WLCSC - Work Session & Regular Board Meeting November 10 , 2025

0015:00 and Dr. Yin uh said to go ahead and start with efforts. So, we're going to call to order the November 10th work session. And this evening we have Mr. are here to share financial forecast information with us and um we're going to try to adjourn by 5:45 to get everything moved around for the regular meeting. So, okay, take it away. >> All right, great. Okay, good to see everyone and and u been a while since I've been here. I don't think I've been in this room yet, but uh it's nice nice setup here. So, thank you. Um, so I'm going to start actually with some material that was uh prepared by policy analytics. Policy analytics is a group in the state that has been doing parcel by parial analysis for a number of districts

002throughout the state. Uh, and they do a really good job at it. And so I what I want to focus on in particular is um Senate Bill One that was passed this last legislative session and how that's going to impact our future revenue as it relates to the referendum. That's probably going to be your most pressing decision in terms of your financial forecast coming up. And we'll talk a little bit about, you know, the finances of it, what it looks like in the forecast, but also just the timeline, thinking through when is the right time to to uh potentially rerun the referendum um in the next um potentially next municipal election. Um so this first slide, uh oh, Windows K. >> Oh, let's see here. Windows K board room. Boarding. Well, I had it. I

003had it and then there maybe it's connecting. >> So, while that's thinking, I'm going to start off with a few comments about the legislative session. Kind of just recap on a big picture. Um, it was probably one of the most difficult legislative sessions that I had ever experienced. I've been doing this a long time. And um I would I would start off by saying um you know the there was a version that came out of the Senate with the governor's proposal that included some pretty steep property tax cuts that was included in his campaign uh that he was going to reduce property taxes. Um which was pretty steep and had no replacement revenue in it. Um then the senators, which I know were negotiating with the uh governor's office, um were working on their own

004proposal and they weren't necessarily rewinding property taxes, but they were trying to limit future property taxes and in the first year actually allowing zero increase in that levy and then going 1% the second year, 2% the third year. And so it was really uh going to impact you know your ability to to uh keep up with inflation. It too did not have any replacement revenue in it. It was purely uh going to be a reduction in in your future revenues. Then it flipped over to the house and uh Representative Thompson who's the chair of House Ways and Means u had been working on a pretty significant piece of legislation that included um property tax reform uh but also included reform to local option income tax. Now, you're not directly impacted by local option income tax.

005It affects mostly uh the the uh cities and towns and counties, townships and libraries, but nevertheless, it was a it was a complicated piece of legislation. And um it was still not enough though uh in enough reform the governor. And uh what they ended up doing is inserting a homestead credit into that bill. And so they essentially adopted Representative Thompson's proposal, but then they increased it by putting this new credit in. I'm going to talk a little bit about that credit, how much it's going to cost the district. Um, but that's really how they got it over the finish line is with this new credit um that will go into effect in 2026. And it I would say the beginning of the session felt like a train. It felt like like things were you didn't

006have a lot of room to negotiate. Um, and it finished like a train when it got through. There were no committee meetings. it was passed and it went to the governor's office and um and it was it was put in put in motion and it took the consultants a lot of professionals that work in the in this industry a while to peel that onion back to see what this was really going to look like and so uh I think most people have a better handle on it now and and as time progresses we're getting more and more information again policy analytics they they actually do work for the state, they do work for the legislative body, they work with Dr. Dbor, for those of you know who Dr. Dbor is, the local resident here. Um,

007so, uh, they they work in in, um, the legislative process and so, uh, they they they did analysis for West Lafayette and drilled down into that data. Uh, and this is this is not their full report, but what I tried to do is pick out the pieces that were relative to the the referendum renewal. Um, and so the things they focused on were um the deductions, the what's called the supplemental homestead deduction. So today in 2025, there is a standard $48,000 deduction with an additional 37.5% supplemental deduction. And over time between now and 2031, that standard deduction goes away, but the supplemental deduction is going to increase from 37 a.5% to 66.7% by the year 2031. And so I use this example as nice uh round math, but if you have a $300,000 home, by

008the year 2031, you'll only be paying on $100,000 of assessed valuation. And so that is going to take a large part of the tax base away, your ability from what you collect taxes. Uh but they didn't stop there. Uh they also introduced a new deduction for rental property and rental property in 2000 does not have a deduction but it will begin in 2026 starting at 6% and will increase to 33.3% by the year 2031. Another big hit to the tax base and in particular to your referendum tax base because your tiff district that exists uh includes a lot of rental property and so uh that that property will get that slowly. Thank you for doing that. I'll miss that. Is slowly going to get that deduction uh going forward. So um so looking up here

009at the screen uh the actual last 10 years AV increase this is net AV okay this is not including the tiff area let's see try to get that out of the way there we go um the the last 10 years your your average net AV has been going up 3.3% that's really been nice steady growth now some of the larger increases has happened in the last two to three years, but on average it was it was 3.3%. Um, this year, uh, the net AV only increased 1.6%. And part of that is because of the supplemental homestead deduction increasing uh this this next year. And this is the most important part in that uh the next five-year average uh you're we're expecting to see a four 4.4% decrease each year in that tax base. And so

010that's a lot of that's to do with these new deductions. Um uh they also um they also change business personal property and what is reported. Previously um they had uh anyone with $80,000 or or more in personal property would have to report. Um, starting in 2027, that number has been raised to $2 million, which eliminates a large, uh, portion of your filers of business personal property. And so, um, that too is going to erode at that tax base. That actually takes effect in 2027 and it kind of hits all at once. They originally were going to phase in a million dollars, then $2 million, but it they they didn't have enough time to to do the million dollars. So, it's just all going to fall into the into 2027. But if you look over here

011at this far left bar graph in 2025, um right now uh we we lose about $500 million in that in the in the U supplemental homestead deduction. But you can see by the year that is almost that is doubling uh from what we're currently deducting. And then you can see right next to it the 2% cap deduction being zero in 2025 and by the year 2035 that we're we're losing $629 million there. So those are big deductions that are that are impacting our ability to collect property taxes. And this graph on the top here I think gives a good illustration. This top top line represents the the gross of the AV or excuse me the AV as it's as it grew. And you can see that there's very little gap between that gross AV and

012that net AV between the light blue line. But then you can see here uh that in the future how big that gap is growing. And it's because of the increasing in that supplemental deduction and the in the increase in the in the um deduction for the 2% class. This doesn't really apply to you, but farmers are also now getting this deduction. I mean, you don't have much farm ground left in your taxing district, but that 2% category is really farm ground and apartments. Apartments obviously are directly impacting you. So, that that somewhat explains what you're going to see in terms of our referendum loss. Um, your referendum is a rate driven fund and so that declining assessed valuation is is going to produce less revenue uh into the into the foreseeable future. Um the next

013page here, I think this really highlights uh what what it's going to look like because uh on the left here it shows your his historical information and including 2026. This is your net AV that went up 1.6%. But look in 27 that we're actually going to see a 7.3% decrease in that net assessed valuation uh due to all those changes. And it's more in the year 2027 again because that business personal property all takes effect in that first year. And then you can see it gets it gets down to 4.4 3.7 3.6 etc. And it's not until the year 2032 then where we start to see growth in the assessed valuation again. This um this page u represents uh what we currently lose to what's called the circuit breaker. And just a reminder what circuit

014breaker is. Um if you have a home uh you have a 1% cap on your property with no matter what the value is. So again the $300,000 home 1% you have a $3,000 cap on that. The only way you get beyond that cap is if you have a referendum and then that money goes on top of that. But this first this dark blue bar represents what we're currently losing to the circuit breaker. And interesting enough, because they're increasing that supplemental deduction, there will actually be fewer properties that hit the circuit breaker in the year 2026, but then it starts to climb again back through 27 and 28 and then then it starts to decline again in those future years. But there are two new pieces in here that I mentioned and that is the homestead

015credit. Um, the homestead credit is 10% of the tax bill or uh no more than $300. So again, using the 300 three $300,000 home if they were at 1% um the maximum they're going to pay is is $3,000, but then now they'll get an additional $300 credit on that. So they'd actually be paying $2,700. And so that is a pure loss of revenue. It impacted schools, cities, towns, counties, townships, and libraries. And in your case, you can you can see that you're going to lose between those two bars. Uh you're going to lose $195,000 in the debt service fund and $130,000 in in the U operations fund. And that doesn't go away. Now, the good news that doesn't grow a whole lot. It's a little bit different than circuit breaker. It's less volatile, but it

016will be in place um going forward. And that that will be one of the questions that we'll talk about here in a little bit. Do we want to potentially raise the referendum rate up to make up for that? And so, that would be an option to you. Uh the cities and towns and counties and townships, they have a little bit different method. they could actually raise local option income tax to make up for some of that change. I would say I would also describe it is it's truly a shift from property tax to income taxes this this model. But in your case, you don't have local option income tax and there are a few schools that actually do go get local option income tax and that's going away for them too as part of that

017reform. But what I also want to highlight is this is an anticipated change. Uh this was a this was there was a lot of change, but I think this might have been one that was an oversight in that right now the loss of that homestead credit is shared between the debt service and operations fund. But I'm anticipating in this next legislative session that they're going to clarify that and that it will all be taken that the loss will all be taken in your operations fund. I don't think it was intended for the debt fund to take it because what would happen is if you lose those dollars in the debt fund, you would raise the rate up just to make up for it. And this is property tax reform. We're trying to get property taxes

018down. That'd be that was not the intent. And and right now, um, we take all of the circuit breaker loss in the debt in our operating fund, operations fund. And so that wasn't always like that either. At one time we used to take some of the loss in the debt fund and some of the loss in the operations fund. But in 26 that that is the case. We are going to be able to allow take some of that loss in the debt fund and not hit the operations. But I would anticipate uh that in future years so that that we're going to have to eat all of that. And anything that you eat in the operations fund means it has more pressure from the education fund to transfer dollars to it to make up for

019it. So um okay um so this will be one of the questions we circle back to here in a little bit. The next page, I think this is another good visual, and I'm going to talk more about this when I get into the PowerPoint, but uh in the year 2026, um our referendum rate uh is anticipated to generate 8,718,000 in this first year. But you can see then as that with that 37 cent rate, you can see that as that AV declines by the year 2031, you're only collecting $7.3 million at a time when you need that number to grow to keep up with the cost of living. And so that's another another model I ran for you to show you what do we need? What do we think we need? not what are we

020going to get, but what what how much more would we need to to keep pace? Um, so again, your referendum was approved in 2023. Uh, is currently at 37 cents. Um, and the question is you, by the way, this conversation, um, is in lots of school districts right now. I had a meeting today at noon and it was about the school referendum. A lot of schools are preparing to rerun referendums in this next calendar year in 2026. It can only be run in general elections. Now, it's different than before where we used to be able to run special referendums in in off years. Now, it has to be run in a general election year. And so, in this case, you can only run it in 2026 or 2028. And I think a lot of schools

021are thinking about running it in 26 because it gives them uh more leeway if if it doesn't go well. If the referendum renewal did not go well, it gives them another shot at it then in 2028 without getting too far down the line. So, um, again, those that have referendums are having this very conversation and, um, I think you'll see a lot of them running those in 2026. Now we we asked policy analytics just to run this as a hypothetical in that we said all right the blue graph repres the light blue graph represents you know what it looks like with projected assessed valuation but what would it look like if we ran the rate at 46 cents just hypothetically and you can see that by the year 2031 then uh we'd be slightly more

022than $9 million Um, I'm not sure that's quite enough to be real frank. You're going to see in a moment um some some modeling of what what what you might actually need. Um, and one with the last slide of policy analytics, then I'm going to move on to the PowerPoint. Um, we talked about that $300 credit. This is going to be confusing to homeowners because they're expecting their property taxes to decline, but that may not be true because it depends on what happens with their assessed valuation. If their values of their home went up, that is going to generate a higher tax bill and that credit may only go to help reducing that increase. And so that might be a point of confusion when people get their tax bills in 2026. and they look at

023it and go, "Well, it didn't go down like it was promised." Um, but it may now, if their assess valuation remained flat, they would see it. They would see a reduction, but a lot of people saw increases in their assessments again this last year and it will likely eat up some of that credit. So, what I've tried to do now is I'm gonna go to the PowerPoint is I've tried to break your decision down into four questions. And when you're trying to arrive at what is what is the right rate for West Lafayette and I will tell you that it's not the same for all school districts. It depends on the makeup of the school district and how they're impacted. Everybody's everybody is being impacted differently. I mean, there there's this property tax reduction happening

024to everyone, but it depends on the makeup of the district. You know, some small rural schools that rely on farm ground, they really got hit this year with it, too. So, each one's unique. But in your case, I think um that we've narrowed it down to four questions when you're trying to get what should this next what what should rate what rate should we run that fits our situation? And the first question, which is the biggest one in my mind, is should we or should we rerun the referendum um and make up for the loss? I think I think you're going to find that almost everyone with a referendum is going to do that. But then the question is how much how much should we raise the rate to make up for that? And so

025again, this is all based on Senate Bill One. Um, but right now in 2026, we're excuse me, expected to collect about $ 8.7 million in property tax from that referendum. What I did, this is a little bit different modeling. What I did, I thought, well, what if we compounded that n if we increase that number 3% each year compounded between now and 2031? 3% being an assumption that we would need 3% to keep up with the cost of living and obviously be able to pay for teacher raises and compensation going forward. If your revenue is doing this, if we're going to lose revenue, there is no money for for raises. So, what is the right amount that we should be asking for in the referendum and expecting that referendum levy to increase? And as a

026reminder, remember that first chart I showed you, your average your average assessed valuation over the last 10 years was 3.3%. Okay? So in an if that were to hold true, you would have seen referendum dollars on average increasing about 3.3%. All I did is I took the current referendum levy and compounded it by 3% to 2031. And what you see here is um that's 10 just it's it's a little better than $10 million that you would need uh to to keep up with that cost of living. Right now we know 37 cents the rate we have right now times the 2031 AV is only going to generate 7 million3. And so that's a differential of almost $2.8 8 million that we would we would need to make up. So what I did is I took

027the $10 million divided by the projected AV of 2031 and then that that would call for a rate of 0.5115. Now keep in mind that sounds like a large increase but keep in mind that what the homeowner's assessments are doing their assessments are going down. You might be raising the rate but their investments are going down. You're not ask necessarily asking for a lot more money and you're asking for, you know, should we keep up with inflation. That is a decision you're going to have to make as as a board is what is the right amount we we need to expect by the year 2031. I use 3%. You might tell me to run a model of something different. Today is just conversation. You might want to see a different model than 3%. you might

028want to see four. Um, the reason I throw out four is that's what the legislators have been allowing your operations fund to grow by. Your operations fund levy has been growing by 4% the last three years. So 3% is actually conservative, but you can see what 3% calls for. That's a $10 million number. It's a pretty big pretty big number out there. Sean, there we go. That's all right. >> Am I am I gonna stop your flow if I ask a question? >> No. No. feel free. >> So, with all that you just said, um, are we still constrained by state law with the language that we would have to use if we ran a referendum? >> They they have prescribed the language. I would say they may have made some improvements on that. But

029here's where this that's a good question. Here's where it's going to get confusing. We don't need that $10 million number today, nor will we need the 51 cent rate in the year 2027. We would be we would be asking the community to approve a rate high enough to generate what we're going to need in the year 2031. You would likely just take the levy of 2026 and increase it by 3% and then whatever the AV is, it would generate a rate something less than the 51 cents. It would not be 51 cents until the year 2031. that that will be the approach of a lot of districts going forward. In the past, we've gone out with a rate and a rate is the rate. It stays that way for eight years. In this case, this

030this would be a different messaging in that we have to set that rate high enough because if we ran the referendum rate just for 27, we wouldn't be setting it high enough for the year 2031. So, there have been some districts that have been successful with this in the past. They they do it they've been doing it now. Speedway Schools um has been doing this for years. They've been asking the community to approve a 50 cent rate, but they never collect it. They never use it all. And even if even if you came to the conclusion 51 cents is your right rate, I would tell you for your first year that you would say to the community, yes, that's 51 cents, but we promise you that we're not going to collect more than 3% new

031money in the year 2027. and and the rate will go up because the AV is going down, but um that you would not fully utilize that 51 cents until the year 2031. Does that make sense? Totally off my game right now. There's a lot of schools who are um they're this is they're going to struggle. They have struggled to pass a referendum. they don't have the community support that we have had. This is going to be catastrophic to them. Is there any sense? And you said in like a train, out like a train. It my guess is there are some legislators that really didn't understand the impact of what they were voting for. Is there any sense that they will revisit some of these things and soften them? >> That's a good question. Um and

