WLCSC - Regular Board Meeting February 9th , 2026

001of the West Lafayette School Board of Trustees. Um, our first item on our agenda this evening is an update from Mrs. Delaney. So, come on down. I wish it were. That'd be so much more fun. >> Hi, Good evening everybody. Excited to share an update. I was here last time September and we were all kind of figuring out life in the little land. So now we have some more exciting things to share. Okay. Um just updating on the demographics of our school. I tried to give a comparison. Um so uh right now we have 17 preschoolers. So we have one opening. If anybody is looking for preschool for this year, we have one opening. Um we currently have 640 students. I think we're still enrolling more. Um the H has definitely brought um some new

002enrollment for us. Um lots of third graders are coming our way. It's interesting that that's the grade level. Um so we I'm sure that number is going to increase. Um so from this time um to September we've increased 17 students um over that time. Um free and reduced lunch is still at 24.7. We'll get the the updated data next year. And then overall our special education, we currently have 97 students who've been identified in special education. And that includes just um students who have speech only IEPs. Um and that's an increase of 18 students. Um so that's an increase of 2% of our student population with several more who are in the evaluation process. Um so that's just something that that tends to happen with our our little kiddos. We're uncovering the onions and seeing

003what they need. Um the the staffing has stayed the same. Just some great pictures there. We have um Miss Mary Kay. If you ever come to our school and you need some love, Miss Mary Kay, I won't say short because I'm short too, but she's she's our short lunch supervisor. Um she would love to have a couple friends. We're still hiring. So, two more lunch supervisors to join this Mary. Uh just an update um just kind of how things are looking for um standardized testing um that kind of goes um and shows in the numbers of what our school is looking like. Um the I read three testing again that's the mandatory reading foundations assessment. Um this year all of our second graders will will take it. And then we have 46 third graders who

004either took it last year and did not pass as a second grader or have never taken it because they're new to Indiana or new to the United States, which several of our students will come. They will be here for two days and then we'll be expected to take the I read. So, we'll see how they do with that. Um, so we currently have very targeted supports through tier two and tier three intervention if students are needing that. Um, and then we've also used our EXL program to do some different benchmarking assessments just to see how the kids are doing. Um, just being on track to pass that assessment and to look at just give them a better understanding of what that test is going to look like just to prepare them for that. Um, and

005we also have just some test prep groups um, just helping them to understand how to attack a test like this. Um, and then we do have our I learn checkpoints and again that's for third grade only. The learn checkpoints are new m ated this year. Um, last year they were optional. We did do those last year. Mrs. Paros is our also shared her results. We've completed checkpoint one and checkpoint two. And again, each checkpoint is covering different standards. So, you really can't compare checkpoint one data to checkpoint two data because it's different standards. Um, but so far, um, we've hovered between the 60 and 70th percent of our students are passing in ELA. And then our math um they're performing a little bit better in with 82% uh in the first checkpoint and then um

00678% proficient in the second. Um the second one that's multiplication, division, and fraction. So we were really excited to see them doing so well there. Um the I learn checkpoints do help plan interventions um because it's real-time data. As soon as the students take it, the teachers see that data right away and see how the students are performing on the standards and then can plan instruction. So, it's a little bit different than the I learned summitive where we don't get the results until the summer. Um, just I wanted to share a little bit more. Last time I was here, we were talking about um some changes that we had made in special education and we were talking about some supports that we were seeing that we needed to put in place just based on student

007need right off the bat. And so, I wanted to just share how kind of how those things are going. Um so first of all just taking a a broad picture of MTSS or the multi-tered system of support within our school. Um so we have classroom interventions that are happening every day all throughout the day. Um we have some amazing reading interventionists and a math interventionist for tier three supports and they also help guide tier 2 interventions. Um we have our student support team. Some of them are here with us tonight. Um we have our English learner team and then we also have our special education team. Um, so all of this is to focus on prevention and skill building in whatever skill deficit that may be, whether it's academic or behavioral or social emotional. Um,

008and so we're really looking at those individualized supports. And some of the hallmarks of these are strong collaborations between the classroom teachers, administrators, and our supporting staff, as well as families. Um, which we had just wrapped up and are kind of rescheduling thanks to all the snow days and two-hour delays. Um, kind of mixed up our meeting schedules. Um, but those were those are always a good time to connect with families. Um, so wanting to share an update with our structured learning classroom with Mrs. Van Djk. This is a self-contained um, special education classroom. Um, she currently has nine students um, that are with her. Um, this is something where Mrs. Van Djk really sought out her own training um, just to kind of see what she could do to help meet the needs of

009our students who were coming from ABA centers um, who or who were just needing more of a of a focused structured environment. Um she currently has two of her students who have already um kind of ramped up in their um abilities to take their structured learning supports and transition that into the gened classroom. Two of our students are spending half of their day in their gened classroom which is very fun to see. Um with four more students increasing their time throughout the day. Um they also have an adaptive PE or adaptive special area schedule. So, our special area teachers have kind of revamped their u curriculum to make it a little bit more accessible for for our students. Um doing very well again with transitioning across um across different locations and situations, the cafeteria, recess,

010specials, those types of things. Um and of course, all the decisions are based on student readiness, um their regulation skills, and just their skill development. But we're seeing lots of support there. And you can see those are some pictures from her classroom. Um, and then something we wanted to toot our own little horn about. Um, we have something that we put into place called the sunshine room. And I have our two lovely ladies back here. So, we have Mary Dixon Gibbs. Um, she's our RBT, the registered behavior technician. And then Haley Sanchez is our student support specialist and Mrs. Lane is our assistant principal as well. Um, this is our student support team along with um lots of pair of professionals, special education teachers, um, and our school counselor. Um but they are the ones

011who call the sunshine room home. Um and so um you can see it has the sun. It the the name came organically. Um what we saw was that many of our students were coming and starting out this year not only our kindergarteners as we kind of started out with like oh we need to support these kindergarteners. Um then we started looking beyond our littlest of little kids um and seeing that really were some skill gaps in um emotional regulation, behavior support, social skills and it was looking at how do we support this um so it's not just crisis handling and consequences and and you know happening in the moment and moving towards more proactive things. Um so what we've created here in this room actually they have created this we have supported them they've created

012this um is really looking at skills and supports embedded across the classrooms lunch recess small group training um we developed this in September um we had our first PD day and I I I think we together in about two days time and then put it into action um and that was their doing along with collaboration from the staff I mean our entire staff jumped on board and just kind of ran with it. Um, so that's been the exciting thing I think to see as a whole staff. Um, again looking at those skill gaps with social, emotional, and behaviors. Um, and one thing that we've really been focusing on is schoolwide language so that a student who's in Mrs. Smith's second grade class and then goes to Mrs. Wilson for art and then goes to Mrs.

013Nice for PE and then gets on the bus and then goes to the cafeteria that they have clear um, common expectations and common language. Um, because that can be very different. You adult, you have eight different sets of rules. So, that's been one of our focus points for this. Um, so here's just some some numbers. Um, and all of these I'm going to say we're lowballing um because not everything can be tracked on a computer screen as we're going through the day. Um, so since October 1st when we started a data tracking um system, we've had 829 documented student visits to the Sunshine Room. um they do have scheduled um skill groups. So there's usually three to four students per group um usually four days a week. On average 15 students a day are stopping

014in uh for structured times um in the sunshine room and then throughout the day they're touching points um with students breakfast hallways checkin checkout. So 44 student interactions per day. Um overall of the data we were able to connect um 77% of their interactions were proactive where when we started everything was very reactive. The student was having crisis we jumped in to help. So now we've been able to shift the majority of our time is proactive. Um and again like we said the figures don't necessarily account for being able to sit at a computer and log it. Um but I think this is a very good representation of what our dayto-day um sunshine room looks like. Um some things that we're hoping or that we're seeing that's positive and then kind of plans for the

015future. We're seeing increased coping skills and shared language schoolwide. Um it's been kind of fun after winter break. I think we all cautiously were like things feel like calmer. Do they feel calmer to you? I don't know. Nobody wanted to say it out loud, but it felt good. Um, and you know, some of our students who really struggled, you can see them thinking through the process and planning in their head what their reaction is instead of being in crisis mode. So, even if they do get to the point where they're not quite um able to calm themselves, the length of time it takes to get back to baseline is much shorter, much fewer disruptions to the classroom setting um and much fewer disrup disruptions for their own learning. Um, so that's a very positive thing.

016Uh, we're continuing to expand our staff training and consistency. Um, kind of giving teachers some tools to add to their toolbox. Um, the next piece is also monitoring transitions back into general education. We have some students who would spend their entire day with these lovely ladies if they could. Um, but we're trying to get them back into their gened setting. Um, so helping them to transition. Um, that's another goal. And then again, strengthening our partnerships with families and our outside providers. um you know I mentioned we had an increase in our students with special education um you know identifications we've also been able to increase the number of students who are getting um outside therapy outside counseling um having those connections so I think that's been a fantastic piece that families are trusting us to

017be able to help them to get those outside things that we can't provide here at school so again I will wrap that up but I would love to hear questions and That sounds amazing. As someone with a background in special ed, I'm really excited about the proactivity of it and uh that I'm just blown away. So, thank you for all your work on that. Um Rachel, >> um so with the increase in this population, particularly coming in with our newest neighbors, um are you seeing um that a disproportionate increase in English language learners coming in? Are are you seeing good English skills? What's what does that look like? And I I guess my question is are you going to continue to be able to meet need on that with your current staff? >> As of

018right now, I think we're looking good. Um because we actually we started the year with fewer EL students than what we typically would. Um so now it's it's kind of we've balanced back out and a lot of the students that were coming in, they have had um some English instruction before. Um so they're coming in with some of the basic skills. Um actually one of the kiddos came in day one and a slew of friends and you know it was going well >> but I appreciate asking. >> Yeah. Um so I I saw all the testing and I understand that that is what you need to do. Um but my question is really if you're able to maintain or meet those intervention minutes during the testing and also time in the sunshine room if needed

019is are you able to still hit those marks? Okay. as far as say >> when you have to do the testing, right? And then students get extended time in testing, which I assume takes staff resources to do that. And then are you still able to meet their minutes? >> We can. Um, so a lot of times what we're looking at is very carefully strategizing when we're testing, how long we're testing. Um, and now all of the testing, none of it's timed. So we can all take as long as we would like. >> Nice. >> Um, so that that is something that we do take into account when we're looking at special education minutes. Um, we do try to stay out of our intervention time. It's called win time and that's when a lot of our

020students are being pulled for those targeted tier two and tier three interventions. >> Um, I love seeing the um stuff in Mrs. Van Van Dijk's room. Do has the pace of students coming in from ABA center slowed or still continuing to come in? >> It's slowed. We did have one student But um he had already kind of been in our family um before so we knew about him. I think they just had some some things happen again more insurance and those things that are beyond their control. Um but right now I feel like we have a really solid a solid crew of kids and so they've they've gotten with the flow of the room and the strategies and routines. So now that's the first >> That's awesome. And one last thing I will say, Miss

021Gibbs, um, I have a 20-year-old in college who would tell you that a core memory is when she shared her raspberries with her. So, [laughter] so I just want to say, um, I love seeing that crew there in line and they are such a gift to our students. Thank you for that. [laughter] >> And that's why I had to say something. David, you had something. >> Rachel said part of what I wanted to ask, which is great. Set set me up for the rest of it. >> All right. >> Um, with 20 to 30 or so% maybe a little more than 30 um not yet at proficiency across math and reading. I imagine that's not it fully overlapping. So, it's probably closer to 40 45% of kids that aren't yet meeting uh benchmarks or proficiency

022levels. that does create a large need for um intervention at various tiers. Um are there resources or other supports that would make that more efficient and effective for you um that you can think about that could be um brought in over the next year or two? >> I think if money were not an object absolutely um I think we have three fantastic reading interventionists. We have one math interventionist and so she Um, so I think that that's an area that we're constantly looking at like how do we juggle getting the kids into intervention without pulling them from different things and you're exactly right. A lot of the students who need reading intervention also need math intervention and we have one intervention block. So then it is like that like Jenga game of how do we

023get all this accomplished without pulling them from direct instruction as well. So more hours in the day, more money, >> you know. >> See what I can do about that. and the lamp. >> Anybody else? >> Okay, great. Thank you so very much. Appreciate you. >> Thank you, Mr. Delaney. >> Um, the next item on the agenda is a technology update from Mr. Hamilton. >> Okay. Thank you. So since the last time I was out here, we've only had one employee turn. So we brought in Sam back in April at the junior senior high school technology specialist. Uh he's been doing a great job for us. He primarily works on the one Chromebook management for the school as well as teacher classrooms and other various things I'm doing obviously. Uh so Chromebooks, one thing I

024did want to note is we are uh to about 800 Chromebooks, just over 800 Chromebooks that we ran out to families. That's about 100 devices over the previous year and then a little previous year before. So that's kind of trending upward, which we we knew was going to happen with the changes fees for families as they come in in seventh grade choosing to take that that school loan option. Uh thankfully the break rate hasn't changed much. The accidental damage claims are staying pretty much even. Although I will say it was skewed at the start of the year. We kept seeing a lot of break screen breaks, a lot of drops, but thankfully they got under control. Uh, and that's slowed down. Uh, which is nice. So, and then with the Chromebooks too, we we've had

025the opportunity to have a workbased learning student with us and we're piloting that this year. And so, a big part of their job is when they come work with they can work on some of the old Chromebooks and sort of do some troubleshooting, find what's not working and make, you know, one good working Chromebook out of three old ones. So, a lot of stuff like that. So, it's somewhat monotonous, but we we do sprinkle in some other task for keep interesting and that's been nice. I think one student per semester right now is probably the sweet spot. So, we'll see as long as there's student interest, we'll keep that going. That's been it's been fun and a great opportunity for them. Last year we piloted the attendance automated uh notifications. So this is the auto

026auto dialer that uh you know if there's no absence reported or parent call in it notifies the parents. So that's been working beautifully. A lot of the automated stuff it usually just takes a little bit of tweaking from year to year state changes or local changes. We just kind of adjust some parameters to keep those things going. So this is just from this year one to 26 the WebEx migration I know last time I had a timeline of how we're going to roll that out and make all that work happy to report that all that is is up and running more complete all the buildings are using the new WebEx platform we're excited about a lot of the flexibility that affords us when things don't go uh great there's a need for evacuation We have

027some flexibility with WebEx that we can that's going to make you know reunification contacting people so much easier and faster. A lot of safety aspects with this that we're excited about. Uh this summer we did switch our copier fleet. So we switched to Toshiba and we had to upgrade our server software for that. So we we have some new features along with that. So there's following preview so our scan the badge at the copier. As long as they put their job to that follow me, they can go to any copier, any building, print that job. So, it just follows them around wherever they go. A lot of you are probably familiar with that. You know, colleges, a lot of them have that type of software. So, that's been great. We've heard a lot of good

028reports. So, that's been an addition for us. So, that that was a big project this summer as well as some server migration. And so some of the -ray projects I talked about last year, we did just finally get into finishing those up. So the wireless controllers that we replaced and then 165 access points and that was from the rate funding from the 2020 25 segment there. We had that that money allocated. So we were able to finish up that pool of money for 2025 and then got those projects done. So that's all I had. question. >> Okay, Rachel, go ahead. >> With copy machines, are you seeing you stay pretty level or is it Yeah, it's just pretty consistently staying the same. >> The great thing now too is we have that reporting. We do

