be on the run of cuts from the state with funding and we want to help with that. I don't want the public school that we have here in Wabash, which has been so wonderful, um, to be decimated by people deciding to take their kids to homeschool or to pay for private schools because you can't offer what they can or what the perceived

066notion is what they can offer. So, just like it has been mentioned, we want I would pay money to keep my kid in this program. We want to know what the numbers are. We want to know what the salary is because I would reach in with a pocketbook and fund this because it is just so worthwhile. Don't make people go to private schools. Why don't we have a little element of the private school aspect in Law Bash where we could give a little additional funding for specific programs? And it's not a fan play, but it's just showing our support. And if that seems a little trivial, perhaps there's some fundraising things that we can do to offset those costs. But we do need a heads up more than a week because we can't make that

067happen without we'd love to work with you. [Applause] Hi, my name is Sarah Wu. I actually live in Huntertown. Um, so that's over an hour drive if you're not familiar with where Huntertown is. as um I've continued to make that drive for quite a while because I believe in this program. Um in fact, I've been trying to convince my husband to move, but he doesn't want to make the drive back to Fort Wayne. So, um we're not there yet, but but my husband grew up in a bilingual program in Bolivia where he's from. He learned how to read in English before he learned how to read in Spanish because he was taught his classes primarily in English. Um, and today he speaks three languages and is highly soughtafter from employers because of his skill set.

068Um, not only is does he speak English and Spanish, but he speaks Portuguese as well. Um, he is an engineer. Uh, he has major focus that I wish I had, but I don't. Um, and I really contributed that a lot to his language skills. Um, I like many people have probably learned a second language in high school um, for a very short time. I didn't speak the language when I graduated high school. I went to Mexico. I still didn't speak the language, but they threw me right out there and said translate for these people. And I thought, oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm doing. Um, but nonetheless, uh, you can make it up later, but it's a lot more difficult and you don't become this profession. Um, and I like many people said

069here today, it's it's the cost of the program. If that's the big draw down for getting rid of the program, if we're going from six teachers to two teachers, the cost of those four teachers, I think we need to give respect to the community that we can come up with the amount of money that is for four teachers. Um, there are ways to make money. We've talked about this before with with short-term exchanges, uh, with international students. um to to bring in funds. So students always bring funds with them and there's been many of these parents who have hosted international students in their homes which have been amazing um because they believe not only in the program of of hosting the students but also because of what it does for their family and for the

070community as well. Um I do believe being on the inside that we haven't done a great job marketing it. Um, I feel like we haven't done a great job marketing it internally as well. Uh, because we don't have everybody on board and I would love to have everyone on board, but we don't. Um, and I think that there's ways that we can invite kids into the program that would fill those classes that would allow us not to have uh smaller classes in the DLI. And uh if you did do away with this this current structure of DLI, you are then putting those kids into the other classrooms which is making those classrooms current teachers. So triple that with not great pay. Those teachers are going to say, "Hey, you don't need to be here, right?"

071Um so that's not obviously the way that we want to go with the teachers that are currently here as well. Um the other thing I just want to mention real quick is uh these students are doing better academically than the non ELI students. They are achieving higher test scores um in the the standardized testing. They are um coming just as the statistics show. They are doing better. They're focusing stronger. They're becoming more and more bilingual every day. But that is a big testament. What if we took away what this is offering? How are we challenging those students to achieve higher? How are we challenging those kids? Uh that one hour a week won't challenge these kids uh not just in the brain development but in their academics. So that's the the big part I want

072to also make sure is is noted that what would challenge them? What are we replacing the challenge with? Are we just going to teach to the status quo? Are we going to teach a lower level? Um the last thing I want to mention too is Indiana in 2024 grew by international migration in. So Indiana grew by 31,000 for international migration end. Domestic migration was 4,200. There's a huge number of people coming to our state because they're from other countries. This is the time to double down, not the time to withdraw. And like I said, it takes time for these things to happen. But we're seeing international companies show interest. Um, some of you guys might not like all the international company, but they show interest in Wbash because we have programs like this. When we

