001[music] Everything. >> [music] >> Good evening everyone. I'd like to call this meeting to order. If you're able, will you please stand as we observe a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. >> Thank you. Next item would be election of school board officers for this new year. We have any nominations? >> I'd like to make a motion to nominate the three existing officers to stay as is president, Jeff Baker's vice, and George as secretary. >> I'll second that. Do we have any other nominations? Any other discussion? You go doing all those votes tallies again. >> I think I can handle it.
002[laughter] >> Yep. You're a good man. >> You've done such a fine job. We'd love for you to do it again. >> No problem. Yep. >> All in favor of said motion say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carried. And thank you. >> And thank you all for your service. >> Thank you. >> Taking those offices. >> Now you got to stand up. Get sworn up. Yes. [clears throat] >> Each of you three can please rise. We're going to attempt this all together if we can. >> Please raise your right hand. >> I say your name. >> I Linda Glover >> solemnly swear that I will support >> the Constitution of the United States of America >> the Constitution of the United States of America >> the Constitution of the State of Indiana. the
003Constitution of the State of Indiana >> and the laws of the United States and the State of Indiana >> and the laws of the United States and the State of Indiana. >> I will faithfully execute >> the duties of my office >> as >> president >> as secretary >> as vice president >> of the of the board of trustees of the War County School Corporation >> of the board of trustees of the War County School Corporation. So help me God. So >> help me God. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh has everybody turned in their disclosure statement? >> Yes. Yep. >> Very good. Okay. Next uh after conferring with others everyone the committees this year we have on the bid committee will be Mr. Igner and myself. Construction technology transportation and
004maintenance. Mr. Igner, Mr. France, Mr. Mosby. Student learning and growth, Mr. Baker, Mr. Skinner, Mrs. Wilhelm. Personnel custodians, food nutrition, Mr. Baker, Mr. Mosby, Mr. Skanner. Policy committee will be Mr. friends, myself and Mrs. Wilhelm. Have any questions or want to make changes, let me know. Otherwise, we'll stand as announced and thank you. Okay. Next, uh, no one signed up to address the board with any comments or concerns. So, Dr. [snorts] Redmond, if you'll introduce our guest speaker. >> Thank you. Um before I introduce our guest speaker, I did just want to say to all of our board members, um thank you for your advocacy, governance, and support. This is the uh month for school board appreciation this January. So I just thank you all for your service to our students and community. Thank you.
005>> Thank you. >> Our guest speaker this evening is Mr. Ethan Jorski. Um had the opportunity to have uh some email communication with Ethan about the University of Evansville's esports program. So, he's going to tell us a little bit more about what they do and um maybe just [clears throat] discuss a little bit about some possibilities for partnering with Warick. >> Ethan, >> hello. Thank you for having me. Can everybody hear me? >> Yes. >> Good to back. >> Awesome. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me tonight. It truly means a lot. My name is Ethan Jorski. I'm the new uh UEE head coach for our esports program. I just took this position over the summer after recently being a graduate from the university and being on the Overwatch 2 esports team and
006winning a national championship. Um, it was a pretty awesome experience, not only being a student at UE, but also a player for the program and now being able to turn around and give right back to the players that we have now and future players that were going to have to have the same experience that I have uh ha have had. Um, but a little bit about what I want to talk to you guys is, of course, what is esports? Um, it's it's a tricky topic and I promise if you don't understand it, you probably won't understand it by the end of tonight either. It's going to [laughter] it's going to take time. Um, but I'm going to do whatever I can to not fluff it up with a lot of unnecessary technology information that isn't
007necessarily relevant. Um, but also just kind of how it operates, not only in college, but in high school as well. Um, and then maybe some goals that we could work on from this, of course. Um, but to start off, you know, what is esports? Uh, I think the most important thing that I like to say first is we're not the stereotype of what some people see video games are, and that's as a time waster, addicting, you don't get anything out of it. And that certainly can be the case. Um, it's the case for many people across the country, across the world. Um, but that's not necessarily what esports is. Esports is a structured program or team of a game or in UI's example multiple games where you could roster a set team and they work
008together towards a similar goal that is winning and it's based in games where it is competitive. So there is a winner and a loser not necessarily storybased games. Um it's not a traditional sport um in a physical aspect. Uh a lot of people there's a big debate on if it's an athletic sport or not. A lot of people have their different opinions on it. I don't think it's important either way. Um there it's not physically comparable to athletics, but there's a lot of things within the settings and theme of esports that are similar. Um the fact that it's an organized team-based experience of multiple players. Again, working towards a similar goal. They're going to have to learn each other, who they are personally, how to communicate with one another, how to um work with somebody
009who might be having a bad day, how to work with somebody who might be having a bad year. um being able to step up and be a leader, all of these different developmental things that come together like you would see in sports towards a common goal. Um so is it is it athletics? No, it's not. Um but is it esports? Is it its own thing? Certainly it is. And I think once that's kind of understood, it's easier to kind of understand what esports is. Um how many of you guys have uh a child or a grandchild that play video games? Yeah. Are they competitive? Look, the way they speak. Can you hear them in their rooms hooting and hollering and stuff? That's how our players are. And and we we play to compete. Certainly, that's
010what we're all about. Um we do focus on our academics primarily at the University of Evansville. We do have a 3.0 GPA minimum. Um we do have a one semester grace. If a student has a rough semester, we do show them grace. Um but we value the importance of academics because that's the main reason why we're there. But at the same time, esports is a hobby for a lot of our students at the University of Evansville. It's almost a stress release for them, if you will, whether it just be them being able to do their hobby or compete. Um, it's kind of a break from school, but also a way for them to grow their social relationships and their bond really with their time at the academic institution. A lot of times in today's society,
