001All right. Okay, it's that time. Um If you guys have been to these before, it's not quite as formal and procedural as a school board meeting, but we do have some some flow here. Um welcome everybody to the What is today's date? March 2nd, 2026 uh Wawasee School Corporation work session. Um I'm going to jump right in. Uh the board wants to uh welcome everybody and anybody who's watching. Thanks for being here. Um we're going to do a few updates. Some of these updates are they can be responses from things that have happened since or during excuse me, during the last meeting. Responses and just some answers. Uh but we're going to I'm going to turn this over to some folks that have researched some of these topics, but I think uh Mr. Baugh has
002something good first. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Craig. Um thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk here. Uh I wanted to kind of address something uh immediately. And so, Mr. Craig allowed me to have a couple minutes to talk with everyone here and those who are watching and what have you. Uh this So, it's not an easy moment for me uh for me to talk about this, but let me let me start here. Serving in the role of representing Milford has been a uh an honor for me just simply because of the fact that I put a lot of immense energy and emotion to it and work and a lot of calls, a lot of meetings and what have you, and I've enjoyed that. And most people that know me know that that's just that's
003that's my personality. I'm very open. Um we may disagree, but uh we always come to a professional uh opinion of like agree to disagree more or less. But, I'm always open to listen. However, um there is this small faction of people uh that are simply they've crossed the line with me. Um so, just a just a brief history on on me. For the last several weeks, there's these these individuals, and unfortunately, I know who they are, which is absolutely sad. That's that's the worst part. Um that have really brought up the idea of uh my living arrangement. So, just kind of briefly saying, after um unfortunately, my divorce last year and uh by the end of summer, I had to find living arrangements, which I did in Milford, uh which I have a rental still
004in Milford. So, I comply with state guidelines of what I'm supposed to be doing for my district. However, it was small, and I have three children, and I'd like to have them come over, so I also rented a place in Warsaw. Well, this small faction of people are just bent against me, and it's so unfortunate. What's What What's worse is that there's a difference between professional discourse, but when that discourse transitions into personal attack, that's a little bit different. Now, for our board members and our roles that we have to have resilience, which I always do. I'm built for crisis, and I can take criticism on me personally at any given time. However, when I have immediate family being asked certain questions and being challenged by certain people, that's that's wrong. And there's not a
005soul in here that could tell me that that's right. And just out of respect for those individuals, which I can't believe I I'm saying this, I'm not going to mention their names. Cuz that's wrong. Cuz I can't control their character, I can control mine. But they're not going to stop. They're just going to continue to be the people they are uh and at my point in in the stage of life I am, I don't fight that. I like peace. And because of that reason, uh I'm going to resign as uh the Milford District Representative effective March 3rd, which will be tomorrow. We'll sit through I'll sit through the work session. Uh I've talked to Mr. Kreip about this in thorough detail and and and Mr. Lykins, too. Um and obviously they they they persuaded me
006that you sure is your heart into it. I love because our board is some of the best people here. Uh but when you take that discourse into personal attack and you go after immediate family, I just this is not a sign of weakness. It's out of defense of what matters most. And I say this out of integrity that I've been honored to represent our school cuz I love Wawasee. Uh I will continue to support Wawasee. I will continue to assist where they need assist. I will continue to coach where they need to coach. Um I still have a horse in the race. I pushed two through here and I love what I do, but these people in our community, we have to do better. And for the roles that we have here are very stringent
007and as leadership, we take with much responsibility comes much scrutiny. And again, personally, I can take anything and I think I believe most people that know me personally understand that completely. That listen, I'm bulletproof. I got it, right? But when my boys that's a problem. And I'm very disturbed. So as of March 3rd, I'm no longer Steven Bout, uh school board representative. Uh I'm Steven Bout's dad. And that's a problem. I I'm just I'm I'm so appalled I cannot believe I can I can feel the emotion draw out to me and as professional as I am, I've got to make sure I'm very I'm courteous to that, but I just want to say that thank you for the time and those people that support me, the conversations we have, Mr. Hersey, we've had some really
008great conversations, everybody in this room, strong people, strong personalities, uh just want the best for our schools and for those that don't, um this is a time, I will tell you and I hope that if there's I don't want to say I'm a martyr, but what I would say that this is a time that all the naysayers that are out there that are bent on the school, that blow up social media, that create all this drama and theatrics, it stops now. We're done. Let's move on. Let's create a great school. Let's create a great system. I'm still here. I will still always talk to our parents and people, whatever you want, but I just believe I The last thing I want to do is besmirch our board and besmirch our school system cuz that's not
009right. I would I don't want to be a pain point. And sure I can fight it. This is my election year. Sure I can go back, but who wins? I don't win. They don't win. All it does is just create more drama and we don't want that. And most people that know me, they know I'm just not built that way. I like peace. I really do. So um I don't really have much else to say, but I just want to thank everyone who's who's just been who supported me uh and and through this time and I really uh I really appreciate it. It's been an honor to serve our students, our faculty, our central office, our board, some of the best uh men up here. They care about our schools. I can tell you, when
010you get behind this curtain, there's not one person in here that doesn't care about our students and our schools. And anybody that would challenge that, I will defend Wawasee uh to the hilt. But when you cross that line to a personal attack, that's wrong. I didn't take this position to be a senator or a future mayor or future House Representative. I took this position because I love our students. I want the best for our schools. So, unfortunately as it is, it's the best move uh for myself and for Wawasee. Um so, thank you again um Dr. Woodward. I'm really excited. Dr. Wilfong, um I love the curriculum. You're You guys keep rocking it, but um Yeah, that's pretty much it. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gray. Thank you. Um Okay. Well, Sorry, Annie. That's
011right. So, the next steps will get announced obviously pretty quick. I don't know if we need to speak to that right now, but uh W- Well, can you You You know the rules. days to fill the vacancy, and the typical procedure is that uh you would post an application maybe for others who would like to consider the spot, and they would apply, and then you would take those applications and do some sort of a interview process, a forum, or something. And you know, you'll have to decide what you want that to look like, and then we can post that. But you have 30 days to do it, or else a judge has to fill the spot. Okay. Well, we'll We'll busy tomorrow. Yeah, I think so. Okay. Okay. Uh um Okay, last week's I think