029run into an issue that >> Awesome. Thank you, >> George. It's okay if you don't know the answer right now, but there's some legislation um pending at the state house to require schools to allow parents to control the internet filters on the Chromebooks they bring home. Is our filter already capable of that or will we need a new one? >> So, we can implement some after school rules so we have a lot of flexibility with the current light speed software. There is I know it was being piloted last year in terms of adding parental controls. >> So, but I mean, if the if the parent is choosing this school issued option, they're going to have more, you know, control over that and and reporting from the light speed filter, whereas if they don't, then they're

030kind of the adding of that device. It's kind of, right? So, but yes, we we have flexibility if things change. >> Yeah, the legislation was about school owned devices. So, yeah, I mean, I think even the folks down in Indianapolis know that if the school doesn't control it, there's nothing we can do. I just wanted to how ready we were. >> Okay. Anybody else? No. Super. Thank you so much. [clears throat] Excuse me. The next item on our agenda is communication from the audience. We have two folks sign up. The first one is Cararissa Bartholomew. We'll have three minutes. And I even remembered to bring up a timer on my phone, which is a first. >> Great. Let's hope I I was at 259. >> All right. Okay. >> Okay. In attendance with me tonight

031are some members of the homeschooling community in the greater Lafayette area. Our family belongs to that community and we also belong to the West Lafayette community. Uh we love West Lafayette and we've chosen educational flexibility for our family. At the same time, uh we see a need within our community for a thriving relationship to develop between the school corporation and the resident families who choose educational flexibility. There's opportunity for the school district to meet help meet the educational needs of more students by offering their services to every resident student, including non-traditional students. Under the school's current policy, a resident student who is being educated at a home school may enroll in one or more academic courses. Our family has given been given mixed messages about this policy and we've learned from other homeschooling families that

032they've hit many barriers when trying to cooperate with the West Lafayette school district. I believe that our policy should inform our practice. So, um I would like to ask you to consider uh not only maintaining and implementing that policy but also celebrating it as a bridge to connect as many resident students to our schools as possible. Because doesn't require uh schools to allow part-time enrollment. This is an opportunity for the school to make the community aware of the way that it values each student in its district. This district falls behind other local school districts when it comes to this issue. Um LSC accepts part-time enrollment of in district students. TFB allows part-time enrollment including out of district students and some even allow these students to participate in extracurricular activities which my would like you to

033know is something you should also consider. Um, the district could benefit financially from part-time enrollments. Currently, the funding that would be associated with my children goes untouched. According to my understanding, um, schools do receive funding for part-time students. So, there's money being left on the table there. There shouldn't be much burden in making room for a few part-time students um, and adding extra names to class lists. Based on my understanding, the school isn't exceeding um capacity and there's a desire for growth enrollment. There are students within the district who are eligible for and are seeking educational opportunities. Part-time public school enrollment, however, is not something that would meet the educational goals of every homeschool family um in the district. But I still believe the benefits for the district and the families greatly outweigh the burden

034on the school. So with enrollment options at other school districts. Why don't we just find educational opportunities for our children elsewhere? This is the part where I might get emotional. We're West Lafayette residents. We've raised our children in this community and developed relationships in this community. Our children have played baseball and become friends with many of your own children. Um we wish to support our community and do life in our community. Times up. Okay. Um thank you for your time. >> Thank you very much. All right. The next item is Kimberly Lundren. >> Welcome. >> Get rid of me. All right. Um, after reading Dr. Grinder's update on upcoming proposed proposed referendum as well as transfer policy. I would like to focus my comments on the success of the school district in focusing on passing

035the referendum and including transfer students to ensure the short-term vi financial viability of programs while creating policies that prioritize and provide for the long-term health of West Lafayette School District. Given my three-minute limit, my comments are direct, but please accept them as an educator and school community member wanting to champion the school. I believe if residents believe the sacrifices they have made to live in district are being acknowledged, recognized, and safeguarded by the school board, there will be a high willingness to pass the referendum. Please allow me to highlight some portions of the first reading of the policy that do not currently address those or acknowledge those sacrifices nor prioritize the long-term health of the school district as well as some alternatives to those. In order to preserve the value of living in district and

036recognize the choices that current residents make to prioritize education in their families, having a transfer policy that gives priority to anyone other than transfer students that have already been admitted is insufficient. To preserve the value of living in district, there must be significant risk to admittance for those choosing to live out district. My suggestions from previous experience in previous school districts are one, a true lottery system for everyone other than already admitted students. Two, lottery should be open to and advertised to all school districts in the region, if not the state, widening the pool and creating more demand, thus more uncertainty of admittance. Three, lottery should not give priority to siblings. As a personal note, we have seven children and have lived in seven school systems over the years with different children attending different school

037districts, different school districts at different times simultaneously. Parents that care enough about the education of their students to apply for another district and provide transportation are the same parents that will find a way to meet the needs of all of their children. The only assurance that all of your kids can be in the same school system should be that you live in and pay taxes towards it. Full stop. Lottery should not give priority to students that were in district and have subsequently moved out of district. We know personally several families that is their plan to move out of district once kids make it to motivate elementary and then transfer in to save on taxes. The argument I have read from summaries of out of district transfers is that it is difficult to find a home

038in district. That is true but in the end is about priorities. Homes for sale exist. They mostly aren't the experience many of us desire or accustomed to. Those who priorit prioritize education over housing, with which also come the expectation of paying higher taxes to support that education, as these families have noted, should expect that their school board will recognize that choice, priority, and sacrifice. The importance of this policy focuses on the long-term financial viability of the district by increasing in district enrollment and building a strong prochool voting environment. to review a true lottery policy from the onset. Open to all students in the region that does not give priority to siblings of current students nor those who have started in West Lafayette and then want to come back helps increase the risk of acceptance as

039well as underlying equity in system. Thank you so much. >> Good job. [laughter] >> Thank you. Um, if I would ask that both of you, since you are forced to talk so quickly, if you could email your comments to the board, it would give me a chance to digest a little better and I would really appreciate that. Um, and the website uh includes the um email address that goes to everybody. So, thank you very much. The next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. Is there a motion? We have a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Thank you. Thank you, Rachel. All right, I will Oh, I didn't start the buttons because I was listening. There we go. There's the vote. One more. Is it me? No. >> Push it. It doesn't. >>

040Is it not pushing? Uh >> oh. >> Nope. It doesn't allow me. >> Uh >> oh. Well, you pushed yes. >> There I am. >> There you are. Okay. Great. Thank you. Sorry about that. >> It's all right. >> All right. Thank you very much. The next item we have is unfinished business. And seeing none, we will move on to new business. And Dr. Grryer. >> Thank you, Mrs. Austin. As we discuss potential early referendum renewal, we know it's important that the board understands community perspectives. So, we want to have strong proven communication strategies in place. If we seek early re renewal, uh we know that we're going to need to discuss uh uh the um the rate for one thing. Um, and we want to make sure that we are making up for the

041lost revenue uh due to uh the results of Senate Bill one. Um, we know that from Mr. Reutder that to make up for those losses alone by 2031, the rate would need to be at approximately 0.5515. And we know then if we were to fully keep all things equal, uh, that we'd need to consider the homestead credit that's going into effect, too, which could take it to approximately 5.280. And these are numbers Mr. Reutder has begun discussing with us. It's also important to note that he continues to discuss that we're talking about keeping things the same as opposed to asking for more funding. And we've not had to talk rate increases in the past uh because uh the changes uh uh to the numbers uh that go into effect because of Senate Bill One have

042not been an issue in the past. And so revenue looks different because of the different credits and so forth. And so the rate changes that that doesn't mean the amount is changing, but that communication is going to be critical. Um it's going to be important that we're having multiple meetings as well as surveying and so forth to understand the sentiment of the community and understand how to effectively communicate. So to support our pre-referendum and potential referendum work, we are recommending the same team that we had in place in 2023 which was a successful referendum at over 80% um approval rating from our community. uh Daylor PR uh was a key member of that um uh team and they were our communications team and they helped us provide consistent messaging as well as address community questions

043throughout that process. At this time I'd like to introduce Jeff Daylor with Daylor PR and he has uh Dave Bearing with him uh and they're going to discuss the plan or the proposal that we've put in your packet. Once they've presented that information, they want to entertain questions from the board. If the board is comfortable, we would like to propose um a that the board vote on granting permission to engage with Daylor PR again. So, uh Jeff, if you would please. >> Thank you, Dr. Griner, and uh thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. I'm Jeff Daylor with Daylor PR. With me is Dave Bry. Um appreciate seeing you again. Um good good to be back. Um, uh, I I hated starting with this big thing, but daily PR is who we are, but

044here we are. Um, you know, it's like too much of an ad. So, let's move on. Um, and I'm going to go pretty quickly through this uh slide deck because there's a lot of information here, but you do have it in your packet, in your board packet, and so you have the opportunity to read it um at your leisure if you need something to put you to sleep tonight. So, um, starting with who we are, uh, we're a missiondriven organization, our strategic plan for daily PR is that we improve communities uh through exceptional public relations, marketing and strategic council. So the improved communities piece is important to us. Most of our work is done in the public sector and a vast amount of that work is done uh in public schools. Um our niche is

045public schools. Most of us have worked in public schools in the past. Um and now we have done um since we started daily PR in 2011, we've done tons of additional work for public education. Um our approach, this is a this is this is one of the things you can read at home uh later on and put yourself to sleep, but our approach is a um uh is based in research. We we do some research first to be able to develop a plan, then we implement the plan. And one of the things that I think Dave could probably relate to is that when we were communications directors in corporations. Uh sometimes people would come to us and they would say, "Hey, can you help me put a brochure together?" And I would say, "Yes, but

046who is your audience? And is a brochure the right way to reach that audience? And is the message that you want them, you know, to to send? Is that the best delivered in a brochure?" And and so let's do some research. Let's learn more first about your audiences and then and then move forward from there. And this is new or innovative. This is from the National School Public Relations Association and the and the Public Relations Society of America. This is the standard from from which we operate. Um but many people don't follow the standard and they start on step three implementation. We want to start earlier than that. And so that's where as Dr. Briner says um some research, some surveying, some community engagement is important. This is our team. um that is available to

047you to to help you. Um and um and so let's get into what are we what are we thinking here? I loved that uh Mrs. Wit talked about an impact that a teacher had on her student that resonated for years. That is a story. You have a story to tell and Dr. was telling some of it. Now since 23 2023 when you renewed the operating levy when borders renewed that operating levy things have changed. The story to tell is that the same rate tax rate does not bring in the same amount of money to your school district any further which is a weird impact of sea one um and something that's going to be very confusing to the public and to try to communicate that effectively will take some time and some effort. And so

048um so the rest of this situation analysis includes things like good news. You've had great success at the polls in the past. Um but it's going to be a challenge to do a tax increase, the first one since 2010. You've been able to to use the same rate for all these years and that has been strongly supported by your community. What how will people think about a little bit more? Um and um so building trust in your community through transparency and accountability is something that the board has been very um uh working hard on making certain that people feel like the board is listening to the community. So when we look at this situation, we say, let's do two things. Let's start with some community engagement so that when the board decides to put a

049question on the ballot, you've had a lot of input from community members first. Um, and you've been able to take that input and create a ballot question that works for people in your community. Um, and then let's make sure that people know about it so that they have can make an informed decision at the polls in November. So, what does community engagement look like? And and please chime in when I make a mistake. So, uh um the the goal here is to introduce the situation first. So, that's why we put the situation analysis at the beginning is you got the story to tell. We want to make sure that people hear that story, why things have changed, um, how things have changed, what the impact is on students and on the community. Um, and then

050we want to make sure that we we get feedback from people so that we can utilize that feedback and putting together a plan that works. Um, >> we have evidence. >> Yeah, absolutely. And When we think about objective evidence, um um I'm gonna, you know, looking at what questions are we trying to answer here, I'm going to skip ahead to the next slide, which is, you know, we really love to have, if you can afford to do this, a public opinion survey by an independent research firm that allows you to have a statistically valid uh result that you can extrapolate from the people that the that the firm talks to, you can extrapolate across the entire universe of your community that this is in fact how people feel. So this is what Dave was talking

051about is a is data. But I'm going back to Mrs. again because um people make their mind up based sometimes on data but based sometimes on the story that you tell and the emotional pull that you get from that story. So it's it's about the data um but it's also about the impact to students. How will um an increase in the rate um impact students? Will this impact classroom sizes? Will this imp impact the number of teachers that you have? The number of programs that you can offer. Um, and when you can tell stories about the value of the programs that you offer today and say that um, to be honest, if we remain at the same level of funding, we're probably not going to be able to continue to or I should say the

052same rate, but meaning a reduced level of funding. We're probably not going to be able to continue to support those programs that we're supporting now. And while it's not our preference in terms of messaging factor in this that >> yeah I think it's the situation is the story to tell but then also it is the impact of a yes vote and the impact of Here's what happens if people guess. Here's what happens if people um community engagement really is getting to different groups of people. And so it's meeting with staff, it's meeting with opinion leaders within the community. Um it's it's having some kind of of a task force or advisory committee that looks deeply at the information that Mr. Reutder has provided and Mrs. Pron um and um uh and really internalizing that so

053that they become kind of proxy ambassadors for the school district because they have internalized the all of the statistics and facts about your situation. Of course, meeting with parents and guardians, um meeting with community members, even you know, having this the superintendent go to the senior center, go to various community groups and service clubs and that sort of thing. Um going to where the people are is it's just easier to be able to get the message out than asking them to come to you. We're still going to ask the people to come to us, but but also go where people are. Um, and of course communicating throughout this whole period through the current channels that you're that you're communicating with. When do we do this? We want it's um the board is going to have

054to make a decision in the May, June, July time frame somewhere in there about what that ballot question looks like. So, we really want to take advantage of the time when um students are in school and parents are still engaged. Um, and so in May, let's make sure that we get in front of staff, students, parents, etc. Um, then we get into after the board makes this decision, the referendum marketing, and yet actually the we'll see this in the timeline in a minute. The timelines overlap. Um, we're so, so I'll talk about that in just a moment. The goal here for referendum marketing, as we were just saying, is really it's to make sure that we're communicating the the what happens if you vote yes and what happens if you vote no. People need to

055be informed to make an informed decision when they reach the polls. So the strategy for uh being able to reach people is to provide from the school district's perspective factual unbiased information to all residents. Um building on the tradition of transparency that you are modeling today. Uh we want people to look at the school corporation as the go to source for facts um because there will be others who will be advocating for or against the question. Um if people have questions about things that they are hearing or seeing in the community, we want them to come to the school district knowing that school district is not advocating for that because it's not allowed by law after you vote for the ballot question. Look to the school districts. But we also there needs to be an