011you'll kind of see uh the students now kind of disassociate just slightly uh when they don't have a direction of where to go uh in school. And obviously that's something that we combat in all levels of education from kindergarten through college. and and esports is a wild way of the the um attitude for the University of Evansville students to kind of shift because there was plenty of students who had filled out a survey before they joined the program um that were students um before joining the program at the University of Evansville. didn't come in as freshmen. And the survey given to them uh before they joined the program was how their time was at the university, what they did, the odds of them staying at the university um and how it's affected their overall experience
012at the university. And they were also given the same survey a year after they had joined. And every single survey showed a positive impact on their social life and also just what they do in their free time. um with three of those students claiming that they would have dropped out of the university if it wasn't for the esports program giving them a place to be. The fact of the matter is video games have taken over our country, our world. I mean, they're huge now and it's going to keep on growing. We saw a bit of a falloff once COVID hit. Um but that's not the case anymore. And and the brand itself, esports, is growing even more and even more. There's plenty of high schools across America. We have some very wellestablished ones near Gibson
013Southern has a very established esports program and I believe they have just about four or five students that graduate from their program receive a scholarship to compete in esports from universities across the country. [clears throat] And that kind of goes into my next point of scholarships. Currently, when I took over the position at the University of Evansville, they did not offer scholarships. Um, but they wanted to build an additional room up top. And I actually told them that I didn't want to build that room because of how important scholarships are um for the students, for the families in the area or really any student that's going to come to the University of Evansville. Um so not only just us are working on the scholarship things, but there's plenty of other programs around that also offer
014scholarships. The closest one's going to be Oakland City. I believe they offer five or six scholarships per per year for esports. Um a little bit about what it looks in high school. Um, I never experienced uh esports in high school. I graduated from Castle. I loved my time at Castle. Um, but esports was always something I always had as a fantasy. I wanted to be a professional video game player. Um, but it was a bit of a pipe dream. And once I enrolled into the university, there wasn't esports at the time and I was a bit lost until it was formed. Um, but since speaking with some of my players who had been in a high school esports program, the reviews were astonishing. It was phenomenal. The amount of them that openly agreed that it
015enhanced their time at that educational institution. It gave them a social home, a place for them to connect, build relationships, work on the communication skills, the leadership skills, the competitive skills that all come with esports. And it's a hobby. It's a hobby. And this I mean it's almost like a cheat code of providing happiness to somebody that likes to play video games especially if they you know want to pursue it uh to something greater like being a coach or a professional player. Um at uh the University of Evansville it's we try to keep it the same. Um we don't want to over stimulate we don't want to overwork our students. Again I don't want to label esports as a time waster. We have a maximum of six hours that they're allowed to be in the
016facility per week max. That's as long as they're allowed to be in there to ensure that not only are they practicing adequately for our team, of course, but they're focusing on the main criteria of why they're here, and that's to receive their degree. And that could definitely be the same as in high school. Unfortunately, that it does take monitoring. It does take pushing the students to, you know, maintain the the big goal of of what they're doing, and that's ultimately to receive their education and to get a degree. Um, but can it also in turn relieve some of the academic stress off of a student? Could they be more inclined to start attending school more often or be happier when they're attending school or or just want to be there more simply because they have
017esports at the end of the day? Possibly. We see that effect at the University of Evansville just about each and every single one of our students. And most of our roster is freshman. So students that have just graduated high school. Um per there's other personal and professional opportunities that we could certainly grow from this. Uh many players that want to play video games. I've spoken on this want to be professional players, but a lot of them pull from content creation off of YouTube and uh streaming platforms. Um that's all stuff that is all centered around esports streaming YouTube posting all that stuff. It's what we do. It's what we do at the University of Evansville and we've actually partnered with Creative Technologies and creating a course where their students will come over and help produce
018and operate our live streams and commentate on the live streams to help further the bubble of students that you know could get something out of our program. Whether they're a player, whether they just want to work on commentary, maybe they want to have four years of commentary experience because they want to be on ESPN someday. It's so many more ways that you could branch it out outside of just wasting time playing video games because you can waste your time playing video games, but not if you have it, you know, in a controlled organization. Um, I don't want to take up too much more time. Um, I guess I could go a little bit into some of the goals that that I would like to see here. Um, first and foremost, it's it's really just connecting
019all the students that we have. Um, it's something that means a lot to me. if it wasn't for the esports program at the University of Evansville, there was a decent chance I would have transferred out. Um, I didn't think that the university was for me. I wasn't having a lot of fun. Um, and ultimately I actually spoke to a professor who had told me about the esports program before he was supposed to tell me about it and I was like, "Okay, well, I'll stay." Well, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have been able to experience something what I used to consider a dream than a pipe dream. And if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have become a national champion. And if it wasn't for that, I probably wouldn't be speaking to you guys