012it was last not last week last meeting something something came up regarding the building trades and you did some detective work detective. So at the last board meeting a parent alleged that a Fairfield High School student was assaulted. I just want to kind of clear this up. Um and that it was by a building trades teacher and that the teacher made inappropriate gestures and towards students. After the meeting >> [clears throat] >> I reviewed the matter to understand how it relates to our district and I spoke with Sorry, let me say The teacher is employed by Fairfield schools. We are not getting involved in Fairfield schools and I also spoke with our CTE director who clarified that there was no Wawasee students there at the time. Um as of 24-25 school year season we stopped
013combining the projects with Fairfield and Wawasee. So there's the beginning of 25-26 Fairfield had their own and Wawasee had their own. So I'm just trying to clarify that the teacher that was referenced is employed by Fairfield and Fairfield had their own building trades project at the time and that was conducted in Elkhart County. Fairfield superintendent is aware of the situation along with their SRO who has handled the allegations and done their investigation and their report. So I just wanted to clear that up that Wawasee it was not a Wawasee teacher and there was no Wawasee students there. Okay. All right. Doesn't make the news any better for but it's good clarification. Um Some and I'm going to jump in on these. There was some questions um we've had a few questions regarding payroll. Um I
014don't have I know we're working through some improvements and adjustments right now as we speak and it's simply just you can populate your just like any software you populate it with the right data and and things up front and get a better more granular output. I think that's one of the big concerns complaints. So that among some other things they're they're in the process and that is you begin that already. So I'm hopeful that that will start to be seen. Also while I'm two more things I have to talk about we are somebody had mentioned something regarding or we had a letter regarding paraprofessional days, right? That's not an easy one. We just did a we just bumped para pay which we should have was excited that we got to be part of that but
015we're working on some some solutions and some answers. I don't know if you guys can jump in on that and if you're not ready that's fine. >> I think we are you want to talk about first I want I want to let you know that I did reach out to all the principals to make sure that they that all of the paras were able to make up their hours and I think there were just a couple left that hadn't quite made up all of their hours yet but they were working on it. So that has been taken care of and we've already started working on some contingency plans for next school year. If this happens again what type of work can we have them do during those snow those snow days if they can't work.
016So that hopefully it won't be a as big of an issue moving forward. Okay, good. The We also We're going to do a little bit of a pool update. Wade, do you want to jump in on that? Thank you. Dr. Wulffarth. So, the update on the pool is uh to start out, our budget was 8.5 million on the on the pool project renovation. We're at 8.2 million right now. Um right now we have about $20,000 in um change orders. So, I don't see us adding a whole lot onto that. Um the mechanical systems, we had some whistling on that end of that unit up top. And they're still trying to diagnose that to get that calmed down. Um the boiler, we've had problems with that boiler for years, and we're working on replacing that boiler
017boiler with one from Milford. So, it's a new newer boiler. It's got to be be replumbed and everything, but we'll get that done. Um How many years of life do you pick up from I mean, is is how much newer is that boiler? Um I'm not exactly sure when that was put in, but it's subs it's fairly new. Okay. We're not just kicking it No, man. Well, we're kicking it down the road, but a ways. A ways down the Okay. Um the punch list, which we have a huge punch list that came out of our our punch list meeting. Um we're going to get started on that after the season. So, that first week of let's call it April 7th, we'll get started on all that other stuff. The tile is in. They got pictures
018of it, so we know it's in stock. Um so, we'll get started on that tile work. And then we have some adjustments to make. Um that base cove that never got installed, we're going to do that. The scores bench, which is not yet, we're going to get that fixed. Um Are they going to re- relocate the electrical by the boxes? >> Yes. Those timing blocks, right? Yeah. Yeah, those will get moved. Um Spears is going to do that for us. Um Some things that we've noticed since that tile was installed is it's cracking in different places. So, yeah, it's going to get we're going to get a lot more tile work out of these guys. Um and all that should be done um probably within a month or so. On their dime? Yeah. Yeah. And
019then some other safety concerns was the uh the water chemicals. Uh so, we test that water two to three times a day. And we've been dialing that in. A lot of that had to do with like the grout and different things that were in construction that got into the pool. Mhm. I think caused the irritants. Um but we we document all of that and it gets sent to the state every single time. And we've been consistent and in compliance with the state. So, that's good. That's about it. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Uh I have one last item before patron comments. It's a reminder that the survey for new superintendent is my Our minutes right? The 6th? Yeah, the 6th. It's open through the 6th, so um encourage folks to take that. They said the response
020we've had a I can't remember the number, but Yeah, it's >> That was a last week, so hopefully more >> it's good. So, that closes the sixth, and that is our answers updates that we have from up here. Now, it's your turn. So, patron comments? >> [clears throat] [snorts] >> Um my name's Kurt Hershey. Um I just wanted to thank you guys. I had a nice long meeting with Wade today, and you know, I I've stood up here several times and said, "Hey, I'd like to have some information, and you followed through it." And so, I want to give credit to that. It was It was good. Wade and I had a good conversation. It cleared up um several questions that I had, and I appreciate that. There were some answers that I didn't fully
021agree with, but you're going to have that with with anything going across there. Um one thing though that I think that would help is if maybe we even could on the website just give a a periodic update that somebody could click on that. Uh one of the questions that it that I had with you know, several times was what's the budget at? Now, I I I know Wade Wade and I discussed this earlier today. You know, we're at 8.2 current, but the original budget budget, I believe, was at 6.2. So, I was trying to fill in the blanks on where that extra money was. And it would be nice if we could easily find out where that was, and and it could be done on the website easy. So, after speaking with Wade today, it's
022like, "Okay, we had the well, we had the pump house, we have this and that." And it could just easily be here's here's the baseline. Here's the extra, and here's how we got to the 8.2. And and I I think that would be good with any project, you know, whether whether we're talking about the art center or or the Milford school, you know, we we could have said, "Here's where we started at. Here's where we ended up. Here's the change or just just so it's easy to just track money." It doesn't have to be super detailed, but it'd be nice at a glance to go through there, and within 45 minutes of meeting with Wade, most of my questions were answered. Again, it wasn't wasn't you know, all the answers I wanted to hear, but