032and I would describe what they passed is waiting into the water. If you think about what they've done, they didn't slam these deductions in 20276. They spread them out between now and 2031. And there are a lot of legislative sessions between now and then. And I don't think you're going to be one of them. I think you'll be more fortunate. You're going to bet a weather probably a little better than most. But there are going to be some districts that really hit the wall. And it will probably take the wrong right district and the wrong legislator and I go, "Wait a minute. We didn't mean for that to happen. And so there were a lot of legislative sessions for adjustment along the way. Maybe we don't get to the 66.7%. I'm not saying that's going

033to happen, but I think they designed it this way intentionally is that they can kind of see how this is going to play out in this next legislative session. I do not anticipate a lot of change to this pop property tax structure because we're just getting into it in the year 2026 and 2026 doesn't even feel that different from 25. It's after that where it really starts to kick in. And so, Representative Thompson has also been out there saying don't expect major changes to what's been passed. On the local option income tax side, I do anticipate a lot of conversation in this next short session about that. Now, that doesn't impact you directly. You have some uh property tax relief from LIT, but you don't control any of that. Um, so again, I I think

034we're kind of waiting into the water on this, but you can always collect less, right? But once you pass that rate, if you if you decide to run 26, you can't go higher than that unless you run it again. Now, like you said, you've you've been very fortunate that your community has been supportive of your school district and you've had you've had a good success rate. So, I think you'll have an easier time than most. It will be a confusing message that we're asking for 51 cents or whatever we decide the rate is, but we're not going to collect it all. That will be a new twist to to the messaging. >> One more question. Isn't there legislation to limit how often people could run referendums or could run referendums and did that pass? I

035don't remember. >> There is a period from which you can't rerun them, >> but in your case, you have one in place. >> Okay. >> If you ran it >> and you were unsuccessful, it does not eliminate your 37 cents. There are some that are unsuccessful, capital referendums that are unsuccessful and there's a waiting period before they can rerun those. >> Got it. >> But in your case, your scenario right now, it does not kill. You do not risk your 37 cents if you were to run a referendum 26. >> Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. >> Next question is, should we raise the referendum rate if we decide to no longer take transfer students? And so we currently have 160 students enrolled. um the basic grant this year. Now, this is hypothetical. If it

036was all in place this year, okay, I I know that you would never just shut it off. Probably you if you did, it would probably be a phase out of some sort, but I wanted to just to show you if this were in place today, you know, what would be a reasonable expecta expectation for the referendum rate to make up for that change. And so, I attempted that. Again, this is this is just a scenario. I'm not saying this is how it plays out, but we currently have 160 students. Uh our our per pupil amount is $7,185. So the potential loss of revenue is a,14,9600 and the current assessed valuation uh that if we had that in place today that we got rid of that 160 students and we didn't cut any expense, part two

037of that, I think you will cut expense if you lose that many students. you would you would cut some expense, but if you didn't cut any expense, you would need an additional .0489. So, in other words, you didn't want to change anything, but if we lifted 160 students out, we would need another 0489. But I don't know that that's realistic. That if you did not accept transfer students, I think you would be able to over time reduce some expense with that. You'd probably reduce some teaching positions because you would not need as many teachers with fewer with fewer students. Um but I just hypothetically again said all right well what if we could reduce 50% of that cost that's roughly five teachers right so if we reduce 50% of that cost realistically then we would

038need to add 0245 to the rate so again just hypothetical but I think this is one of those questions and I know you're working on a survey and I think the timing of that's good again we're not looking for any answers or any decisions tonight. This is just to get you in the in the direction of what we probably need to make a decision by the end of February, what we think that rate is. And I'll go through that timeline with you in a little bit as well. Um, so just hypothetically that today we would need another 0245 on top of the 37 cents we have today. That's if we cut 50% of the cost. The second um question or third question, this is the third question for you. Um, should we raise the referendum

039rate to make up for our declining enrollment? Because your enrollment has been declining and is projected. I'm not a demographer, but based on the trends that I'm seeing in terms of kindergarten classes and your senior classes moving through, it looks like uh that you're going to continue to lose some enrollment. That's not unique to you. There there are lots of districts declining in enrollment. I always use Hamilton Southeastern because that's where I came from. You know, it was a growing district, thousand kids a year. They lost 400 kids this year because of the demographics look different. They're seniors. The seniors are pushing out and the elementary kids coming in are not replacing those those cohorts. And it's not because they're not growing. I mean, you think of that area. They're still growing, but those cohorts

040moving through. It takes a lot of new homes to replace that. And so they're they're going through they opened their enrollment. They opened their enrollment and still declined 400 kids. So yeah, so it's a different demographic h happening in that area. But my question again here is all right, what if what if we uh again similar to the uh transfer tuition students hypothetically? Let's say we anticipate we're going to lose another 150 kids over the period of time between now and 2031. $7,185 per pupil, we stand to lose a million77,000 in that funding formula on today's dollars. And so today's rate would need to be 0458 higher if those kids were gone today. U again though, the very last bar there, I think if you did lose 160 kids, you would probably be again reducing

041expense. There's some costs you can't reduce, right? your principal, your art, your music, your PE, your librarians, you can't cut some of those costs. Counselors, you know, there's certain things you can't cut, but you would be able to cut to a point with with fewer kids, but again, I just used 50%. Let's say assume we could reduce it by 50%. So, we'd need a another 0229 on today's rate if we were 150 kids less than where we are today. The last question then um is what I touched on earlier is the new credit um the new homestead credit. Do this would be an opportunity if you did not want to give that those dollars up that you could raise the referendum rate um to make up for that. Now this is a little bit different.

042Okay, there's no cost reduction for this. This is just a pure loss. And so in 26, we're going to lose $325,000 to this new credit. Now, today we're going to lose some of that to the debt fund and some of it to the operations fund, but I'm anticipating that's all going to hit the operations fund next year. So again, the operations fund is already running very tight and thin. So that would be that'd be a pretty pretty big hit. Now, so there's no dividing here. we would need, excuse me, another 0138 of a rate to make up for that. So again, in addition to that 37 cents, we would need need a higher rate to make up that credit. Now, what I did is, all right, there's those four questions make up for Senate Bill

043one, no transfer students, declining enrollment, loss of homestead credit. If you if all those things were true today, our referendum rate wouldn't need we we'd need a rate of 4312 of a rate versus the 37 cents. But what I did then, you've already seen the 51 cents, the 51.15 cent rate. That's what it would need to be by the year 2031. But then I did the same thing with the transfer tuition students and the declining enrollment. I trended those numbers up by 3% compounded each year. And so those rates obviously would need to be higher than what they are today because SS valuation is going to be less. And so it'd be 0328 0308. Now the next line, the loss of the homestead credit doesn't trend up quite as high as those others because that's

044not a compounding number. That that that number is fairly flat going forward. So in that case it goes from 0138 to 0165. Um and you know it it you know it's a pretty big rate right 5916. We're at 37 cents right now. But if you were to play all those out hypothetically that's that's what it would be looking like right now. So I think those are the four questions you need to be thinking about. as a district, how much money do we need u in our referendum fund between now and and uh the no transfer students, the declining enrollment and the loss of the homestead credit. Now, you can pick and plug, right? You don't have to make those don't all have to be yeses. Say yes to that one and no to that one

045or change the assumptions in it. I was just trying to play something out for you that would give you some idea of what it would look like to try and make yourselves whole with all with those decisions in place. >> And so if there's a $300,000 house in the district, the assessed value won't be more than a third. So it would be hundred,000. I did that on purpose. >> Correct. So, they would be paying an additional $591 a year. No, I'm I'm doing that so wrong. It How do you >> Yeah, because they're paying some of it now. >> So, I would >> And it would be an additional Yeah. 22. >> So, yeah. So, that rate, the 37 cents today would slowly increase to 5916. At the same time, their deductions would be making

046their tax base lower over that period of time. >> So, we hope it would it would break even. >> I I need to still do that. I I apologize. I still need to create some examples for you that would show you like here's today what people are going to pay in 2026. And we're going to have real numbers. We don't have real numbers for 26 yet. We're getting close. and we will have those numbers before you have to make a decision on this that we'll be able to create a real tax bill for 26 and then a hypothetical tax bill for for 2031 and we would likely trend that assessed valuation up on that house too assuming that it's going to grow the value is going to grow by >> 3% >> three 3.3% that's

047been your 10ear average um and then create a couple real examples um I apologize I haven't gotten that done yet. >> Yeah, that's a lot of math. I I haven't either. >> But it it is it's it's going to it's not going to be as bad as you might think it would be. >> So, it's not going to go like this. It's going to go like this because the assessed value. >> Yeah, it will go up some, but it won't be it won't be straight up. >> That's good. >> Yeah, >> that will be more. >> That's right. >> The messaging on this is going to be very complicated. >> It is. And That's a great point. I've said this to a lot of my clients. They took a fairly complicated system before and they

048doubled down on it. I mean, it it's really gotten complicated and trying to explain, you know, how this all works. Um, so what what would be your timeline? I think we're still okay. Couple more minutes for time. >> Couple more minutes. >> Okay. Um, you know, what is the referendum timeline? Uh again, your referendum rate, your 37 cents is in place till the year 2032. So you don't have to do anything if you don't want to and you're going to keep 37 cents, but just know that revenue is going to work in the opposite direction of of your needs. Um again, referendums are only in general election years and so 2026 and 28 are your next opportunities. Um this this is again this is just my opinion. I think um at a I think you

049should try to make this as soon as you can after the session closes. Back to Mrs. Wit's comment about you know will the legislative session change any of this? Possibly. I don't think I think I don't think they will on this side of it, but it's possible we could see more change. And so I'd hate to make you know you wouldn't want to make a decision before we get past that session. So, everyone is anticipating they have until I believe March 16th to be done, but I think everyone's anticipating that they're going to be done by the end of February. So um so I I would recommend that you try to position yourself to make that decision on the referendum rate what you want to communicate to the your referendum message so that you can

050get out as as and get as much time communicating it before you have to run the referendum in November. Technically, technically you don't have to pass a referendum rate until early July. That would be your last that would be your drop dead deadline if you wanted to get it on the 2026 ballot in November. You would need to have made that decision by early July. But sooner is better because you have more time to communicate what's happened. And it's and it is obviously as as you've already pointed out, it's a it's a confusing message what we're going to be trying to explain going forward. >> Do you have a sense of the cost of running a referendum? Is that price tag increased from the last time we did it, I guess, is my question. >>

051I I don't have I don't have a good handle on that right now. What it would cost? Now, you wouldn't have any election expense because it's being run on a regular election cycle. But I would have to go back and look see what you guys spent on the last one. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And I don't know. You could >> That sounds like you're volunteering, David. Um, legally, I want to clarify, legally, you would need to make that decision by July, you know, to pass your final resolution on it. But communicating what I would call a listening tour. You're like, here here's what we're thinking. Here's the rate we're going going out for, and here's why. Here's the here's the questions that we're we how we came to this conclusion. >> Have a quick question.

052A couple question begin um about the the first uh slides and not this one regarding the a uh so the 3.3 is the last historical uh growth. Yeah. So that is that include the teeth or you just uh exclude the teeth just residence area or just include pretty much everything >> that includes everything. That is the net AV. >> That is the net. >> The net A taxable Navy is not real. the total >> Yeah, that's the total AB increases that you you'd been seeing. >> And they >> Good good question though because it also leads me to another thought. Um Michelle had shared with me that there is more development coming in that tiff district. >> Yes. Yes. >> And so you could potentially benefit from that. I mean in that you you as

053the board would would be deciding each year what that referendum rate needs to be. So suddenly we get a big pop on a bunch of commercial development, you could decide, hey, well, we don't need that rate to be as high. So it would be an annual thing that board that the administration would be bringing you a recommendation to the board that the board would ultimately decide each year what that referendum rate needs to be. We'll be trying to explain to the community that we're asking you for a maximum rate, not what we intend to collect even in the year 2027. Okay. So back to you just the question you're talking about uh say normally we go to referendum basically we saying up to such such numbers so as you said is that the common practice

054uh in Indiana so school decide every year how much they will collect from >> but I think it will be very common in this next cycle. I think most districts are going to be asking for a much higher rate on their referendum renewal than what they intend to collect in the year 2027 or 28 or 29. it wouldn't be till the year 2031. >> Okay. >> People are trying to figure out what is what is our need? What, you know, as you're >> trying to determine salary increases, this this plays into that. If we don't if if we don't have a higher rate, we're going to have less money to to >> my question in practice, you know, these kind of things every in next five years they gradually reduce that 48,000 things every year

055they cost 10,000 or something >> but they increase the percentage. So these kind of uncertainty is very difficult to calculate how much I mean the taxable AVs we can use. So we end up with kind of uh every year we have the gas I mean what kind of read we are going to use we don't want to ruin the community collect a lot of monies and we also want to keep enough things so uh but you think that but technically it's still doable right is is probably >> it is doable I mean like I said it's building trust with the community >> yeah that's what I'm saying >> you have to build the trust of the community and that's why I was suggesting like your first year you pass referendum rate, but in your first

056year you say, "But we're not going to get a levy more than 3% more than we did last year. We're we are only going to allow that levy to increase 3%." >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> Yeah. Another question regarding this uh so-called 10% up to 300 uh so-called credit things. So, you estimate about three 30,000 300,000 something. >> I mean, this credit will be shared by other local governments. So, did you take that into consideration? Yes, that's that's that's your portion of it. >> Our portions. Okay. Okay. >> That that >> policy that's what they estimated your portion of the loss to be. >> It is much bigger than that. The cities and towns and counties, townships and libraries all >> that you also have loss in addition to that. >> Okay. Thank you.

057Appreciate it. How much success has there been in the past of any government district, school district, or otherwise running a referendum where the rate that the taxpayers are voting for isn't defined? >> I know of two and that Speedway in Perry Township in in Marian County has always had they their rate has was 42.4212 and they've not collected it all. Now, they didn't leave a lot on the table. They've not collected all of it. And Speedway is another district Most the majority today ran a referendum rate fixed assuming the assessed valuation would continue to grow and that fit with the modeling of cost of inflation going forward. This is a different model that we don't we're not going to get cost of inflation. We're going we're going to be losing dollars to these higher deductions.

058>> George, initially when we ran, we did run that way. We did run not to exceed rate. Um, and then we actually had a lot of conversation about not this last one, but the one prior about pushing up to 43 cents. Number 43 cents is really interesting to me because we had a lot of conversation about that not to exceed and then decided that and we're very open with the community that we were going to do the best we could. We weren't going to take that that space. So to some degree there'll be some people in the community who know that we said no we we want to we're not going to take that play that float game with you. So we will be changing if we do this we would be changing that structure.