020today with the position that I have. All that changed in the past two or three years simply because of esports. And I know that I'm just one of many. And I would love to provide the opportunity of just the enjoyment of it. If they want to get something professional out of it, if they want to develop further skills out of it, streaming, content creation, all that stuff, or if they just want similar like-minded people to connect with, um, that's very, very important to me. Um, I'm working very closely with the dascese as well. My future mother-in-law is Michelle Prior, so she's been great so far. So, I'm I'm trying to get the dascese onto the same board. And they've been positively receptive to it as well. Um, you know, with with the right ideas in
021mind and and um not trying to overabuse it or just create it and let it be, right? It's something that has to be controlled. Um, and finally, the last thing that I I'd really like to get out of this is showing students opportunities that they could get from college. Um, I'm sure most of you know the college rates are declining quick. Uh, it's it's I don't know if it's affecting us in Indiana as much now, but there's plenty of states across the country where we're seeing 10 to 30% enrollment drop offs. I think that's just going to continue. Uh, and in my personal opinion of working with the university and and if we're being honest, most of it comes from the financial side of it. None of that is really going to slow down. And
022ultimately, you can't force a student to go to college. You can never force a student to go to college, but at the end of the day, it is something that is recommended along with trade school and things like that. And so when we show the students that they have esport opportunities in college as well, you never know how many students that could, you know, a light bulb will turn on in their head and they'll be like, "Oh, wow. I never considered that. Maybe that's something I could do." Um, maybe they see as a step up in their professional life. Maybe what they want to pursue is esports. Um, and so just being able to spread the word about what we have and I think the biggest reason why I want to do that. And the
023final note I'll leave you guys on, uh, with, well actually I have one more note. Um, I had the students from Harrison High School visit, not all of them, but a group of them. And when they had visited, they got to select three places that they wanted to stop at the University at Edensville. Essports was one of them. And so they they knew about our program, but they only knew about it because it was on the piece of paper. And when they all came in, almost all of them, who wow, this is crazy. Asking questions before I even start speaking about how they could be on the team. And the first question I asked was, "How many of you guys even knew this room existed?" One out of the 47 hands was raised. And so,
024just kind of spreading awareness that, you know, Evansville has a program, Oakland City has a program, IU has a IU has a phenomenal program, um, Illinois State has one of the best programs in the country. Um, there's plenty of colleges around where we could kind of continue this uh experience for our students, especially if we start in high school and in some cases there's middle school teams as well across the country. So, um I I guess the the last thing that I would I would like to get is maybe some communication points so I could start spreading the word at at our local high schools and stuff like that. I would like to go about it in the right way, ensure that I'm a welcome guest and and and can speak to faculty or students
025if possible just to kind of tell them about uh what we have to offer at the University of Evansville. Um, but I'm sorry if I, you know, ran a little long on that. It's it's a lot to talk about. Like I said, you're not going to understand esports after this conversation. It's not, it can't happen in one conversation. It's there's a long road ahead with it. Um, but if I could speak again, if I could help you guys out more in the future, continue to advocate for anything, I would love to be as much of a help with that as I possibly can be. Um, do would any of you guys have any questions? Yes, >> I have two. You mentioned this before, I apologize, but how old how long has esports been around? >>
026So, for our program in the University of Emville, we're actually on our 2-year anniversary. Um, USI's program is not necessarily a program yet. They're still a club. They're student ran. Um, I want to say their club has been around since the 90s. >> Um, but they're not an established program or anything like that yet. Um, so esports has been around since about the 90s, but I wouldn't say it started booming until two, three years ago. It it boomed a bit before COVID, but like I said, with the falloff, it ironically enough did more harm than good, which you would think would be the opposite considering the remoteness of video games. Um, it it kind of hurt the industry more than it helped it. >> And tell me about like playoffs and championships and who's is
027it nationwide, worldwide? Sure. >> Statewide. >> Yeah. So, uh the way that we compete, you can compete in different levels of esports. There's different companies that offer seasons that they can create. You will pay to register your team to compete in. We compete in something called the NECC. Um and that is nationwide. So, colleges across the country can sign up and compete in that league. It's broken up in divisions, uh which are based on skill level, skill range if you will. Um, and then from there is how they'll kind of establish who you'll play. Um, and then on top of that in the spring we compete in the Missouri Valley Conference just like all different Evansville athletics as well. We compete for Missouri Valley Conference championships. We've we played teams uh we've played Michig well
028we've beat Michigan. We've beat IU. We've beat um who else we beat? We beat Oregon, Florida, Tennessee. We play massive schools across the country and beat them too. If we were to walk into your room when you're you're doing this, what would we see? Would you all be like doing a different >> uh video game or I mean, what's it look like? >> So, the way our facility is set up, we do offer kind of free play, but it's a little bit more serious than you would think. Um, each game has their own designated row where they compete in. if they come in during the day, um they have to show me proof that they're done for the day and then they could go in and they could practice games if they so choose. Um
029typically our practices will start in the evening. That's actually where I'm going after this. I'm going right back to our practices because our spring season just started. Um so during the day, it's kind of just me. Um but in the afternoon, some of the players will start to trickle in once they're done with their schoolwork and all that. Um and then towards the evening, um we try to break up our practices as much as possible. So generally two teams will practice per evening and we have six different teams. >> You were a national champion yourself >> for our division? Yeah. >> Really? Okay. >> Yes sir. >> Did you ever play Pitfall? >> Uhuh. >> Never play Pitfall? [laughter] >> No. [clears throat] >> Play an Atari game. >> I played a couple Atari. I