073talk about foreign direct investment and what's coming into the state of Indiana and particularly Wbash and the work that the mayor has done and Tamil and her staff, this is what we mean. They are marketing the DLI program beyond our county builders. And that's a big piece to helping this community grow. if we don't have abilities or assets to show outside of this community, people aren't going to be attracted to come in. So, great things uh are not always easy, but they're usually worth it. [Applause] Hello, my name's Doug Small. I live 290 East Main Street here in the fine city of Wbash. Uh, I came here to this town 13 years ago from Fairmont in the Maran area and I had no idea anything was even ever considered in a school such as DLI

074program. And I want to echo a couple points that have been made, one by Tracy. I don't know who made the other comment, but coming from a student's perspective, my son Jeffrey, he high roll all year, middle school sport athlete, spring, fall. U most polite kid has some of the best friends in this DLI program. Cruz Ella, I mean, sorry. And Pandora. Yeah, it's been a while since we come out since he's out of baseball, but you know, this program was sold with great fervor and elementary school and we were just sold on we were so excited and my son the last two years we've had to talk him into staying in the program, but from that student's perspective, he feels unsupported in the classroom because up the teacher for lack of a better word

075unable to to control the classroom and that's where I feel this program has been unsupported and that's why we see the declining enrollment because of what's going on in the classroom and there are excellent kids I know I interact with these kids almost weekly Ben I mean good kids and I really hate it would be a disservice to these kids and this community to tank this program without really taking a good hard look at it like other people have said and coming up with something else alternative. If it's parents pocketbooks, so be it. But we need to come up with some something else rather than just tanking this program in such a hurry. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Hello, it's Neil Zartman of 515 Crown Hill Drive wearing two hats tonight. First off, I have

076a daughter in the program in a kindergarten class, so she's in her second year now doing amazing. Um, honestly, we're out of district neighbor here in county. I don't know how it works, but I'm out of district. So choose to send my child to Wash City and this was a big part of why we chose to send her. Um so that's my parent hat. Other hat day job economic development and chamber of commerce Bash County. So I'm the president and CEO there. And just echoing what these parents already touched on. You guys are great economic developers by the way. Um I brag on this program all the time. It's really important for business attraction and retention. Um, so speaking on behalf of our businesses, but then also from the people's side, people are choosing to

077move to Wabash. We can build houses faster. I think we'll have more people here. And I think a big draw to your school district is this program. Um, we've had we have a remote talent attraction program and all of them, sorry for my other government partners that I work with have chose to live in Wash and several of them have signed this program for why they chose to move to Wbash. Um, so I want to touch on just business development and attraction, people attraction and development as well as workforce development. These kids are probably not a huge advantage. So with that, not here to criticize. I know it's a tough task. Almost a million dollar shortfall is difficult, but I think so. I've got your working group for you sibly. We've got um you've got

078a diversity director, you've got a mayor, city of Wabash, you've got the director of the community foundations with us tonight. We've got economic development and chamber organization, um, private consulting firms, and I think Josh volunteered his attorney services perhaps, maybe not, but we've got a good working group. So, um, hopefully take us up on the offer, let us help you, and see if there is alternatives. And if not, then we tried our hardest to save. So, that's just my offer of support. And thank you for what you do. We greatly appreciate you all. Thank you. Amanda will be our last speaker of the week. Um, hello. I'm Amanda Martinez. Sorry, I live in Urbana. Um, sorry to interrupt. Um, I have been here since the very beginning. My son was the first kindergarten class. And

079I have seen these teachers work so hard, including myself, because I became the first prek teacher. We all had to work so hard in developing the curriculum and the schedule and trying to figure out what we were going to do with our kiddos. We mainly me I had really no one to to seek advice from. We were just like kind of winging it. But we did it and we have grown and I feel like stopping now, you know, it just now getting to see what our kids are accomplishing. We're just now getting papers, right? So, I'm just going to read something real quick from my son who is going to be eighth grade and he just says, "I personally like the program because it helps me to speak to my family members better and learn