059>> I hate to cut you and maybe do a few more questions at the beginning of the next meeting. >> Sure. >> Okay. Great. >> You're always a ray of sunshine >> I uh it's a gloom and doom message. I apologize. >> That's all right. It's 552. Let's adjourn the work session. I'm gonna start our down. Oh, there's the light. Okay. So, I called to order the board of trustees at 601 and I invited Mr. Reutder back up to answer any questions that are lingering from the work session. Does anyone EA go ahead? >> First of all, thank you so much for sharing all the information. That's very helpful as always and I I have some questions about the estimation and so I feel there are some assumptions and uh for those estimations for example

060and we kind of assume if we close the district and people will just stay and we won't have some for example more within district enrollment the the right now the ADM has two parts right the within district enrollment and the transfers >> so so based on my observation I feel since we start to be more open after COVID to take a pretty much all transfers and whoever request and uh and more people actually moved out and be for bigger, cheaper, newer houses and uh without paying the extra referendum. So I want I I just feel just based on my observation. I really don't have the complete data but um I wonder whether we make it a policy to keep the district open completely and more people actually will be encouraged to to move out and

061so but on the other hand if we close or not taking more not taking new transfers then people will be encouraged to stay or even the new people, new uh newcomers will buy houses in the district. For example, you probably know the SK company is coming and so the new families probably will choose to live in the district rather than leave elsewhere and transfer their kids in. And so that's why I I feel the those numbers are based on kind of the assumption of people will not those within enrollment will not change but maybe I I don't know for sure but that that that might be right something different another is okay I I just see this whole thing is a dynamic and so based on this moving more out pattern maybe the assessment value

062will also change because If more people want to move in, you know, the economics 101, the the price of the houses is determined by the supply and the demands, right? So, so if more people want to move in, then the property value will increase and even >> is there a question or >> Yeah. Yes. I'm just a sorry I'm just talking >> I know. So I I so my point is that sounds like based on assumption that okay given the current number assuming no other changes will come will occur right another thing is like on this page and we assume that all the 160 transfer students if not if we don't have them and by that time and that's that's an estimation um but in reality Even if we decided to close the district, we

063still keep the current transfers. So we probably by by 2031, we only lose half of the transfers. And so I feel that's another >> those are good points. And I did it like this to show you hypothetically if those were all effective. >> Not necessarily are those the assumptions, but also keep in mind that we're asking for a maximum rate. And let's say hypothetically that we said no transfer students and then enrollment started to increase then we wouldn't have to collect anything for the declining enrollment piece. >> You see what I'm saying? So this so if that were true that you described that if you know if we don't allow enrollments transfer enrollments and it drives up our base enrollment. >> Yes. >> Then we wouldn't have to collect for that declining enrollment. Right. And

064yeah, another practical issue I guess maybe just based on the feedback I received so far and it might be a hard hard sell if we tell the residents okay we open the district at same time please pay more referendum. So it's just a practically speaking and uh people say hey how comes they can transfer in without paying this even higher referendum. So I wonder but on the same time surely we don't want to cut programs or reduce the number of teachers all that no we don't want to do that I but I just wonder whether there will be some alternative ways of for example whether we can test test it a little bit to see let's say we just for now close it for several years to see whether people start to move in and

065uh especially waiting for the SK people to move in a lot and the our base enrollment whether the base enrollment will increase so that way we don't rely on transfers as we did before I I I I don't know and also another question I have is about the typical uh referendum rate across the state and uh so whether people will feel oh this is a appropriate rate for us and my last last question will be based on your experience students um whether schools take for example international students to and charge a high price to compensate the public education the fund needed for public education. So I know some of the schools does like a cocoa mo but I I don't know how common it is whether it's possible at all let's say to to take

066some international student that charge the high price for example 20,000 per year which will be worth three transfers something like that to to compensate supplement. >> Yeah I don't have a lot of experience with your last question. I know a lot of districts years ago used to have a a policy that would define how many students they would allow foreign exchange students to come into their district. >> Um, of course, it just obviously depends on the needs of the students coming in too. Um but um going back to your question about um transfer tuition students I think the idea behind this is that if we don't need that much money each year annually you would decide as a school board like okay well that piece didn't happen or this piece did happen but then you'd

067be identifying each year how much new money you would need with the referendum. So this is a little different modeling that where we've done in the past where we passed a referendum rate and the assessed valuation grew and then we made that work in this case. You know the the community would be giving you more trust in terms of what you do with that rate each year. Like you pointed out too it's unlikely that if you close the district that you would lose 160 students. You they would all transition out. So, we just monitor how many of those students transferred out to how much money we've lost and then we'd collect that in the referendum or vice versa. If we don't lose 150 kids in the modeling, you know, that we only lose 10, you

068know, then then we would that would change the modeling of what referendum rate each year that we'd be asking the community to do. It doesn't mean that we'd automatically go to the top of that maximum amount. So, it's definitely a different strategy in approaching a referendum and it would require the community to put more trust into the board, but I think that could be accomplished because you could even passing that referendum rate for the next year say we're not going to allow that levy because the levy is going to be more of a conversation than about the rate. We're not going to allow that levy to go up more than 3% next year. And so, those are decisions the board would would make annually then. So when we come and do our budget presentation and

069financial updates, we'd be modeling that recommendation based on actual circumstances because right now we have, you know, what what's the right set of assumption to use, right? I mean, we don't know those answers yet. I think your community surveys great that you're doing on the transfer tuitions. You know, get getting their feedback is key to that. you wanna you want to do what the community is going to support and and support the referendum, right, >> Rachel? Thank you. >> Um I'm just curious. I know that you have a lot of experience with different school corporations and referendums and the running of those. Um we keep talking a lot. I mean a it's a dynamic structure, dynamic rate setup and I understand the value in that. Um we are asking the community to trust us in

070a way that they have not in the past and that's a trust conversation. Um, in your experience, when is there an impact when the board is divided on that? So, if there's a if if to run or not to run comes down to a 4-3 vote, what is the impact on the success of the referendum in your opinion? >> You know, Dr. D'Vor may have some statistics on that. I know he tracked a lot of those referendums. I can only tell you from experience, a 70 vote going into a referendum is is really important. you want to be saying to the community, we're approaching you with a united front. You know, it it's a difficult message to say it's 43. We're coming to you for an approval. So, I I would highly recommend that you

071approach any renewal with it with the United Front because it sends a clear message to the community that you're all in agreement. But it is any anytime you have less than seven, you're going to be lowering your chances. Right. >> Right. Well, I think my concern about that as well is if if we're not able to come unified to ask for that rate, then what makes the community believe that we would come unified on any subsequent year in determining what that rate in practicality should be, >> right? I mean, that is where you start to build community like I mentioned earlier with Speedway. you know, they've been doing this for years now and and Perry Township has not been collecting their maximum rate and so that's just over time you would build that trust. Of

072course, elections change things, right? You can't always guarantee it, but you start to build that trust in year one. you know, in the year 2027, you would begin that process of explaining like, "Yeah, we asked you for 59 cents, but we're only going to collect 42." You know, so continue to communicate that. >> George Mendes, >> so you mentioned earlier that Hamilton Southeastern they moved to being an open district, right? Um, since they and did they do this fairly recently? >> They did. >> Okay. Do you have any idea or any sense about whether or not people in Hamilton Southeastern have decided to move in or out because of that decision? >> Um, I have not heard any comments like that. What I have heard though, um, one of the one of the things that

073they're actually seeing is there are fewer younger families that can afford the homes and so their elementaryaries are declining. When I worked there, I worked there from 1994 to 2019 and it was nothing but growth. We're growing. There were some years we grew a thousand kids and the demographics look like a pyramid this way and you push out a senior class smaller and you bring in another big young kindergarten class. That's opposite. It's upside down now. It it looks like this. They're pushing all those higher cohorts out and they're bringing in smaller kindergarten. But they are seeing more people moving in in the upper grades as those families get older and have more to that they can afford a home. their families are more established. But if you think about the younger kindergarten parents, you

074know, they they may not be able to afford that home in your district being a starter family. So, yeah, the demographics in Hamilton Southeastern look much different. As I mentioned, they they still lost 400 kids even even with opening enrollment. Okay, >> well, I don't know if this is actually for Mr. Reutder or Dr. Grryer. Um, but I feel like now that we've gotten the finance information best we can with numbers, we've talked about the next step is surveying the community, helping them to decide, you know, we're not trying to cut funding to our schools. How are we going to cover this and just collect information? So I question that I have is besides doing a survey can we do focus groups um we've done this both with the strategic planning and happy hollow and

075it seems like the community's been happy give an opportunity to like besides share input through a survey sit at the table ask question share that so my question is can we do focus groups for community and for teachers because this is greatly impacting like honestly when you said cut 50% of the teachers like that just like five teachers and I thought names and I just thought this is big. We're not a big school district. We know our teachers and even cutting five teachers just to me um is very concerning and so I want to make sure you know there's different decisions if they don't live in the district. True, our teachers aren't paying the referendum and so that's different information but I would love the teachers to be able to sit at the tables and

076share their input and understand what's going on um input sessions. So what is that an option? What would a timeline look like for survey for focus groups, input sessions, and getting this decision? Because my understanding is the hope is we're going to decide about the referendum about the end of February, beginning of March. So, all this information needs to be collected before then. >> So, one thing we want to do, as we've talked about in Friday notes, is get that survey out as soon as possible. So, um, now that you've heard, we felt like that the board may have additional thoughts on the survey. And so if we can get that sooner rather than later, we'd love to get that out um by the end of the week or sometime next week. Uh and with

077regard to uh focus groups, you mentioned that we've done that with hap both Happy Hollow after the survey uh and we've done that with with the strategic planning. I think we could schedule something. We just have to talk about what you as a board want that to look like. Um and together we could absolutely work to um get additional information um in addition to the survey results and the information that we would get from the survey. >> So does that mean like the next chance that we talk about it is the December meeting? Are we going to have a work session? Like how do we keep this ball rolling quickly now that we have this part of the information? When do we discuss it as a board? >> I think you could discuss it as

078a board in December. I think you could discuss it as a board right now if you want to. Amy, do you want to facilitate that dialogue? >> Yeah. No. So, I just didn't know when we could continue this so that we could collect information as quickly as possible. >> Um, well, I I'd be happy to. Are we Do we have any other questions for Mr. Reutder because he drives from a great distance. So, >> you may just you mentioned the the district um south South M was a district who speedway uh uh have the open district policy. I wonder whether that district has a referendum. >> Well, I'm sorry that same southeastern. >> Oh, okay. Do they have referendum for their so with a referendum with higher uh house price, they still choose to open

079the district to other district for students to transfer in? >> They they did. They that's a new policy for them because they were losing enrollment and they were trying to stop some of the loss. >> Okay. >> And they open the enrollment. So it would for them it was about efficiency keeping you know the seats full >> and so it is true though you know they have tuition or they have students now attending there that aren't paying the referendum. >> But um but yeah that's a relatively new policy. I mean within the last two years that they made that decision >> and be in our district before when we took a transfers we charge extra fee but right now with a new state law we we can't. So is is that the same for that

080district? So they could charge a fee. Now they couldn't charge include them can't charge any fees for the referendum. >> Okay. where before your district was able to collect the tuition dollars and make up for the referendum, >> right? >> Now it's just the tuition dollars. >> Yeah. Thank you for the clarification. >> Okay. So, Dr. Dr. Griner and I just had a brief sidebar and um he thinks after Thanksgiving um picking a day and doing a discussion at noon and at 3 four >> we we were thinking similar to what we've done with the other two one if you do one like more at noon like a a virtual one more you get a different group of people and then maybe one in the evening like around 4 uh for those that want to

081come in in person >> would that be all right >> now I don't know I do we want to have to me it's a different conversation versus community versus teachers just meaning I think the teachers questions I anticipate look differently and feedback do we do do we just open it to teachers and community to just those two or do we try to say this one's more targeted of course anyone could go to anyone what would be the best um setup for that >> well we do have board teacher discussion scheduled in >> I I would be up to whatever whatever we want the board to have informed information. So our team will support and if you wanted to do a separate teacher one or if you wanted the teachers to be included with the community

082in the past community me there hasn't been a lot of community members come to the inerson one. So that might be the one where we would have the teachers come and we would schedule it at a time where after school they could come and we wouldn't want it too far because we would want them to be able to go from school into the session and then go go home to families. Um but I'm fine with it being separate too. It really is up to how the board feels like they can get the most information to understand all the the various stakeholders with regard to input. you um I personally had the opportunity to hear the community's voice also teachers voice and if possible or if appropriate at all I think it would be helpful to

083have the conversation for for all the community members and the teachers otherwise the community members won't hear what the teachers input I I don't know how to share that in a effective way and another thing is given that I'm glad yeah thank you so much for um doing the focus group for the community and teachers to discuss this important issue. Um in that case I wonder whether we should wait to administer the the survey and to have the focus group first because I feel at least when I read the the survey draft I feel it's hard to describe these complicated issues in a survey and uh you know there are a lot of implications many people may not know that implication from a word document and uh So if we have the focus group then

084we can talk about those implications and uh you know if we do one way or the other what will be the the impact >> if we want to mirror >> it'll be easier >> if we want to mirror what uh how the way that um Mr. Jones has carried us through the strategic plan and and or happy hollow. I would envision us administering the survey uh looking for trends and then maybe our team and members of the board that want to give input. Uh from there we would get some very focused questions so that we're coming together for an hour or less and we're focusing on topics the board needs to gather input in making that decision. I think that's the best way to keep everything truly focused um in a focused group. And so

085I would recommend but I'm very open. I would recommend that we would administer the survey. We would, our team would pull together, we'd share the re the raw results with you, but we would also pull together what we see as t trends um to help preserve board time and then from there develop some focus questions like what we've begun with the survey and then take board input to get those focus questions exactly where you guys where you as a board need them. That would be my suggestion. >> Okay, Mr. Reutder, thank you so much for everything. We appreciate you carefully. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Deja. >> Um, so I actually agree. I think the survey being first would be helpful. I think the point of I think the survey is what who we're going

086to how we're going to reach the most most of the people. So, we need to make sure that it's clear and concise and as informative as we can. Um, one thought I had about how to handle this is to do um open as you know, whatever the teacher's timing is best for them. open that up to both teachers in the community, but watch the numbers and if we have a very high response, set a second one so that we're not, you know, I just want to make sure that everyone that wants to come to the table and have a voice that they're not shut down because per chance we only have the one and we end up with a huge amount of people and they walk away frustrated that they didn't get their voice heard.

087So maybe we start with the recommendation of two, but watch that RSVP number and if needed, I mean, it's just a thought. >> I think it's a great idea. That way we're like you said, we're we're we're comforting individuals as opposed to leaving them frustrated that we want to hear their voice. So if we found out we had 150, we could absolutely divide that out and figure out how to make it more manageable. So we are very open to whatever the board needs and we certainly want our community to feel heard, too. So >> you're welcome. >> Great. Let's um return then to the uh original agenda and to the uh special recognition and highlights and um Mr. Rogers is going to share with us about his school. So, welcome. Thanks for coming. >> Put

088coach here real fast just to the right. Correct. All right. Thank you. Welcome. And uh nothing about finances in this one. As a matter of fact, we're so good we're going to have two presentations. Mine and then Mr. stros later. So, um, real quickly, um, our dem demographics haven't changed very much. Our enrollment, let's keep talking positive. It's gone up only because we graduated a little bit of a smaller class and then brought in that really big seventh grade. So, go junior senior high school. Um, our data that's kind of falling off there on the on the bottom, but I mean, this is what we we do really what Westside does in general, what we've been talking about all over the place of why people want to be here. Um, I learn data very good.

089SAT is really some of the best, actually the best in the state. It's dropped by 12. Don't panic about that. That's still excellent. And then our AP scores, uh, what's amazing is when you really look at the number of exams, the number of exams that that we take or that we give. And then the percentage of three plus still stays really high. So, we're not watering that down with the number of APs. And this also tells you uh you know what the teachers are doing um the amount of classes, the amount of sections. Uh so that's just really really amazing data. Again, very unique to us. One of the highlights, this is really pretty cool. Uh West Lafayette student art initiative. I got it. Um they had an art show uh in um in September

090and it was at the library and so we it was actually a collaborative part. We had Harrison there as well. But uh we have a really great art program and I have some leaders in there. I don't just the school has leaders in there that they really really are trying to bring awareness and celebrate the arts which is really cool steam, right? That's the a piece. We're known for STEM. We're known for math. We're known for science. But this is another huge piece of what makes us so good and really is a great partner honestly in academics. This was their soft opening. They have a bigger one coming in February across the river. So stay tuned for that. Another art show, Bigger Better. Um I'll get to this more in a minute, but this was

091our National Merit uh 17 semi- finalists. You'll see two people in there that aren't. That's me and Dr. Grryer. Um again, I think it was help me out. Was it Was it like 10 10%? What's it% 10% 10% >> of our of our students in that grade uh were semi-finalists. Again, amazing stat. Okay, some some goals that we've been hitting. Uh we still continue with uh MTSS. Uh really pleased with the progression we've had over the year. Uh last year we worked hard with the team and the teachers to identify pillars. These were like non-negotiables. Tier one may have talked about that or you may remember that last spring. Um, and then we've had continued to have our teachers model and present in our PD both uh last spring and then again this fall. This

092is what we one of the things we do in our our full PD day. And then real big shout out as Joe Tylinda has um joined the program with Carrie and Mary Beth. Uh they are doing an outstanding job taking the MTSS where it was and then growing it and big and building it bigger and better and more efficient. So those three are rock stars. Uh mental health always is a focus for us, preventing youth suicide. Um and what again they were part of our fall PD. And they also, and I'll get to this in a minute, they also had a presentation on our station for seventh graders when we had our PSAT day. Uh so a lot going into that first goal. A second one, uh the culture. Um I mentioned this last year.