056advocacy group. Um and so so we we want there to be a political action committee. Um and so we will we will help to advise a political action committee as it as it comes about. Um the scope here again begins in research, but a lot of the research really is done in that pre-referendum community engagement phase. Um and so we can start to put a plan together more quickly because of the the engagement work up front. Um, and then again implementation through all of the things that uh that you usually do, but we do some more things u some direct mail pieces, some videos, some some other methods of being able to reach people to ensure that everyone is getting some information. Um this is the overlap part. While the while the community engagement se

057segment may go through June, um we're going to start the research and planning and creating a theme and a logo and messaging around a referendum marketing campaign um prior to the decision that's being made by the board. filling in the blanks as soon as the board has finalized that ballot language so that you know what you're asking for and what the priorities would be and how to spend dollars. And um from there um then it's it's a it's a marketing campaign. getting information out in front of people. And um and I think that when we think about the political action committee, but also we think about the role of the ambassadors of the school district, discussions are what wins referendums. So that can be from the political action committee's perspective. that's phone banking and and

058uh going to school events and community events and sharing information and and talking to people. Um but that's a role that any of us here can take. Um and I think that it's really important and we'll talk in a minute about the school board's role, but that's one of the things that school board members can do is when people ask you questions about the referendum, we want you to have the the facts and to have the talking points to make you were able to share information with your constituents. Um, again, facts are what the school district is hiring us to produce. Um, the pack, um, in fact, in the last referendum, um, we kind of threw in advising of the pack as a proono service of of daily PR. This is going to be a

059little more challenging. There's going to be some extra stuff here. Um there's some there's some extra um what I would uh consider uh strategies that the PA can use that that um that will cost it some money and we're going to work with the pack to help to raise a little bit more money to pay for some of those strategies. Um um but still we're going to provide a lot of help to the to the action committee. Um, we want to help them with key message development. We want to help them with um, yes voter identification and getting out the vote. Um, but their job is to identify yes voters and get them to um, their proposed timeline is to start in May. We need to form a political action committee early so that they

060are have the opportunity to kind of build their their their leadership structure first um and then over the summer time get all the things all the pieces in place so that they can really hit things hard once school starts at the beginning of August basically. Um so I think that's probably that's probably that there are some things that we would recommend not included we don't do we do some survey work we do some some uh what I would call um uh informal surveys uh and and uh and engagement like focus groups and that sort of thing, but we really think that you should contract separately with community opinion survey company like you did in 2023. Um video production is is a powerful way of telling me that can be testimonials that can be showing things

061in schools that that people are benefiting from as a result of Sunshine. Yeah. Sunshine rooms. Exactly. Yes. Um and then the last thing is is uh is the political action committee purchasing a rank. So staff at the school corporation play a critical role um in in just helping us know who the people are in getting in front of the people. Um, so there's a there's a list of things and it's, as Dr. Grryer knows, it's a lot of work. Uh, it's uh it's it's at the end of a referendum campaign. Um, that's when Dr. Brer does something nice for his family because he hasn't seen them for a while. Um, and then for the board, um, you all play a critical role, too. Um, first of all, you know, we we will assume that the

062board will have have decided at the end that yes, in fact, we do want to put a question on the ballot. Um, and so then we want you to be visible in your support for the referendum. One of the things that's really valuable is that you have networks of people that you hang out with that maybe Dr. Grer, Mrs. Roth don't hang out with. When you're hearing things from the community, please pass that on because be really powerful for uh Dr. Brer to be able to work with us to develop messages that we can get back to those communities to answer questions um and make sure people are informed. Um there's always going to be things that we that we missed in our in our preparation and all of a sudden people have questions and

063they become frequently asked questions and so so we keep that list of frequently asked questions updated um and make sure that people that we communicate those out. Um, you can obviously take the role of sharingformational messages, but you are able to take off your board hat and put on your community hat and volunteer on the political action committee. Um, that is a leading by example thing. We want for district staff to see that your board is engaged uh in in their support. And so that makes staff, that makes parents, that makes community members say, "Okay, if it's important to the board, then it must be important and I better be part of this." Um, obviously Dr. Brer is giving a presentation at the community center. It would be great to have one of you. Um,

064same with with other other presentations and meetings. So, So, so we think that you guys get to play a critical role here and so we thank you for your time and if you have any questions. >> Thank you very much. Questions, Rachel? >> Thank you. Good to see you again. >> Good to see you. >> Um, I just have a couple of questions. One, is there any scenario I know the word pack is thrown around a lot. Is there any scenario in which we are not we are successful running a referendum without a pack? It can happen and has uh we we've worked on referendums where we were not able to get a political committee going. Um and it is hard sometimes to get people engaged. It's been harder since the pandemic to get people

065engaged uh in volunteering for almost anything. Um it is a great benefit to have advocates on your side. Um one real simple example is that um we all know that social media is a popular way to communicate now and and when when the school district says, "Hey, we're having a referendum and and here's here's some information about it." And somebody puts up a message that says, "I'm opposed because of this." The school district can answer that. But it's powerful to have a third party voice that is not affiliated with the school district to that same message because as as I'm sure that you all know this that voice brings this different level of credibility um that that can help people to say okay my neighbor can support this than maybe so it's a great question

066it's also a challenge to to put them together to get people to do this work it's a lot of work >> yes I agree another question um we have board positions open at this same election. And we do have a history in this community of somewhat exciting board member elections. Um, and so I'm interested in the impact of of that kind of unpleasant component, like what would be the the impact on a referendum if we were to have one of those contentious member elections? >> Experience that. >> [laughter] >> experience with anything else. It is. And there's a there's a downside to the legislation from the state that has referendums only in general elections. On the one hand, it's good. You get more over participation. On the other hand, there are so many other things

067on the ballot that it becomes so much noise that it's very difficult for the school corporation to get its message out and for the political action committee to get it message out when there are state representatives who are running local school board or city races, when there are national elections, congressional elections, there are there's just a lot of stuff going on. So getting the message out was more challenging for school board members who are running for um for school for any candidate who's running for school board. One of the things that I would recommend is candidates separate themselves from the political action committee and candidates for school board run their races. So, I don't want to, you know, I hate to take away the potential of anyone advocating and yet at the same time, I

068don't want this to become um as Dave was describing a an issue that is that is defining those candidates and and so so for issue in that part of the race that would be challenging because So, so I would I would recommend that anyone from this board that's running or anybody who's a candidate not currently who might be running for school board to not be part of the election. >> Thank you. That's help. Appreciate it. >> Um, a couple things. Um, one, did we send you the backwards WL or did it get reversed somehow? >> Is that in the thing? bottom right hand corner of every page. >> U serious question though. >> Have kind of serious though. I'm all about branding and then >> in in your travels with the work you do, have

069you come across a whole lot of other school corporations and school districts that are confronting a similar problem this year? And if so, how many? >> I was just meeting with the former um executive director of the Indiana School Public Relations Association, Donna Pet. She and I got together for coffee and she says that she thinks there might be 100 referendums this fall. Now, I don't know if it's going to get that big. There's 280 some school districts in the state of Indiana to have almost a third of them referendum. That's a lot. It's possible that the the legislation um CA1 is a serious blow to finances and school corporations across the state. Um, one of the advantages and disadvantages of of going out for a referendum in 2026, this is going to be huge

070news statewide where schools are telling their stories of the impact of SEA1 across the state. And so this is a little bit of kind of lighting wave of everybody else. is also in the same boat. Um I think that it does make sense to be a part of of that because it will break through some of the other messaging that's coming from congressional candidates and state representatives all the so yes you're not unique here in West >> uh you go ahead >> hi thank you very much for the presentation somewhere helpful and I have a kind of a follow-up question to the earlier um discussion about the timing and uh so right now we can only run the referendum during the election the general election year so I wonder based on your experience how much

071that will impact the passing rate for example last time when we run it uh in 203 and we have about 80% passing And I wonder based on your experience typically when people schools run during uh this general election will the rate go up or goes down in general? That's my first question. I have more. >> Yeah. Yeah. [clears throat] Let me start with the first. You make a great point which is that we will see >> probably 70 60 to 70 maybe 80 75% voter turnout. uh in a general election that's a lot different than in a special election like in 2023. I do not remember the the percentage voter turnout, but it's typically in the 30 40% range. It's a lot less. So what does that do to the support? Would you expect 80%

072voting yes general election? Probably not. probably a lot smaller. Now, am I worried about West Lafayette? I'm not too worried because this is a community that has shown it support over many elections um 201 17 23 with with great levels of support 80 70 to 30 whatever. It's it's been very positive. You have a strong supportive community. Um the more uh the higher the voter turnout, the the less likely it is that you're going to achieve that same amount of support. Um when you run a a special election, you're likely to have um sort of voters who are very committed in one way or the other. And then you probably are missing some of the voters who are in the middle who maybe just don't have a strong opinion. In a general election, all of

073them show up. And so which way did those middle voters swing is a question mark. So this is where the strategies uh of communication become so much different in a in a general election than they are in a in a special election. Um in the special election the especially the political action committee can really focus on turning out the yes voters. Um we're knowing that we're going to have a lot higher turnout. We're going to have to do a better job educating a segment of the community. So it's a it's a much different kind of election. So you make a very good point about who we reach and what can we expect. This time we're talking the other variable this time is that we're talking about a rate increase as opposed to the same And

074we're, you know, this is what we do. We're so going to explain to people, but we're not going to authorize the entire rate all the same, you know, immediately. And this is something that would occur over time. But that is a little different question for voters and in all honesty, I would expect some erosion of support. Yes, voters just for that fact alone. Um, I don't know how much. I mean, I don't have any any kind of data on what that means. I still have a high degree of confidence this is a referendum that we that we can win. Um but in addition to the general election, that's that's another factor. >> Yeah. And another question I have is related to our current discussion in the in the district. I'm not sure whether yeah probably

075from the previous speaker you learn a little bit about the whether we open the district to transfer students and uh so based on my observation and last time when we talked about referendum um so I I observe overwhelming support to that and but this time because this uh open district discussion I I saw more resistance and all reluctance and people felt Oh, if everybody can study here, why do we have to pay higher tax? So, that's just based on my limited uh observation. I wonder whether you happen to have experience about with this combination of open district and increased referendum and will that impact people's willingness to vote yes. >> Thanks. >> No, absolutely. That's a you make again a very a very good point and sometimes we know the answers to these questions other

076than we have an anecdotal understanding and uh and that's what the research up front will help us with is we have an opportunity through conducting a community opinion survey and through other community engagement strategies to learn more about what is the impact on transfer students? Is there a um is is there a likelihood a stronger likelihood of voting yes or voting no? One of the questions that we ask in community opinion surveys um is around um are you more likely to vote yes if we were to spend referendum dollars on reducing class size or if we were to do this that or the other thing. Asking that question around transfer students is an important for us to know more information about um and so I think that's a really smart thing for us to look

077at as an issue. Every community is unique when it comes to um uh what are the the issues that are driving opinion public opinion about the school corporation and so in this community that's one thing um and and certainly there will be others that we will uncover as well that we want I know that we have done some work in school corporations where there's a very significant percentage of their students that are transferring in from other school corporations and um that is an issue that others deal with and they there is always a concern that um from on both sides of the issue. There are people who look at the pros and the cons of that and and um um and but but the conversation is occurring and so So we recognize that as an

078issue that is important for us to address. Thank you. >> May I just ask one last question. >> Yeah, it's great that you can you talk about that survey the community survey. I think that's very important and uh can I assume that you have way to reach those real residents because last time when we did a survey uh about transfer students policy and we we collect the data um from about 60 plus uh selfidentified residents. We we don't know for sure whether they are residents or not. In addition, we could only reach the families who are currently in the school district in the schools, but we couldn't reach family, for example, the home uh school families and those uh families who don't have school age children and so but they are the majority of our

079resident actually probably more than se. So when you talk about doing the study, so you will have a way to reach those bigger community and uh the real residents and solicit their opinion about those issues, right? >> Yeah. And yes, absolutely. The in fact Dr. er discussed that survey with us and you know the school corporation can pay for you know you can you can spend as much money as as people will take you know as as far as research goes and uh fortunately Dr. says, "Well, okay, there are times to invest a great great amount of money and there are times when you have to be able." So, I know that that um that survey was was not a statistically valid survey. Um it's more of an informal survey. What we're talking about here

080is we would recommend you do invest in a statistically valid formal survey that allows you to um uh to hit uh different demographic targets so that that uh the people are surveying um you know just let's let's I'm going to give a hypothetical here which is not anywhere near true but let's say there was 75% of your of your population was female and 25% was male we would have make sure that the survey hit 75% female and 25% male or demographic groups we will try to replicate your demographics in your school district and and so this this does a sample 400 um and and you get a plus or minus whatever that is 3.9% or something like that margin of error. Thank you. Um and so um so yeah this we will be able to

081hit the demographic targets to make sure the right question. >> Yeah, thank you very much for your patience. Thank you. That's very helpful. David and then George. >> So, as you know, I co-chared the um state the vote yes committee uh three I guess three years ago now. Um and you and I had a few different opinions on how to run. I we both agreed light touch, but I was a little bit more light touched than um you. But even with that light light touch, we sp we still spent a fair amount of money. Um which um packs are the the only vehicle with which we can do that here in Indiana. Um if we if we didn't run with a or use a pack um we could probably knock knock door uh send out

082social media messages, but we couldn't do mailers. We couldn't do um anything to more broadly target the community. Um we couldn't do a survey to really get the opinions of the community. Uh so in in a year like this um as we're in a midterm, which I think based on your um comments u is better to do it than in a general or a presidential election because of differences in turnout. Um although it may be a high turnout this year. >> Probably going to be a high turnout this year. >> Yeah. Um but but there there are a lot of factors that go in go into making these decisions. Um as well as making decisions on who to go with in this process. I was wondering if you could uh first share with us your

083record in referenda um as well as why we should pick you. What what about your company makes you the better choice compared to other options that we might have? >> Well, if I can speak to the other options, I can speak to what we do. And what we do is um really focus on the factual and the transparency um from the school corporation to make sure that people have information that is um it's a I use this this sort of illustration of the type of people who are trying to get information all the time. Um, you've got a 3se secondond reader and a 30-cond reader and a threeminut reader. And most of us are 3se secondond readers. We read a headline and we've got as much information as we can take in and we're going

084to go on and read another headline someplace else. Um, the 30 second reader maybe reads the the headline and the intro paragraph. Uh, first paragraph of a news story or something like that. Uh the three minute reader is going to read the entire news story and and for those people who are on the website they might click through and go to the website. Um you know there are very few threeminut readers. Um and so so when we talk about uh transparency most people don't see the transparency because they're not going to read the whole thing. But if they go to the web page and they see that, okay, I could scroll down here for days and I'm not going to read the whole thing, but at least I see that you got information here. Um,

085and I might trust uh someone else who I know um whose opinion I trust and I know that they read the whole thing, but if they tell me that, yeah, the school district is being very transparent here, then uh then um then I think they're going to feel comfortable even though we'll be right. So, so we focused on the transparency from the school district because we want people to vote on this based on facts. Now, we still need um as much as we can to have a political action committee and and especially when we are looking at at an increase, not just a a renewal of the current tax rate. Um, and to be able to to say why is the what changed for us? What why how did the situation change uh change and

086why are we still advocating for this? So, so the the the p and I and I love the light light touch. Okay. Um um the light light touch is really toning down that advocacy and really raising up that factual and I my sense is that that plays right into what we do. Um What's our record? Um I with See, we just did a a bond referendum in uh in Minnesota in actually today is Monday the 9th. It's tomorrow the 10th. >> That will be number 58 for us. um since um since I first did my first referendum when I was working for a school corporation in 2007 and um the record is in the neighborhood of 38 or 40 wins and and then when you look at the number of questions sometimes you have more

087questions on a ballot. Uh there's it's in the same kind of ratio. Are can we guarantee success? uh and we look at um providing the best opportunity to win. I think we can do a great job to provide the best opportunity to win. And to be honest, that means having a pack. And um and I would also suggest that that pack is maybe a light touch, not just light, >> of course. >> Um yeah, I don't think that this year's a light touch. I think it's much more than that >> in in 23 or 23 it was light light touch. Um >> how much do you think the pack's going to need to raise? How much if for the full package of everything you were talking about um including um the uh voter roles of

088uh of likely voters? How how much do you think all that is going to cost us? >> Yeah, the um starting with the political action committee I Um, I didn't put a budget yet together for that. Um, there's some there's some targeted advertising that I would want to do that is that could that, you know, again, people would take your money all day long. So, you can spend $80,000 or you can spend eight. Um, um, it's a small geographic footprint and uh, and the number of registered voters is not huge. I think that you could get by an advertising budget of about digital advertising about 4,000 you could get by some some direct mail and again uh if you can raise the money um I would you can't raise the money I would say here

089have been some things I would rather you prioritize your dollars on uh but if you if money was not an option I would say you spend another5 or $6,000 on direct to targeted yes voters. I would say that um uh you need another about $5,000 for the for the voter database. Um and um pizza is important. You want for your home bankers. Um so um so sort of ballparking in my head right now, you know, I'm thinking the Pat could raise about $15,000. That would be a really good thing. Um that can be a challenge. >> Does that also include the additional fees that you said you would charge the pack? >> So, yes. Now, for the school corporation, uh school corporation is going to spend a chunk of money on the community engagement piece.