023it it's not going to be. So, I I I wanted to thank you guys for getting that set up. I wanted to thank Wade for his time, too. Um Wade and I also had a long discussion on, you know, moving forward. The email that I'd sent to you guys is, what do we learn from this process? What can we get better in in in we kind of brainstormed a few things and then it it was good. There was there was some outside-the-box thinking. You know, as far as maintenance Andy, you spoke to me just a little bit ago on on stuff like that's fantastic. It it it shows that we're looking at all avenues and I think that's what a lot of us are are asking for. So, um whether it was some previous administration
024that had the cuffs on or or whether just listening and and seeing the other perspective of things, outstanding job. Very very appreciate of that. Now, yeah. I look forward on how it's going to go forward, but definitely if if we can get something on the website. You guys already have the data. Um when I went through the the invoices last year, it it's hard to you know, read down through the construction invoices and see change order, change order, change order. It's like, well, what is that? It just kind of opens up more questions to where if you just have a real easy drop down, here's here's the project, here's the budget, here's here's what it was. So, um good job on that. Thanks. All right. And then Steve, thank you for your time, too. You
025know, it's uh >> Yep. That's a good idea. I wonder if our I mean, when I in my personal when we do little compared to this, it's little building projects, they kind of have they send me a weekly dashboard. I mean, they we probably could get some of that from our That's a good idea. You can do Anything else? Anybody else? Uh real quick, just what Kurt's talking about is we have some resurfacing related projects that are coming up and um we're going to get some of the guys in our community that do literally that to I don't know, guide us through the process so at the minimum my our goal is to make sure we're not getting we're not paying more than we need to be paying for something that is anyway, so that's
026that's what that's about. All right. I'm going to close this portion if everybody's good. Okay. Uh we are now on to financial items, Dr. Penrod. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. Uh just a quick update on the bond refinancing and refunding that we've talked about before. Uh so we asked you to approve everything to start that process at the last meeting and so that'll be the only approvals really that we need uh at this point in time. So there won't be anything on the March board meeting for this. However, I just kind of want to let you know what's going on outside of board meetings. So we do we do a uh a ratings call. So Standard & Poor's rates these bonds and rates the school based on our credit and then the bonds become
027rated bonds. Uh that takes about uh it's probably like an hour, hour and a half phone call. They ask a bunch of questions about um just making sure that they understand the the complexities of the school corporation, what the financial picture looks like. So when they when they do rate these bonds, um they can say with, you know, with confidence to an investor that these are whatever they're going to be rated. I would guess double A plus with A underlying. And so um so it's it's a way to kind of grade so the investor knows what they're investing in when they buy that. Uh so the the uh double A plus A A underlying is I believe that's what we're we're currently rated and I wouldn't expect anything different on this particular issue. The A
028underlying comes in when uh because the state backs that with uh tuition support. And so in the unlikely, the very very unlikely event that a school corporation uh not just any school corporation would not pay their debt, the state would step in and pay the debt and in effect taking it out of your education fund. And so I I'm not aware of that ever happening, but that's why the underlying is an A cuz they know they're going to get their money one way or another. Right after the right after the uh ratings call, we do a due diligence call, which is the uh the way for the underwriter to uh kind of do the due diligence to make sure that what they are underwriting is a good investment or a good a good thing to
029underwrite. And so um that you know, that's kind of all in that same category. Some of the same questions then the due diligence gets a little bit deeper into uh some specifics. Um so we kind of wrap that up and we're waiting on the uh uh waiting on the actual rating right now. Uh we're still looking at um around $100,000 saved in levy on this particular uh refi. And so what that means is like we said last time, um we would not levy for $100,000 to uh to pay this back because uh the interest rate's a little bit lower instead of taking that savings out as cash, we're putting that onto the uh onto the onto the payment so to speak and then lower it your uh levying for less to make the payment. >>
030We don't have the option to take the cash out, right? On this particular Uh yeah, you're right. On this one we did not have the option to take cash out. >> really only Yeah, there has been in the in the past where we could, but in this one we did not. And then um uh regarding debt in general then, this is kind of interesting as well. Uh assuming no new debt is issued, and this is not considered new debt, it's a refunding or refi. So, assuming no other new debt no no new debt is issued, our levy next year is predicted to be about a 1.5 million dollars less in '27 than it will be in '26. And so, um that's kind of just a a product of managing that debt well, basically. So, next
031year should fall from about 14.1-ish 1-ish to about 12.6 million dollars. And then another 100,000 or so based on this refi. So, maybe 12.5-ish, somewhere around there. Okay. Any questions on that? And we'll have the monthly reports at the meeting next week. Obviously, it'll be too early for to finish out February yet today. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Next item, Dr. Woodworth. Uh at your place, you'll see a photocopy of the article by our own Dr. Shelly Wilfong that was in the national publication of superintendents, the School Administrator, about why every school leader should teach again. Really nicely written article. So, I just wanted to point that out, and you have your very own copy of it. Good job, Shelly. Very nice. I also wanted to just share with you that I think we
032told you that uh Shelly and I are going to the school buildings and doing this kind of consensus building exercise with the teachers about what qualities they would like to see in a superintendent. So, by the time you get together to start looking at the applicants, we'll have that data for you as well, as you'll have the community survey, too, but it's been fun. Yeah. We have another one this week. Good. Yeah. Um let's see. We have Jeff Dyson with us tonight. Had the pleasure of meeting with him the other day, and he has a lot of good things going on that you probably already know that he's a good guy, but I really enjoyed getting to know him. But I think he's going to give us a little update, just some snapshots of what
033he's been doing. Come on down, John. Well, first of all, thank you. Um it [clears throat] was a uh it was a pleasure to meet with you um the other day, get to know you a little bit, and um show you some of the things that are uh happening here at the school, very exciting. Um I'm very, very glad that you had talked about the website. Because this is a perfect segue into some of the things that uh we've been working on. So, um you know, I've had a chance to talk with not only the some of the folks at the school, but the community about, you know, what is it that you're looking for from the school when it comes to website communications, etc. And really, the feedback that I've received is we just