080about the history of Spanish-sp speakaking countries because I'd like to learn about history." Also, over the past eight years, I have really enjoyed learning with my teacher and going on field trips. Our teachers like Sarah, who she calls you a teacher, um, and whoever else is in charge of the DI program, have made it an enjoyable eight years, and I want other kids to experience what I have. And without DI, we wouldn't have the Auburn camp. The camp in my eyes was very fun, and I would still participate if I could. to the campus full of games and field trips and cultural activities so we can learn while having fun. I hope that all people who come to America to teach us are happy with the without DI. They might have trouble finding jobs here

081and they will return to their country. So he goes on to say, "The DLA program is not just an opportunity for the students, but also for teachers, and I appreciate the work that they've done to teach us." So again, we've worked really, really hard as teachers and parents trying to promote our own program because again, the support has really just not been there. And I've sat in on meetings where I've had principles say, "You've been put on the back burner for the last year." We've always been on the back burner. Our kids deserve better. And we as parents are really trying and again like we were the ones promoting our program. I have sat in on so many meetings with parents whether it be um kindergarten um roundup or parent teacher conferences and they've said

082I did not know this program existed. I had no idea Wash was doing this. So it's just it's not out there enough. And so many parents, my cousin's mom, you know, just will just love the program. And I've had just so many wonderful experiences with my kiddos, my four-year-olds, four-year-olds who are excited to learn and who are also correcting their older siblings or their parents when they go order queso at a Mexican restaurant and they'll correct them. That's not why you say mom, it's with the accent because that's what they're learning. So, I just really hope again you guys consider and again just taking a second um to consider just keeping this in here at the awards night um before the last day of school, the seventh and eighth grade awards program. I sat in

083and watched my son receive three different awards for three completely different things in music. He's thriving and I'm like, where does he get this from? Because I can't play his big note. My husband can't either. So, as I was watching my son receive these three awards the whole time I was here, I kept saying that kid was in DLI. That kid is in DLI. All those kids receiving these awards are in DLI. I've had teachers tell me, oh, all of these students are in high ability classes. So, they are just thriving. They're doing so well. Yeah, not all of them, you know, not everyone's getting A+es, but you know, that's in every grade, every class. But our kids are doing well. Um, I'm just glad that we've had the opportunity to give, you know, such

084a small town a window into the world. Just a window into the world. And I don't want that window to close. But if it does, like, can we open a door? You know, can we do that? And there's just one last quote and then we'll be done. Sorry. I don't know who said this, but you know, if you can talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate everybody who has come to speak and given us a lot to consider. Does the board have any questions? I know we have some open positions. How many have we filled for the next year? I know we lost some of our We lost

085four and we have one of them filled. Okay. So, that's some of the reason why at times we have teachers coming in hot three days before the school. So, what are the biggest challenges? Sorry, Sarah. Can I? Yes, please. We have made offers to other teachers. They haven't accepted those offers because it's not it's not enough. It's not enough money. Not enough money. Not enough money. Right. So, uh sometimes they look at bigger cities as well. Um right. So, we're not competing against just our various schools. We are competing against Indianapolis who can offer more. Now, we do cost comparisons and show the cost of living in these different communities so they can recognize the difference. The embassy also um vouches for us. Uh the Spanish embassy out of Indianapolis will also encourage teachers to

086select us because of our program because we're actually considered an international Spanish academy through the Spanish embassy. We also receive a PAR because of that for free that we won't those things will go away if we change the program. So those won't be available to us anymore. Um sometimes we're within five or 10,000 based teachers. So it's not like we're breaking the bank. It's it's just they do have a higher skill set that we're asking them to use. So they feel that pay should be appropriate. What type of education do they come with us? Like many of them come with masters. Okay. Um, we have one currently that's with us that has their doctorate. Um, but many of them come with years of experience teaching as well. And so that does cost more when they