090Um and then and then a chunk of money on the school district's referendum marketing. Um and and so those numbers are about 20,000 for phase one and about 30,000 for phase two. Um and that doesn't include video production. So you want to add in a little bit of money for video production. We got last year a pretty inexpensive route or strategy there. Um, and then, uh, the survey is is a is a chunk. It is that's closer to $30,000. So, it's a it's a it's an investment. It is a, you know, you know, at least it's not a special election your own election, but it still is is a chunk of money to spend. We recognize that it's expensive. Um, what we also say is when you look at the return on that investment, The

091revenue that you're bringing in is critical for kids and it's in the end if you spend $100,000 you got however much this tax rate gives you it's a good investment >> George >> um given everything we just talked about can you give me the 30 second reader version of why education referendums [clears throat] fail because to me it seems like you're voting against your own But can you tell me from your experience 30 second reader version why referendums fail? >> Number one is people don't see support for it and and I got to be honest people get on a bandwagon and the first person out of the gate with their bandwagon whether it's the no group or the yes group that's where people jump on whoever's first. Um and so you're and you can see

092support from the board, from the administration, from teachers, from parents, people go, "Okay, I'm willing to get on that way and I'll vote with you." If instead they hear from the no group and the group says, "Oh my gosh, it's going to cost us so much money in taxes and and there's this that and the other reason um the no group almost is opposed to the referendum purely because of cost to themselves. What we what our job is is to relay why a community, even if you do not have children in school, um why a community benefits from investing in public schools. Um your property taxes um are are are going to reflect your market value. You've got a decent market value here in West Lafayette. In part, that's your proximity to Purdue and other

093things, but large part is because of a public school district that people want their kids to go to. And um when you have a home that's that's a great home in a great school district, you have a market to sell your home to when you're ready to move on to a whole. [laughter] >> I guess we'll find out in November, huh? Okay. Um, anybody else have anything? >> Oh, quick question. Thank you. Appreciate. I see you. I'm glad to see you guys come back again. I really appreciate that. Just follow up the question. So, basically, as you said, people support the referendum. One more one reason probably because they like uh these communities and their properties can keep their values and they can get a good educations. But from that point of view so if

094school have a transfer say open transfer any people outside of district can transfer in I mean what do you think that there will be impact on the let's see the lawyer the lawyer supporting families in district you think there will be some uh impact or what do you think from your experience you have many referendum probably you see something like this kind of situation thank you >> we certainly have seen it before and uh again kind of you know again there are pros and cons uh you know for for allowing for transfer students and how does that impact how people vote. One thing is certain the folks that are um transferring their student into the district. They're doing that because they think that there's something good here for their kids. That is a plus. Um

095if if a school district knows that that people are for the education. Um maybe there's not enough homes available in the in the district that they can that they can buy. Um but they see this district as a as as a thing that they want their kids. Wow. That's great testament to the to the work that you've all done to make this a great school corporation that is serving students. Um the the the people that that um that say I want my kid to go there. found a reason for that and they they must I would like to hear their stories for the people that are here now and they see others coming here. Um they should also feel good about their school district because look how popular we are. Look how how people see

096the the value in in the education that Westia Community School Corporation is providing. Um and um so that may be true that may be true. This is where the the survey comes back to us is is let's find out let's find out how people really feel about that. And um we certainly don't want any one issue to derail um how people feel about voting or supporting the referendum. Um and we might uncover other issues that are as important um as we go through the process of community engagement. Um there's no other major issues, but sometimes there are and so let's find out what they are and um and if we can address them up front having an answer um it's going to be important so that people can make up their mind so that they

097can put those issues aside and concentrate or focus on the referendum and the reason why the referendum is important to them. That makes any sense. >> Of course, you have to turn on mic. >> Yeah, sure. So, so back [clears throat] to your question, they I mean of course they feel good. I mean I live in the district I we have good neighborhood communities we have good schools that's fine but I mean the high quality education is not uh cheap. You see what I mean? So people think that's nice so they can move outside and then they can transfer their students come back to school. So in that case you think people like stay here but I mean Russian people think here's I mean the property is kind of old and then you have beer

098now you want to increase the test and from from their point of view and you see as we have the surace so we have about six 600 uh response from indistrict uh people's and they say if you open the district 99% so something like a one over 6.3 response saying they are going to move out. So you can say that data is not really reliable but I think that's kind of pretty strong and clear signal. Basically we want a kind of stable strong communities. So and I mean the moving you can say moving is not easy. I mean there's cost probably I mean you don't want I mean so many property on the market probably they cannot get rid of that that property as a reasonable uh market uh reasonable I mean the price but

099when you say voting we also ask that question you can see there's u the voting uh when you take into the transfer uh policy into consideration say if we have open transfer uh we have open uh policy So the 626 response, so 47% they say they will support the uh the referendum. But if you have close u survey yet, why are you pulling numbers out of thin air? >> Huh? >> If we haven't done the survey yet, why are you pulling numbers out of thin air? >> What do you mean? >> Said you're pulling numbers out of thin air. I know you're speaking hypothetically, but you're pulling numbers out of thin air and we haven't done survey that they recommend yet. Oh yeah, where are we going with this? >> We have done the survey

100during the last couple uh months. We have uh pretty good response. So I just use that date is not official but I think that's a kind of a deliver. Let me finish that. But thank you for your question. So basically uh so if you close your district and then with the numbers jump to 61%. So I'm I'm saying one policy can change say 40% 14% of uh supporting read. So I think that's probably uh something we should take uh more serious considerations. So that's my my reading of that uh survey. So but but again I I I agree we need some people's do sur and basically as far as I understand correctly that survey and also video things that's not including this uh 200 kind of name the price tag right >> right >> okay

101>> yeah I I can't agree with you more it is an issue that we should look into >> okay >> and and I think it's important that we do so I think that that absolutely Let's include that as part of the research that we do up front um and learn that and then and then and then uh and then move forward whatever that is what and a key a key is um if we ask the question and the community answers us it's important that we listen >> that's right that's what I'm saying we should pay attention to that but one more followup question so regarding um I understand you guys come here just uh as you said as you describe we try to fact find findings we find the fact fact and what's but uh

102I mean maybe uh the committee member maybe thinking they have impress perceptions maybe it's wrong perception but something like we use public fund to promote uh this kind of referendum so how what's the best I mean I think you guys have 50 district probably see this kind of situation so what's the best way to handle I mean we don't want people think hey you use public money to find somebody to promote another you know that kind of situation do you have any experience or you want something to share we try to I mean avoid these kind of u u mis misperceptions thank you >> yeah I I you're absolutely right we um we hear that fairly often in referendum campaigns um one uh you know is the school district promoting uh advocate advocating for the

103passage of this referendum and two is spending money, taxpayer dollars on doing that. Um um and so part of the communication is just saying school districts are bound by state code uh to not promote the referendum after the board adopts the resolution to put the ballot up, the question on the ballot. Um and so the so so we we include that message on pretty much all of the communications that we out um so that people know that it's against the law for us to share advocacy information after that ballot question is approved. Um secondly, do people complain about the amount of money that the school district sh it takes to share information? Yeah, they do. So, one of the things that's important for us to also communicate is if we don't share information, you're uninformed

104and you may or may not uh the decision that you're going to be happy with at the polls um after you find out what the impact is after the election. Communicating after the election is not going to help anybody. So, we need to communicate now and it really follows along with the board's interest in in transparency. And so, it is a thing that you're going to hear and and your talking point will be this is what we want as a board is to be transparent with our community about act you vote yes or if you vote no this is what >> I thank you I think that makes sense it's kind of cost of transparency the the information is not free I mean we but I appreciate Thank you again >> okay if no one

105has anything else oh Rachel has one more thing you >> I'd like to make a motion >> Oh I'd love a motion um sure the right wording for the motion I want But how about if I say >> it possibly be to engage with daily PR? >> Yeah, I'd like to make a motion that we engage with Daylor PR for our uh referendum pre-work >> in accordance with the contract in the board package. >> In accordance to the Yep. Thank you. >> And not to exceed $53,000. >> Is that the right one? >> You can break. That's why it's not to exceed. >> We can break. >> Yeah. Not to exceed 50. Okay. >> Can I ask a question? Yes sir. >> So if they were to if you were to um vote to have

106opportunity to engage in both assuming the board would decide to move forward. If they decided not to move forward and they voted for both now, we're not bound to the second part. >> Yeah, there's if if uh yeah, if you choose to choose not move forward with the referendum, then there's not reason for referendum marketing services and and so then it would just be the pre portion. So if you you don't have concerns with what you see in there and you choose to do the package, it addresses it and it keeps it smoothly moving forward. Something for the board to maybe discuss. >> Okay. Before I just make a clarify. So basically we are voting for that 20,000 or the 53 but the option is if we don't we decide later we decide so >>

107we can pull the plug. >> Correct. So you would vote for the package >> to go get 53 which >> 53,000 for the package. >> But if the board decided not to move forward then it would stop at the >> we only we only obligated for the 20 correct. Okay. >> Okay. >> Is that a second Lord? >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> All right. Any further discussion? No. Then I'll start the vote. >> Well, that looks unanimous. Gentlemen, congratulations and thank you for coming and we look forward to working with you further. >> Could very important. Thank you so much. I appreciate your confidence. >> Thank you too. We appreciate your time today. Can I make a comment real quick regarding I just want to compliment the board um on what we've done so

108far regarding transparency because I've talked with each of you individually as we developed the survey. We worked hand inand individually and as a group and then we went into um focus groups and I had board members comment to me should we add another focus group to make sure that people were heard that came from the board. I think you've been transparent. I applaud you for it. We will continue and they've got tools that can help us continue that process. But I I just want to be clear that from my perspective you as a board have been transparent and very engaging with our community. And so I thank you for your partnership in that. Thank you. Um we're going to go ahead and take a two-minute break in case anyone has a long drive ahead of

109them and would like to head home. And um we'll come back at 7:37. Thank you. It's at home. I would maybe get more listening. All right, that was um a nice long break that I apologize to anyone watching at home that it took longer than I said. Um the next item on our agenda is number eight, which is our chiller, and that goes back to you, Dr. Grryer. >> Thank you, Mrs. Austin. As discussed during the geo bond process, the high school chiller uh replacement is a priority capital project, and it's even included on our capital project plan. uh because it exceeds Indiana's public works threshold. Uh the state law requires plans prepared by a licensed engineer. Um we recommend Creative Engineering Solutions Incorporated. This is the company that worked with us for the Happy

110Hollow Chiller project uh and is a most efficient and effective uh cost option. Creative Engineering worked with John Becker, the attorney from Church CCHA to finalize the agreement included in your materials. Now, the proposed engineering fee is $75,400 based on an estimated $1.15 million project cost. Approval would allow design work to begin uh and the project to move into competitive bidding so we can uh move forward. And I recommend board approval of the agreement as presented. Thank you. >> Okay. Sorry about that. Go ahead, George. In some of the documentation, they talked about the need to uh deconstruct one of the doors to get the chiller equipment in. Um was is it possible to talk to Creative Engineering and the other folks to see about just building a bigger door once they're done? >> You

111and I had talked about that earlier, uh Mr. Lyall, and we certainly could have that conversation. It's something that it's worthy of discussing. Thank you. >> Any other discussion? Is there a motion? >> I can have a motion for that. Accept this proposal and then I have quick question regarding this 75 the fees they charge for us. I mean we already have them to help us on the uh heavy hollow. Right. >> Correct. >> Yeah. So but in this case do they do they give us some discount because I mean this kind of [laughter] >> No buy one get one free. >> It is I believe I believe we said six%. That's I they have not entertained an additional discount. No, that's pretty much what they said is they think fair market value. >> Yeah,

112but great question. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. So, Lawrence uh moved to approve and George seconded. Any further discussion? No. Okay, then I'll hit the button. There we go. That passes 70. Thank you. >> Thank you very much for the support. >> Great. And the next item is summer school and we'll go to Mrs. Roth. Certainly you have information regarding summer school at the high school and dates for the required summer reading remediation at WS. Uh all of that was shared in the board packet. Also in your board packet you have a copy of a contract from Indiana online academy. This vendor is used as a last resort when other free options are not offered and reimbursement will be sought for courses purchased through IOA. Uh the reimbursement rate is

113finalized once all schools in Indiana make their request. You are asked to please approve the contract so that summer school courses through Indiana online can be offered to students when they are indeed needed. Okay. Is there a motion, please? Moved by George. Is there second by Lawrence? Any discussion? >> Okay. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. And I know I I asked some questions that uh Sean answered in the Friday notes and but I wonder whether we can have some clarifications for those similar questions. For example, and uh and for the first is the payment issue and when students take a summer summer classes and they don't sounds like they don't need to pay for it except for if they are transfer students there's a possibility that they have to pay for it. Is that

114the case? If Indiana Online is the vendor, then there is a cost. In the past, no students have paid the cost. >> If Indiana online is not the vendor, there is no cost. >> And but I sounds to me there the school will be reimbursed for the cost. >> The school is reimbursed. Yes. The reimbursement rate is not determined until after all reimbursement requests are made to the state of Indiana. >> Right. So, but there's a possibility that there's a a discrepancy for >> the cost and what the the u and the reimbursement, right? So, the district will pay the difference. >> Yes. The district the district has paid the difference in the past. >> Okay. So, for all the students no matter their resident or transfer. So, we pay for everyone. >> Yes. for

115the students who for the only the Indiana online courses. >> Okay. >> Not for the other courses that are free to the district. >> Okay. So, okay. That lead to my second question. So, those with the asterists are the free courses, right? So, >> those courses are free and there are some other courses that are free as well. >> Okay. So, if a student take take those courses, nobody will students won't pay and we won't pay. >> Correct. and the state will cover that pretty much. Okay. And so my other question is related to the required because those ones with the stars as is uh said to be required courses and uh so there's some confusions about the required courses in do students right now have to I mean for those or 20 about or

11629 about have to take those courses or they can take some on their it will depend upon the year in which they metriculate. >> So for the class of 2029 the requirements will be different than the class of 2027. >> Okay. And so there are some complications about substitute. So some of the our current courses can substitute those required ones some of them cannot. So there are courses that are required and some of if there's a possibility of a substitute that would be explained through the counseling process. >> You had brought up computer science for example. >> Uh foundations of computer science might be appropriate for a student who does not want to go the route of computer science. AP computer science might be appropriate for the student who does want to study computer science.