034want to be able to get the information that we that we want in an easy fashion that is easy to read. Sounds pretty simple, right? But it seems like Apple's kind of the only company to be able to do it. So, it is a it is a it is a task. But we've taken a stab at it here. Um I've gone through a couple of things just as these these four things are just some samples and some highlights. Number one, just to show you the quality of what we can do. And the other thing is just to kind of get some feedback from you as far as, "Hey, is this the direction that we want to go as a school?" So, the first thing um that we do for, you know, any any corporation, any
035company, any school, typically what you do is put a brand guide together. And I can take very little credit for the guts of this. I can tell you that Emily and whoever was working on this project prior did a phenomenal job with creating logos, creating a lot of the guts and and the the what and the how of of the brand guide. What I did here was put this together in an easy-to-read fashion so that anybody who wants to look at um you know, basically this this becomes the source of truth for anything that we're going to be doing moving forward on the web, um branding, anything like that. So you can go ahead and scroll down a little bit just to kind of give people an idea. Um you know, obviously some colors, some
036fonts. You can continue to scroll down a little bit more. Um the brand guide also talks about like what's our brand voice? What are some of the the things that we want to be known for? These are things that um you know, a lot of the um a lot of these things have already been determined. So it isn't anything that I created, but these are things that are easily laid out, the do's and don'ts for the logo, different file file usage. And then if you scroll down just a little bit more, you get even things as far as granular as letter, you know, letterhead or um email signatures, that sort of thing. Um so top to bottom, just the the overall brand guide for the school. So I'd encourage you, I can send you guys
037all links to what this is so that you can kind of, you know, have an overview of exactly what what that is, but I'd encourage you to kind of go through it. And yeah, the the links at the top are just basically to um you know, to each of the sections. But just kind of go through it and make sure that, you know, is there anything in here that was either decided or determined that looks wrong? I mean, shouldn't be by now because we've been going off of this for a while, but you know, just kind of go through it and and give me the feedback of hey, we need to add this or we need to modify this a little bit. One of the things that >> [clears throat] >> excuse me, right off
038the gate, um I've been working a lot with Wade. He's been doing a great job with giving me a lot of the direction. Um the W right there at the top, um that is what he said, let's let's make sure that we focus on that W versus the W with, you know, the um the gold ring around it. So cuz that was the original logo that we had up there, but just little things like that that if we, you know, moving forward, anything that we want to make sure that we, you know, put our best foot forward. So go ahead and go back to the previous page if you could, please. Uh one more on the back space. There we go. Okay, so this is just a simple render of what the corporation home page
039could look like. Okay, so um and I'll just let you go ahead and scroll down and as you're going through. So, actually just stop stop go back up just a little bit. Keep going to some of those icons. So, um on the desktop version you can see we've got the five icons right there. If you pull this up on your mobile device, those we have the five most accessible links that we are going that people would expect to see when they go to the corporation's website are going to be it's it's designed like a mobile app so that there it's quick links on the bottom. We have those there on the on the desktop app. Um go ahead and keep scrolling down a little bit if you could. So, we've got a spot for the
040latest news and again this is corporation-wide. Um calendar of events, corporation-wide. Um everything here on this particular page we get the list for our schools. This partic- Hey, look at that. We've got our beautiful superintendent. >> [laughter] >> Um some quotes, some stats about the school, uh talking about being rooted in the community, what the school and the school board wants to do as far as partnering with different um businesses in the community, uh reaching out, that sort of thing so that the collaboration. So, all of this from a very high level what does the what is the corporation about and when somebody comes to this area this is what they're going to come to first because this is the umbrella for basically for um for the school system. So, this would be sort of
041the site that they would go to. And again, trying to lay it out in set in an easy-to-read fashion so that people can get the information that they're looking for um as they need it, right? So, um let's go ahead and just do a quick uh scan through of the high school home page and we don't have to go through all of the details on this, but has a similar look and feel and some of the same topics, but then you get down into some of the academics and you talk about the AP credits and people that are going to college and that they have one section. People that are going for the CTE, they have another section. Um student life, what that looks like here. We have the athletics, that's another major part of
042it. So, all these things can be categorized and easily put together, laid out on the website. Again, it's just the overall look and feel keeping the same um you know, the same structure as what the uh um the corporation site would look like. And then finally, the last link that I just wanted you to to see and really point out something that is kind of um sharing the good news, I guess. Um this was sent over um late last week. Hollywood Academy students built benches for the newly renovated uh Wawasee Middle School pool. So, um you know, we were asked, "Hey, can we put this together on a news article that we can share with the newspaper?" So, you know, we had a an article written and again, this isn't live on any website. Well,
043it's on the um on the school corporation's website right now. Wade just added it, I believe this morning. But we put this together so that you could kind of see what a news article would look like and then um you know, the call outs and the quotes, etc. Easy to read, some of the statistics, etc. Um so that we can pass these along to um the newspapers and TV outlets, etc. so that they can pick these up and share the good news of the things that we're doing at the corporate level and of course, in all of the different schools. So, um again, this this look and feel is not live yet. This is just something that I wanted you guys to take a look at and see just to kind of see where we're
044going, where we're heading. Make sure that hey, you're heading in the right direction or dude, you're way off. We're going to have to pivot and do something else, right? So, that's kind of That was the the whole purpose of me me being here tonight for that was just to kind of give you an idea of what that is, what that look like. And then again, say thanks to Wade for all of his help for, you know, a lot of the guidance for um for this portion of it. So, um I'm going to pause right there. Do you guys have any questions on any of these things? >> Yeah, how does that I don't even know. You know, you have Parent Square and you have How do all these environments How does that all work together?