030played Punch Out or Super Mario [laughter] Brothers. >> Nothing like that. >> I think my first console was a Sega if I remember correctly. >> Sega. Okay. So you played some Sonic the Hedgehog then? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> There you go. Yeah. >> Okay. I got offboard about that. >> No, that's okay. [laughter] >> Huh. >> Oh, this is going way back. >> Um, one other thing >> going way back is pinball machines. >> Yeah, that's [laughter] great. >> There is one other thing I actually forgot to talk about. Um, I we are partnering with the Indiana Esports Network, which is kind of like the NCC for esports and high school in Indiana. Um, last year when they did their seasons and all that and they had their championship game, they hosted it in Fort
031Wayne and they realized that that was a terrible idea uh for schools like down here that don't really have the money to travel all the way to Fort Wayne. And so this year they're going to experiment and have different hub spots across the state um where the schools will go to that spot and they'll play at the same exact time as the other places. The University of Evansville is going to be the host for this area. Um so I do have connections with the Indiana Esports Network. They are going to be the ones that would host a hypothetical uh season in this situation. >> You have spectators. >> Oh yeah, >> Peanut Gallery. >> Yeah, my mom is like the most loyal viewer. [laughter] >> But yeah, we do have our own stream. Um it's
032sent out across campus. We do have plenty of people that tune in. That's another way that you could also make revenue as well. If people are watching your streams, watching your YouTube videos, subscribing to your pages, more ways to kind of, you know, make some revenue and and turn that back into the program. Thank you. >> Could you send that information maybe to Dr. Redmond and share that with us? >> Of course. And in terms of contact information, would it be easier if you just if I when I email you that if you just sent that back to me then or? >> Yes, that's Yes. I was just going to say that we have a Yes, I will get you the correct points of contact will be our building principles and guidance counselors and u
033we actually have a meeting with all of our building level principles this Wednesday. So, we can kind of put it on their radar at that point. But you and I have contact. Yes, we have already shared contact infos. So, >> awesome. >> Um, we'll talk more. >> Sweet. Well, thank you guys very much for your time tonight. I really do appreciate it. So, >> thank you. I'm going to go ahead and leave because I have to go practice. >> Go practice. Go practice. >> I'm going back to work. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> I like how well that fits in with our strategic plan, right, of getting every kid connected somewhere. Yes. And this is just a whole different area that some kids aren't connected at all. Have a place >> when you can be
034engaged and you want to play games. >> And when you talk about professional, I can tell you our practice >> it can be extremely people way. >> Yeah. >> Very good. Very good. >> Next, Dr. Maggman, will you present Miss Wagner? >> Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Glover. Uh, tonight, Mrs. Tish Wagner, our director of special education, is going to give us a update of all things special ed department. Mrs. Wagner, thank you for having me today. So, typically we have talked in the past and spent time um, discussing our RDA, which is the results driven accountability and the monitoring we have been under. And we shared that at the retreat and at the work session earlier. and as far as where our students are achieving and we're happy with that and scoring in fours or
035fives in all areas which is um the top of that scale but today we're going to shift away from that because we actually don't have the current RDAs back so I have I don't have any updates to that because they haven't been released yet but there's a whole lot of other things we can talk about so today we're going to start with um getting an idea of just what is our special educ education department made up of at this time. So, currently we have certified staff is listed on this slide and we currently have 41 elementary teachers, 21 middle school, 25 high school. Our preschool, we have 7.5, which might sound weird, [laughter] but if you recall, our preschool is set up into an AM and a PM session. And so, in our AM, they
036attend Monday through Thursday, and that's our three-year-olds. So, those are those are our babies just coming in. Um, so they just need a little bit more time. A full day or a full week would be a little bit difficult. And then in the afternoon, we have our four year olds and those who are who could be turning five during that year where they'll be transitioning to kindergarten the following year. So that half is a preschool for the AM at log who we just happen to it varies from year to year. Some years one fills up more, one year it's the next one. So we did just add that halfime for that preschool for that morning. We have three itinerant teachers which are more specialized teachers. One of which is our we call her itinerant and
037she goes to our non-public schools and um is in charge of our homeschool students. So she serves as their special education teacher providing consult services mainly um to that group. Additionally, we have a specialized teacher for the deaf, heart of hearing and a specialized for our blind, low vision students. So, those are three of our specialty teachers. We have 19 full-time speech therapists and three that are part-time serving anywhere from two days to four days within that. And they cover um preschool all the way through high school. And then we have eight school psychologists who cover the district. Additionally, we have our related services. So, these are any additional supplemental areas that we support. And I'll start with behavior. We currently have four behavior consultants that serve within our special education department. We do have
038a bigger district level team that encompasses some from um Dr. Lambert in the student services that are dealing with more of the general education students. and then we work together to team um and come together and supporting it was just a lot of students for our older department to try to handle everything. So, it's been a good mix of bringing those two teams together. Um so, we have four behavior consultants that actually do the evaluations and set up behavior plans for our students. And additionally, we have two, we call them social emotional behavior assistants, which are the or assistants that work alongside them and do a lot more coaching in the classrooms with the teachers and staff or sometimes directly with our students. Our occupational therapy department, we have two occupational therapists who do evaluations.