087come back. We've looked for other teachers who haven't had as much experience or maybe just have a bachelor's degree because we don't have to pay them as much, right? And trying to get those. It's not that we can't find teachers, it's just harder, right? Because we are competing. Uh, but having the International Spanish Academy designation helps. um having parent testimonies and kids in the program, support from economic development and the city. Those are all things that we push forward and say, "Look at our community who's supporting this program as we market to these teachers to come." Okay, Jason. Um that answers most of the questions. Um, could we get um someone that graduated from college in the United States without going with someone that from Spain? technically they want them to be native speakers for

088them to have the level because we're getting so many you know people that's moved into our country that's got the background that came from and I know Sarah went to a job fair in South Bend where they have a high number of um Hispanic students that graduate from there hoping that maybe you could tag someone from their education department and I don't believe anything panned out from that not yet um but a lot of times it's networking rank. I need people who know people who can. Um, you know, I've talked to people in the Dominican. I've talked to people in Ecuador that want to come, but they don't have a teaching degree, so they can't get the J1 visa to come. Um, we've got an interview tomorrow with a teacher who's from Puerto Rico that

089doesn't need a visa. And that would be ideal, right, to have somebody who doesn't need a visa. Um, because then we we save on cost. Um, we had a teacher from Fort Wayne for many years, Alex Pin, who was a great teacher. um he decided to take a job at Fort Wayne because they paid $10,000 more and he didn't have to drive an hour each way and he had a new baby. Um so we are competing right so we have to sweeten the deal somehow right and then that's the challenge of a rural community uh and have a difficult time I think we have support in this room to help us get that over the line um you know Alex loved the program he wouldn't not be here today if it wasn't come down to

090money um but but it is a lot to ask a teacher to come from Fort Wayne make less money and drive an hour each way. And if you get somebody who transitions into teaching, they might be fluent in Spanish, but then you have classroom management problems, you know, if they have not taught and and that's an issue as well. You know, you might get them for less money, but then that brings on the other problems and it could be the new review in the classroom. That that's something to consider. I have a question. And how many students are currently enrolled? Um, K through 7. Um, we had about 201 I believe in in this program. Yeah. Okay. This one. What percentage is that of our school student? Uh, it's about 23%. I have a question

091for I wrote it down as Mackenzie from Manchester. I didn't catch your last name. Um, you said attract Manchester College student or Manchester University students. Does Manchester University have a Spanish language major? They um right now their major is fluctuating. They have students that are Spanish majors. They're trying to figure out if they keep the major. Um, they for sure have the minor and a certificate um Spanish for educators program. and they have students who've been majoring it in Spanish, but this year they're wondering, um, is there enough interest other, you know, other places? Um, so I think, yeah, there are the the student majors. There's two, for example, that I know of that were just studying abroad. Um, and they'll be coming up on their practicums and they are specifically interested in DLI programs.

092Um, there's also the heritage learners, which I think was maybe kind of what somebody was alluding to, but people who grow up in a Spanish speaking culture, right? They're in the United States, but they're um from a Spanish speaking family and so they have an extremely high level Yeah. of proficiency. Um, and we have seen those people be majors as well at Manchester and so they have a lot of the cultural background as well as the, you know, visas are an issue as well. Uh Sarah, have we reached out to Manchester of the University? Have we gone that route? We have met with them in the past um and definitely looked at opportunities. Um there is a balance, right, of finding quality teachers and also um paying the teachers appropriately, right? Um we we do

093like to look at foreign teachers because they're especially through the Spanish embassy that come vetted with many years of experience. Um they're very highly effective teachers who are typically right in the door. Um that's not always the case, right? There's there's your outliers, but uh primarily the teachers and we like to diversify the teachers because we want them to learn different dialects. Um there's 17 words in Spanish for popcorn. So kids can learn all of these different words even still in Spanish but understand which person is from Argentina and Spain and which ones coming from Guatemala. You know like there's a there's a value there bringing in different dialects and different backgrounds and cultures. Any other questions for the board? Do we know why that year we lost 53 students? We had to know why