045Yeah, I was always afraid that the cool, easy-to-use ergonomic factor was impeded because we had to use certain environments, for lack of a better term. How does that Like And you you're spot on. >> I don't want you to show me something, then you go, "Yeah, he can't do it." Right. Well, you you're spot on. So, um part of the reason I wanted to show you this is because this is this is what we could have, right? Um Now, let's take a step back. Exactly what we do have, the Parent Square, the Smart Sites, those types of things, we can't recreate an enterprise-level looking website with a drag-and-drop page builder, which is what Parent Square is. I'm not knocking Parent Square because they have done a great job of making it easy for people who
046are non-tech to be able to update and manage the tech, right? That's what that's the whole purpose of the site. When you have somebody who this is what they do, like I I would build a site like competing with Parent Square, that's that's what I do. So, when I look at building something like this, I come at it as, "Okay, let's start fresh. Let's Let's get to where we want it to look and feel, and then see how we can integrate the technology of, 'Hey, does this teacher want to um create a news article?' They can go into in in in the hybrid would be go into Parent Square, fill out the information, it gets posted into Parent Square. We're going to syndicate that data to this website. So, that's going to be step one.
047Okay? And that's that is ultimately um I think where you want to go is to have this where where we have all of the the ease and functionality of ParentSquare in an enterprise looking level website, right? So, some of the things that I'm looking forward to building into the technology in the future and ParentSquare has some of it, but not to the extent of what we're talking about. So, um as an example, um my daughter had surgery recently and then like a a month out we would get a notification from the hospital saying, "Hey, in 30 days you're going to do this. So, here's the next thing that you have to do." And it was just a small chunk of information, not data overload, just the thing at the right time. Send that information. Couple
048weeks out, you know, "Hey, here's the next thing you have to do. Go get some blood work. Go here. Click this link. Do this thing." So, it was a process that was built out and I don't let's call it automated, but it was, you know, all of the things that you're going to be doing in steps and in and in sequence. We have the same thing here for the school. You know that next year your kid's going from elementary school to middle school. Wouldn't it be nice at the end of the school year to have something sent out, whether it's automated or a reminder to whoever the administration is that send something to the parents that says, "Hey, your kid's going into middle school. Here are some of the things that you're going to do,
049that you need to expect. Here are some of the teachers you're going to meet." Those kinds of things we should and we should build into our system, whether it's automation or through notification of our administration so that they can manually reach out if needed. But, those are things that um aren't built into parent into ParentSquare or Smart Sites that we will be able to build into our future site. So, these are all things that will, you know, will be able to happen. I don't know. I would just say I'm super excited the way you've taken the bull by the horns already and this is a first exhibit of the product that you're going to come up with eventually and and just great expectation. You've you've raised the bar now I don't know if you're going
050to have to keep jumping over it because I'm impressed that great job. Appreciate it. Yeah. And there's only one other thing that I just wanted to for some of the work that will be coming up in the future and this might be a segue into something that you're going to be talking about but in Terra as part of the the marketing in Terra has made a donation to the school in exchange for some type of naming of something within the Performing Arts Center. That's as much as I was given when we started this trying to figure out who has a conversation and who has a seat at the table and so I've been tasked with trying to figure out now that we are getting to the point where hey they have signage that has to
051go up somewhere in the school or that you know on the auditorium or whatever that looks like. So we're going through the contracts, we're going through what everything was signed and we're trying to you know get all that stuff resolved but that is something that will be coming up here in the next couple of few months just because schools I mean the Performing Arts Center is almost done and now now we're getting down to the details. So We dug out the agreement, found it and so yeah we've been working on that. Cool. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Which leads right into another thing I wanted to to share. Had a great conversation with Jeff too about this the Performing Arts Center and the opportunity that it has brought I think in front of this
052community or for the community. So I wanted to propose that maybe he and I work together and and form a Performing Arts Center task force or committee of some kind and kind of talk about ways that the community could be involved in that. Kristen and I also had a really good meeting. I think she had emailed you about some of her ideas. And um she has a lot of ideas, Jeff has a lot of ideas. And I think if we would get people together, we could um really create some exciting things. But we just need some time to really think about it, you know, be realistic, what could it really do for the community, summer programming, children's programming, adult programming. Um there's theater groups that come around, there's dance groups. I mean, the opportunities are
053almost endless. So, Good. starts with something though. So, maybe a group think about it? Yeah. If you approve that or like the idea? Yeah. Okay. I'd love to find a way to Yeah, increase that utilization as much as we can. Yeah, it's going to be beautiful. It's going to be a great facility, so great opportunity for for everyone here. All right. Well, maybe Jeff and I will have more conversation about getting that going and we'll keep you updated as we go along. Okay. All right. I think those are all my uh things. Uh next on our agenda is the Milford Collaborative Park presentation and we have Trisha Gaul here uh from Milford who has a lot of great ideas. I don't know for sure where you are um and updating on this, so I think
054she will take it away. Answer questions you may have. Yes, absolutely. [clears throat] So, thanks, Dr. Woodward. Um so, we've been working on this project, Dr. Troyer, myself, and Emily we're all we're working on it. And we have put together this conceptual drawing with Elevatus um just to kind of picture what the park could look like, which would be where the existing track and football field are behind the Milford school. So, because the school kind of eliminated some amenities that the town sort of the town's members used as a park, it would kind of made sense um to maybe put in a park. Um if you guys are okay with that as you have the property, um, somewhat available to my knowledge. Uh, but basically, uh, we did some feed community feedback at some food
055truck Friday at a food truck Friday and got an idea of which we had like three different options. This was the option that everyone picked that they liked. Also did ask them to pick which amenities they'd like to have first and that sort of thing. So, doing a project like this, um, is very, very expensive. So, we, um, had the approach of doing it in phases. So, the first phase would be the site work as well as the ball field since that was kind of one of the main things that was eliminated from the community to be able to put that back into the community would be excellent and even just make it bigger and better, right? We got to go bigger or go home. So, this is just an idea of what it can