039And then we additionally have two assistants. They're pro certified occupational therapy assistants. They're able to do servicing, but they can't actually do the evaluation and set up treatment goals for the students. So, that team works together. I'm going to go to the PTA department. Um, our phys we have one physical therapist and one physical therapy assistant and they run very similar to occupational therapy. So, the physical therapist has to do the evaluations. Our assistant also is in charge of our assist of technology and so she's involved with helping get devices um if students need technology related items and she's involved with assessments with that. Our transition team, we have three and that is at our high school level. We have a job coach um that goes out with students and helps support that. We have
040one who helps um just teachers with anything related to that area. Um there's a lot that's involved when we have a student with disabilities transitioning out of high school, whether it's into colleges or even into the workforce. Um so she they help support both of those. And then the third is our staff member we have at Project Search out at Deaconist. We have one music therapist and a lot of times they're supporting our students with autism who tend to learn more with music based within that. We have one interpreter who is a sign language interpreter for a student who is who has um full hearing impairment. So, she interprets all day. And then one you probably haven't heard of is is an intervenor. And this is very specialized. We have um one student in the
041corporation who has who is deafb blind. And so think back to Helen Culler and that's probably one of the most um intensive students to be able to treat because everything we would do for sight they can't have because we'd you know be supporting so much more in the hearing. Well, they don't have that either. So we have a specially trained intervenor that had to take coursework through the department of ed and our Indiana deaf blind services. So we do have one student they're supporting. So between our um certified staff and our related services and we have three leaders three people on our leadership team. That's the group that's supporting our students every day. [snorts] So we have um a couple of different things here. One is this is just solely looking at our K12 students
042in our public schools. So, we talked about our preschool students and our non-pub, and we'll talk about them in a minute, but if on the table, you can see if we just looked at Castle High School, they have 241 students um with special needs currently. And then next to that, we have what our specialized classrooms are and where they're located. So, we really have three specialized classes. One is our autism and behavior support um classroom. One is our ED and cell which is dealing more with supporting behavior and then one for our functional academic and life skills which is really supporting students who are on alternative standards and mainly have cognitive disabilities. And so you can see there total we are supporting 1,995 students um K12 in our buildings currently. All of these numbers are
043based on our December one count. So they will be different when we do this by the end of the year, but um that is where all of our funding comes from as our students who are um eligible at the time of the December one and we'll get to that in a minute. Okay, any questions with any of those? Okay, [snorts] so looking beyond those K12 numbers, this this kind of shows you the breakdown of where our other students are. We currently have 282 students that fall within that non-pub homeschool or preschool range. And our non-pub we have 108 students and you can see a bulk of them are coming to us from Evansville Christian and St. John's. Um we do have 11 students. We're serving homeschool and then Newberg Christian and Boonville Christian are where
044the other small group is at. We do not serve students the same way we do. That group that right there is served completely differently. they actually don't have IEPs. They have service plans. So, [snorts] they don't get the same level of support they would be getting if they were in our in our schools. And that's something we agree upon um with those places prior to we know we have here's the amount of funding we have. How do we want to utilize that? So, we talk through that with each of those in a consultation meeting annually. our preschool. You can see that we have 107 students that were within our low developmental preschool or wet which is now at Castle South. Um and those are students who are attending those classes we talked about earlier with
045either in the morning or afternoon session. Additionally, we have a group that may qualify for speech services. um they they're not their needs do not require that level of support in the developmental preschool, but they do come in for just the speech services. So, they're walking in like they would just any other therapies. And so, we serve 64 students that way. And then you can see we have a couple of other students out at some of the smaller that attend there, but they come to us as well. So, that's 174 of our preschool students. So our funding is based on the [snorts] amount of students we are serving on December one. And so each year we do it's it's a big report to the state, but this is how that money is divvied up and
046the funding for each of those. So [snorts] level one is considered our severe disability students. And at the top you can see the funding amount we get based on each of those disability areas. So, anything within that, autism, the ED full-time, multiple disabilities, those are all areas they consider to be severe or intense disabilities and we would get funded per student at that rate at the top. So, currently, um, the one thing I I want to share is the numbers that are on here don't add up to the students we serve. Um up at the top you can see with our combination of our uh K12 and along with our non-pub and the preschool it's 2,277 students but we get paid for more than just that amount because we could have a student who has
047autism but they also receive speech services. So if you see under level three a student who has speech as a secondary eligibility we get funded for that. So there are 655 students were getting funding for that. Meaning they have some an eligibility under the level one or level two in addition to getting speech. Speech is the only secondary eligibility we get additional funding for. Um so if you were to add those numbers, my point is they're not going to add up to the 2277 because we get paid by the disability area, not the student. Okay. Um, so 228 students with autism. And I want to talk about preschool now because preschool, we get funded for preschool students at that flat rate. So even though on our autism we might show 228, some of those preschoolers
048may have autism, but right now we don't, we just get funded at a preschool rate. So again, our we may have higher eligibility of autism in the corporation. Um, but this is looking at just funding purposes. So, any student with preschool, we get 38.20. Um, speech, whether it's a primary or secondary, it's $551 for the student. Um, and you can see the biggest bulk of our students comes out of the level two, which is a majority of where our students with learning disabilities, ADHD, those type of things come from. But the highest amount of funding we get is from the level one. Okay. Any questions with that? [clears throat] Okay. >> Um, so just uh kind of round this out about where we spent a lot of our time this semester or this year so