094we lost I think they were in the program. Why did we lose them? No. I I also travel a lot and my father school there and I have a lot of um teacher friends there just over the years going there and I know that multiple teachers there have expressed interest to come here and really opportunity you know I know nothing about the visas and different things but I know that as you said you know Spanish is different spoken differently different countries and they try to get a wide range but I I do know that I have contact that is worth Thank you. And I wanted to add we did have a survey. There are many parents that could make it here. um one day with a survey where I have over 165 signatures for parents

095that would like to keep the program. Anyone else? Um yeah, this is not the decision we're going to make tonight. Um we're not voting on anything tonight. I think we we have a lot more discussion that we need to support the board that we need to have. Um but we do appreciate all the comments. It's been very helpful. Gives us lots to think about whatever. Yes. Is there a timeline though? We have a timeline for when this done working on it. No, I mean there's there's you guys have presented questions that I think I need to get some data and share with the board um before we move forward and that's not stuff that easily can be done in a day. We're not I mean I don't think we're looking at this as we need

096to decide by the next board meeting or anything. it's it's going to play itself out for us and we're going to obviously I think explore some of the things that were brought up here and discuss that. So So real quick to decide by this school year I don't know they need to save the money. That's what the hope is is to say right that's the hope is to have it next school year by the by before the next school year begin in August when we start school. I don't know that we could answer that. I mean, I think we need to look at all the information, the questions that you presented and use that to make our decision. I don't have any questions, but just a couple comments. I'm feel like I'm in a very

097unique situation. If anyone knows who I am, like I have three different roles. I feel like I'm sitting in a parent with two kids in the program. Uh my wife's general teacher and a schoolboard member. That's kind of difficult I feel like. And so I've been just sitting here. I don't think you can see my face at all, but it's creepy. Yeah, we apologize for the darkness. Yeah, it's on purpose from my my my face. Find us in the parking. No, I live just down the street uh closest to this school. Uh I don't care. Um it's it's not a it's not been one of those things. has just been like, "Oh, let's let's find the quickest chopping block." And and I mean, the closest thing to the chop block and just throw it on

098there. Okay. Um it's it's not one of those things. I mean, shoot, my kids been in it since the very like the closest to the beginning except for the first class. So, I've been from the near beginning to one of the reasons that my my kids in like we're in city schools is because of force K and this program. So, it's not like we're here just trying to throw something on the chopping block because let's find the biggest fork out there and throw this out there. Um, one thing to clear up, the city, uh, the state of Indiana's been really good about like making it difficult funds if you haven't noticed. Um, and so we can't pay to play. Parents can't do that anymore. They won't let you do it. They they taking that there

099were no textbook fees, no computer. found that I well there might be there might be sneaky ways about it to look into that. There might be sneaky ways that we can go legally about it. But the thing is is it's not about one year. It's how much do we need for this to continue and so it can't be just oh let's raise this and we have it. How much do we need in an endowment that's going to pay us every year a certain amount and it's going to have to be a big number because in a few years I think the state's going to say minimum teacher salary is 60,000 which that that's kind of another point that I have to bring up and I don't like bringing up is because I don't I like

100I hate that's my worst part of this whole thing is I don't ever bring this up is we have to think of all the other teachers too guys that's that's the other thing I have to think too like school district-wise is we have to think of everyone and that's I hope I mean that's what this board has to think of too is the entirety of the school district and as much as I love this program and I'm not saying that's swaying me one way or another I'm just saying that's that's I'm hoping you understand like that's what we also have to consider too um that's not a question that's just like that's where we are okay um and so like I I'm probably one of the most emotional guys on the board I'm the only

101guy on the board and I'm the most emotional. Okay? And I don't care because I freaking love this school. Okay? So the other thing that I want to think about I I love seeing all you parents here because I know how much you love your kids and you want only the best for them and the program is wonderful but I also think of the other early the early college program that we have that is so so wonderful that all the kids um many of the kids walk into it's such a cost-saving thing for the parents and so on but to keep the qualified teachers you to teach those classes. That's the other thing at the other end of this. And I taught here for 42 years. And I taught in the golden age of teaching