117So that is something that is part of the counseling process as counselors meet with students and talk with students. >> Okay. >> So they want to make sure that whatever they would choose to meet a requirement would be appropriate for that student's pathway. >> Okay. And so it's more about individual cases. The individual student need to talk to the counselor >> and about their personal plan rather than having a general rule. Okay. Oh >> yeah. Uh for instance uh personal financial responsibility you can meet the same requirement with finance and banking. If you are not at all interested in financing finance and banking it's a year-long course you wouldn't want to take it but if you are you would want to take it and that would cover your personal financial responsibility. So, it it really

118is um ideal for students to be when they talk with their counselor, counselors kind counselors work with students to create four-year plans to understand what their goals are and to try and guide them, counsel them along the way on what would be the best way to meet a requirement. >> Okay. Will we have any kind of meeting for this new requirement? So those invol students and their family can participate in these ask questions. >> That is information that usually gets sent out. >> Okay. >> And I don't think there's a meeting necessarily. It's just information that's communicated and sent out to families and then again counselors meet with students to understand what are your goals, what's your current pathway and to understand is this current pathway going to get you where you want to go

119if your goals have changed and if not they can work on revising that together. >> Okay, thanks. >> Anything else? Okay, go ahead and start vote to approve. There we go. 7 Z. Okay. The next item on the agenda is the summer STEM camp. Yes. >> Back to you. >> Um once again, uh Wes teacher, Mr. Brantley, is proposing a summer camp experience, a STEM camp experience, and information was included as part of your board packet. That is the information Mr. Brantley would like to share with students and families. and we just ask that you approve his proposal so that he can begin registration for students who are interested. >> Okay. Is there a motion please Rachel and seconded by Lawrence to approve? Um is there any discussion? >> Lawrence go ahead. >> Yeah. Just

120a quick comments. I really appreciate the Mr. Brandley he uh he offered this uh program uh for students. Uh our uh school is so fortunate have so many uh dedicated uh teachers and staff members. Uh they allow their kids uh love our student serve our student even in the summer time. So I truly truly appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. We'll go ahead and start the vote to approve. >> Great. That was a quick one. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the board meeting calendar and that goes to me. As you know, we only approved a partial calendar. Um earlier uh there is one adjustment to the every second Monday of the month schedule due to the ISBA conference which I encourage everyone to attend because it's an excellent

121learning opportunity for the board and it's a one-of-akind thing that they won't postpone for us. Um, otherwise we will be meeting on the second Monday of every month. Um, and it just updates the rest of 2026. Is there a motion, please? David. Thank you. And a second, Rachel. Thank you. Any discussion on the calendar? No. Okay. In that case, I will start the buttons. Thank you very much. And the next item is policies. So I will turn it over to Rachel who will guide us through all of the things. All right. So up first we have B150 organizational meetings board of finance and committees um policy committee met. And our recommendation on this is to just essentially we're just adjusting policy to meet practice. Um, annually at the end of the year, the board officers

122will compile a list of recommendations for committee assignments for the next calendar year. The board chair will bring to the full board for a vote at the annual organizational meeting in January. Um this I know we had some conversation about it being assigned in February, but as we continued to talk through that and impact on other groups that we work with, um we felt that it was still appropriate to leave it in January. Um and would make us the the cleanest passover. Uh we know it won't be ideal on a large turnover year or a change in board leadership, but we feel like um there's a good history of board chair passing along information to next board chair and um we we'd like to just consider our board would act collegially on this matter. So

123that would be the recommendation that we've made on B150 >> by Rachel. Second any discussion on the >> quick share I appreciate I think the initial ideas provided by uh David so and then we have some conversations and with our board members I think that's really uh good uh good work collaboration works I appreciate that and one thing I just look at this calendar uh things maybe we I can change that a little bit not only for the committee uh proposals maybe we can include for the the meeting calendar. Uh do you guys think that makes sense? So what >> Well, we're an ad hoc committee, so we wouldn't have a posted calendar. We're just we're not a we're ad hoc is a non-permanent committee. >> I think Lawrence means the annual calendar. Also having

124that set in mind. >> Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. >> December. >> Oh, sorry. Sorry, I didn't think myself. I'm just saying just way we we proposal uh we work together by December uh the proposal the committee assignment and then also plus the next year's whole year's meeting schedule maybe do you think that makes sense or I have a motion >> I'm open to whatever >> policy >> yeah the policy currently says to pass the calendar and the organizational meeting >> organizing meeting >> it Yes. >> So probably we can I mean propose a calendar after some discussions in December and then for the general meeting will be make that less stress. What I mean I I can have a amendment of this uh this pol this this policy

125basically add the whole year's uh calendar proposal a meeting board meeting calendar proposal uh for this December kind of proposal included proposal >> okay where it says at the organizational meeting the board shall determine a day place and time for regular meeting >> can I can I interject here so That's just the requirement in which we must do. That doesn't have to be our practice. So in December, we could prepare that work and then be in a position to vote on it in the January meeting, which I think what you're saying. I think if you start to say we're going to do this in December and then we're going to do that in January and we're going to do this in February, it starts to be difficult to manage. But I like the idea that

126that conversation was started as an agenda item in December. I think that makes a lot of sense. But I just don't know that I would put that in in policy. >> That's fine. Then I just >> that's my two cents on that. >> That's fine. I just we just >> Okay. Anything else? No. Okay. Let's go ahead and do buttons to approve B150. That is seven out of 10 or seven out of I know what I mean. All right. The next one is 67. Yeah. The next one is [laughter] >> No. No. No. D425.1 >> D425.1 general guidelines for requesting additional compensation. This was the um policy that was requested by the superintendent. Specifically, this would be an add-on, a short-term policy in place um just to keep us in line with our current future

127contract. Um and the policy committee and Dr. Griner, we've met and we've just added a small refinement to item number three. um where we've added the words relevance shall be determined by the superintendent or superintendent's design. Um and with that recommendation from the policy committee, we recommend um passing 425.1 as presented. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> So you want the green text and the blue text? >> Yes. >> Y green and blue. >> Green and blue. >> Okay. Is there a second on that? >> Thanks, Lawrence. And any further discussion? May I just ask a minor question? So what does um the number 0.1 mean? >> It's a small addition to the overall policy, right? >> This is the supplemental policy that is temporary. Um and that way the point one was a

128way for it to be designated as not a typical standard part of the policy. And once the information that's in here is added into future contract negotiations, this this policy would then be removed. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Any other question? >> This is just a short interim deal [clears throat] we that we needed to make the teacher contracts valid. >> Okay. Thank you for clarification. >> All right. Let's go ahead and start that vote to approve the 425.1. Look at him go. All right. And the next one is F250 travel expenses. >> F250 travel expenses. If you'll recall, this is one that the board um we reviewed it last month in second reading and then we had some conversation and were asked to take it back to policy committee. I'm scrolling to find

129it. It was for some um additional language just to clarify um traveling between school buildings. Oh, come on. Where are you? Um, there you are. I'm not finding it. >> Yeah, I was just trying to find the explanation notes. You all saw those in the the committee notes, but um, basically it was reworking this paragraph one to just make sure that um, they were performing services uh, for the corporation. And we changed the word board into corporation. Um just to obviously the board is not providing payment. We are approving payment. The corporation in general is paying. Um and we put in spec uh specific language about the administrative guidelines uh in there to make sure there was clarity. And then again changing corporation or board to corporation. >> Right. >> Okay. So, we just went

130through this this we'd already discussed last meeting at pretty pretty well at length, but um we just went in and cleaned up language at the request of the board in our last meeting. Also, if this one is um the recommendation is to do this and also uh resend PO6650, which is the previous travel expenses policy, >> 6650. >> Once again, just the green text or green and blue text. >> Green and blue. Okay. Is there a second? Thank you. Any further discussion? All right. Here comes the button. There you go. Just to clarify, George, we um we left blue text in if a board member recommended it because we we wanted that to be clear that board members had reviewed that and requested those changes. And it's not a matter of giving credit, but it's

131it's kind of making sure that it's clear who's done what. less about giving credit and more just in our past discussions uh there were separate recommendations where green text was recommended but blue or red or purple wasn't. >> True. Yes, absolutely. >> Great. And that one does pass. Next up is F325. >> F325. It would make sense if I put these in just I can talk slower. [laughter] Oh, come on. That would be too easy. Expecting me to use use my computer skills. Come on. All right. At 325, debt management policy. Um, it is our recommendation of the policy committee to approve the policy with the edits. Um, as noted, um, we kind of went through and, um, had some conversation. This is not a required policy. Um but we believe it is good to

132have it on record if at some point it is needed to support acquisition of debt. Uh Michelle made the recommendation to us to remove the section on debt limits. Um and edit the paragraph to say previously moved previously approved and remove the specific date. Uh the reason for that is just to to allow the policy to stand a little bit um more without constant revision. When you put dates in like that it can can be a lot of revision. Um and so with that um I am recommending that we pass uh F325 debt management policy. >> Okay. Is there a second George? Thank you. Any discussion? All right. There come buttons. Go. Next is G350. Feel like I'm calling bingo. >> I know. just a little bit that way. All right. So, G350 deals with

133audio, video, and digital recording on school property and of school meetings. Um, this is one we've kind of talked about a lot over the um over the years. Um, and this policy really was intended to clean up a little bit. Um, we recognize that there are reasons a parent or guardian may wish to record a meeting to aid in their collaboration with the court with the corporation and benefit their student. uh the corporation requests 24-hour notice prior to the meeting so both parties can be prepared to record. This was really about changing the language to be um more collaborative in nature. Um kind of remove that that there's something wrong if a parent wants to do this. Um the update needs to be made to our current policy. Um and uh so this is the

134recommendation which is to strike out of the red and adding of the green and you can see the explanation there. Um, >> okay. >> Yeah, I'm looking. I'm trying to make sure that I haven't missed any language there. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And then we did add the Indiana code citation down at the bottom or legal did, as a reminder, red in there is um is the legal is the attorney recommendation. [clears throat] >> David, >> what did I miss? I'm just going to make a motion to to approve the policy with one additional red line um that I'm just see seeing now um the under meetings with parent guardians section three uh in the second paragraph uh the sentence after uh request 24 hours notice prior to schedule meeting um all audio recording

135is subject to needs to the red line. That was just missed. >> And just to clarify on this one, George, just to keep it interesting for you, in this one, we are recommending the green and not the blue. So, we're recommending the red red line. Um, but we have tried to incorporate the board member recommendation into the green language that we've added. And so, that was just a refinement. So, >> so it sounds like David is moving and Rachel is seconding the uh approval of the green but not the blue with the additional red line over all audio recording is subject to in section 3 paragraph 2. >> Yes. And just to follow up to what Rachel had said, >> um we had used that blue language to create our green modification. We chose to

136frame it in a more collaborative approach than we previously had. We we appreciated the blue um recommendation, but we just modified that a little bit um to to make it more collaborative. >> Okay, DEA. >> So, this policy is actually not our policy. These are this is the policy that CCHA had originally sent to us. We actually edited this policy to make it more collaborative. So the current policy that we have in place doesn't match the recommended changes. So I would like to make a motion that we postpone this, send it back to policy committee and have them make any changes to our policy if necessary um instead of this one which does not line up at all with ours in the wording. So we're approving something that actually isn't something that we have in

137place. So if I could comment upon that. >> Well, is there a second? >> Oh. >> Okay. Now you may comment. >> So the um this is correct. This is a policy given to us with Indiana code changes. So it does not match what is currently posted. I believe we passed that in September. What we got is clear recommendation from legal. These are things we need to do to be compliant with the law. We have now augmented that to be in the more collaborative tone that we would like and it is ready to pass at this point in time from my perspective. >> Okay, George. >> So the policy you put in front of us replaces what we've got now. >> It's a replacement policy for what is currently in place. It is not intended

138to mimic what is currently in place. >> Okay. uh you >> I propose the blue one and because I'm not convinced by the 24-hour notice given that Indiana has a one party consent and >> I'm sorry are you proposing an additional change? >> I think she just has a question if I could answer it. >> Are you asking a question >> or proposing a change? because your motion is to pass a green one. But my >> right now the motion in front of us is to postpone. >> Okay. >> So, we're talking about whether or not we're going to bounce this back to the policy committee again so that they can >> line it align it with the policy we passed previously. And what Rachel just said was that they did not intend to align

139it with the previously passed policy because legal had changed certain language to align with the law. So this would supersede the policy we passed before and they tried to incorporate the collaborative language that was suggested by the previous iteration of the policy. >> Correct. And if I I'll just answer your question. UA um that's the reason the language says they request 24 hours. There's no requirement. You're right. Anybody can walk in and record any meeting. But in the nature of collaboration, we recognize that it would be nice for our staff to know and be aware and be able to record, but there's no requirement for that and the language is presented. >> Asa, um, just to clarify, our policy was not sent to CCHA to say is it in compliance or not. All we did

140was CCHA sent us their original one from a year ago, edited it, said, "This is what we need you to change to line up." And I'm saying, "This isn't what we pay for. We pay for them to support us in our policies, not adding. This is very chaotic um to say I want it changed this way, but it actually doesn't even match what our current policy is." So I hope that in the future that we will use our policies to have make recommendations to legislation instead of just going the way of what was originally done a year ago and not even considering what we have in place because a lot of this that they recommended we already had in place and we didn't need to actually edit our policy. >> It sounds like it was

141considered. >> It was very much considered. We obviously as policy committee take that seriously and we review previous policy and current policy. that is what happened in here and then there was a conversation. This is not about critiquing uh necessarily the information that we've been got we've gotten from CCHA. It is a matter of determining what is the best policy for a corporation. That is what I believe has been presented here tonight. >> Lawrence. >> Yeah, I think uh back to Deja's question. I think uh Dr. Grer and we committee we have some discussion regarding these policies. My understanding is CCA will uh later they will review our policy and then give us update. Is that uh correct? >> You are correct Mr. Wong. If we present the pre the our current policy when it's

142time for the changes they are very willing and happy to take that policy uh and u make suggestions within that policy and and then give it to us for or the committee for consideration and the board uh to have consideration. That makes yeah that makes sense. So but basically but this particular policy uh is not uh is not really our current policy. So I I think probably we can um postpone that for next uh uh meeting so we can get a clean um uh the current with current policy based change. I think it's not really difficult. is pretty easy just change the one paragraph is whatever the green one is our current policy but just that make a little bit uh confusing so I would prefer uh to bring this back to policy committee and

143then we get a clean uh much clean version so next time we can present to the whole board that's my my uh preference thank you >> okay anyone else want to weigh in on whether or not to postpone this item okay that's what we're voting on right right now. Oh, David, go ahead. >> Oh, my microphone's still on. Sorry. Um, I'm fine with us just sending it back for us to look at it again and show that it's it's the same. >> There are a few minor wording differences, but we can take some time away from other stuff and do that if I want I want I want everybody to be 100% on our policies. So, I'm I'm fine with those. >> Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's not that difficult but I think that

144maybe make robot's work uh more complicated. So we want to have a a clean uh coffee. So u just present to the whole board. So I mean that's kind of our job of our committee. So we want to have nice uh presentable uh version so the whole board can vote on that. So that's my my preference. Thank you. Um my position is a little different from my um colleagues colleagues here on the policy committee knowing the policies that we are going to have coming up specifically that of uh determining access to our schools that's coming up in um legal settlement policy C125 and that one's going to be extensive and complex. This allows us and this is important that we be aligned with Indiana code. We are not currently aligned with Indiana code. We are

145talking about commas and semicolons right here. My preference, my recommendation is that we proceed with this so that we can prioritize policies that are really going to be critical in hitting us the next couple months. >> Okay. All right. With that, I will go ahead and start the vote. We are again voting on whether or not to postpone, not whether or not to approve. So, this is to postpone uh G350. and it's not coming up. There we go. Okay, the postponement passes four to three. Um, me fix this real quick. Okay, so the next item then is G450. G450 policy committee uh recommends adopting G450 with an edit. We did receive some board member feedback um asking us to consider naming right agreements may include time limits renewal and revocation clauses subject to schoolboard approval.