049far. So we've done district teacher meetings in the first semester where we were able to touch base with every one of our special education teachers. at the time you've heard us talk through where we were with we had a new 504 system, we had a new IEP system. So, a lot of that time during the first semester was focused there and we met by grade level during that time just bringing elementary in, then our middle and then our high. Um, we've started already our second semester um meetings and they've gone well, but we decided to change that focus up a little bit as far as how we um did the grouping. We really wanted to target in right now. uh we spend a lot of time on the IEP paperwork part and learning the new
050system, but our instructional practices and getting support between each other and having time to collaborate are just important. So that's what this um semester is. And so we've already had a meeting with our middle school LD teachers and then our high school LD teachers. And this morning we met with our uh teachers for emotional disabilities and some of our cell programming. So those behavior classes and that group we actually had the whole group together because it's nice for them to meet with same so the elementary to be together and work together in middle school and high. And then we had time for them to vertically work together. So the elementary, middle, and high for the districts had time to collaborate um and share resources um supplementary materials and just be able to ask questions on
051how are you doing this? And so that's been extremely helpful for them. The other thing we wanted to know was with the new system that we had, we'd done a lot of work and we wanted to gauge where their comfort levels and how they felt like things were going. So out of the three groups that we've already met on, we had 71% rate that their comfort level with the new system um was at a four or a five. So we gave them a five point scale. So our hope is as we if that trend continues with the groups coming in, we we're heading in the right direction and so we feel pretty good there. Additionally, 51% said they were spending less time now writing the actual IEPs than they were when we first started and
052another 26% said they were spending significantly less time or were even back to the same amount of time in the old system. So again, we feel like we're trending in the right direction um for our teachers. >> And just a reminder that the system was is a system that our state has given to us to use. Just as a reminder, this was not something we decided to do locally. >> Yes. Um and then the last thing to highlight, I know uh Dr. Redmond had shared, we had several um teams that had gone out and presented on different things. We had occupational therapy team presenting. We had a team from Sharon presenting. Um one of the things is after the Sharon presentation, we had several groups reach out to us and we've had four already set
053up visits. um well three setup visits. One we did a virtual meeting with and there's times you you're in the trenches and you're doing things and you don't really realize how well you're doing something until you start talking to some of the other schools. And what we're finding out is a lot of schools are where we were three four years ago and if we had had somebody to go visit it would have been helpful. So we definitely want to help support um as many teachers as we can in school district. So it wasn't just around here. We do have Davies Martin from here, but Perry Township in Indianapolis. We had Warsaw up north and then Concord School District in Elcart. So it's it's we're equally feeling this. And so um supporting them is something we
054want to continue to do. And then additionally been asked to present at IASE, which is a special ed director conference for all of the the directors who are in this in the same way. So we're getting directors, we're getting um learning directors, admin, superintendent reaching out to us. So it's something we we our work we felt like it was making we were making huge gains with our students and then after getting feedback, it was nice to hear that it was something others are needing as well and that we can help them along our way. So that's what we've spent this first semester and the start of here doing. Any questions? >> So, has there been any any word uh have you heard any like is the state going to work out? Are they working on
055this system? Are they going to try to improve get rid of the kinks? And >> that's what they spent the first semester doing. Um so it it it is better. It is much better than what it was. And they did take feedback from us. It was the very the beginning was the worst. And we we did keep our I mean [snorts] we made the decision that the first two months while they were really struggling in a lot of corporations we did not transition over it over to it right away. It was too much. It was causing a lot of frustration. So we had a backup to do that and I think that helped ease our people in and allowed us extra time to get training and get them comfortable with the system before we started
056utilizing it. >> Okay. So when you give us those funding amounts, does that come from state or federal government? Where is that money coming from? >> The the federal gives the part B monies, but then state can determine how to utilize and expend some of that. So, um, the other thing I, Jeff, I didn't tell you is part of that funding, um, we have to they give us a proportionate share amount and that's the amount we have to spend on our non-public schools and so we have to show that as well. >> Thank you, Mrs. Wagner. Appreciate the update. Okay. Next agenda item 10, consideration of routine business. Dr. Redmond. >> Thank you, Mrs. Glover. The routine business includes approving the minutes of the school board meeting held on December 15, 2025 and approving the
057claims and signing the docket. I recommend the board approve the routine items as presented. >> Motion to approve. Second. >> Motion by Mr. Mosby, seconded by Mr. Friends. Is there any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carried. Moving to agenda item 12, consideration of items for board action. Dr. Redmond, start with uh resolution 20 261 2026-1, resolution regarding acquisition of property. >> Thank you, Mrs. Glover. Mr. Mr. Todd Armstrong has brought to the board resolution 2026-1, resolution regarding acquisition of property pursuant to Indiana code 20-26-7-13 for consideration and approval. According to Indiana Code Chapter 36-1-10.5, we have all the numbers tonight. Um, the school board must adopt a resolution designating designating its interest in purchasing real estate and authorizing a purchasing agent to bring about the effect of the
058potential purchase of the real estate. I recommend the board approve resolution 2026-1 as presented. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Have a motion by Mr. Igner, seconded by Mrs. Wilhelm. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I >> I need to abstain from this. >> Okay. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carried with one abstension by Mr. Baker. Agenda item 12.2 approve public library board appointment. Dr. Redmond. >> Thank you, Mrs. Glover. Brook Bolton, the director of the Boomville Warick County Public Library is requesting the board to reappoint [snorts] Denise D. Meyer to the public library board. This will be a four-year term ending on December 31st, 2030. I recommend the board approve the request as submitted. >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Baker, seconded by Mrs. Wilhelms. Is there any discussion?