093We were going to try to do some instructional rounds for teachers. So, we had our first cohort, seven teachers, a lot of fun uh developing a framework of best practices from the Marzano High reliable schools and they are just now starting to go and observe each other. Can't wait to hear about those uh conversations. So maybe three teachers go and observe one and then they're in a cohort of let's say four and then three observe one and then they get to meet and talk about those best practices that they see. Junior highness I'll jump down to the bottom. This is the leadership of Shelby Johnson, Libby Sheffield and Mary Russell. They are fantastic and they bring all things to to this junior high. We have a lot of junior high teachers in the building. So

094uh we have a whole lot of shared junior high high school. So, tremendous buyin from the the teachers and the staff. They have incentives. We are working on a new seventh grade schedule. Just a tweak. Don't panic. Just a tweak. But we need to provide um time for interventions. That's a state mandate. And one of the things that we definitely are noticing is that that transitional year for seventh graders very difficult. So, they're working on they've actually developed a schedule to try to put a study hall in there. And that's fantastic. And then because of all this work I put in there the first nine weeks we were at an all-time low uh for failures. And I I just think that that is a testament again to the leaders there at the bottom and what

095those teachers have done in those transitional years. Trying. I'm trying. I'm clicking. I'm clicking. I'm clicking. Did it go? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um math placement. Just a quick little update. We are now in our year one of that. It's really all all uh classes, but math was a big one. Uh we're in the evaluation process. We are we're able to basically what's worked, what hasn't worked, collect that data, collect that um qualitative data really a lot of times communication with teachers and with families and then be able to help steer and guide uh as families select next spring or next really next winter. uh and also continue to partner with Willis on what we were seeing as their math classes kind of changed coming into our building. So, we continue to want to have

096partnerships and be collaborative and listen and also guide families. I know really families do uh trust our teachers and want to know what they think uh in regards to where their kid, you know, goes when they come into seventh grade. I must be pointing in the wrong spot. Last one. Huge celebration here. And again, thank you to everybody for putting this on the calendar a couple years ago, PSAT day. So, we we get this early release. Um, part of it is the reason why this is so important. One, you remember that picture of the 17 semi- finalists, right? It's a big deal. Only 10 students were absent that day in our building. This never happens. We need to have PSAT day. It seems like every day. Just tell them we're doing the PSAT. uh in

097that day we also got to do our mandatory uh videos and education. So after the exam we were able to do the anti-bullying I call it child safety and then for the seventh graders they're not taking that PSAT and you can see they had a lot of cool things going on. I mentioned like the mental the preventing use suicide had a had a moment there. So a whole lot of cool things the seventh graders got to do while the rest of the building was taking this test and then everybody got the the video and the training. So again, thank you for everybody and all the support and the families. I know it's not always easy to get those half days like that or early release, but I feel like we really make the most of

098it and then our students um get the benefit um from that test. So I think that is it. That's it, isn't it? >> Okay. Thank you. Go ahead, Rachel. >> Yes. >> Couple of questions, Mr. R. >> Go for it. >> Um so one I just this is more just a statement. Um, I want to make sure that everybody on the board is aware that that conversation about the PSAT day that really started inside a board teacher discussion a few years ago and the teachers really led that conversation and made a really great case for it. So, I want you to know that value of board teacher discussion in that decision. >> Um, my question for you is you talked about junior senior. You said said something that gave me a little bit of heartburn

099there for just a moment. You said that parents are really interested in knowing what the teachers think of their kids as they go in, you know, and my question is >> recommendation. >> Yeah. Like well other other thing that you said is that um our teachers teach a lot of different sections. >> Okay. So, what that translates to me is our teachers have a lot of students and and if every parent wants to know how their child's doing in their class, or even if only half of them do, >> that sounds kind of like a full-time job to me. So, I'm wondering how you anticipate balancing those things, is there a way to do that so that there's a group? I I guess my question and I don't think you would set our teachers up

100to fail, but if the expectation is a whole lot of time here to communicate with parents and a whole lot of time here to educate the children, where's the balance in that for you philosophically? >> Okay, so they fill out the teachers fill out like a recommendation sheet. So that's what they do. So that and that's something they've been doing I think for a long time obviously before me. And then that's that recommendation that I was referring to that they would communicate to families. So it's not like an individual. They're not meeting with >> No, no, no, no, no. This is And I think I know that the majority of our families value that that recommendation right there. And then that's that conversation between them and the counselors and the families. So there's a few

101right that might disagree with that their kid can do this or that and then that the first line of conversation is with the counselors. So that information is really going to the counselors, but the teachers are filling that out. Does that help? >> That makes sense. Thank you. Okay, cool. >> I appreciate that. >> Yeah. >> Okay, >> Lawrence. >> Hey, Lawrence. Yeah. Quick question. It's really nice presentations and I heard a lot of positive uh changes since you came here. Just quick question just follow up. You introduced to talk about the place basically placement. Yes. So if a student um I mean the counselor recommend hey this is the best course for you to go and then they bring to parents and they have some discussion in case uh the parents or students think

102you know I need maybe another placement and then the parents or student maybe talk with the counselor and then uh let's say if the counselor and the teachers um have disagreement they they have different opinions or perceptions about the students uh placement is supposed to how how how you handle this kind of situation. >> Well, I mean, at the end of the day, the family can choose where their kids going to go. >> Okay. >> Again, most of the time I there's a whole lot of different schedules. So, it's not like you skip chem one to go to AP, right? So, we're talking about that that same same level, but maybe just different different uh well that same spot, but just some different levels. Um, but at the end of it, there's just conversation between

103there's the recommendation to the counselor. The counselor has a conversation with the the student and the family. If there needs to be more conversation, they can, but at the end of it, the the counselors do a really good job of saying, "Okay, this is where you're wanting. Let's talk about um what that does for your your career, right? Or let's make sure we have a plan B." Um, but the at the end of it, that's what it is. And then the teachers do their job which is teach what's in their room. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Did I answer the question? >> Yeah, you answer my question. Thank you. But my my question is um I mean that arrangement maybe from parents point of view they may have some different opinions about their kids. They may

104have some their bias whatever you call and teacher maybe have better understanding what these students need. So if this kind of procedure do you think the teacher end up with the the best placement or maybe in other words the placement is in the best interest of student or you think I understand we have um academ academic guidance or something they have some schedules uh the procedures how to place the student in a right place but it's kind of rough but I'm just wondering in the practice how you guys handle this kind of uh kind of different perspectives >> okay so Are you asking me how do we handle it when they disagree? Okay. Yeah. Yes. >> So, I'd say this again the most the time the when the teachers recommend that's what the families go

105with. >> And I would say the majority of the time the teachers know what they're doing, right? >> Okay. >> There are some exceptions where a family or a kid wants to challenge that challenge themselves and go to a little bit of a higher level. Um the I've seen some teachers have rubrics as to to why um they fill out a lot of information and at the end of it you can give the family all the information as to why I made my choice but if the family still wants to disagree then okay but it it it's not a large amount of of people that we're talking about. So basically the whole process still collaborative right you have I mean we don't want the teacher have their expertise we want to respect and follow their

106they are professional educators and the parents they have their their opinions so pretty much we collaborate everybody and then uh work together >> we try and we'll continue to look at at better ways as we continue to go through. So I mean the teachers have been doing this a long time and they they do know what they're doing. It doesn't mean they're right all the time. No differently that it doesn't mean that that uh parents shouldn't be informed as much as possible. We we need to inform them and they rely on us and yes sometimes they disagree with our recommendation. >> Okay. Thank you. Appreciate. >> Sure. >> You thank you very much for sharing the information. is very helpful and I have so first it's kind of a follow up with Lawrence question and

107also regarding one point you made about the collaboration with Willis I I think that's that's great because the >> um esparently for the mass placement and so we right now started the pre-alggebra from Willis right originally it was in the middle school and in many other in some other schools actually six, seven, eight are in the same school, right? So in in our case there's a physical barrier for two schools to collaborate. I'm really glad that you kind of try to to take a initiative to collaborate the with the Willis and to make the transition transition smooth. And you also mentioned that this year is kind of the first year to experiment the new way. And and so I yeah in the the student guide there's some information about the mass placement policy but I

108feel um it's not very specific and uh so it's not the policy you you made. I'm just saying B. Yeah, I read the policy. I feel um it probably can be more specific. >> Okay. >> Uh so for example in some um the schools when parents disagree with the placement and the kids need to take the exam to demonstrate their readiness in order to be placed in a higher level class in particularly those challenging ones. Um, so I wonder if whether it may be possible in the future for us to have something more specific. So otherwise it might be difficult sometimes to resolve those disagreement. Teachers think the students should be placed here. Parents think they should be placed there. besides all the other statistics and uh maybe we can have a test there for

109students to take to demonstrate a readiness. Yeah. Yeah. I just trying to I I because I did some um um sur from other schools looks like those exam is kind of common. If students want to appeal or parents want to appeal the placement and they there should be a way for them to go through um otherwise it may create a trouble later for the kids >> and uh in particular for our our district I feel there's a situation that many parents and the students are so highly motivated to go faster and be more take a more advanced classes >> and appreciate that motivation and aspiration but sometimes >> probably the families didn't realize that there some unintended consequence bother in a way I have three kids so >> sure >> I I feel when I

110had my first one >> for example in the seventh grade I think differently and from now I have my third one in the seventh grade because I know what my first one experienced later >> and uh so I know better what might be the right pace for my third one and I but I feel many parents especially if they're when they handle their first one they may not know what to anticipate in the future. So that might be also a parent education issue. So when they are so eager to place their kids in a higher level class, they may not know what will be on the way later. And so they their kids may take a calculus in their freshman or they may lose the opportunities to participate in so much other fun activities or

111take us some other interesting honor classes. And uh so I just feel yeah student um parents need a more education there to see okay if you do this approach what will be what will be waiting for your kids later >> and yeah I think I understand >> right the stress stress level is so high yeah I learn a lot from my kids about their experience and their peers experience so I I wish more parents can learn about that >> that'll be again part of our communication. I know. And and then you were mentioning the what comes next. I think that's what the counselors really do well with like a four-year plan. So if you start high school classes early, okay, then what are you doing? What are you what are you doing in your eighth

112grade year, ninth grade year, 10th grade year? They do an excellent job of that laying that out. And at the end of the day, it does come down to some choices. Um and then we try to counsel if there's mistakes. Okay, anyone else? Thank you very much. >> Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate you. And next we have Mr. Strode to talk to us about sports athletics. >> First off, thank you uh for the opportunity to come and talk. I think it was last April I was here and and some of the slides tonight will kind of be the same to with with updated information to keep some of that consistency. I'm Joel Strode. I'm the athletic director. Year 18 uh at West Lafayette, year eight in this role. It's been great to have both

113coach Fry and Mrs. Beckham back, you know, for our second year kind of together as a group. So enjoyed that consistency this year. Our athletic trainers still Gustoa Owens and Stephie Anderson. uh the last boarding meeting that I was here to present, it was kind of uh secret a little bit, but kind of in works of us moving to IU Health and then kind of the the greater news with that was being able to retain Gustoa and Stephie. Um a great cost savings to the district with with the switch and providers which is awesome. Um but just speaks a lot to our kids uh our parents, the community, our coaches that that these two professionals would completely change, you know, their place of employment to to stay in this community. So that that's a that's

114something the entire community should celebrate. Again, Mr. Caldwell and and Anna Hurst leading our our team of dedicated trip drivers. It really takes the entire group uh to be successful with all that. uh 22 varsity sports. That hasn't changed. Just a couple things to highlight there. We've kind of moved up to two JB football teams. Um I guess that was the second year with that. But then we added a C team volleyball and and we'll have a freshman or C team for for boys basketball. Those are new this year. Same number of siphons, same number of gymnasiums and and coaches. Uh but ultimately gets more kids involved and and fewer cuts. Uh which is a nice thing. Total number of athletes stays pretty consistent. Um, just kind of the emphasis here, we've got a lot

115of student athletes. A healthy percentage of our student population participates in in these ECAs. Uh, by by gender, again, I still think kind of females positive trend over time. Uh, kind of happy with with where those are. The the male side has stayed a little more steady. Uh, I spoke last time. It's not necessarily the goal to be equal just because the sports are going to have different numbers. Uh I think last year I compared a a football to a volleyball program for example. Uh but but those numbers I I I feel like are pretty solid. Multiport athletes. This is something we're very proud of. Uh it has to be intentional for the department and coaches to make this possible. this current data uh it doesn't make a ton of sense uh because right now

116we have more kids signed up uh because we haven't kind of completed all the sports. Sometimes when parents get on final forms or a student athlete, they might I'd like to do this sport and that sport and then by the time kind of all the dust settles like last time when I presented it was April uh we would probably have more consistent numbers. But ultimately, I can still you can still look at this data and see, you know, we we do still have a strong number of three sport athletes, a strong number of two sport athletes, and and kind of as some of those rosters are finalized, I think this data would, you know, kind of regress to towards what we've seen in in previous years, which is a a good thing as well. Uh

117we spoke last time about the IHSA transfer policy. Um I'm not going to go through the the per five or six bullets there. Um, but just kind of update what what I see. Um, I guess one of the middle bullets I do want to touch on. There hasn't been as much movement as as maybe AD's thought um kind of locally or across the state. The IHSA reports the data that their transfers are up across the state, but it's it's not as much. It's not the wild wild west. It's not completely crazy like some thought it might be. Um, here locally, I've only processed four outgoing transfers and and obviously we've had more than four student athletes, you know, leave our school over the past uh six or seven months, but they've gone to a different

118state, right? The only ones that I would track would be if they're going to a different HSA school, and those would be high school kids, not not not seventh and eighth graders. So, if we have a high school student athlete leave here and and go to an Indianapolis school, then we would do a transfer process. So, that's what I'm talking about there when I'm referencing four. Um, and that that number there says 16 incoming transfers. It's it's more like 18 because I I just did a couple last week for u uh as as winter sports get got started up that there was some and and most of those are living in our boundaries. Obviously, there's some that are TSC transfers. Um, a few are returning students and and those are students who have um either,

119you know, maybe they went to Harrison for a semester, a year and they wanted to come back, maybe they went to a different local school. We've had a few like that. Uh, we also get a decent number of student athletes who they they might go with their parents for a sbatical or a semester abroad for and I still have to do a transfer process. So, some of those are just our own kids. Uh, maybe a few of those are just our own kids coming back. facilities. Again, that's a constant thing. Uh, since the last time I was here, the track and field has has been resurfaced, the lights at the athletics complex, and then the tennis court. Obviously, all all three of those are significant projects, uh, excitement from the community, great feedback, coaches are

120excited about all of them, student athletes are excited about them, positive feedback, and and ultimately, you know, thank you all for your support. Those are projects you have to improve or excuse me, projects you have to approve and and we're appreciative that that that's happened. Obviously, you know, we we've been here a decent amount of times tonight talking about finance. Uh other projects have been paused. It's understandable given what we're hearing. It's just kind of forcing us to try to be more creative. You know, do more with less. Uh try to work with our coaches and and different teams and and try to keep people happy. Uh find ways to fund raise. Of course, we can't do huge projects, but but even even small ones can make a difference. Um, you know, one one thing

121we've been working on this year is is different sound systems throughout the corporation and kind of a business uh partnership with with Sound Advice and they've been great to work with and kind of give us a discount. We do some sponsoring for them and it's it's great to have some experts help us with with those projects. Uh, from the strategic plan, uh, communication, one we're we're continuing to work on uh specifically in the athletic department student athlete survey. Uh there there's some data there that gets sent out to all the student athletes after the season. U generally positive feedback uh from the student athletes and and uh if it's if it's not, you know, we're trying to look for common themes, both good and and bad areas where we can improve. Uh we try to

122have those conversations with coaches where we obviously aren't identifying the student athlete if they share something, but do our best to to just continue to get better in that area. Something new this year is a parent survey that was recently sent for all fall athletics. Again, some of the questions are going to be consistent from the student athlete survey to the parent. Uh but then obviously there's there's different questions that that was sent out through final forum. So some probably have some parents on the board who have seen that um inside out coaching it's book I'm sharing with coaches that uh kind of getting away from the win at all cost uh motto um and just focusing on education based athletics trying to push out some more news articles and and make the athletic website

123a little bit better with with some Twitter feed stuff and and just celebrating the kids because we've got a lot to celebrate uh also trying to be intentional about uh tough topics like uh cutting, you know, it's not a pleasant thing and people struggle with that. So, trying to communicate beforehand with parents and families both from the athletic office and then from the coach as well. And then something this this winter we've started doing as I've been attending the parent meetings uh the preseason parent meetings um to support coaches. One uh to be able to answer questions, share some just general athletic policy u information. also share that hey there'll be a parent survey coming at the end of the season but but of course don't wait till the end of the season if you've

124got a question or concern that's that's what we're there for and then also kind of a last thing I'm we're shouldn't say I'm the athletic department we're working on kind of adding a athletics hub is what we're calling stolen that from other schools but uh just a place on on our website where we'll have all the documents that our coaches need uh whether it's professional development just different policies, technology, uh onboarding new coaches, posting news stories, just a variety of things that will be there for the coaches. It also would be accessible if if families or parents wanted to to see that same information. So, all right. Tried to get through that quickly. I know uh it's already been a long night for some and you've got a longer night ahead, but uh >> it's