102where, you know, I got a raise, you know, a yearly raise, 2% or 3% or something like that. I wasn't nirvana, but I didn't go into teaching for money. Nobody does. But you've got to make a living wage and so on. And I want the most for your kids, too. I can I can't express that enough and so we'll take in I appreciated all the comments and so on tonight something I'm sorry um Beth Hill principal at OJ and agree with Jason on what he was just saying and one of the things I would like to encourage is as we look at opportunities and things we can do not only for this program I hear a lot of people saying you know we're willing to pay for it our our um clientele population. Unfortunately, there's

103about 60% of our students who do not have that ability and how can we make it available to all. Um I think that's been a struggle over the years. Um definitely not something we can't look at and address, but um to make enrollment I mean if that program was attainable to all students um that would and it is it's available to us. I don't even say that, but I need to keep it going. Um, and there's lots of things you can't pay out of pocket and you know to do that. So, that's another layer, but um something to consider too is how it could be inclusive. Does have anything else to say, comments, questions? figure out how much how many millions you need in an endowment. Let us go find it. I think that's all

104the parents in the community really just want is the opportunity to try at least give us the opportunity even if it's a deadline to at the beginning of the school year at least have something I just feel like we have to have we need the opportunity to at least make an effort. And I say like Connie said there's several other amazing programs that we want to sustain too. So let this be an example of doing it for brothers, for everything, for early college, everything. That's Thank you. I appreciate. We all appreciate your passion and we feel just as passionately about the schools as you do. So going forward, we have a lot to think about. We need to move on. We need to move the table with this then, right? And this is definitely not

105cool. Again, we are aren't going to be making a decision today. Probably not next week. So, we have a lot to discuss and I'm sure we will be reaching out to some of you or you can reach out to Dr. Sibling. Um, if you would like to stay for the rest of the board meeting, you're welcome to or we're not going to hurt you if you get up and leave. Thank you again. Always welcome to come all the time. All right. Item B on the agenda. Board to approve adding a 4-year-old preschool classroom for the 256 school year. So move. Second. discussion. So last year we had lower numbers in our three-year-old classrooms. Um we also needed more support in the area of special education. So earlier this year we moved Christian Hopus to special

106ed and went down to three four-year-old classes. Um those three classes were filled and now we have I think we had 11 students on the wait list. So by adding this class adding that four-year-old class back we will be able to pull those students in off the weight list. Um, and each class will still have room um to allow for more students if we need it. Um, we are going to put this position into um our title grant. We are schoolwide there, so we can use title money to pay for that. Okay. All those in favor of approving say I. I. Those opposed? Motion passes. Item C, board to approve hiring two pair of professionals, LH at LH Carpenter for the 2025 through 2026 school year. So moved second discussion. So one of the pair

107of professionals will be assigned to the four-year-old class that we just added and then we are going to add another to the kindergarten section. Um this will help free up Mrs. fair who works with special ed students um because she had some other duties that it'll make it where she does not have to cover those duties. Okay. And again, this is uh we're going to put these into title. Okay. All those in favor of approving the hires say I. I. Those opposed? Motion passes. Item D, board to approve Abby Payton 40 hours during the summer to complete library inventory at OJ. So move second discussion. Miss Payeyton inventories the library each year. This is something that we all always include in our budget. It's for 40 hours for her to get this completed. All those

108in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Motion passes. Item E. board to approve an out ofstate professional development for Whitney Myers and Natasha Whitney to attend the Uncharted Learning National Summit Summit in Chicago, Illinois on July 8th through 10th. So moved. Second discussion. Um this conference is part of the incubator edu yearly renewal cost. That is our the program that we use for entrepreneurship classes. Um there's no fee for the training. It's included in that renewal cost, but we do have to pay for travel, hotel, and meal costs. Um, and we do have money appropriated in our ED fund for staff PD that we can cover this. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Motion passes. Item F. Board to approve the following fund transfers for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. These