056look like and not the actual rendering, but it gives you an idea of what the dream is, um, to see happen if you guys are okay with one letting your property be used as a park. And basically the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of it since it is a school property, I would assume the school would then have the maintenance and upkeep to the land. Um, the idea is is to approach grant opportunities to fund a lot of the the items that you see there. But just to get over the first hurdle, it's about approximately with estimates $1.5 million for the site work and the ball field. Just give people an idea of how much that kind of stuff costs. Um, so, we have some really, really, um, recent, uh, grant opportunities that I think that
057we can really capitalize on. And obviously, since I'm the clerk treasurer for the town of Milford, I care a lot about the town of Milford and its residents. Um, and so, I'm happy to work with the school in any way that I possibly can and I've been working with Dr. Woodworth and Dr. Penrod to kind of put this all together and because I can't apply for grants on your behalf because I'm not a part of the organization, but basically looking at um if Dr. Penrod potentially could submit grant requests on behalf of this project. Um since Dr. Woodworth will only be here till May and this is not going to be a fast process. If you've ever had to the opportunity to grant stack, it's very challenging and time-consuming, but we're going to give it
058a shot if you guys are okay with that. So, just kind of want to answer any questions that you might have at first, I guess. I'm a I'm just got confused no questions with just absorbing it. Yeah, that's okay. >> [laughter] >> Cuz we weren't really I mean I'm It's not It's not all the Is all the schools covered? Mhm. Yeah. We we talked about it a little bit at the very very beginning and then so it's Yeah. reintroduce it to the And it's been going on a while, right? So. Um fortunately or unfortunately, one of the larger grant opportunities we have, they need to spend their money. So, I would I'm willing to do that. I don't know about you guys, but I'm willing to spend other people's money super super fast. No, I'm
059just kidding, but I want to make sure that we don't miss an opportunity cuz it's not here on a regular basis. I say that jokingly, but it's not always here. So, we want to make sure that we can maybe capitalize on that and then start building from there. I mean, the only thing I'll say is we want to I mean, obviously the the off-the-cuff answer is this looks awesome. It'd be neat community use it. I assume the school can use it for PE stuff, all the other things. Mhm. But then [clears throat] the ugly reality of money comes into play and you guys have a budget that's tight and we have a bud I mean, so Mhm. And so I mean, you know, I I just want to understand all what it means, you know,
060and if if this is a grant that well, could we have used that grant for something that we need? and mean, I just want to understand. Mhm. So, we got to find a way to protect but also I mean, it looks really neat. I Yeah. I just don't know what it all how it all happens. So, between guidance and conversations and teaching me about grants and stuff. I mean, >> Well, I think the first two grant opportunities and the largest grant opportunities, the first one is the community amenities program. Okay. So, basically a park is a community amenity, so it would qualify. We've already submitted a letter of intent that Dr. Troyer got approval to send. I don't know. Um but we they said yes, this project does meet our qualifications. That's all that really
061says. And then you have to fill out a grant application and go through that process. So, that's the one that's kind of short timed that the money doesn't stick around for a long time. And then on top of it you have K21 Health Foundation which supports things for wellness and community amenities for wellness which is this would be an open community amenity for wellness. So, another good opportunity for us to take that hopefully what we would receive from the community amenities program and then go to K21 and say, "Hey, look. Got this great project and then just kind of build some momentum." Then there's other grants out there that support parks and things for children to do, that sort of thing. That's out there. >> What's the timing on the first one? Yeah, so Yeah.
062So, my question to you was when I see this, this is awesome because did we have any plans for that land? Like did we have money set aside for that in our building project? Because if we didn't, I think we'd be crazy not to jump on Yeah. But again, I don't know what we had planned. Very at the beginning we we'd kicked around wanting to We knew we were taking a baseball field, so we wanted to backfill that. It was It was I mean it's about that far. We didn't know it's going to be two fields or one field or But yeah, something like this. think that's not a big deal, but when she's you're 1.5 million, it is it is a bigger deal. So, I know these grants that she's wanting to do are
063coming up. Um and honestly, the community uses all of our property anyway. Like we let them use the North Webster area. So, I don't think she's asking to do anything that the community would question. I'm just wondering if we had if we didn't have any money set aside, we're going to need to look for things like that. For sure. Yeah, we have to look for grants anyways. Mhm. Save some of the money for this project maybe go to another project. Is it only through like the town of Mel- Milford would not have any grants, right? They wouldn't apply for grants. It only comes through the school. Right, because you own the property. So, whatever grant money they would give you is going to become your property. So, that's why like I can't do it on
064your behalf, even though it's benefiting the town of Milford. I can't do it on your behalf because of the fact that you're going to own it and I'm not affiliated with you other than a partnership. Yeah. Right. And does it Yeah. And I maybe not know this, but do we have a member of our school that does grants only for our school? Well, I mean several of us have written grants. I mean yeah. And well, we've talked about that, but they they have access to a grant writer also in this collaborative project that we're entering into. So, I write a lot of grants, like a lot a lot of grants for the town of Milford. So, we've gotten about I'd say we're close to 7 million dollars right now, like if what we've gotten grants
065from various different granting agencies. And so, I asked my grant writer, which is MACOG, which is the Michiana Area Council of Governments. So, the county pays a fee to them every year so that you're allowed to use their services for free. So, I like that idea, right? Just like you were saying, like why not start there, right? So, we've we've written a lot of grants together successfully, and so they are very familiar with the town of Milford and have a lot of resources that will help strengthen the grant application. And they've been involved in our few discussions that we've had, um so that they can put things together. Obviously, they ask a lot of questions cuz they want to get it right, but also another reason why I I wanted I would wanted to talk
066to you guys about Dr. Penrod being the person who submits the grant application because he can review it to make sure everything is truthful and that it's you know, cuz you have lots of ideas and I have lots of things I think I know, but then you put it down on paper and it may or may not be right. So, he would be able to make sure that the grant application is correct before we actually submit it and say something that we didn't mean to say for the school, whatever that might be. How quick, Patricia? How quick can we get it all done? >> What's the deadline coming up? So, the first deadline would probably be the first hard deadline would probably be April 15th. So, and really it's a matter of I mean, when