059>> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion [clears throat] carried. Agenda item 12.3, approve donations. Dr. Red. >> Thank you, Mrs. Glover. At WPCC, we have a donation from SNS Machine. They would like to donate a 5x10 welding fabrication table valued at $3,000. Also at WPCC, Amcor would like to donate a 37piece tooling set valued at $9,225.36 at WC. $500 donation from the Jacob Ball Wish Fund to support the creation of a calming space in the social workers office. Roy County School Corporation Food and Nutrition Department. We have an $800 donation from an anonymous donor to help pay for past due lunch accounts at Tennyson Elementary. And then we have an additional $59 donation from Robert and Lisa Martin to help pay the past due lunch accounts at Oakdale Elementary. And
060at Tecumpsa High School, we have a $500 donation from Eric Huddleston Toyota program. Funds will be used to help pay for practice packs and cleats as needed for the Teacumpsy High School baseball team. I recommend the board approve the donations as presented. >> Motion to approve donations. Second. >> We have a motion by Mr. France, seconded by Mr. Mosby. Is there any discussion? >> Where is the social workers office for Wick? It's actually at Boomville High School right now, >> right? >> Yes. So, it's a donation to Wet, but it we're physically at Boomville High School. That Thank you for that that clarifying question. [laughter] >> Yes. So, the social worker is at Google High School and they have a space in that area. >> Okay. >> Dr. um may not know this and might
061put uh Mr. Armstrong on the button here. I was just curious on our outstanding lunches. Just kind of curious where that's at annually, you know. >> Oh, annually or >> just like where we at this point in time. >> Yeah, at this point in time. Sorry. >> Total >> orders of magnitude. >> The magnitude >> it abs and flows, but yeah, >> total is over $50,000. totals over 50, >> but we're required to pay off the single year uh as the seniors are leaving that group's debt at the time. So, we always keep ahead by the one year, but it's over $50,000 uncollected. >> Okay. I mean, is one year 1/4 of that or something roughly? >> Uh maybe a tenth maybe. >> Really? >> Yeah. We're we may pay five or six thousand. >>
062Gotcha. >> And fortunately, the donors the people that are voluntarily paying or providing enough to offset that dollar amount each year. So, we're not having to come across the education fund dollars to uh fund food service, but at some point we're probably going to have to venture that path. It >> is there a was there like a bubble maybe that happened and then we just carry this bubble or does it truly eb and flow? >> It's been gradually increasing from year to year. >> Okay. Um we had a year [snorts] where everything kind of reset. >> Yeah. >> Um I don't know 10 or 12 years ago. >> Uh the it got really deep in 192021 I believe right before we got started getting the uh couple of years where we got free lunches with
063the >> Yeah. >> dollars and things but it started getting pretty deep. >> Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. [snorts] Mr. I say we have a motion and a second. We have any any other discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carried. [clears throat] Agenda item 13, consideration of personnel recommendation by Dr. Gresham. >> Thank you, Mrs. Glover. The human resource office has the following business to bring before the board tonight. Agenda item 13.1, consideration of employment. Autumn Gosshouser, temporary second grade teacher at Oakdale Elementary. And non-certified staff, Abigail Helms, ABS, program assistant at John H. Castle. Sarah Zent, program assistant at Wick. Megan Reinhardt, program assistant at Oakdale Elementary. Barbara Williams, cafeteria float. Lisa Cannon, 4.75 hour cafeteria position at Castle North. Kim Connelly, 3.0 zero hour cafeteria position atumpy high.
064Emily, program assistant at Chandler Elementary. Sarah Miller, Braille, program assistant at Castle South. And Andrea White, apps, program assistant at John H. Castle Elementary. >> So move. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Baker or and seconded by Mrs. Wilhelm is considering employment of certified and non-certified staff. We have any discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Agenda. Thank you. Agenda item 13.2 leaves. Morgan Scales, program assistant at Log. Tyler Mazeric, second grade teacher at Elberfeld Elementary. Steven Hess, bus. Nell Harata, 4.75 hour cafeter position at Castle High. Lucy Ellis, special education teacher at Newberg Elementary. Pton Arens, visual arts teacher at Castle High. Megan Beer, program assistant at Tcumy High. August Richardson, program assistant at Boonville High. Kirby Alstat, special education job coach. Mary App, program
065assistant at Boonville Middle. Samantha Blackburn, program assistant at Castle North. [snorts] And Stormy Fulling, 3.5 hour cafeteria position at Boonville Middle. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Have a motion by Mr. Scanner. >> Second. >> Sorry, >> Mr. France beat you. >> Oh, I was too quiet. >> Uh approved leaves. Do we have any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carried. >> Thank you. Agenda item 13.3 report of transfer Sherry West cafeteria float to a 3.5 hour cafeteria position at Oakville Elementary. 13.4 resignations. Bradley Allstart science teacher at Castle High resignation effective December 19, 2025. Caleb Buyers, program assistant, Boonville Middle, resignation effective January 23rd, 2026. Wayne Cosy, ABS, program assistant, John H. Castle Elementary resignation effective December 19, 2025. Michaela Bunner, ABS program assistant at Chandler Elementary,
066resignation effective January 16, 2026. Jessica Thompson's temporary special education prek teacher AM only at Log Elementary, resignation effective January 9th, 2026. And 13.5 retirements. Penny Titer, counselor at Castle North Middle School, retirement effective May 29th, 2026. and Jane Baker, family and consumer science teacher to come high school. Retirement effective May 21st, 2026. >> You can't leave, Mrs. Baker. [laughter] >> Our kids love you. >> Three years is long enough. [laughter] >> I understand. I understand. Thank you, Dr. The next agenda item is number 14, reports, Dr. Redmond. >> We just have one report this evening and that will come from director of student services, Dr. Walter Lambert. >> The only uh report I really have is about the upcoming safety meetings. Just a reminder about that. We have tomorrow at Comey High School at 7
067o'clock in the auditorium and then next Tuesday at the auditorium at Castle High School at 7 o'clock as well. So had a good turnout at Booneville High School and hope to have that same and better turnout even at the next schools. So >> thank you. Other board business, I would ask the board to consider appointing a legislative liaison. Have any nominations? >> Nominate uh Miss Linda Glover. >> I second that. >> I'll third. [laughter] >> Might be stuck. >> Fourth, fifth, and sixth. >> You're stuck, Mrs. Glover. >> Thank you very much. [laughter] >> Take a vote. >> Any other discussion? >> All in favor say I. Any opposed? >> Thank you. Luckily, it's a short session. Yes. [laughter] Thank goodness. >> Okay. Another thing I asked brought forth the code of ethics just uh