146That is the language that we have added. Um in particular we felt that was important. Obviously circumstances change and there needs to be an exit option as well if 20 years down the road that's necessary. So, um, with that, uh, edit, it is my recommendation that the board approve policy G450. >> Seconded by David. Great. >> Yeah. Hang on. >> Oh, go ahead. >> We need to resend policy 7250 and 9700.01. If we do pass this one, >> can you give me those numbers one more time? >> 7250-9700.01. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, any discussion on those? Great. I'll go ahead and start this to approve uh G450 and resend those. Yeah. Okay. Um the next item is G475. >> G475 is uh prohibition of unmanned aircraft or drones. Um we did receive

147some feedback on this one. Um and really we just um greatly simplified the process. Obviously, um to just say except we're approved by the superintendent, their design or the board, the flying of unmanned aircraft over corporation policy and events is prohibited. Um we clarify that with the definition. This was important for us to phrase this in this way because we do in particular athletics department does use drones in their um work with football games in particular. And so we just felt this would be a simpler, cleaner way to make sure that um we were in aligned with the law. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Second. Second. >> Thank you. Any further discussion on G475? >> Yeah, I have I want the proposal and just make a uh submotion to to use the original

148um uh uh original proposal from CCA. I truly appreciate the board members uh uh re uh revisions. That's really uh neat and uh pretty much covered the key issues but I think um now the original um proposal have several key informations uh one is the reason why we have this policy the purpose one is safety another one is for protect the students and the school people's privacy that's purpose kind of purpose statement the base of the policy another thing is the legal base uh we follow the name at the FC FC FA FA right FA yeah we follow the FAA's um guidance so that's a kind of um legal ways of this uh policy another thing I want to mention is they also cover the uh our school sponsored uh uh programs I understand if

149we have some uh even with sponsor program but it's off the campus probably we cannot enforce this uh policy but I think u uh if we have uh school sponsored programs we kind of uh have the ownership if something happened probably we are we got to be I mean accountable for that. So giving those uh considerations I think the original uh versions the language um maybe uh put our uh school in more uh defendable uh positions in case u something happened. So that's my my thought. So I I just have this motion. But again the the reverse one is okay for me. I just I prefer uh the original uh language, but the reation is also okay. Thank you. >> Is there a second to Lawrence's motion to use the original? >> Okay. Um Rachel,

150>> Dr. Riner, um am I correct? This was sent to legal the proposed I I as I recall you sent policies in draft to legal to review. Did that happen with this one? >> These I do I Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. What I do is I send um when I get those uh proposed language changes, I send those to legal and ask if there's an issue. And then you as a committee, >> right, >> discuss as long as they as long as uh legal suggests that there's not there's not conflict or or contradiction to um uh law and so forth. >> That that was what I I was just wanting to clarify. Lawrence, I know question if said we might be legally in a better position with the original text, but this has been

151reviewed by legal and this is appropriate text that that does comply with what's needed. >> Okay. Anyone else, >> George? So the only problem I see with the text that we're being asked to approve is that it may be difficult for the corporation to enforce the prohibition in the circumstance where we have a corporation event that is not on corporation property. >> But it's the kind of thing where it's not worth noting the policy because of that because we can just change a word or strike out a word. Even if we pop past it as is, this this is u the [clears throat] intent of the policy is clear. It just may result in some difficulty and enforcement when we're not over corporation property. >> Does the top text cover that? I'm not reading that

152the top text covers that either. >> Um it does partly. Um in one of the paragraphs, but then [clears throat and cough] let me look through the strikeouts here. It says on or over corporation property including at corporation sponsored events. So it is grammatically different enough. >> Yeah. >> That it doesn't cover corporation events off property. >> Yeah. So we say corporation property and events is prohibited. So it should say in your mind corporation property and corporation events. It's >> I think it makes sense. If you add program in other property and probably difficult >> it's probably difficult to uh to enforce but I think uh if we have that language have scope a little bit bigger extended and in case something happen we are more defend so that's my uh my thought about that

153>> um did I understand George are you the one that simplified it. Are you the one that made this recommendation? >> I didn't make the specific recommendation for the language that's here. >> Okay. >> But I I did point out um that I remember correctly that um there were use cases for drones like at the um football games where they do the overhead cameras and [clears throat] there may be some things that fly over our campuses that we don't control like you know the technique has drones that are going overhead all the time and you know us arguing with Purdue about what they're doing is going to be a fool's errand. >> I guess my question is I'm not sure if I clearly even understand the difference between the two. They just are different wording.

154So I didn't know who ever had recommended changing the wording what the reasoning is. Um because I'm not sure sure which one because they give me the same message. So I I'm trying to understand which to vote for. David. >> Um, George, you were the one that sent to the committee to simplify the policy to relate this. Um, I have the email off, so I go >> a couple times since then. >> So, it all falls back [laughter] lawyer. >> My grad students feel the same way about me about how I edit things that I edited in their manuscripts. Um and but what the way that I'm understanding the concern here is solely about um uh corporation on corporation property uh and also corporation events >> and and also I don't want to misstate any

155quote unquote concern. All I'm saying is the policy is perfectly valid as written. It's just going to be difficult to enforce if we have a corporation event that is not on corporation property. >> But >> I feel like it's going to be difficult to enforce in any any way either version of this policy that would be difficult to enforce. >> Yeah. Because we don't have any anti- drone rifles. So >> no, but I I I can see and the the idea is specifically for individuals affiliated with the schools is where the enforcement would come in. um if a student were to be using a drone at an away football game, um this policy would still be um would still apply and there could be consequences as a result of this. Um I think where correct

156me if I'm wrong, but where your concern would be is a non-affiliated person using a drone at a a corporate event that's not or corporation event that's not here. Th those we would be hard for us to do anything about um even if it was on incorporation policy property although there are other avenues for that I imagine if if it's any corporation or corporation event regardless of where it is if it's someone affiliated with the corporation whether it's student or um or staff member that that should still be um I I I I'm struggling to see where the difficult difficulty in um implementing this pol or implementing this policy would come in. >> Oh, so perhaps I I will uh do a mealpa and say I probably shouldn't have said anything because what what I'm

157the thing I'm trying to make the point I'm trying to make is if we pass this as written um it's fine. I'm just saying that there is a potential difficulty in the way that we worded it. But that's the kind of difficulty that's present in almost anything we pass because even though we're making policy, we're not making law. And we on this we at this desk don't really have a whole lot of enforcement power on our own. So for example, if somebody did decide they wanted to test out their new drone over a football game, it wouldn't be any one of us that's going up to that person saying, "Hey, don't do that." We would have to talk to the coaches, the athletic director, and um West Lafayette PD. So enforcement is always about, you

158know, who can who has the authority to tell somebody not to do something. And it's kind of an assumption and a given that we have the authority to tell corporation employees, guests, visitors, and students what they can and can't do. And so that's why I say I was attempting to just, you know, put a point out there saying, "Hey, this wording might cause some difficulty later, but it's perfectly valid to pass now." But I also now see, like I said before, I probably just shouldn't have said anything. >> No, we appreciate your >> feedback. Appreciate that. >> All right. So, I don't remember what motion we have. We're on we're move uh Lawrence has moved to use the original from CCHA or to move to pass the original from CCHA >> in lie of the

159uh policy committee's version. So if we're ready to vote on that, I can hit the button. Okay, let's do that. [snorts] Why isn't is mine not working there? Okay, [clears throat] there we go. Okay, so that passes 61. Okay, so next we move on to G500. >> Right. So G500, intellectual property and ownership revenue. Um we had a lot of discussion about this one. Um went back to legal. Um and essentially, uh we went back to legal with some questions. they came back and said, you know, this policy is optional and as we discussed it and continue to discuss it, um our recommendation is that we not pass uh G500 at this time. >> Okay. So, we're we're just going to move on. >> Oh, I suppose. Yeah. >> I'm making that motion that we

160not pass it. >> Okay. Is there a second on that? I don't think we need a motion to option. >> If there's no mo if there's no motion, then there's no motion on it. We don't have to we only have to make a motion if we want to pass it. >> I have a question for those of us that weren't in the policy committee meeting. Can you just share kind of why this was something that they recommended, why you decided not to, just kind of some of the mindset behind it, please? >> Would you like me to go ahead? >> Okay. I think that there are a couple parts to it. Um, one is the legal enforcability of anything like this I think would go fairly well beyond the resources of um of the corporation

161to enforce. Um, we also felt like the policy um may be overreaching in terms of um the corporation would own things, intellectual property created by students. And we felt like um that we we we had some discussions about um perspectives on what should students own versus what should we own. and we felt like at this time we shouldn't be putting um a line down on trying to take students intellectual property >> in particular. We had a conversation about our our author and the intermediate school and how that that that was work done under the guidance of our teachers, but it certainly does not belong to the school corporation. So that was really what what drove the the anecdotal case that drove the conversation. Thank you. >> Okay, George. Just a question. Did any of you

162hear from CCHA about since we're a governmental body, are we even capable of holding copyright anyway? >> Oh, now you're getting deep. >> Governmental bodies can. >> Well, no, the federal government doesn't for the most part. I mean, there are some special exceptions, but um I wasn't sure whether or not we as a school corporation could if there weren't marks and trademarks related to the corporation itself. I was just curious. >> We didn't ask that question. We can if you want us to, >> but they also said we don't have to pass this policy. It's an optional one. >> Yeah. >> Then let's not spend the money. >> Right on. >> Well done. >> Okay. Um so the next item is the first reading of the following policies. It's um B 100 board authority and

163philosophy. C125 admission to the corporation parenthesis legal settlement settlement and F125 purchasing procedures and capital assets. And those along with G350 which is the one we postponed will be handled at the next meeting. >> That is correct. We also have um the H policies that we did not get to. We we intentionally set those aside to next month. So those were first reading last month and we're continuing those to to second reading next month. It's H100, H125, H1 175, H225. Um, and I think that's it. >> Okay. >> Um, but I want to just point out, we'll say it here in a public meeting. Um, C125 has multiple revisions and is very complex, a lot of feedback. I appreciate everybody who gave feedback as we went along. Obviously, that's not for this meeting. That'll be

164in our next meeting that we talk about. But the next policy meeting is on um February the 25th. And so if all board members could please um provide us their feedback um I think Robera has done a beautiful job of labeling things so that we can find them. And so if they could refer back to what version that would be very helpful when we get that feedback. >> Okay. And we'd like to have the feedback by February 20th. And we're going to hold that firmly this time because of the complexity. any feedback received uh after midnight on February 20th won't be considered. Is that correct? >> And a thank you to Lawrence who is the one taking on kind of collating all of this information together. It is not um simple and I have not

165been able to give it the focus that he has. So I'm very grateful to him for taking the lead on this policy in particular. >> You guys have done a great job. I am extremely grateful. Yes, David. Just for clarification, 11:59 p.m. Otherwise, 12 12 would be midnight would be >> 11:59 p.m. on February 20th. >> Just that to clarify >> clarity and transparency >> as as stamped by the email. Um, okay. [laughter] The next item, um, is the >> I'm sorry. >> Go ahead. >> UA, go ahead. I'm sorry. I didn't see your light. >> Just a clarification. And so for the transport policy and this is a general policy and uh on this policy we also talk about uh for each year probably we need to specify the cap for that year right

166so some details and will we have another policy or guideline or whatever we call it for this coming year if so when will be the timeline line for that because last time we heard that students are waiting for the results. Uh will we have that information for them by April or so? I'll ask Dr. Granner to chime in, but one of the things we talked about was having administrative guidelines complete at the same time as a policy. So it's clear some of these things belong in policy and some of them belong in administrative guidelines. And that's why this kind of feedback is important to get as we go so that those things can be sorted into the correct place where they're operationally appropriate. If that's does that sound like what we talked about? >> It

167does sound like what we talked about, but we also talked about that ultimately the board will determine what goes in policy versus Yeah. >> Okay. Yes, ma'am. >> Um, so if I understand correctly, typically we do a first reading. um revisions are recommended. Then at the next board meeting, the second reading and is there's a vote for this policy. I would like to ask that we don't plan on voting in March because it's going to be a lot of information for a policy committee to be looking at and then to think a few days later we're just going to be voting on something without ever having a discussion on the different topics. And so I think um which is I think pretty typical on anything that's complicated is this sounds great. Send all our recommendations

168to policy committee. They can make some thoughts and recommendations. But then the plan would be in March that we get to have a schoolboard discussion. The community can hear that. Then they can give feedback on whatever the final policy and then we vote in March. Otherwise I think we need to have a work session to discuss it because it's just a very complicated. There's tons of details and just thinking that the policy committee will decide what they're going to recommend. We all tell the community we're voting on in March doesn't seem like an appropriate process for passing this. >> George, >> I'm not opposed to having a work session about it, but for that policy in particular, we have been talking about it for months. >> No, but we I'm going to reference the community