067you put together a grant application, right? You got to start, and then you wait for the response. And these one these grants have a pretty quick time turnaround, like a quarter. Most grants are quarterly if they're great, but instead of annually, but they're like the CAP grant has an open application process, but they did set funds aside for each of the communities. And so, basically this is Milford's community project that this funding would be used for. I mean, if you don't want it, I'll use it for something else, but >> [laughter] >> I don't think that's the case, and I don't want to use it for something else because I think this project is really, really great and really going to be an asset for the community. So, that that's what's the deadline for CAP
068is they they're holding that money for the communities, but if the communities aren't going to use it, they're going to give it out to other people. Mhm. Because they have to get the money spent. Because it was a short-term kind of gain from the state. So, we want to make sure that we help them get that moving, essentially. But, do we have Yeah. Is what is it since Why couldn't we Why do we have to own that land? I mean, if we're going to do this, but does it make it I mean, I don't know if that helps or hurts or it doesn't really matter. Okay. Well, whatever we're doing, we got to get the April 15th date hit. So, we're on I mean, we're on board. I don't know what that means. I don't
069know what I can do or what I'm saying there. >> I guess I was going to suggest like mull it around a little bit, and then if you have other questions during the week before our board meeting next week, let me know, and I'll get them to Trisha or Brandon or figure it out. >> Because I would I'll probably bring a resolution that you support the project going forward Okay. of thing. So, you can write a letter for her grant. >> That would be our action. >> Yeah, that would be your action like next week. But, I wanted to at least bring cuz I didn't know where you were actually at in Well, this picture's pretty cool. >> being up-to-date. And I will [clears throat] say that the grants that I've been involved in like
070this that are collaborative between like in this case the town of Milford and the school district and other community partners that might come in have a really good chance of winning. I mean, people like that collaborative spirit these days. It's good. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I I didn't mean I just meant the fact I think this makes sense. If they if we can get the money. So, you keep your eyes open for all those grants? Yeah. Well, you know, I got people. Yes, she >> [laughter] >> She does. I'm just kidding, but Yeah, we're just really excited about the opportunity even begin getting even more in depth cuz you know, you spend a little bit of time getting ready, and then you can really hardcore dive in and uncover every rock. Yes, right. She
071is very resourceful. She's very resourceful. And some of the things she was telling me about, little side note, right? Milford, $7 million. Yeah, great. Yeah. So, I appreciate your guys considering helping us make Milford better and bringing this great thing hopefully to the town. Thanks. Thank you. So, yeah, we we sit on that board and our as well that Dr. Pyle is heading up as far as the athletic putting some of the future collab with that access this money or or spray that forward in Yes. I think it I mean, it falls right in line with the ultimate goal of that board is is finding more space Right. practice space and Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. I think any outside ideas and Right. help, so. It It might I guess I have one more question.
072So, is it Do you have a phase in the project idea already? Like the first phase, you have that laid out that we would Yeah. Okay. We do have that all laid out if you want to get if you want to receive that. >> I think it'd be nice to see what we're Mhm. going to propose. >> And to Dr. Woodridge's point, like we were hoping if we started with the ball field and the site preparation work, we can talk to other not just grantors, but other community leaders to see if they want to participate. So, today I was having a discussion with Harvest Coffee, and she was asking me if they could maybe somehow participate with the funding that they got for selling their building to put toward a project, and I was like,
073"How about the park?" >> [laughter] >> That hopefully is coming. So, I think you can once you start kind of talking about it and the buzz gets out there, we can hopefully um also raise some money from the local community that will go into making it special for them. But, to your point on the athletic field, I was just going to say you should look at K-21 Health Foundation cuz I'm the vice president of the board, and I think that that's a great project that they'd probably be interested. Like I know we helped Warsaw with the track, indoor track, area and stuff. So, definitely don't discount that for anything. Okay. I told Trisha it was okay if she leaves because she has other commitments tonight. So, thanks so much for coming though. Unless do you
074have any more questions for her? I have no questions now. Okay. Thanks so much for coming, Trisha. Yeah. All right. Guess we're on to additional action items. So, I think the memo's pulled up for the summer learning lab that we'd like to propose. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. Uh tonight I'm introducing a memo that requests the board approval of the attached MOU with the Boys & Girls Club to bring a summer learning lab to Wawasee in the summer of 2026. So, the summer learning lab is a 5-week model that combines high-quality reading and math instruction with enrichment in a half-day and full-day structure. And it actually started in 2021 with an statewide expansion through partnerships that include the Mind Trust and the Indi- Indiana Department of Education. So, this is actually uh funded through
075a grant that public schools are not eligible to receive. It has to go through another organization such as the uh Boys & Girls Club. So, for Wawasee, the program would serve rising grades 1 through 6 and run through June 8th through July 8th with no program on July 3rd uh for for the holiday. And each day would begin with breakfast and then there would be an academic block for ELA and math. And then um there would be lunch served. And then families would also have the option of continuing with the camp and enrichment for the afternoon. So, that way they would have full day of child care. Uh from [clears throat] a program quality standpoint, this model uses a grade level instruction and common curriculum by the Levana Group. Uh it includes a pre and
076post assessment to measure academic progress and statewide results uh reported for the model show strong gains after 5 weeks of instruction. So, um as a part of the what the Boys & Girls Club have done with this is um through their pre and post test, they've seen 25% gains in ELA and 24% gains in math for for participating students. Um the MOU itself outlines the operational agreement between Wawasee and the Boys & Girls Club, including the use of district space for the academic portion of the day, which would be Syracuse Elementary, uh and how we will coordinate student supervision, transitions, transportation, enrollment procedures, etc. Uh they would use uh Wawasee uh teachers uh for instruction. Um they would uh actually become employees of the Boys & Girls Club because that's how again the grant is
077funded. So, if the board would approve the MOU next week, uh we will begin planning, staffing, and communicating with families immediately. And so, at this time we're requesting that you approve the MOU uh between Wawasee Community Schools and the Boys & Girls Club for implementing implementation of the summer learning lab uh during uh summer 2026 at next week's board meeting. Uh this would um because of the reduction in the state funding uh summer school, uh a move to a summer learning lab uh I think makes the most sense and it will serve more students than we've been able to serve in the past. I'll answer any questions that you may have. Yes, we will provide the transportation like we did with summer school in the past. That's that's a part of our our responsibility. Right.