125just Monday. We're used to it. >> Yeah, it's all right. >> Rachel, please. >> Thank you for this, Mr. Schroed. Um, I just had one question. At the cover page of your um PowerPoint, you had some wonderful photos of our student athletes. >> I'm going to take a stab and and say those were probably taken by Paul K. Owens. >> Uh, or no? >> No. >> Um, >> yes, of course. >> Yeah. And I I just I feel like every time I see his work in public, I need to comment on the fact that it's his work and he's so generous with his time and dedication. >> He is unbelievable. He is very intentional about getting to all the sports, right? That that's that's what's so cool. U I could go through there and find

126something on on all the sports. It's not just football, for example. And of course, his his own children don't play at all those sports. So, he he's dedicating his time and his his equipment and and he's one of several. But yes, I I did steal these from Paul because I know he would happily uh >> be totally fine with it. Yes. But I thank you for for that. And I' I'd like to piggyback on that and say I had a student athlete of my own who got injured and couldn't play anymore and uh started taking pictures and he was so very generous with teaching her. So I appreciate him as well. Thanks for bringing that up, Rachel. >> Anybody else? UA I would like to express my gratitude to your department and all the coaches

127and the bus drivers who drive kids are around on weekends and sometime very early in the morning late at night and uh so you know schools typically are ranked based on their academic performance but I feel these the ECA plays such an important role in to make them healthy and happy and I went to couple of those um uh team dinners and uh every time I was so impressed by how well our sports um run and many of our teachers actually they teach three four courses during the day then they do the coaching after school that's really a lot of work and so but still they remember every kids what they have done in the past season and all the fun stories And uh I every time I'm just blown away. I really really appreciate

128that and to help the kids grow wellrounded and by involve them in those activities and have some team spirit and just so thankful. >> Yeah, we're certainly blessed with great coaches. It definitely is getting harder to coach. You know, it's what what it was 10 years ago. It's so much more now. Uh we continue to do our best to try to find good people because we've got got great kids. Thank you, David. >> And then thanks for sharing all of this. The numbers that you presented for the number of students involved in athletics, do you have any idea how many of our students are involved in other athletic teams outside of the school that may be competing for time with them? >> I do I do not have that data. And I know that um

129obviously the regular I say regular sports that we offer. I know there's plenty of student athletes who are playing on various club teams of those same sports and then no doubt there are different athletic opportunities of of programs that we don't offer. But but yes, I'm sure there are a good amount. >> Lawrence, >> yeah, thank you for the shared informations. I really appreciate one thing is the cost of savings in current situation that's for our we work together for the financial sustainabilities another thing I see the very high participation rate so that's that's great and also I appreciate um we start the parent survey so we get feedback from parents and also personally I have been there volunteer a couple times so I can feel the web over there so the teams they are

130very good so this ECA is part of their education s they learn the kids learn a lot from during these kind of um things. Uh one thing I want to clarify u make sure I understand correctly you're saying the 16 um 16 income transfers maybe 18. So basically those students are in uh they all they in in in district or maybe the out of district but for the ECA purpose they transfer to our school. Is that a fair statement? Some of them are you saying do they live in our district? >> Yeah, I see there say you say most of them in West Lavia boundary. So basically they are in >> trying to clarify. So right now I've processed 18 okay transfers on my IHSA meaning they're they're high school student athletes. They aren't incoming

131seventh eighth not even incoming ninth graders but they're they're current high school students who have moved to us. Whether it's from out of state, um maybe it's from Harrison, you know, maybe it's from Indianapolis. >> Okay. >> Various locations. Obviously, I have all that data. I didn't know that it'd be proper to share it specifically where they're coming from, but I I I have that information. >> But you say most into >> most of them live in our boundaries. >> Live in our boundaries. So >> but but some of those like I said there are own students who >> they went away for a semester to um >> whatever reasons >> the one who was at Tokyo >> comes back to us. >> Okay. So okay so basically our ECA activities attract them back to

132our uh school. >> Sure. is one at least factor that's that's part of the trying to maintain our facilities and do a good job with everything so that the people want to be here want to come here for that. >> Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Okay. Thank you very much for your time tonight. I appreciate it. >> Next item on our agenda is communication for the a from the audience not for the audience. We have several people who have signed up including Becky Creech. You're up first. It's good to see you. Doing great. Did you good? >> Hey, you got to do what you got to do. >> I had spinal surgery three weeks ago. So, uh, so I'm Becky Creech. I'm a science teacher, parent, and homeowner in the district. And this is

133really more for the community than the board because you sat through all the the finance stuff, but since our community is going to get a survey, I want to um educate them maybe a little bit. I'm concerned that they might not be aware of the what the funding cuts uh could do to our great school corporation. Uh the state funding cuts to public schools are irresponsible, but turning away money from transfer students would be irresponsible for our school corporation. The last time the state severely cut school funding, I was a chemistry teacher at Harrison. What happened in TSC? Well, all middle school and high school teachers were requested or were asked to teach six instead of five classes. So, we were asked to do more with no additional uh compensation. Our average class sizes increased

134from 22 to 32. I had 32 chemistry students in a room made for 24 chemistry students. My student load increased from 100 students to 160 students. Electives were eliminated. In fact, any class with less than 20 students was canceled. Elementary students had reduced specialists classes and so the elementary teachers had to do more um with the students since they weren't going to the specialist classes and special teachers uh lost their jobs. Could this happen in West Lafayette? Absolutely. What makes our school special will disappear. What makes your property values high will disappear. Non-essentials will be cut first. This means any courses not required by the state for graduation could be cut. Electives will be gone. The very courses our students enjoy the most. Willis orchestra gone. Willis band gone. Extracurriculars like robotics gone. Class sizes

135will increase. Your child will get less personalized attention. 15 to 20 West Lafayette teachers could lose their jobs. Who wants to tell their child that their favorite teacher was fired? So, when our community fills out the latest survey, they need to realize their answers could have serious consequences for their child and the entire West Lafayette school district. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Next up, we have Mary Del Forbes. It's good to see you, too. >> Also, first of all, thank you for having me. Uh, some of you might know I live across the street and have since 1999 for more than a quarter of a century. Can't believe it. I have been a passionate follower of West Lafayette schools and supporter as both a parent and a teacher. This is now my 14th

136year teaching English at the West Lafayette Junior Senior. I can't believe that either. And yet this year, even though I used to drive to schoolboard meetings uh when I was very active in WLEA and even as a parent, I can't get myself to cross the street to attend these meetings. Uh the dysfunction and the divisiveness some of the members of the board have shown trigger me. And as the kids say, I can't deal. Uh endlessly debating the issues that to me just seem clear as day. Uh, it took an hour before we even got to community input. For example, I can't understand how transfers are even debatable. We have we're in dire financial straits here. The teachers accepted a less than ideal contract because we knew that the state is slashing funding. principles have already

137been asked to contain costs and uh we've been put on notice that if we retire or if we uh decide to step out that you may not even fill some of the vacant positions. Obviously, the writing is on the wall and we have to look for sources of revenue. At $7,000 give or take per transfer student, the answer should be obvious. The fact that we should be charging for consumable textbooks, is it ideal? No, but the answer is obvious. Should we increase the rate for the referendum? Again, not ideal, but the answer should be obvious. Saying no to transfers will, as Becky just outlined, have disastrous consequences. There will be cuts to extracurriculars, music, and art. AP classes unless they're mandated by the state. teachers will be rifted. I was here when we sent away

138the uh students of Purdue grad students and all of those students were absorbed by TSC. My brother-in-law was rifted. He was a wonderful teacher. He's out of teaching now. Property values not concerned at all. I've been here since 1999. The best predictor of the future is the past. Our property value has tripled since 1999. Not issue. So again, with all due respect, you are elected to avail yourselves of the financial data that Mrs. Kron, who is a rock star by the way, uh has for you. Please do your homework, act in the best interest of your students and staff, and uh make the right decision. >> Thank you very much. >> Next up, we have Tara Kim. It's good to see you, too. Welcome. >> Hello. My name is Tara Kim and I'm in 11th

139grade at Westside and I serve as the co-founder and president of West Lafayette Tutti, a student-ledd group of musicians from West Lafayette Junior Senior High School. We perform at senior communities every month to share live music with residents and patients helping those who might otherwise be isolated. After learning that federal grants for national CASA were abruptly terminated in April 2025, our group chose to step up for typican CASA with the support and permission of our club's faculty sponsor, Mrs. Lecher, and also principal Rogers. Mrs. Wit has also supported us and advised us since the beginning of our group. For some background, a court-appointed special advocate or AASA is a trained community volunteer that speaks up for the best interests of abused and neglected children in the typicanw county court system by monitoring their case closely

140and advocating for the needs of the child. Volunteers give a voice to our community's most vulnerable children by being independent factfinders and facilitators for change. They promote and support quality volunteer representation for children to provide each child a safe, permanent, and nurturing home. We know that causes advocacy is a lifeline for children in the court system. Even though that work can be less visible because of confidentiality, kids in care often have many team members, including attorneys, social workers, therapists, investigators, and foster parents. But most of these roles are paid. A CASA advocate is often the only unpaid consistent relationship some of these kids have. In 2024, approximately 200,000 foster children were served by CASA programs nationwide with more than 79,000 CASA volunteers advocating for them. In Indiana, 19,62 foster children were served by 2,812 CASA

141volunteers. These numbers are not just statistics, and they represent real children who deserve safety, love, and stability. Many come into care with little to nothing. In order to raise money for the CASA for kids fund where funds go directly to the typican CASA WL2 has committed to hosting a benefit concert in which 100% of the proceeds will go to CASA for kids fund. This benefit concert will be part of a fundraiser called project kasathon which is a collaborative fundra fundraising effort for CASA. The con concert will be on Sunday December 7th at 3 p.m. at Covenant Church. And we also reached out to West Lafia Student Art Initiative who will be selling artwork during intermission. Today I am reaching out to invite all of you to the concert. And if you happen to know individuals

142or businesses who would who might like to support Typicanun Casa, we would be extremely grateful if you would share the flyer and help us spread the word. For anyone who asks who how they can help, um they can share event details, introduce us to individuals or organizations, provide inkind raffle items, sponsor the printing of programs and flyers, donate refreshments or baked goods, and make a monetary contribution to the event or directly to Typicanunasa. We really hope you guys can make it and I'm certain that the impact of our community's collective efforts will directly contribute to the successful advocacy for the very people in our community. Thank you. >> Thank you. I am just so proud of students like you. I'm sorry it's been a long day. Um thank you for doing that. That's really beautiful.

143Um the next and final speaker from the audience is Becky Swanson. I'm gonna get my act together. >> Hello. I'm Becky Swanson. I'm a community member, parent, and a teacher. This is my seventh year as a special education teacher at West Lafayette Junior Senior High School. And tonight, I'm speaking on behalf of my department. On Friday, we learned that our public agency representative, Holly Walker, would no longer have a position with West Lafayette Community School Corporation after this current school year. Within hour within an hour of learning this news, there was an internal job posting for a student and family services specialist for our corporation. As we looked over this new job posting, what we saw was exactly Holly's job and then some. As the persons most affected by this change, your special education teachers,

144a handful of whom are here tonight, are incredibly disheartened and have some s significant concerns, which is why I am here before you. This public agency representative position is one of momentous importance. To name just a few of the responsibilities, this person must have a thorough understanding of article 7 and other special education laws and keep up with the changes. They must have in-depth knowledge of how special education services and provisions function in each building so they can help guide in case conferences as needed. They in char they are in charge of checking every single IEP for compliance before sending it off to parents for signatures. The final step before it becomes legally binding. They make sure the Medicaid forms get signed and uploaded. They complete re-evaluation and in ineligibility paperwork, data forms and exit

145forms and have to get it all to the right people. They keep track of massive amounts of paperwork. If the person cannot do their job effectively, efficiently, and correctly, it could open the corporation up to more significant issues in the long run. There are very few people within this corporation who come even remotely close to holding the qualifications, not to mention the experience, knowledge, and grit that are required for this vital position. Holly has a bachelor in elementary education, a master of science in special education with three special education endorsements, mildly mental handicapped, seriously emotionally handicapped, and learning disabled. She has 20 years of special education teaching, 10 in self-contained ED classrooms, which is an achievement in and of itself. One and a half in an alternative high school, and the rest in K12 resource

146and inclusion classrooms. Holly is the one who families have seen in our conferences for the past five years. They have rapport and history with her. During the 2324 school year, Holly attended the corporation's 346 IEP meetings. In 2425, she attended 496. This year so far, we've had 103. In her five years with us, she's attended somewhere between 1500 and 2,000 meetings. Not many outside of the special education department understand that. Please show us an internal candidate who has this experience. I'm running out of time. So, she's given this corporation nothing but her best over the past 5 years. And now she's been told not even halfway through the current school year that she won't have a job come next year. Yet, we expect her to continue to come and do her job to the best

147of her ability. And she will because that's the kind of person she is. We can't even offer her the courtesy of applying and interviewing for her own job because she isn't an internal candidate. And why? I don't really know. Maybe to save some money in the long run, but what is it going to cost us? To lightly quote one of my co-workers, with our latigious society, we need someone qualified. And I guarantee you, we aren't going to find someone better than Holly. So, with the time left to change our minds, with all due respect, we implore you to reconsider. >> Thank you very much. All right. I see a lot of people in this audience who've had a very long day and we're all going to close our eyes and if you would like to

148excuse yourselves, no one is going to um mind. Whatever. So, thank you very much. kind of thought that would be the uh response to that. All right, the next item on the agenda is the consent agenda and I am looking for a motion, please. Rachel, >> I'd like to make a motion to remove the um minutes from the October 6 executive session and the October 6th regular board meeting. Uh I was not present and so I can't really I'm going to have to abstain from that vote. So if we could pull those out, please. >> You bet. Uh could I get a second, please? >> It doesn't. You're correct. And we don't need to vote either. I apologize. Um I also have um I would like to remove the tenative collective bargaining minutes from the

149consent agenda as well, please. >> Okay. So we're moving that. >> Okay. And those require No. Which one was it? Which item? >> Okay. Thank you. Number four. Okay. Okay. Uh so we'll take those in that same order um after we've voted on the rest of the consent agenda. Um may I please have a motion for the remaining David? >> Um to approve and Lawrence >> second. >> Thank you very much. Um is there any discussion? No, there's not on this. Thank you. Uh all in favor let's do some buttons. There we go. So the consent agenda without those items uh passes seven to zero. And there we go. Now we are going to go back and um take one at a time the minutes from the um October 6th executive session. Uh Rachel will

150be abstaining. Could I please have a motion? Lawrence, thank you. >> Thank you. And is there a second, David? Thank you. Um, any discussion? Great. Um, there we go. All those in favor. There we go. Okay. Um, all right. Now we'll go back and take the regular board meeting minutes from October 6th. Is there a motion? >> Okay. And is there a second, George? Thank you. Uh any discussion, Dea? >> Um the current minutes indicate the policies were rescended even though they weren't listed on the agenda discussed or voted on during the meeting. So, I would like to motion to remove the rescended policies from the minutes. >> Okay. Um, David, >> you'll second. Okay. Um, is there any discussion? [Music] >> Generally speaking, I'm the person who offers those rescended policy numbers. I was

151not here, so Okay. >> Um, they didn't happen. >> Okay. Thank you. Um we'll go ahead and go ahead Lawrence update. I think Rachel understand the our legacy policy the best one. So maybe later on from now on maybe we'll have some formal kind of motions to repeal the uh Nola Niola's policy recommend from which I think he she already did a lot of research and that kind of Thank you. >> Okay, David. it was there. Lawrence and I um in Rachel's absence didn't completely state um and resend those. So, because we didn't state that, we we should remove them and then we can just add that to a motion later on today. >> Sounds great. Okay. Um so all in favor of um amending the 106 meeting minutes to not reflect the resending of

152the Nola policies. Thank you. Okay, there we go. So many words. Okay, one more. I I did, didn't I? Oh, for Christ's sake. I'm sitting here waiting on myself. Yeah. Okay. So, we're rescending those. And then if we could get a motion to approve the amended 106. No, we did. So, all we need to do is discuss and vote. Okay. We we have we have the motion to amend. So now we're just voting to approve the amended >> to approve the amended minutes. Okay. Um stop start. I'm going to make you do the buttons. Uh George because it's too many things. There we go. All right. All right. Or did I hit it that time? There we go. One more. I think we're missing David. There we go. Okay. Okay. Good heavens. Um alrighty. Thank