169and all of us individually, us in small groups. Um, we've been talking about this for a really long time. >> There's a big difference between collecting information and talking about it and actually looking at a policy and seeing what the details of the policy are. And so if we, in my view, our key role as a schoolboard members right now is to get our community to pass the referendum. That's what we need. That's where our key funding is going to come from is to increase that. And that's going to happen with the community trusting us. And so any rush that we're putting on a policy that matters as much as this one does without having it very clear open discussion. This is what's being recommended. Here's the details. Okay, community. Any additional feedback on the

170policy, not just general collection. And so that's why I feel like this one needs to be handled differently. And if we would like to rush it to be voted on in March, which I'm fine with, then we I think we need a work session so that we can have the discussion on the actual policy before it's ready to vote. >> Can I ask a quick question? >> Yeah. >> As you guys dialogue, Mrs. Munford, if just so I understand, if if you said rush through with community or not community with um board work session, would it feel feel rushed through if if there was a work session? with it were you talked in public or would it feel uh like a a great compromise to continue to build community trust? >> My personal view is

171if there's a meeting and it can be the work session or it but not the work session a few minutes before the public meeting it be separate but then the community would be very clear kind of what we're advocating for and where we stand where the policy is right now. There's just a lot of work and discussion that needs to happen and to think that all those recommendations the policy committee is just going to do their opinion and then we're going to vote on it to me is skipping a process in this >> and and so I truly I wanted to know if if the the work session would would feel like that respect was grant okay thanks >> Rachel. Yeah. And I I mean I am not opposed to making this a three- reading

172policy, but I'm a little bit perplexed because the argument previously made was we must get this policy passed so that our students are protected and we can communicate with them. And now it is, hey, let's not do this until April um and when when we're close to the end of the school year. And so I think that's my question. I do think as a board that we have to keep our eye on the impact on students as a priority and I would like to understand from you Dr. Reiner the impact on students if we further delay the processing of this policy. >> I think it's very important to ensure we've come a long way on this and that's why I complimented the board from my perspective as superintendent earlier. I don't want to do anything

173to jeopardize trust and that's why I truly wanted to understand if an additional work session so that we don't move into April because I am concerned about the timeline and I think I heard Mrs. Mumford saying the same thing not to speak for you Mrs. Mford but if if we or if the board believes that that in between work session could do the same thing as moving it to April. I would I think it would be really important um to give families the information sooner rather than later, but I'm very sensitive to the trust of the community because I want them to feel heard and know that when we say we're going to review each year uh and we stay true to being very transparent and even if it means adding that additional work session

174in between now and the next board I think that can go along. This referendum is critical. Um and I think that point is is um well taken and so I'm very sensitive to any board member that says what can we do to be extra transparent and build the trust of our community. >> But I also am concerned about going into April. But I didn't hear anyone on the board saying that they aren't concerned about that. And so if we could get to a point where the whole board felt comfortable, I'm very comfortable with an additional work session, too. >> So the policy committee is meeting on February 25th. There's Monday, March 2nd, um, and Monday, I'm sorry, I looked at it wrong. Monday, March 2nd, in between that meeting and our meeting on the the

1759th, just as a For instance, since we love seeing each other on Mondays, would everyone be available on Monday, March 2nd as show hands quickly, please? Okay, >> let's wait on everyone. >> Yeah, same time as this meeting. Okay, >> is that all right with you? >> Could Could we do five? >> Sure. >> It just 550. >> This is what it says now. 530. >> Can we go 5:30? >> 530. [laughter] Do I hear 5:45? >> I'm fine with six. I just didn't know of an hour earlier. We hope everyone family time at home, but six works well with me. So, let's just do six to stay. >> Six is okay. All right. Um, so we'll six o'clock on Monday, March 2nd, we'll do a work session. Um, and we can discuss it one

176more time before we vote then on March the 9th. Is that all right with everyone? Okay. Good collaboration team. Um, Roberto, would you please send that out to everyone as a calendar invite so I don't screw up the work sessions and exec sessions again? You see what happens when I do it myself? It gets all fouled up. Um, okay. >> May I ask something? >> Yes, of course. And so so for that for a meeting I wonder whether we can besides that uh policy with everybody's income uh input I wonder whether we can also see the plan the the the guidance for the coming year and uh regarding for example the caps for total and the caps for each grade because that matters for example for the lower grade K23 will run new classroom just

177for the transfer student or we will only fill in any empty seat for the existing classroom. I think that matters and so I would like to see that in addition to the new policy. So the implementation and >> guidelines we could not provide because guidelines are created after a policy is developed and the policy won't be developed yet but caps we've started we put some information in Friday notes we can discuss that um everybody I think on the board has seen that uh that can be discussed of course by the board and if the board uh has additional questions or information you'd like for Mrs. Roth and I to provide for you. Of course, we will be happy to continue to do um data collection and provide that to the board so that the board

178can discuss in a work session. >> Sorry, one more question because I think I'm wanting to make sure I understand because it's um possibly new knowledge. Do I understand correctly that Indiana code says number one um if we accept transfer students we also have to prioriti prioritize accepting family members is that is am I >> in the discussions it felt like and my understanding in the past is there's kind of employees children's current transfer students and then there's all the other, you know, you could set up lots of categories, but everything else that could be considered. >> You are correct. And and it's the legal um the legally defined what is it? >> The pri the legally defined priorities. >> Leg legally defined priorities. Yes. >> We're required to prioritize >> children of current transfer

179students. >> I don't think so. I sent that to you. Let's pull that back up. I don't >> Sorry. Not children. Thank you. >> Yeah. Let's look it up real quick. >> Family members, siblings. Thank you. >> That would have been hous. That's a better word. Yes. That's an Indiana code. And I hadn't understood that previously. Okay. So, that has to be considered differently than all other applications per Indiana code. >> That's correct. >> And we're learning this as we go, too, because we've been in closed history. So, that's why I wanted to pull up the notes and I appreciate the appar. The community, you know, is trying to keep up with us. Yes. >> On all this information we're learning as well. Thank you. Just just so we're clear, just to make sure that

180no one's confused in the note that you sent us today. >> Yes. >> The answer that you got from the lawyers, it says the Indiana code does not require current transfer students and their household members to be treated as the same priority category. >> So the current transfer student is always the priority and then everybody else falls under that, >> right? In into a um a a um the lottery, >> a random drawing verifiable >> but if I understood correctly so we are not supposed to consider we don't have to consider a transfer student and their family member at the same level but we do have to consider the family member before we can consider other applications is that what I understood from Indiana code [clears throat] >> and to be specific the law says

181household >> household is the word I'm in my head >> a person residing in the same household >> okay helpful thank That sounds different than what's written here. That's why I'm trying to make get a clear understanding of where we're going with this. As it says right now, the note says does not require current trans students and their household members to be treated as the same priority category. >> Why don't we verify this with J tomorrow? >> So, it was my question and the reason I was asking it is do they have to be on the same line is was my question. Do we have to have them equal? And that's what she was saying. No, >> no, they the current >> the current transfer student is always the first priority and anyone else including

182someone in the same household falls at a different level of priority. So if we reached capacity through current transfer students, those in the same household would still have priority if we were to open up more capacity but not at the current transfer level. >> And that was your question, right? That they're not on the same line. >> Yeah. >> My question to see the legal council was, are they at the same level of priority or different? And so Indiana code says they do have to be prioritized, but not the answer was not at the same level. >> Correct. Yes. The other thing that we heard regularly from legal on this is that whatever rules, whatever priority we put in place has to be consistently followed. There's not exceptions. The rules are the rules and they

183have to be applied evenly. So that is language that you're going to see pop up throughout this whole thing as we go through. >> David, >> a couple. >> Okay, >> let me turn. >> There we go. That works. Okay. I think I think we have a limit of four people that can have their mics on at the same time. We just found that out. Um, two other pieces of information that we had discussed based off of conversations with legal the legal priorities that are listed there. We cannot add to those like we can't say that somebody who is a prior member of the robotics club um I'm using that as um would have priority. We can't add in other layers, including somebody in our preschool who is out of district. We can't prioritize them

184over other transfers. Um, so that's >> Yeah. So yeah, we we had had some stuff in there and we went we talked with legal and uh the other thing that legal brought up that's really important for us. If we change to say that we are a closed district then even current transfers cannot stay. So that that's an important piece for us in this discussion. If we if we use if if we change to closed then we have to remove all transfers. So did law change because we have said we are closed and accept transfer students for the last number of years. >> This is what threw us too Mrs. Mumford. So I want to explain this when I was asking that question. The question was if we don't continue with the agreement with TSC and

185we're working on a in in for that year the the this past summer and we're working on open versus closed. Can we just add them to our ADM since they were already coming? And the answer was yes. The piece that we didn't ask was what happens after a policy is voted on to fully close. And if you're closed, then you're not taking those transfers. So, what you would have to do is phase them out. And you would have to be an open district. And you would phase them out by setting your capacity differently each year so that by the time they were gone, they were all gone, but that you weren't adding additional students. So you as students were graduating, you would change your capacity so that new people weren't coming in and no one

186knew was coming in at the grade level where you still had transfers. Does that make sense? [laughter] >> How can I say that differently? Um Rachel, would you like to or Mrs. Whip? >> Basically, how I would explain it in shorter terms is the state law does allow you to to whittle down until you're close. You have an interim policy that says we're going to decrease this enrollment and you adjust your capacity levels so that we're always at capacity and more students can't come in. >> That's the key though. It's not an interim policy. It's a policy that you are an open district and yeah, >> it has to stay open. >> Yes. >> But you titrate your capacity down >> so that effectively you're not allowing anybody else new in until you are complete

187until all of those students are gone. And you do that by figuring out what is the what are the current what I was trying to say was the current transfer students who are how many are there at each grade level and that's your capacity for accepting others and that gets adjusted every year >> until you're at zero. >> Yeah. Now why is this something that's only being like I guess my question is why did a year ago we say we were closed but we were taking transfer students. We were open under the agreement with TSC and they were adding them to their ADM and we were charging. >> Oh, it's because of what's going on the ADM. So, it is because the law changed and doesn't change charge. >> We we would have had to

188change things period because of that. >> Yes, >> that's helpful. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> If I could also throw this out there, this was another question. David touched on a couple that were really important. Um, but there is a always been a question about staff and so we specifically asked legal what the minimum of the law is and that is that we provide for staff to enroll our students so long as we have capacity. That is the minimum that we can put in the law or in our policy. But what we can do is what we are already doing is we can do more than that in our policy and we can guarantee that children of our staff get placement. So I want to call that out that we have a distinction that

189we can make there. We can say that we're going to do the minimum the law requires or we can vote as a board to do more than that and guarantee our our staff's children, which I'm going to recommend that we do. But that's another decision that we have to make in this policy. >> Okay? And just to be clear, the last two dozen policies have been as a package, but we have done policies before where it's been this or that, you know, and someone has moved, no, I'd like to move that we accept the blue language and then we talk about that and then we go back to the policy as a whole. And we can continue to do that. That's not going to change just because it's a controversial policy. Um, it would be

190swell if we could have one packaged policy that we can all agree on. Um, but I've been here a while and I understand that that's probably uh as likely to happen as some other wishes I have. So, next we're going to talk about the committee assignments. In your packet, there is a list. Um, I have been invited by the mayor to stay on the redevelopment commission. Um to be very clear because there was a misunderstanding of this that was pointed out to me by a community member. The representative from Typican New Schools and I are non- voting members on the redevelopment commission. We have a seat at the table so that if something is going to unduly affect the schools or whether you know negatively or positively we can mention it. Like I've thanked uh

191the commission for some of the work they've done in the past and um they want our input because they don't want to negatively affect us but we are not voting on their items. Um so I have been invited to stay on that and I prefer to remain on board teacher discussion. I think it sends a positive message to the education association to have the president of the board on that. Um, George, uh, with the legislative Dea, uh, I've moved you to community council as you and Lawrence requested and moved Lawrence to the public schools foundation of Typicanw County. I appreciate you checking, uh, to make sure that was okay with their leadership. David on parks, Rachel um, on the West Lafayette Foundation, and Dr. Yen is, uh, going to finish out glass as they transition.

192Um, and we have discussed some other opportunities that are coming available around the same time as that will finish. So, we may um we may be able to make it so that there is no gap in your community involvement. So, I'm excited that that is the case. So, anyhow, um this is my recommendation. I move that we accept it. Is there a second? Uh David, thank you. Any discussion? Dea, I would like to make a motion to adjust it and add UA to the West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation as well. Um, at the last meeting, I thought Rachel gave a good point why two would be valid. UA had asked already to serve on it. So, I think it would be um and we reviewed the bylaws that says that we could have actually up

193to three people. And so I would like to um adjust your motion and add UA to the West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation as well. >> Okay. Is there a second? Okay. Um any discussion? Um George? >> Yeah. Um, I just want to warn everybody about how awkward this is going to be going forward if we're going to individually vote on who gets to do what rather than accepting the president's recommendations. You know, just something to keep in mind of the future. >> Um, also to share, typically committee assignments is a collaborative approach. It's not just one. Um, and like I said, as Rachel gave a good point, UA gave a good point, I gave a good point. So to me, this feels more collaborative than just um, approving this straight across. And I believe it

194would be better for our community to have two representatives um and give some great insight to the foundation. >> As you're aware, I did email everyone and I asked during a public meeting if people would share with me their preferences. And this list was not made in a vacuum with me rubbing my hands together and enjoying all my phenomenal power. It was simply the list that made sense. Um, also it has been our longstanding practice to not appoint a family member of someone who's on an existing board onto a board. And it is my understanding that Dr. Yin has a family member who is on the foundation board. >> That's correct. >> Yes. And so for >> child's a student representative. >> So is this a bylaw? It's not a bylaw, but as someone who

195comes from a long, long line of family businesses, it makes good solid sense. Um, part of the reason we have students on those positions is so that they can learn leadership and, um, it's hard to learn leadership with your parent sitting next to you. I also wouldn't put George on the parks board because his wife is on there and I think that just makes good logical sense. Rachel, >> I would just like to um compliment Dr. Y son and how he has um participated in those meetings. Um really insightful, really thorough, really conscientious and represents the student body extremely well. And I I while I agree it would be helpful to have a second person on the foundation, I do believe that um I wouldn't in any way want to forfeit his authentic participation. I

196as you said that I thought, yeah, my child wouldn't speak up if I were sitting there either. So I neither >> would mine. I'm gonna say that. Um but as I a point well taken. I um would like to uh amend the motion or move that we nominate um Lawrence to the foundation in addition to Rachel. Um so is there a second for that? Rachel. Thank you. Um so now we're discussing Lawrence and then we'll return to UA and then we'll return to the original. Um >> I think Lawrence has to accept that. Oh, Lawrence, do you accept that nomination? Sorry. >> Well, this is a little bit complicated. I mean, personally, I I think I already do the policy committees and also uh the foundation, public foundation. So, uh personally, I prefer uh somebody

197else to serve in there. But again, as I said, I'm flexible. So in case uh uh we cannot uh have other uh candidate I can I can kind of the the last I mean if you last resource uh if we cannot find good person for that uh that >> are you willing to serve on the >> yes okay >> but again as I said I prefer some other people to do that so that's my uh my uh situation thank you >> okay and and I did take into consideration the burden of all of your assignments when I suggested that the policy committee is wrapping up. So that will unbburden you. Yeah, we're all very excited about that. So um if no one else has anything to say about DEA, >> I do I think that