068and asked the board to consider reaffirming the adoption of these ethics and reaffirming your commitment to abide by the code of ethics. I would entertain a motion if if anybody wants to make it >> for clarity. This has been our policy. We're just reaffirming >> reaffirming it. You want to bring it fresh out into the >> I will make that motion. >> Okay. >> And it's 1400 just >> for everyone >> and I will second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Baker, seconded by Mr. France. Is there any discussion? >> All in favor say I. I >> any opposed motion carried ask that that would be updated in the policy to show the reaffirmation of today's date and would you know I just happen to have a legislative report [laughter] and it's it's short
069and sweet. We're not really into the nitty-gritty yet. This is the second week of the second regular session of the 124th general assembly. As mentioned before, it's a short session, so they hope to get wrapped up by February 27th. There are so far 700 bills have been introduced, 73 of which are related to public education and children. So there's only seven weeks left. a couple of key bills to consider. One of which Dr. Redmond has um brought forth or mentioned in her updates is this wireless communication device policy. They're continuing to work on it and add some more guidelines and guard rails. And it passed out of committee and now moves to the floor for further deliberations this week. And then another big one on that both these uh key bills are have been authored
070by Senator Ratz and Senate Bill 199 with various education matters. It's a 25page bill brought forth by the Indiana Department of Education and the most prominent section of this bill imposes restrictions and bans on social media accounts for children. Uh the bel the bill is presently in held in committee for possible amendment and and then a vote this week. Uh we get as just a reminder we have Mr. Spradlin sends out a legislative update. There's a live tracking bill on in within that email plus on the schoolboard association website and then always go to the general assembly website for public if you want to read all 700 bills or if you want to track those they're also on general assembly. >> Yeah. >> Are there bills >> [clears throat] >> fixing changing the property tax
071stuff that they had and funding stuff that they have messed with the last session. >> Yes, that is the property tax form is still in it's been reintroduced. >> Okay. >> So, one other thing you know in the spring they reevaluated their budget and they cut because they anticipated a reduction in revenue. The [snorts] state has traditionally ended with a $2 billion surplus. Ironically, they're going to end this year with a $5 billion surplus. >> So, I hope that if those cuts were seriously about the fact they didn't see the income that we will see some of that money flow back since I don't think our state needs to hold $5 million when they cut programs, not just education, a lot of the programs. you might call the legislators and let them know that uh
072we need the money back. >> Melinda, did you hear um I don't know if it was Governor Brun or someone, but they said that they were looking at uh putting in a 2% per year increase for the educational funds for the next two years. >> Well, good. That that will counteract that decrease. But if we have that much money, maybe we >> more% >> 2% increase really keep us hold of inflation. >> So thank you. But we want more. >> So we need to monitor [laughter] that too. And also if you have not read the cell phone bill >> that that's a really important one and it also includes like smart watches and other communic communicative devices. So, that's one that >> if you haven't taken a look at, I think it's worth >> what
073uh >> for the public watching >> on the internet, you might want to call your legislature. I mean, they're no phones at all. So, if you've got high school students, I I can see the place for that. But these older kids, they need their cell phones. I mean, it's working now. >> They have them during lunch. I mean, we feel they don't have that during >> what we put in place based on >> previous legislation >> um is working for us. I mean, because we already limit during passing period anyway >> because we view that as instructional time because you're getting your materials, thinking through going to locker, staying focused in and on school. And this is at high school. At middles, they don't have them during those times anyway. um high schools of course
074we've allowed to have during lunch um and that seems to be working for us. >> What was you mentioned Miss Glover the uh restriction social media [clears throat] any other like any depth on that because I haven't read it so >> they can't be on it or >> there's a house bill and a senate bill. >> Okay. And what they you had they were asking for age verification. If you're third, one of the one of the bills is if you're 13 and younger, you're not allowed to use a social media account. 13 to 18, you need parental >> consent. >> They uh the social media companies will have to come up with [cough and clears throat] age verification and filters and >> so forth. That's not really something we as a school board have to
075address. >> no. I just get worried that policy. But if there's that's a parental thing that they're going to have to like if my kid were 12 and I wanted them to have social media, I would have to sign off on it. >> Got it. >> So, it's not really a school board thing. We're not we're not signing off on social media for them >> anymore. I I don't think >> one of the one of the various education matters and I don't know if it's the Senate or the House bill but the one of one of the trillion things they have introduced is that to uh the different filters that are on school wireless devices to be strengthened to keep kids from using when they take the Chromebooks home. They can't get on to these
076social media accounts and they're just trying to put more filters and restrictions on place. And >> Dr. Revan, I think you can speak to that. I think we have a pretty good system in place. >> I do. We do. And we have our filters set already. >> Yeah. >> Our IT department does a good job with that. >> Okay. >> Interesting. >> Very good. [clears throat] >> It's going to be a whirlwind. >> Grab on. So our next board will have a work Oh, you want to report on upcoming meetings? >> Yes, please. Policy will be February 9th at 5:45 here at this building and student learning and growth will meet tomorrow at the admin office at 11:00 a.m. >> And construction committee meets tomorrow morning, January 13th at 7:30 at the administration building. and
077personnel will meet February 9th in this building at 6:15. >> I just read off a bunch of committees and I didn't know they were I just sound so convinced right there. Caught me off guard. >> You're running a welloiled machine [laughter] here. I tell you it's in line. >> Wait, what are we waiting on here? working. We [laughter] got a good team here. So, I appreciate that. Uh the our next board meeting January 26, we'll have a work session here at central services at 5:30 followed with by the regular board meeting at 700 p.m. Um I hope you guys been able to attend the coffee chat that you will sign up and join us at the pathway. >> Yes. your coffee and donuts and you will receive some EGA points for participating. So, >> and
078that's next >> Wednesday the 21st. >> Wednesday. >> Yes. Disregard my email. >> True date is Wednesday the 21st. >> What time is that? >> Uh [snorts] 9:30. >> Thank you. >> Free coffee and donuts. >> Gotcha. >> Thank you. >> And go who's meeting a