153you for that. And that concludes Nope, we've still got one more. That was um DEA's number four, which is the November 4th tenative collective bargaining meeting minutes. Um Rachel, >> I make a motion that we approve the minutes of the November 4 executive or um tenative collective bargaining meeting. >> Okay. >> Any discussion? Dea, >> um, being a public meeting, I think we should expand it more to give just a little detail than simply saying that there was a public comment received. Um, I don't think it needs to be um, intense, but I would like the community to be aware of what was shared. So, I make a motion to add um, under it says that we accepted comments. The line David Jo high school teacher commented on teachers concern regarding limited salary increase >>

154and Lawrence. Okay. Um, is there any discussion about that? No, >> I think I think the teachers feedback regarding the uh conductive bargaining agreement is very important. I think we should document that on the meeting minutes. Thank you. >> Anybody else? There we go. We got to start that over. Sorry. All right. Um, I'll go ahead and call the vote for that item. Great. Okay. So, we'll go ahead and include that line. And now, um that we've already moved on the minutes as a whole. Is there any discussion on the minutes as a whole? No. Okay. Then I'll call the vote on approving the minutes as a >> I'm sorry. >> With as amended. Yeah. As amended. Okay. Okay, super. All right, that was a lot of things. Having no unfinished business, let's go ahead

155and move on to new business. Dr. Grryer, would you like to go ahead and introduce the collective bargaining agreement? >> Yes, thank you. We have you have before you the collective uh bargaining agreement, and I want to thank you, Mrs. Austin. I've written down a few words that I'd like to share uh as we ask the board for approval of this new contract, particularly after our public hearing. Tonight, we present for approval of the collaboratively negotiated and ratified two-year teacher contract. We're deep deeply grateful for the WLEA and to our teachers for their partnership, professionalism, and commitment to our students. We especially appreciate their willingness to approve a two-year agreement when a one-year option was available, reflecting their shared trust and collaboration. Amid ongoing uncertainties in state funding and property tax reform, we've remind we

156we've remained focused on preserving cash responsibly while continuing to prioritize competitive compensation for our staff. While many districts offered minimal or no raises this year, we work closely with the WLEA to be as aggressive as possible within our means. The new agreement provides both a step raise and a pay scale plus additional base increases of $550 in year one and $250 in year two. For comparison, starting salaries are 45,000 in LSC, 48,000 in TSC and 52,300 in West Lafayette in year 1, 52,550 in year two. Our top of the scale salary will be 92,150. And our off the scale reflecting our most experienced educators, $100,56, both well above neighboring districts. That being stated, we do recognize the disappointment is expressed by Mr. Jo and we will continue to address ways to save money so that

157when we compare cash balances from year 1 to year two um a year from this coming January um we want to be in a position where we can offer um additional dollars at that time if possible. We're sincerely thankful for our teachers and their hard work and their dedication. We're grateful for our community's continued support and we're grateful to the board's commitment to sustaining fair and competitive salaries. Teachers increases will range from $550 to $9,700 which include advancements for additional coursework, degrees, and experience. This contract, like those before it, was bargained in good faith, and it reflects our shared values as a district. As we move forward, we will continue to focus on cost-saving strategies to ensure that our teachers can continue to receive fair and meaningful salary increases over time. Tonight, we respectfully request

158board approval of the negotiated two-year contract before you. >> Thank you very much. And I um want to let you and your team know that we do very much appreciate all of the creativity and your cost-saving measures. And um I will leave it there. Uh do we have a motion regarding the uh agreement collective bargaining agreement? >> Lawrence move to approve. >> Okay. Thank you Rachel. Second. Okay. Is there any discussion? Rachel. Um, at our recent contract hearing, we heard disappointment and frustration about this new contract and specifically um about compensation. So, while this is a little bit unorthodox, it is important to me to respond. I want to be clear that I asked for this moment from board leadership um to speak personally and I'm not speaking on behalf of the board. I also

159did write my comments out so I'm well prepared and say what I mean to say. Um, a few years ago, a teacher stood in front of this board and shared their frustration on a topic, a somewhat similar topic. I was board chair at the time, and over the weeks that followed, I felt their concern had been addressed. Um, I did not find out for almost two years that they did not feel the same. Um, and in fact were very angry with me and what they perceived to be my lack of response. So, call it a lesson learned perhaps, but it is important to me that you hear a clear and public response. Um, and I'll distill this down to three points. Um the first of those is thank you. I recognize that it is not

160simple or easy to stand in front of us and express dissatisfaction. I know that you like me love our schools. It is difficult yet necessary to give voice to both loving something and challenging it to do better. I am always grateful for your professionalism and grace. To be completely clear, I believe you are underpaid for your work. Continuing to chip away at improving that and attempting to keep up with inflation is not a forgotten need. Number two, I want to push back just a little bit on some of the comparisons you drew to other school corporations and their teacher compensation. Comparison has a relative value. While useful to learn from what others in our states may be doing better than we are, every school corporation has a different situation, size, demographic, boundaries, potential for growth,

161funding equation, and existing resources. To compare us to five corporations that we may have fallen short of when there are hundreds of corporations in Indiana we have done better than is an incomplete perspective. What we as school leaders should be charged with is making decisions that maximize resources and prioritize needs to benefit our students, teachers, and community. Full stop. Teachers are part of those decisions, not subject to them. And I want to encourage you to push back on us if ever you feel you do not have the opportunity and information you need to participate in that conversation. Which brings me to item number three. In my time on the board, there has not been a day, a conversation, or a vote where doing what is right for teachers and students has not been on my

162heart and part of the conversation. That is unfortunately not something the political leaders in our state and nation can say. What we are dealing with right now with funding and education of our children is at a level of absurdity that I never even imagined possible. In our corporation, you are very correct to call attention to the issue of transfers. You understand, as do I, that there is no mathematical possibility that we can eliminate transfers and not impact the classroom and our teachers. While I believe we in this room have a fair grasp on the issues, I do not believe our community does. We are standing at the edge of the pool of those very difficult conversations, preparing to dive in. And I perhaps think it's more of a cannonball. Please step into these conversations. Stay

163informed. Help us to see your perspective. I know you are already educating our children and I will ask you to also educate us. The decision tonight is specifically about teacher pay. I believe the decisions coming up over the next months will likely impact teacher pay and in fact all of West Lafayette schools for a generation. I really appreciate your attention and Mr. Jose especially you for coming forward and making that statement. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um is there anyone else who you go ahead >> I participate in the whole negotiation pro um process. I totally echo what uh uh Dr. Grryer said and uh so I appreciate all the hard work our teachers have been doing and I have three kids. I typically I witness first handed all the hard work our

164teachers do in classroom and outside classroom for the ECA teachers have to get up early or stay late and including our bus drivers. I really really appreciate um your great effort and um so often times I feel the word negotiation sounds weird to me because I I feel I'm on the other side with the teacher and I hope that we can increase the the compensation for our teachers and um so this is a weird process and uh I so I it's lot of negotiation feel like we want to cut it down but actually I wish we can increase always and plus seeing the you know when we look at the historical data with the infliction considered actually teachers compensation went down in the past several years now that with the the the state's new policy

165on the tax that things is getting worse so I really feel bad about that And I hope we can help more. And uh here I have some proposals. Many uh of them have been mentioned but I just want to iterate iriterate uh repeated again. First we should uh creatively reduce cost without uh reducing programs and teachers staff members and also we need to creatively increase our revenue and think out of box figure out ways to do so. And uh another specific ones and uh earlier this semester we delayed the vote for charging families the consumables. Probably we should do that as soon as possible. So next year we won't have that def um discrepancy there. And uh the first one is uh I hope everyone including board members and residents, teachers and contact the politicians

166and uh and to get more support for the public education. Really it doesn't make sense that we already have a low property tax rate. Uh where we rank the bottom already for that. um nationwide and we cut it even more. Also, we compensate our teachers like comp um the compensation put for teachers in Indiana is already ranked at the bottom, but we we make it even worse. On the other hand, actually the students achievement rank the top in Indiana in the nation. It's just so ironic that we don't reward our teachers in in the appropriate way. So it really doesn't make sense. I encourage everyone to contact those politicians and the decision makers to change what they do. Hopefully things will change back and to be to follow the common sense. Thanks. >> Thank you.

167We will have that opportunity starting in January. Lawrence, did you want to say something? >> Yes. Yeah. Uh first of all I I would I want to thank you our uh teachers and also uh our educate educator association's leadership uh for their uh uh engaging the collaboratively uh uh and also with good faith in this agreement and also I appreciate uh David Joseph speaking as a representative of teacher association uh to speak so honestly uh before the whole board. Yeah, I I heard the I heard the disappointment and the frustrations and I share uh pretty much all what you feels. I I shop for the groceries u in all the discount grocery stores. I shopping over there. I mean since I was in uh college students I know they the price going up before the

168pandemic $100 you can fill your shopping cart. Now you go there $100 pretty much cover the bottom of your shopping cart. So uh I I totally understand and is frustration to know that even with risk on paper. So every year we get some risk but seems like we feel like we are kind of leave left behind the inflation. So I understand that and I really understand that education that that situation and uh after I look at the contract uh I think uh the contract reflect the very difficult uh uh tradeoff uh you know very tight financial environment. So basically we have a shrinking uh state support also flat enrollment and a new limits on the transfer revenues and but uh any of them didn't change the fact that we really uh valued uh valued our

169uh teachers they deserve should be valued and also should be uh supported whatever whoever even you no matter it's a new new teacher I just come out from college we have platform from you develop your career, you build up your strong resumes, seasoning faculties. We want to return you, keep you, we want to keep the best teachers and veterans, you have many experience. Uh we appreciate you mentoring uh other teachers and your leadership uh in our schools. So no matter uh what kind of teacher uh you are, we really appreciate and value you and we do our best to support uh support you. uh but I mean basically the contract is reflect the constraints our school and not only our school is also the whole uh community uh right now what we are facing there's

170uncertainties and the budget constraints that kind of things so so my hope is that um we continue everybody continue uh uh these kind of open conversations together and not only the teachers association and the school administrations pretty much everybody parents the whole community is who is the whole community thinks and uh when the financial uh position situation allowed uh we we can make it that uh that right so tonight we are going to vote on that and probably uh very likely may not meet everybody's uh expectation so I understand that but I believe uh it affirm still affirm our uh commitment um to keep our school strong and also we work together to work toward competitive uh compensations for our teachers and also we want a sustainability uh of our school uh corporations. Thank you.

171>> Thank you very much. Anyone else? Okay, let's go ahead and call the vote on the bargaining agreement, please. And that passes 720. All right, the next item is um the health insurance renewal and premiums. More good news, Michelle. >> This actually is a little bit of good news. >> All right, I'll take it. >> So, the benefits committee comprised of teachers across the district met with our insurance consultant from Brown and Brown last month to discuss the Anthem renewal for 2026. Rates for dental, vision, life, and LTD are locked in for another year at this time. The insurance market is currently trending in the double digits this year for both medical and pharmacy claims leading to an increase in insurance premiums across the market. While West Lafayette pays a fixed monthly payment, we are

172a self-insured entity. We have a settle up period at the end of the benefit year and either receive a refund if claims are less than what we paid into the plan or pay an additional amount if claims are higher than what we paid into the plan. We had a less than expected claim year in 2024 and thus received a large refund in 2025. We also raised employee premiums last year to a point where we funded the plan at a higher rate than expected. Due to all of this, our self- insurance fund has a large cash balance to help fund 2026 premiums. And thus, we are recommending a 0% increase in premiums for 2026. Even though Anthem is increasing our monthly fixed payment amount, our fund has to cash to cover those payments and to still

173have a sufficient cash balance at the end of the year. Please approve the recommendation of a 0% increase to health insurance premiums for 2026. Well, that is good news. That is definitely not what our renewal look like at my work. Okay. Um, I need a motion. Please >> make a motion to approve the insurance renewal. >> Okay. Motion to approve. And is that you seconding, George? >> Okay, great. Uh, any discussion? Okay, super. Let's go ahead and start the vote. Great. That is 70. Okay. Next item is the policies and I would recommend that we take the information from Rachel. That was a good catch, wasn't it? >> So you'll notice your policies tonight are in three sections. The policy committee, Lawrence, uh David, myself, Dr. Grryer, and um Mrs. Roth, and the fabulous Roberto

174all met um and went through u policies. We had a group of six that received u no recommendated recommend recommended changes. Um and so I'm proposing that that first batch we um approve in one batch and we don't need to go line by line through those. The second grouping of those are a second a group of policies with second readings where there are recommended changes. Um, and so just to repeat our process, any board members gave us feedback and thank you for those of you who did that. Those were inserted into the document. Um, those are in blue text. Um, changes that were presented by legal are in black text if I'm remembering correctly. Is that right, Robera? That they're in black for the legal red for legal. And then um the policy committee put

175our comments in in green our recommendation. So, um, if we can move through those all one at a time. Um, and then finally, the last batch, and you'll notice it is a very long list. Um, the policy committee was, I don't know, drinking coffee or something, but we, um, really are trying to move forward on these, and so we decided to be a little bit aggressive. Uh, and I'm going to ask that on that item number 14, um, board members, please take time to read those and give feedback by a date that our board chair will recommend here in a minute. Um, policy committee is going to get together again and um, take your feedback and follow this process with as many of these as we can get through. Um, with the caveat that if

176we can't quite get all of through through all of them that we might drop some of them to the next month. So, but we decided to go big or go small. Um, so that's kind of the update from the policy committee and that's what I got for you. >> Thank you. Do you have your next meeting date set? >> Policy 11. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry. A week. >> I didn't hear. >> Meeting on the 25th, right? >> Yeah. policy committee meeting will be uh November 25th. So I think probably before that date any revision >> like the 20th >> the meeting on >> the meeting is on the 25th the 20th. >> Okay. >> Uh will that give Robera will that give you enough time to add things in >> four hours together? >>

177Okay. >> So 1120. >> Okay. That gives everybody another 10 days from today. >> Okay. Sure. Thank you. >> Let me write that down. Amy, I'm sorry. There's one thing I need to add on to this too. >> Yes ma'am. >> So on this first batch of policies um specifically just want to do these for the record but we will be should this first batch pass we would also like to resend or policy committee recommends the recision of uh PO2281 PO2623.01 PO 5350 PO5771 PO2330 and PO 5130. Um, as a reminder that may not be every policy that would be covered by part of these, but those can be wholly removed. So when we get through this process, we will go through obviously and clean house on those that are remnants. >> Okay. So I

178guess the first thing I need um is a motion on that first set of policies. Item number 12. David >> like to make a motion on uh approving all of the items under 12 or all of the policies under 12 and resending. Should I read through the list again? >> The policies just stated by Rachel. >> Perfect. Is there a second? >> Okay. Thank you, Lawrence. Any discussion on those items? DEA. >> Um Dr. Riner, the one that talks about Title One parent and family engagement, it talks about parents being involved with the corporation. Um, would you mind kind of sharing what that looks like and what we're doing to follow that, please? >> Absolutely. Um, I lost it. >> Did you lose your train of thought? >> Yeah. >> We How do we involve

179parents in that? >> I wouldn't say absolutely, Mrs. Bumper. don't know why I wanted to call you Deisha, but I knew I should call you Mrs. Mumford. So, >> it's we're we're just all tired. >> So, the a title one school, we only have one title one school right now, and that is our elementary school. And um it's reviewed during title one family night um is is one of the things. Also, there's a parent contact or compact uh that is completed to ensure involvement and that is done during registration. But a lot happens at that title one family engagement night where they bring parents in and engage and um take take input. But also surveys are given um from time to time and I know will less has used even to um better tailor um

180engagement. So that is always something that is ongoing as well. So I appreciate the question. >> Anything else in discussion? Okay, super. I'll go ahead and call for the vote on rescending the old and approving the new. It's not me this time. Okay, there we go. That fast seven. >> Do we need >> No. Do we do we need >> That's why we took it out of the consent agenda, right? Specifically. Yeah, they'll that'll be different. >> Yeah. >> Okay. The next one we're considering is B150 organizational meeting board of finance and committees. Um is there a motion? >> Like to make a motion um that we um move to approve >> Thank you. >> this policy. Just we're gonna have a lot of conversation about it. >> Okay. Is there a second real quick?