078Funding actually that we will provide is the buses, not the employment of teachers. That's through the >> Correct. Employment of teachers and paraprofessionals will all be through the Boys and Girls Club and we will um once our I-Read 3 scores are we have them in, that started this week, and we get an idea of how many students will need to offer summer remediation to. We're we're going to have like a hybrid kind of model that we're going to still use some additional teachers that we will we will fund to provide additional intervention for the I-Read 3 for third graders that haven't passed yet. Um but the um this has been implemented in multiple school corporations. The IDOE recognizes this as a second and third grade intervention for I-Read and um and and it's a very
079high quality curriculum that they use. Teachers will have a week-long orientation that that they'll go through before they before they start the summer school. And then if they have the opportunity to to take I-Read again, I would think they'll >> have the opportunity to take I read again. All of that is staying the same. It'll just look a little differently. Actually, I think what will end up happening is we'll be able to really pull those kids out for some one-on-one individual attention, which I'm really excited about. We'll also because we'll be able to do in in the past we've only done second and third grade I read. We'll focus on I read. This one we'll be able to have some space for incoming first graders, which is going to be really exciting. Incoming second graders.
080And then all the way up to rising sixth graders. So our fifth grade students going into the middle school will also have an opportunity to have some summer summer school summer enrichment in in moving and getting them prepared for the middle school, which we haven't been able to do due to funding for for several years now. I kind of like the camp environment but the afternoon part of it >> Yeah. sounded like really fun. Yes. >> So and I like, "Well, maybe we should sign up, too." >> Yeah. So it's rising 1 through 6. So it'll be those going into sixth grade. Okay, any questions about that? Again, ask for your approval next week at the board meeting. Okay, the next thing is the permission to sell, discard, or destroy obsolete equipment and furnishings with
081the focus being at Milford. I don't think that you've done this step yet, but to um discard any items, we need to have this resolution approved by you. So we would have it at the board meeting next I'm sure you've done this before. We have to you have to declare the items not useful for Wawasee schools for educational purposes. And so just so you know, uh Wade and I have met now with the Milford Food Bank. And so um and the What was it? The um Kraft Auctions. Yeah, Jamie and Kyle from the Kraft Auctions. Yeah, so we did walk-throughs of the building so both groups could kind of see. So the Milford Food Bank would be interested in some of the kitchen equipment. So that seems like a nice thing to be able to
082offer that to them. Uh it sounds like they do a great job at in the Milford community and actually serving a larger community as well. So they have um submitted a list to us. Uh then we were walking around with the auction people. Uh we'll need to kind of ferret out what's going where and how that's all going to work, but they um so you know, have done auctions for East Noble, South Bend schools. So they have some experience with these kind of public disposition of things um auctions. So felt really confident about that, too. Good. Is um Would that be something that they could maybe I don't know what the timeline is for that that we have to get our stuff out of there from Milford, but can they maybe look at other schools
083or other like Yes, they can. >> any other items that we're not using that we could sell Mhm. Yes, they can. Actually, they actually brought that up >> Okay. um because you know, they shared that a lot of times right now they're not getting very good prices on like tables and chairs or desks. >> Got you. A lot of typical school items. Like she was even telling us the uh cafeteria tables like ours, they sold them for like a dollar each. They're just not really going right now. >> So she actually said are there any other items that the school might want to dispose of? So right. Okay. So Wade was going to take that to the other custodians and start that conversation. But so next board meeting we would hope to bring this um
084resolution about declaring items obsolete and then probably a follow-up one for donating things to the Milford Food Bank and a follow-up one to approve the auction. Because timing is, you know, getting pretty tight. March already. I mean, I think it'll all work out, but we do need to keep things moving. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions on that? Comments? Okay. Neola, this is the time of year. Um there'll be another packet coming where we, you know, if you want to If you have trouble sleeping at night, you could start reading these. I mean, so the things like a files, I know you can read. I'm not going to read them to you, but just a reminder if it's a green, it means something need to be added to be updated with the current laws. If it's
085red and crossed out, it needed to be taken out. Sometimes it's just minor technical corrections, sometimes it's, you know, phrases. There's a whole policy when you look through that is now gone, etc. So, if you have any questions, let me know, and these would come back next board meeting for a first reading, and then there will be another group uh coming probably in April to do the first and second reading as well. So. Any questions? Mm-mm. Okay. I think that's it for action items that should be at the next board meeting. Okay. Um That's our whole agenda, guys. We don't have We're up to other items. I don't know if there are any that have popped up. I think we hit some of them at the last. Um If there's not, then we're at the
086closing patron comment time. Well, I don't know how this gets on the agenda, but maybe talk about some really great things our athletics department is doing. We've had some really good state qualifiers. >> Yeah. So. What? Boys and girls swimming. Right. Which is awesome. Yeah. Got some state qualifiers, wrestlers. Yeah, maybe bring some of them in. Maybe. Okay, good. Bring them in. We have a lot of kids coming to the next meeting. Yeah, it's going to be great. On Tuesday. >> Oh good. Yeah. Lot of good things happening. So you are right about that. >> Good. Good. Good. Oh good. That's good too. Well, if we're We don't need a formal adjournment, but if nobody's going to say we're done. So we're done. Thank you everybody.