109funds are special grant funds awarded to cover expenses in the fund. They are being moved to fund 6400 CCDF to fund 01 education fund in the amount of 278,394 and fund 6460 Medicaid fund 030 operations in the amount of $80,000. So moved. Second discussion. So when we receive our CCDF reimbursements and our Medicaid funds, we are required to receipt them into the 6400 funds for reporting purposes. And then once they've been put into those funds, we're allowed to transfer them. So we always wait until the end of the fiscal period um that way those funds um accumulate and then before we close the book for the six-month period, we can transfer them. So, the um CCDF uh prek, that's for prek vouchers, that goes into our education fund to help offset the cost of our

110preschool expenses. And then the Medicaid fund um that is actually um money that we receive for reimbursements that we receive for qualifying purposes. And these funds are unrestricted. We can choose to do with them what we want. So we um historically have put those into operations. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. Motion passes. Item G. Board to approve the following fund transfer from the ED fund to fund 3140 early literacy grant FY23 to bring the overexpended fund to a zero balance. fund 0101 education fund to 3140 early literacy grant FY23 in the amount of $11424. So moved second discussion. So when we paid this grant out we knew that we would go over um a little bit. We did that because we wanted to make sure that we expended the entire

111amount of the grant. Um otherwise you have to return money to the IDOE. So, we knew that we would have to move a little bit of money into that um early literacy fund to zero it out. So, it was $11424. Okay. All those in favor of approving the fund transfer say I. I. Those opposed? Motion passes. Item H. Board to approve hiring Katherine Gaul as a school nurse at OJ Neighbors at a salary of $30,900 beginning August 1st, 2025. second discussion. So, Mrs. Gold does come to us with previous school nursing experience. Um, she was a school nurse uh down around the Muny area before they moved to this area. She is an RN. She has also served as a sub nurse for us for the last several years. So, she's somewhat familiar with our

112district and OJ. So, we are excited to welcome Mrs. G to Wes City Schools. Is that Greg's wife, the doctor? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Q. All those in favor say I. Those opposed. Motion passes. Items from superend superintendent. Um, this is our last week of summer school and I specifically want to wish our students that are retesting for I read good luck. Um, as I always told my students when I was a building principal, just do your best because that's all that really matters. Um, and as we move through June, we will begin getting information out later in the month about online registration for next year. That will take place July 13th through July 20th. Okay. Thank you. Items from COO. I got items from administrators. Do other items from visitors? items for board members. Uh

113Joan, um just keep in thought, um the cross country team out west, they've made it out there. They're running. Um I just want to thank everybody for showing up. Um I know we've kind of moved past that, but I do like to see other perspectives and I just appreciate you showing up. I wish we had this type of turnout at every meeting. So, I encourage you to come to every meeting, Jason. Um, yeah, I always appreciate other perspectives. Um, makes me think more, uh, which I could always use. Um, also, didn't Cougler go to state and do some fast running and stuff like that? So, seventh place, wasn't it? Got sixth in the 209th. Yeah, that's insane. I I was 200. Yeah. Seventh and the 200. Yeah. Like he ran super duper fast. But had

114they not had the 200 not been late and it started to rain going into it, he had the third fastest. Yeah. I saw I Yeah, that's crazy. 10 seconds for the 100 and like he can run as fast as like a 440. It feels like that's crazy. Only here to 40 longer run fast. Trust me. I anyways it's congrats to him and coach Evans for doing a great job and yeah hopefully safety out there for the cross country team for the boys and I know that the girls team's going out at the Hawking heels in August I think so they're you have to go but yeah that's all I have for tonight was great having so many people here so many concerned parents um and this is such a quandry you know it just is

115so I appreciated all the input So, and I just wanted to say thank you again for everybody that came, those that have already left, but um you've given us a lot to think about like I've said and it is a laundry. So, in comparison, I don't want this many people in a city that and with that we'll adjourn. Thank you. [Music]