181Thank you, David. Okay, go for it. >> All right, so first things first, there is not a recision of a policy attached to this one. Um, second, at the beginning, um, we had a board member who offered recommended text in blue. Um, the policy committee agrees and and agrees that we should add that. That has been cleared by legal. Um there if you scroll down to paragraph >> oops I'm sorry three four five six um we just adjusted a couple of words here um we changed it from a shall to a may provision um and set a fee um there's a lot of conversation about this um but we felt like this was appropriate in the next paragraph >> we're on B150 >> yeah the next paragraph. Um, >> same paragraph. >> Yeah, we had

182some feedback from a board member, a couple of board members that we've included in there that you can see in blue text. Um, so I don't I guess the thing to do is probably start with the first amend the first item or you want to go through all of them? >> The policy committee put forward the language up in that first paragraph, right? >> In agreement with the committee members. We don't need to vote on that. >> Correct. Um the other questions are all about paragraph four. So >> yeah and there's and there's also for paragraph five. So we'll get through paragraph four and then move to paragraph five. >> Um and my recommendation is going to be that with the change of the shall to may and the the to that we accept the

183policy paragraph as written. >> So we need someone to move to amend. I I do want to make a comment on uh the uh fee for individuals. Just a slight change in wording to make it a little bit clearer. Uh like to move to change it to the board may set a fee charged to persons who request individualized notice. >> Okay. Um, if if I could just make this statement, um, with the number of edits that we have on these, um, I would ask the board to consider that we not try and edit them on the fly. I I agree actually with your wording. I think it's better, but it becomes confusing to those to to us. And so, if we could approve this and if you want to dump it back on to to

184the next meeting to ask for a revision, that would make sense to me. But to move through these efficiently, I would just ask that we pick one or the other that's actually written in the document for now. I don't Do you agree? Okay. >> I I would agree with that. I we've put forward that pol or the that paragraph 4 with the minor green edits. If somebody would like wants to make a motion to modify with either that second or the the either the blue edits or both of those, they can. But unless there's a motion to do that, then we're just going to move through with the paragraph that we put in. >> Okay, we already have a motion to approve with no rescending of any other policies. Now, we need a motion about

185paragraph 4. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Only if somebody has a motion to make about it. If nobody has a motion to make, then we just move forward. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I I just did. I asked >> different paragraph. >> No, same paragraph. >> Same paragraph. Oh, I'm I'm sorry. Okay. >> And George George added if I'm I don't mean to speak for you, but George added an alternate language to our paragraph, but >> but we're asking that we don't do that. >> My request is because we accepted all of this feedback in advance that we try to not edit on the fly in this meeting if possible. >> Okay. So, I'm trying to >> I would like to second his motion. I think the committee came back and shared their opinion, but I

186think he has a valid point and I think that it should be considered. We haven't had any discussion since the policy committee met. So, I'll second George's recommendation, Mr. Files. >> And then that does not require a vote because it's got a motion and a second. Correct. >> It would. It does. Okay. But we have to have discussion about and you need to tell me exactly what words so I can write them down. Just a simple change. >> Or it may set a fee charged to persons who request individualized notice. >> Just set a fee or individuals >> to persons who request individualized notice. >> Persons. Okay. >> Got it. Okay. >> Yeah. Individual. So, and just for I don't want to take up too much time, but just for context, the reason I wanted

187to push that change when I saw it when I went through the this earlier is because it goes back to the conversation we had about it last month about why this fees in place in the first place. And this fee isn't for anyone who asks. This fee is for anyone who asks for specific and special requests like if they want the entire agenda printed out and mailed to them or if they want a video recording or something. So we need I just want to make sure we make that clear before we actually publish this policy. >> So you don't want us charging people who call and say, "Hey, is there a meeting tonight?" >> Exactly. >> Okay. Okay. Uh is there any other discussion? >> I just want to point out to you that this

188policy paragraph is limited only to people who request a notice of board meetings. It's not any other content. It's not any video. It's nothing other than is there a meeting? That's it. >> Okay. Anything else? Cool. Okay. Let's go ahead and vote on whether or not to add uh the board may set a fee to persons who request individualized notice to paragraph 4. Okay. Now we will return to the previous motion which is to approve this policy B150 as presented by the policy committee. I'm going to stop so we can see it again. There we go. Okay. >> With George's amendment, right? Everything else is as presented. Is there any other discussion? Okay, great. Then I will start the vote. Okay, I have to write this down. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, great. Now we

189are moving on to the next item which is >> 175. No, like to we didn't vote on the policy. We still have paragraph five on this. >> Oh, okay. So, >> no, >> I thought we just >> So, we missed paragraph number five. We were talking about paragraph number four, but if you scroll down, there's paragraph number five. >> Okay. >> Um >> uh I'm sorry. I thought we were just voting on the change in paragraph. Uh >> to paragraph a new paragraph. >> Okay. >> So, that's paragraph. Would the person who proposed this language still like to have this discussed or is it okay? As we've previously voted on, you still want to have five. No, you're good. Okay. So, we can skip five. We're good then. Okay. >> Yeah, >> we're good. >>

190Okay. Super. Next, we're going to move on to C175, which is attendance, academic engagement, and truency prevention policy. Rachel, >> um, >> so on this one, the >> Yeah, we're on C175. Um, this one would ask for recision of um, PO52000. >> Uhhuh. Um and if you look at this particular policy, attendance, academic engagement and truency prevention, um legal has given the feedback on this one and some kind of change of law. Uh and so hopefully every chance had to look at that. Um but I would recommend that we approve this policy with the noted edits from legal counsel. >> Okay. Is there a second? Thank you. And any discussion? No. Great. I will call the vote to approve it as presented by legal and resend PO 5200. Cool. Okay. Well done. All right. We're

191going to move on to >> Lawrence. What's good regarding the B section? I think I think Rachel uh we already finished uh pretty much all the B sections. Are you going to uh have a motion to uh repeal all the section uh the section called 0000 bylaw sections? Um, so the the policies are layered, if that makes sense, and so they appear in multiple places, and so we will work close to that, but I' I'd like to do the final cleanup after we get a little bit further down the road. >> That's my recommendation anyway. >> Yeah. >> Okay. The next one is C200 anti-bullying. >> Right. So on this one, I'm sorry I spoke without you. Okay, >> you're good. um C200 um this one would be recision of 5517.01 01. And if you

192look at this one, this is one that we have had a lot of conversation about. I think it's been on our agenda for many months. Um, and I do think that we have ended with a stronger policy um because of that conversation. Um, we've been at it long enough. The law has changed on it. So um if you look on paragraph one um there is a a small uh green edit from the policy committee and then there are legal uh edits in red as you move through. Um and then we have one board member um recommendation uh in blue. Um but my recommend or my motion is that we approve policy C200 anti-bullying updated per the legal uh commentary on it. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Rachel, is that including the green text

193as well? >> Yes. Okay. >> Thank you for clarifying that. Yes. >> Is that a second? >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Any discussion on this one, Dea? Um, this one actually has quite a few recommendations and so if possible I think to make it simpler it'd be helpful to go through each recommendation individually that there's differences. Um, >> okay. >> So to me what I'm seeing the difference um that I would like to discuss is in the intervention and response paragraph there's a sent there's two sentences that the policy committee is recommending to be added. So Back up there, Brandon. Sorry. >> No, go down. You're go down. >> Oh, is it down further? I'm sorry. I thought we were looking at the blue. >> So, what I um would like to do is motion

194to have us just talk about the first recommended sentence in this section and approve that and then move on to the second one. Um because they're um to me very different. >> Okay. So, give me exact words, please. Well, that first one, I guess I just will motion to approve the first sentence in the intervention response paragraph um recommended by the committee the policy committee. >> We don't need to approve those, >> right? We're don't do anything with that one. >> If if the policy committee I'm sorry, >> if the policy committee put it forward as as lang that that's what's been brought to us as the language to use. >> Perfect. Let's then then I want to move to that second sentence um in green that says before the end of the next day

195after the school becomes aware of the >> um possible event. So as all of you know I feel very strongly about this um issue that it's presenting um it's not only important to me as a parent it's also important to me as a social worker and therapist. So the policy committee's um recommended language does technically meet the minimum requirement set by state law, but I believe we have a higher ethical responsibility. Parents should be a be informed before the end of that calendar day when their child reports being bullied. No student who feels unsafe should be expected to return to that environment the next day without their family being aware. As a school district, our first priority must be the safety and well-being of our students. If a student tells us they feel unsafe, we

196must act with urgency, not delay communication for 24 hours. We say in the same paragraph, consistent with other legal obligations, the corporation will prioritize the safety of the target of the bullying. Delaying to inform parents does not align with this statement or with our ethical responsibility. If we truly prioritize student safety, our policies must reflect immediate action and transparent communication. So, I would like to make a motion to change that second sentence to read, and it's just a one-word change. The corporation shall inform the parents of all students involved in alleged incidents before the end of the calendar day instead of next. So, just switch that word next to calendar um after the school becomes aware. Thank you. I really appreciate the clar clarity of the motion. And Lawrence, am I correct that you seconded

197that? >> Yeah, I can. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, is there any further discussion, Rachel? >> Um, just to be clear, I I think that it's sets an unfair represents our administrators unfairly um to say that they don't care about the safety of children and that they want children to be safe in our schools. That particular wording and I and I agree with Mrs. Mumford that we want our children to feel safe and we want parents to be communicated with. And I don't think there's anybody in this town who would advocate for that more than our principles and administrators. The point of wording it in this way is so that uh they have some flexibility because in situations of bullying, in situations where children may feel unsafe, they are often complex. And so while it

198is very important that we do keep the requirement of the state, we're going to follow the law. Absolutely. And I believe that 99.9% of the time the situations afford themselves to the administrators informing the parents in that period of time. There are some unique situations in which they cannot or should not because it's not in the best interests of the children. So I would like to leave our administrators the flexibility and their professional judgment um to to let them determine in that situation what is best when it's an exception. Um, but I just I'm always troubled by assumptions being announced that we somehow do not trust our administrators or administrators need to be forced by a deadline to do the right thing for kids because that is just nothing further from that truth. >> Okay.

199Thank you. Anyone else? Lawrence. >> Yeah, I think um this uh we uh we really get a lot of feedback uh from our principles building administration uh teams. I think uh uh in summary they uh they think that they are more uh comfortable with uh the second days uh uh by end of second day report I think uh everybody agree uh the student safety is the top priorities anything uh happened uh we should notice parents as soon as possible uh but I also and when I balance these kind of uh things u I think there's a lot of things need to be done uh before uh notice parents and uh our frontline u teachers and also administrations uh they give us pretty good uh feedback and uh I prefer to uh to follow their uh

200suggestions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Yeah, just a a practical question. >> So, we're not in the buildings, we're not administering the kids. Um, if we change the policy to say that we're going to notify both the parents of the victim and the perpetrator before the end of the calendar day. So what happens if it turns out not to have been bullying at all? What what happens if it turns out that so just for example, what's the difference between a fight and bullying? I think we need to give the people who are in the building time enough to make that determin determination before we start telling parents things that could um affect honestly how the parents deal with their children >> um to so to respond to that I think there's a

201big difference between informing the parents that a reporting incident incident has a bullying incident has been reported versus giving them updates on the investigation. So that's what's the big difference right here is we're not asking administrators to share anything with parents more than your child is involved in an investigation on bullying. The likelihood scenario of what how it ends, they will keep them updated. But my concern is if we have a child who's in a situation where they're feeling bullied, parents should be uninformed. And if it's just a matter of teaching the child what does bullying mean and helping the parents understand administrators have no information at this time. So I've actually spoken to administrators about this topic and discuss that the point is not to share all this information. They don't know anything. They've

202just been told it. But the point is to let the parents be involved in a situation that is a very serious. As soon as the word bullying is used, this is taken very seriously. And so just letting the parents know this is beginning. We'll give you more information is what is being asked here. >> Lawrence, go ahead. >> Yes. Uh Dr. Grenner or maybe um the principles maybe you can share uh how often that the bullying happenings uh my understanding is not uh uh that very often. So uh regarding that desa's comments I agree uh anything happens we should uh immediately notice parents but uh bullying the conflict always happenings to kids and probably if we just anything happen we notice parents probably uh we overwhelmed the the the parent that's that's my u my

203um u my thought about that maybe you can share about how how frequently how often that happens So >> we can research that and get that data to you. Um what we've collected so far is where the principles of their feelings with in Friday notes with regard to um uh same day versus the goal of same day always. But um um there are times where perhaps it's not appropriate that day. and if you got policy, you're going to send something out even if you're not fully prepared. So, you've seen the comments in the Friday notes from the administrators. If you want to ask specifically a question, I can I can invite them up. We'll include the frequency um in the next Friday notes. >> I think they already answered a question. The frequency my understanding

204is not very often. So, if they uh feel free to uh to share the numbers instance of bullyings uh is there a principal that would like to come forward and speak to the question? I love how they both looked at you >> with the 24 hours or the same day would be a report that happens at say like 2:00 right after second recess and now we have less than an hour to get information to a parent who is going to have a lot of questions and I'm going to have very little information and so then it leaves them with worries and um and me feeling like I have to scramble to try to get something relevant to give that parent. So I that's my personal concern with the 24hour the end of the school day.

205I think giving us the end of the second day gives us that time to pause looking at videos when we can talking to people that we need to talk to trying to get the best information possible to give the parent the most information that we can. >> And I have a quick question. If Susie comes to you at two o'clock after second recess and says, "Tommy is bullying me," are you going to throw Susie back in the classroom with Tommy immediately or are you going to like make some kind of accommodation that next morning while you're investigating? >> We are looking immediately into it. And so we start right away and depending on what exactly has been shared, you know, we're we're putting things in place to be able to protect the kids, all the

206kids that are involved. we're already talking to our counselors because they're going to start needing to get involved with working with each of the children, both the victim and the uh bully. And so there's a lot that goes into it and quite honestly uh it's very time consuming and having it all done by the end of that first day even though it's already started on that first day is not realistic. >> Thank you very much. >> Sure. >> Just to help clarify why this is something. Um, so the view is that we're not giving a bunch of information to parents. Um, like I had talked to Dr. Grryer, it can just be a train of parents and even a set email because I think it's a very valid concern for administrators honestly to get a

207report at the end of the school day and you then need to walk out the door and deal with other things in life and you can't hand, you know, you can't do anything. And so a simple email that says your child has been involved in a bullying incident. We will investigate it and update you. There's nothing that we can share with you. Now, yes, are parents going to potentially potentially reach out and be freaking out? To me, that's an education piece. And to me, what the highest priority is is I'm meeting with students that are being bullied. These are not students that are typically coming home and sharing with their parents what they're going through. And even a delay of the next day can be very serious for some of these students. And so to

208me, if we even have one student that feels they're being bullied and not safe at school and we are not allowing parents to be a part of that process by the end of that day, simply sharing that is where my concern is coming from that. But wanting to be aware that I don't expect administrators to need to put in tons of time before they tell parents. I don't agree that by the end of the next day, you need to have all this information before you tell parents. parents just need to be aware. If you're worried about your child, here's the basics that we know and then we're, you know, we'll keep you updated. So, I just wanted to share where I'm coming from a different perspective, but I do get that it's very complicated and

209would take lots of training of parents the reality >> and I respect what you're saying. I just I I know our parents um and in the moment that has not that has not been enough and so some of them have just come right after school like I want to know what you know and at that point there's not a lot that I can share because we just have started that process. So there are difficulties on both ends for that. >> So Mrs. Zaros um in the scenario that Mrs. Austin said where somebody gets potentially bullied on the playground at 1:50 and school lets out at 2:15 that point. Do you even know enough to make a determination about whether or not it was bullying? >> No. Often times no. >> Thank you very much. >>

210Since you are here is the followup question. >> I know. >> I get it. She accepts. >> I keep going like this to make it a little more >> difficult situation. >> Okay. Sorry. They should buy lunch for you. >> Yeah. Just since you are here, I just wondering say right now the state requirement is by end of next day and uh we have some board members proposal say by end of the the current day. So do you think that's reasonable or maybe you feel comfortable say which in 24 hours say if something happened 2 o'clock and tomorrow's 2 o'clock and at least you do something you think that's kind of comprom >> if we have information and we can speak to the parent in that same day we do we don't wait till the

211next day just because we can okay >> but um most of the time it takes a lot of digging into information to get to the um situation and just to know all the details that we need to know to make a good decision. >> Yeah, understand. But do you think 24 hours is kind of a reasonable expectation? So you think you can handle that kind of things 24 hours? >> I think I think it depends if if it's something that happens on the bus, we have to request bus video footage. And so there are things that add to that time that we need, but um I I would be most personally I would be most comfortable with the end of the second day to be able to look into all the things that we need