198this right here is an example of trying to cause division in a board and I think it's very embarrassing to our community. Um Dr. Yin has volunteered having her son who's a senior serve a few times. it would be between her and her son, not a decision that we're making. Um, now putting Lawrence in the middle to me is continues to send a message like Lawrence said, you know, um, both the leadership team and the policy committee, we have asked to serve and been told no, and once again, UA has asked to serve here and you've told her no and tried to put Lawrence in. So, I think the message of collaboration and working together, I think this is an example that of the unwillingness to allow others to serve. >> Well, Mrs. Mumford, collaboration

199doesn't mean you always get your way, and I apologize for that, but that's just how it is. I'm perfectly happy to leave one person on the foundation board, but if there is an insistence that there must be two, I think Lawrence is an acceptable second. So, we're going to go ahead and start that vote. Um, if you would like, we're voting on whether or not to make Lawrence an additional nominee to the West Lafayette Foundation. Okay, so that passes 52. Um, so if we return to the list, um, that adds Lawrence to the Oh, I can't edit this. Sorry. All right. So, um, back to the nomination for Dr. Yin to be on buttons, the West Lafayette Foundation. Um, is there any further discussion on that? No. Okay, I'll start the vote. Oh, sorry. Um,

200I recognize the need for having somebody else on the education foundation. Um, I do also recognize a conflict um with two members of the same family in and I I know that that the it may appear to be something that could be between the two of them, but I think um your son is a senior this year, correct? So he would be stepping off mid year. Um I I would I would suggest that we wait to add another member and um till that point to allow him to finish off that term and then I then I think adding uh Dr. Yen at that point I think would be very reasonable. Um that allows for transition there but also protects um the the dynamic on the on the board. Um it's something that I'm sensitive about

201with um with community boards as well. >> Okay. >> But we did just vote to appoint Lawrence to it. >> I think Lawrence could step down mid year if that was something he was interested in doing. >> The bylaw says that there can be three board members. So it actually could be all three that serve on it if it was decided. >> Okay. Dr. I just want to clarify that when I volunteer to sur I didn't think about my that my son sur I he so old enough to be independent I barely know what he he does and actually a couple times and the first time I know he's on it is Sean sent me picture of him making a speech or something at the meeting and he's quite independent. I volunteer to ser only

202because I feel they're part of the community that I I have the capacity to reach in terms of and respond and also the alumni news and because I have a lot of connection there and I want to contribute that's my whole intention. It has nothing to do with my family members, but I appreciate that point out George point out there's a family regulation. I respect that and uh I agree with David I think to reduce that uh and connection and I will not serve on it as a third person at this time. I'll wait until my son graduate which will be in May and then we can decide that time. Okay. So, you are um not accepting the nomination at this time and therefore we don't need to vote on it and so we can

203move back to the original motion which was the whole slate. Right. >> Is that correct? >> Yeah. Thank you. Um I'll also remind the rest of the members of the board that there will be a an additional personnel change mid year on this board that we've all already talked about. So, I'm just trying to keep it all even. All right. Can we go ahead and vote on the rest of the slate? Cool to approve the nominations. There we go. Thank you. All right. What is next? Dr. Grinder, I would love to hear your superintendent report. >> I would love to report, Mrs. Austin, and mine is short. Uh, I'd like to provide a quick calendar update. February 13th, no school for students as teachers will be focused on professional development. Remember that February 16th, school

204is in session at this time. Um to conclude the superintendent report, I'd like to ask Mrs. Roth to please report on accounts payable uh and our fund reports. >> Certainly. Claims for the period of January 3rd, 2026 to February 4th, 2026 total 3,866,43859. That amount includes both Wbash Valley Education Center and corporation expenses. For that same period, salaries and benefits totaled 2,811,000 207.34. And then a final fund report is included in the board packet for the month of December 25th for the month ending December 25th uh 2025. And total funds on hand amounted to 20,112,699.13 with an education fund balance of $8,127,00013485. And then finally, a preliminary fund report for January is included in the board packet. But please note the month has not yet been completed nor has it been reconciled. >> There we

205go. Thank you. >> May I ask a quick question about that? >> If you have the information available, if not, you can just send it to me later. >> Um, I noticed in the object breakdown that it appears that we pay transfer tuition. Is that true? And if so, who do we pay it to? >> Um, so it is possible that we could pay. We do have some students who for a variety of reasons might not be receiving their educational services in our district. That could be a case for a student who has maybe uh services through special education. Could be for a variety of other reasons. But we can look you were looking at a specific line. Correct. On the other >> it was it was a part of the pie chart in the

206object. So that would be the most that would be the most um common reason. We could also have students that are for whatever reason placed out of our district for health purposes or for a variety of other reasons. Sometimes students who are um um have run a foul of the law can be placed out of our district but and educated elsewhere. So there are reasons that we could be paying for students to be educated this way. >> Anything else? >> Lawrence. >> Yeah, I think I answered that question um in the email, but I just want uh uh maybe you can share more just the same information regarding the the cash balance for referendum account and also for operation account funding a fund account. So we kind of the cash reservation kind of um going

207down. So that make me quite a little bit nervous. So if you can share more information I mean the whole community can kind of better understand our uh situation that will be better I think. Thank you. >> Yes. So typically we've been near 100% tax collection for property taxes. We were 85% and a lot of that was due to appeals. Um and so uh that affected our operations fund uh and it affected our referendum fund since those are based on collection of property taxes. In addition, uh the track the high school track project and uh purchase of a bus uh came out of the operations fund and those were one-time hits and so that's where you see uh that reduction. Yeah, I have no problem with those. I think we we uh we are kind

208of pretty the administration team did business office did excellent work regarding so just uh because our income the levy kind of going down but I mean 15% that's quite a lot I mean I'm just wondering uh is that a big apartment to go appeal or I mean that's who who make that appeal and then just kind of uh >> it is um property owners appealing uh challenging uh what they were charged And that money once the appeal has been addressed and determined um those dollars >> yeah would come our direction at whatever the agreed upon amount is through the process of appealing. >> But do you think these things happen very often? This is first time for me to to say we have only collect 85% and normally whatever we have we just collect pretty

209much close to 100. for for us our district. No, we've typically seen the collection. It is because of >> if you remember when uh the challenges were um based on the apartments. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. That's where there was encouragement to appeal, not by us. Um but that's where uh it just has to work through that process. >> Rachel, can you give the history on that real quick? Do you remember 2008? Was that before your time? >> No. You've been here a minute. Um, >> wait. 2008 before my >> Yeah, I was. But wasn't there a 2008 was the housing crisis and all the schools got paid late and it's my understanding that that's why the cash reserves were kept so high for so long was because school districts got burned by not getting

210their property tax dispersements on time. I >> I believe though Mr. Wong's question was Why is it lower? And part of it is those one-time expenses and then the revenue is down, >> right? >> And I'm suggesting >> the revenue being down has happened before. It's just been a minute. >> Okay. I'm just going by this. We've collected 85% as as opposed to current 100%. And so that's >> we're saying >> respectfully that's what I can answer. Does that make Okay. Okay. >> Yeah. And Michelle actually told us that story a couple. You're right. Okay, David. >> So, just for clarification, um when you say that we're down 15%. That's down 15% of um there's 15% that hasn't yet been collected because the individuals or companies are appealing that and so none of their property

211tax has been paid in. And so once the their appeal is dealt with, it'll be some amount in that 15% that we will get. Um >> correct. It's not that appeals have already been decided and the revenue is down 15%. But that revenue that 15% will be coming in within a little bit of a margin of error. Yes. At some point hopefully relatively soon once the appeals are decided. >> That is correct. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, >> Dr. Pepper. >> Everybody good? >> Let's Yeah, go ahead. >> Jennifer, Dr. Grryer or the policy committee? I don't know the best process. um the parent that had mentioned the questions about our policy and enrolling in classes and extracurricular. I was wondering at at the next board meeting we could bring that policy forward

212as a first reading to kind of look at the policy and see what is it saying are where are we at and consider that >> that I will say that yes Mrs. Whit please respond but um Mr. Rogers had has been in contact um has talked about that policy in the past. It is um an old policy and one that'll be retiring. So, does this topic need to go in our current um big policy we're talking about right now, C125, or is this a different I mean, in some ways it has to do with that because it's capacity, but in other ways it doesn't. Is this something that we need to look at a new policy to address this? >> That that would be the board's decision. >> How about uh re go ahead. Sorry,

213Rachel. >> Well, what I was going to say is I do agree that that policy probably needs to be reviewed, but that is not going to be something that comes up in March, April. That's going to be something that's really going to start to hit in July and August of next year. And so it' be my recommendation that we set that aside and schedule that perhaps for a first reading in April or even May. Um so that it could get some attention that it deserves and not kind of compounded with the other higher things. If we could just wrap up, deal with the transfer boundaries um conversation, but also legal settlement. Sorry, that's the wording we use. um but also just get through this first round and be able to um resend all of the

214previous policies and get down to one set of policies and I think there will be a need to go in and grab some of these other ones and look at them. But part of this is just pacing. So I just don't I I think it's going to get buried and not get the attention it needs if we try and do it this coming next week. >> I think bringing it forward in the March meeting number one recognizes uh community members valid concerns. I also think once again as we've been talking about, you know, this year what we're trying to do is show our community that we're listening and care about their input and we have several families that live in our school district that will be voting on the referendum that are homeschooling. So, I

215think that bringing it in the March one just shows here's what the policy is because I think many of us aren't even sure what it is. That doesn't mean it has to be decided immediately, but I do think it's an important detail because it will be involved in our capacity numbers as we're looking at that in the next few months. >> So, are we are we rushing that one then? Putting a rush on that one. >> Speaking of speaking of transparency, all of our policies are up on the corporation website. If any board member ever wants to read them, you can just go get on the corporation website and look at them. If you have any questions about that one, it's up there. >> Dr. Dr. Grryer, would you put a note in Friday notes

216about that policy in particular and some of the concerns that might surround it? >> Yes, I can do that. Thank you, Mrs. Austin. >> All right, let's go on to the board reports. Um, I attended the foundation meeting um for Rachel and they were working on strategic planning and uh mission and statement, values. It was a great discussion and there was pizza. So, uh, thank you for letting me attend that on your behalf. And I also renewed my oath of office at the redevelopment commission. Um, and they spent money. So, George, what's going on with the legislature? >> I will be going to state house day next week to talk to our legislators in person to um, get a sense of what they're dealing with and hopefully give them a sense of what we're dealing

217with. So, um, God speed to me, I guess. Thank you for doing that. Lawrence, do you have a report today? >> Okay, Rachel. >> Thank you for going to that meeting. It was knowing that it was a long range planning u meeting and I'm not long range, I wanted to put somebody else in there for that one. Um I do have some notes from Wendy. Tickets are on sale for Scarlet and Grey dinner and auction. That is Saturday, March 28th. It is at the stables this time. Um information is on the foundation website. Um there are sponsorship uh opportunities available. The theme this year is your senior prom. So if you come, you'll get to see me in an exciting dress. Um the spring cycle for the teacher grants open last week's last week. Applications

218are due Friday, March the 13th. They have been trying to um the foundation has been trying to work very hard to raise funds to meet increased number of grant requests and try and fund as many teacher requests as possible. Um the scholarship application window for students closed today. Um the foundation has 28 named scholarships with some scholarships offering multiple awards. Um that selection process is handled by committees of teachers, counselors, and coaches and then handed back to the foundation to notify recipients um later this spring. Um and then finally, tomorrow, February 10th, is Indiana Public Education Foundation Day. Um this is sponsored by the Indiana Association of Public Education Foundations. It raises awareness of the needs of these. Uh when I came on the board, um public school foundations were unheard of and now they

219are a necessity. Um so they champion academic excellence, empower students, strengthen public schools across Indiana. Um our executive director, uh Wendy Eer is a board member for this foundation. So you may see posts on that on social media and please feel free to share those. Talk about how um you see the awesome work the foundation does and it is awesome. Also January 28th um in ISBA we had the reason region 4 coffee chat here. Thank you Dr. Grryer for allowing us to use this space um to have a coffee chat. We had some wonderful representation from around region 4. Some great conversations um and uh really a great local opportunity to get to hear from other school boards. Particularly interesting to hear from both Tiffany school and um Lafayette school board present at that chat.

220Um hopefully next time we have one of those uh somebody from our board other than me will be also be able to attend. Um the um last note here is that to mark your calendars please for Monday April the 6th that is the region 4 meeting um where we'll kind of get some new legislative updates. Um and along those lines Terry Sprdlin continues to send out the legislative updates to all of us on Friday and those are always a good time to read. Thank you. And I'm sorry I couldn't be here. It was the two-hour delay that screwed it. >> I wasn't trying to shame anybody. I'm just saying it was worthwhile. And if you could >> and that two-hour delay really screwed it all up for me. Thank you for doing that. David, go

221ahead. >> I would make a joke that it was too cold for parks and wreck. But actually, our parks are a wonderful place even in the winter. if you didn't get a chance to go over to Kasein Family Park for some sledding. Um, the reports I heard I was too cold for me to go out. Um, but fantastic sledding. The maintenance staff was even able to clear off the stairway up so you're not like trudging up a slippery hill and falling down every 5t. You actually have a nice clear staircase to get get up and it's a wonderful experience for families. Also, the ice skating rink is open. Um, it's winter, but we're already thinking about summer. Uh, summer camp registration was on Saturday at 8:00 a.m. and filled up right away. Uh, this is

222your annual reminder that our community is vastly underserved for summer camp opportunities um for full day summer camp opportunities. So, it's something to continue to talk talking to groups around um around the community about and trying to expand our capacity. Um the meeting itself was relatively light because several folks were gone for training events and um there wasn't a lot of other updates. Things are going well. >> Thank you. >> Smoothly run operation over there. >> UA uh is anything going on with glass right now? >> The the glass meeting was cancelled for this month and so there's no update for that. And I would like to echo what Disha proposed regarding the parents um request on the extracurricularum and partially enjoying our school for those uh home um homeschool families and I heard a

223similar comments and during my campaign years ago and so sounds like the problem was there for more than 20 years probably even. So hopefully we can solve the problem and be I did hear similar concerns and those people pay the higher tax but they because they homeschool their kids their kids cannot attend our activities at all and hopefully they can join ours and even just partially. Thanks. >> Okay. Thank you. Dea, what's going on with the other foundation? The Public Schools Foundation of Typicanw County um currently has teacher grants open until March 9th. Their cupcake challenge at Harrison High School is on February 13th. Um GLCA and other high schools are participating in that and it's a really fun event. Um SK High donated 50,000 and so they're working on the best way to use

224that donation. Um and that's the update for them. >> That's great news. Um thank you. So, I've added to my list that we have a work session on March 2nd at 6 PM to specifically discuss the transfer policy. There will be public comment at that meeting. Um, we have uh the possibility of a work session on March 9th if needed and our regular meeting will be March 9th at 6 PM. I need a motion to adjourn, please. Moved by Lawrence, second by Rachel. Uh, I'd call it yes. There we go. Let's do buttons. That's a majority. We're journed at uh 9:20 p.m. Thank you.