212to to get the right information. >> Thank you, Mr. S. >> Thank you. >> Um and I are we at a point where I can make a motion to perhaps and then some offers motion. >> Oh, I wish you wouldn't. Well, I just just just to recommend some slightly different language that might perhaps be a compromise to say something to the effect of uh administrators uh will notify as soon as practicable um but not outside of that uh next day period >> before the end of second day. >> Yeah, before the end of second day. >> David, hold on. I'm I'm calling people. David. >> Nope. Um those are administrative guidelines not policy. Um as soon as possible has no legal definition. Policies are legal. So and and I would expect that they that we

213have wonderful principles and they will do everything they can to notify as soon as possible. Um but here we're talking about the legal guidelines for policy. H >> h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h my compromise language. Yeah, I get you. But >> okay, >> any is there a second? Second >> for George's motion. I'm trying to do the rules here. >> You're okay. You're seconding. Okay. And you did you have something to share? I thought I saw your hand. If not, that's fine. >> That's okay. I um so yeah, first as soon as possible. And second, I really appreciate that if um bully is reported whether it's true or not and uh our teachers administrators will pay extra attention to

214those students make sure that the it won't continue right so that's what DEA is worried about and uh if that's a practice I think that's great. So while we do the investigation we pay attention to those students to make sure that the bully will not continue. Another thing is I remember several years ago lost track of the time maybe just last year we when we talk about this issue and the we try to differentiate a bully with a conflict >> and so I wonder sometimes kids do use the vocabularies in a mixed way and so I wonder in schools when students report a bully and how to tell whether it's a real bully or it's a conflict and uh then in what situation the school needed to report to the parents. So yeah, it maybe

215it's a force alarm to create unnecessary trouble or maybe it's something serious and uh yeah I I myself don't have a clear understanding about this and uh so I personally I'm okay with the current time frame and if only we do one as soon as possible second pay close closer attention to those kids who are involved to make sure the bully won't continue. I personally feel it's okay given those ambiguity sometimes and and yeah if we make it too tight maybe we put ourself in a position that we may easily viate the rule the law or something we set up for ourselves. Okay, Rachel. >> Um, so the specific definition of bullying is defined by state law and it's in the opening paragraphs of this particular policy in a very specific way um that our

216administrators have to follow. Um, and so it this is as as David has pointed out, this is implementation of the law. Our administrators still have to be the great people who want to protect children at all times, want to do what's best for children, and that involves communicating with their parents on any number of subjects, including bullying. So, those are administrator management and administrative guidelines and coaching and leadership role of our superintendent and assistant superintendent. So from a legal perspective, um I'm just going to say again, we should put in the policy what is legally required and allow our administrators to do their jobs. >> Okay. >> If that's okay. I want um I appreciate you trying to find a compromise. Just to clarify, I don't feel like that wording is needed because my concern

217is not that our administrators are not telling parents as soon as possible. I believe they are. That is not a worry that I have or anything. Like I said is the worry that I have is I don't want a student to come back to school that has dealt with that. So that's why I don't um even though I appreciate it, I don't think it connects to what I was trying to get the point across. Just >> if that's the case, should that concern be addressed with more what happens at the school as opposed to policy today? >> So it's about the policy today. So actually a year ago when this came um out the first time state law was that administrators could wait five days and legal counsel recommended that we change it to three

218I opposed it and as you know this all um was involved in the state changing this. I was a um very involved in that. So my view is still that it should be at the end of the day. Um I appreciate that state is now making us shorten it even more than we had originally planned. >> No. So no, what I mean is u it sounds like your concern is that the student may have to face whoever's bullying them um instead of that sounds less about the reporting period and more about whether or not the student should be allowed to ask for at alternative accommodations until the investigation is complete. So the reality is when a student reports a bullying incident, they're the majority of time it's a conflict and so there's no way that

219the teach the administrators are going to yank them out of a classroom and do things if they feel like the student is safe. This is this happens frequently in our schools. So my point is though if the student is feeling unsafe, the parent should be informed and that administrators should continue doing what they've been doing the whole time. I just want that little um piece is why there's a difference to me. >> I'd like to call the question, please. >> Okay. Thank you. So, >> withdraw. >> Oh, you're withdrawing. Okay. >> It doesn't sound like >> Okay. Super. Um thank you. Uh in that case, then we're going to return to the previous issue, which is um Deisha's motion that before the end of the next day, uh will be changed to on the same

220calendar day. Is there any further discussion on that? You called the question on that too. Okay. In that case, let's go ahead and do the vote. Okay. >> We're voting on your motion. >> Wait, what? >> Shoot. Sorry. Okay. Uh, >> is there a Do I need a second on that? I don't. Right. No, we I do. >> Okay. Who seconds that? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you, George. That's to Mr. Okay, we're voting on whether or not we're calling the question. Cool. One more. There we go. Okay. Uh, in that case, do we move back to the original original or do we move back to DEA's motion? Okay, we're moving back to Dea's motion, which is to change the word next to calendar. And we've called the question, so I need to do buttons

221again. Um, there we go. Okay, that one fails one to six. And then we move back up. Now, does your call the question also affect the whole policy or do we move on to the next? >> That's the last thing. >> Okay. >> So, I need a motion from you, Dea, about your next adjustment. >> Okay. So, the motion is in the paragraph about Yes, sorry. The old one that was put on the website, it was different than the one today. So, um I think it's still the intervention one. >> Where's the one that talks about >> that one right there? the intervention and responses paragraph and the board >> recommend where we are. Okay. >> Okay. There I am. >> Okay. So, um currently the policy says that we will be transferring a student

222to another school within the corporation. um legal counsel actually came back to the request to move that and said that we don't need to have that in here because it just is confusing and so we can take that out. So I make a motion to remove the part that says another school within the corporation. Legal council says we have to keep the part that talks about prioritizing the safety of the victim. That's required to be in there. But they said we do not have to have the part about another school within the corporation which simplifies it so that um since we can't do that anyways >> this is the one >> this is >> we don't it's not >> okay okay sorry um okay so you want the language about another school removed because we

223do not have another school to move them to >> and legal council had agreed with that >> right and is there a second >> okay um And is there any discussion about that? >> I think we policy committee talk about that and then uh Anna has some uh suggestions uh regarding uh the change >> up above. >> I I think uh we uh we have recommendation removed including transfer the bully or target the whole sentence as marked over here. Uh is that our policy committee's recommendation? I remember that's our >> recommendation. Yeah, it's in there. It's still in your >> Yeah, it says that it's in red and blue paragraph. That's >> Oh, it got removed from one but not the other. All right. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, um can we go ahead and

224vote on that since it got moved in one place but not the right place or not the other place? >> It should be Yeah, it should be removed from >> It should be removed. Okay. Let's go ahead and start the vote to remove the part about other schools we don't have. Alrighty 7. Okay, cool. We will go ahead and remove that. And now, is there any other change to this policy that we need to vote on? >> Not for me. >> Great. Okay. Okay. So, now we're going to move back up to the overall uh policy number 220 C 200 and we're voting on it as amended. >> Yes, please. >> Okay. And we're done discussing, right? Okay. Word. All right. Here comes the vote. As amended, >> this one has taken a full year.

22512 months. >> Yeah, this is a biggie. Okay, that passes 6 to one. I will stop that so we can see things. And now we are moving on to C225, parental access to instructional material and surveys. So on this one, I would ask for um if it passes uh to resend policy 2223 two23. >> Correct. and and present it as presented by >> policy committee. Okay. Are there any adjustments to this one >> that need to be discussed? >> Okay. On this one, there's Yeah, on this one, there is um recommended language from uh legal counsel um in red uh at the bottom, but in the middle section um policy committee recommends adopting the policy as presented by legal um and so I'll make that motion. Uh we had a board member recommendation on that.

226So, but policy committee agreed to uh ask the board to vote on this one as presented with legal edits. Okay. And you second, Lawrence. Okay. Um, Dea, do you want to pull that or are you going to move? >> I'm sorry. >> This is great. >> You like it? Okay, cool. Um, any other discussion? No. All right, I will pull the question up. And this is as presented by legal policy 2225 and rescending 2223. Okay, great. 70. >> Next we have C300. >> Oh, that's a good one. All right. Uh C300 is programs for students with disabilities and least restrictive environment. >> And the recision is policy 2460.02. >> 2460.02. >> On this policy, you can see um at the bottom that the policy committee reviewed and recommends adopting the policy as presented by legal.

227Uh there was a board member recommendation at the bottom to add some legal uh codes, but these are correctly addressed in other areas, so it's not necessary. Okay. Um is there a second? Thank you, Lawrence. Is there a motion to change anything? Great. Any discussion? Cool. Okay, let's go ahead and call the vote on this as presented by legal and to resend 2460.02. Okay, that is 7. All right. Well, the next one is C350 student discipline. Go ahead, Rachel. >> So, the recision on this one, uh, there are quite a few. 5500, 5520, 5600, 5610.02, and 5611. Um, in this we really just made one revision and that was to clarify that corporal punishment is not an acceptable means of discipline in the West Lafayette schools. >> I appreciate that. >> I would make a

228motion that we are going to approve this policy with that amendment. >> No more paddling, Margaret. Is there amendment? >> Yeah. No, >> I like it. Are you seconding, Dave? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> What's that? >> Um, so moving on to discussion. This is a second. Go ahead. Um, >> our purpose of of putting this in here is because corporal punishment is still legal in Indiana and many other states and it is not acceptable. >> I agree with you. I still remember the name full name and what she looked like. The girl that got paddled in tech in sixth grade. So, but I never broke the rules again. Yes. I have a question. So >> I I wonder what's the definition for corporal punishment? Will >> running an extra tab will running

229an extra mile considered as a corporal punishment. I'm just it's a vocabulary understanding issue. So what's that considered as beaten up? is >> yeah it's it's literally that typical under these circumstances corporal means like physically hitting >> hing okay but but running an extra mile is not >> and I don't know if this is still the case but in Indiana there actually was a prescribed paddle size >> and they had holes it the 80s were wild um okay so not not running this is actually being >> running those those extra exercise is Not >> like to a football practice. This is >> hitting >> administrators or counselors physically hitting >> purposes then that that's good. I mean just so we'll make sure. >> Okay. Super. Anyone else have anything to say? Cool. I will go

230ahead and start the vote to approve this with the corporal punishment out and rescending all of the ones we talked about. And that passes 720. All right. Stop. Stop. close. Then we go to C400, use of restraint and seclusion with students. The policies to rescend on this one are 5630 5630.01. Uh we had um recommended language proposed by a board member. We've incorporated that. It's been reviewed by legal council and we the policy committee recommends um that the additional text be added. That's >> the blue text or the green text or both. So the policy committee recommends the additional text be approved and so the blue text is that additional text. >> Okay. So approve with blue text. Okay. And is there a second? Thanks Lawrence. And any discussion on this one? Okay. Hearing none.

231I'm going to go ahead and pull up the buttons. Please go ahead and vote on approving this one with the blue text and rescending 5630 and Okay. Um that passes and the next one is C450 drugrevention. So C450 drug prevention the policies to rescend are 5530 and 5531. Um we had a lot of conversation about this when a lot of um input from our administrators. Um in this it's the recommendation of policy committee and legal that we eliminate drug testing from our practice um and focus instead on education um and also soft skills that our educators use in identifying children who are at risk. So, um, uh, the motion is that we approve policy C450 for drug prevention, removing drug testing with the edits as noted in red. >> Okay. >> Oh, yeah. The recision

232is 5530 and 5531. Yeah. >> And is there a second, David? Thank you. And any other discussion? Okay, let's go ahead and vote on as presented. Did I not do it again? Here we go. Okay, that's seven. Alrighty, next one is C500, school trips and privately sponsored activities, etc. So, the recision on this is policy 2340. um working through this. At the beginning, um paragraph one, a board member recommended language uh in blue and the committee recommends that um removing the red strikeout section. Uh further down, um the policy committee does not recommend the text in blue. Um the board member is redundant and not necessary to this policy. And then finally at the end uh a board member has recommended language. Uh then instead of penalized we use the responsible more positive language and

233the policy committee recommends that text in blue. >> Okay. Uh is there a second? >> Correct. >> Okay. So it's with the first, without the second, with the strikeout in red, and with the third suggestion. Is there any discussion? No. Okay. Super. We really found our stride, y'all. Here we are. 70. Okay. And the last one. Last one. C525. Medical needs at school. >> Okay. Cat 525. There are a lot of recisions, so I'm going to rattle these off and they'll be in the record. Uh medical needs at school. This would rescend 2413 214 5310 5320 5330 5330.01 5330.02 5335 5340 5340.02 2 8451 8452 8453.01 specifically this deals with medical needs at school. Um this is um legal council has offered recommendation um and my uh the policy committee recommends that we accept this

234policy as presented by legal. >> Okay. Okay. Is there a second? And any discussion? Any other motions? Okay. [Music] Go ahead and vote on what Rachel said. And that is seven. Okay, y'all. Thank you. It's exciting to get through that many. Um, I deeply appreciate the work of the policy committee. I have no idea how you're keeping track of all this and I am extremely impressed. And if you want to come over and help me with my closets, that'd be cool. All right, the policies we're going to first reading. I'm just going to reference them by number because I don't want to be here all night. Okay, you got it. So, we're taking that out. >> Yes, please. >> Okay, we are removing D250 on the agenda. So the policies we are first reading are

235C125, D100, D125, D150, D200, D225, D275, D300, D325, D350, D375, D400, D425, D450, D475, D500, D550, E100, E12, 5, E150, E175, E200, and E225. I'd like to note that I am not trying to torture the policy committee. I am assigning these on their request. And uh this was not my idea. And if we finish them all, I'll buy you all ice cream after our next meeting. Um >> please note that in the minutes. >> Yeah, we'll get that in there. So Amy, let me just say this to you that as we get further along in these policies, a lot of them are more brief and they are more legal codebased and so they aren't quite as bad as they look. >> Okay, wonderful. Well, I'll still buy you ice cream because you'll deserve it if

236we get through all that. Lawrence, >> yeah, we are kind of a little bit uh aggressive, but I think uh another thing I would mention uh is we have legal council fe uh some update for the A 100 and B 100. So probably we will discuss that on the policy meetings. >> Okay. And we'll bring them on back. >> Yeah. And then uh whatever we finish we can present for next for second reading. >> Okay. So and B 100 both A and B 100 are also in the first reading again. >> So what I would ask you to assign to us is policies that have been returned to us because >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Maybe we should just wait until like February on those because they might change again. No, I'm kidding. All

237right. And all of those may be found on the website under board-me. And if you have trouble, please get in touch. Having concluded the policies. Dr. Grryer, would you like to give your report? >> I would love to give my report, Mrs. Austin. Thank you. So, I wanted to take one more opportunity to thank everyone again who was involved in the negotiations process during this more challenging time, especially the teachers that were involved. our admin team that were involved and Dr. Yen was at every one of those as well. So, thank you. We understand that it was not the ideal situation for bargaining and again recognize the disappointment in the overall outcome when we compare it to previous years. Please know that we'll remain committed to preserving resources and maintaining a strong focus on providing

238competitive wages for our teachers. We deeply value and respect the passion, expertise, and unwavering commitment that our teachers bring to ensuring highquality learning experiences for our students every day. I also want to share that I had the honor of attending the teacher teachers lunchon uh for retired teachers on October 28th where I sat beside retired teacher Ruth Bordon. This is important because it speaks to our teachers current and past. We spoke uh Ruth and I spoke about teaching as being a calling and I shared that two of my own children felt that calling. One is teaching in his second year. The other one she's studying to be an elementary teacher at Purdue. And as we talked, Ruth started talking about um what she did to get uh into Westside. Um she paused and reflected and

239she said, "You know, I had to interview with the principal and then I had to interview with the assistant superintendent and then I had to interview with the superintendent." And she paused and she looked at me and she said, "Dr. Griner. I am so lucky that I got that job and that I got to teach in this amazing community over so many years. Her words remind me of the deep pride and commitment that define our Westside teachers, past and present, and the exceptional caliber of our educators that make this district how special it is today. When you bring our committed parents together, sending their amazing students to school that are prepared to learn and then that pride that our teachers hold, it just makes this place very special. And so I wanted to share that

240and I wanted to share I'm grateful. >> And Michelle, would you go ahead? >> Yes. I'd like to ask Mrs. Crocs, she pointing at me. Would you please report on the accounts payable and fund reports? >> Yeah, sure. Um claims for the period of October 1st through November 4th total $4,92,378 including regular corporation expenses and the W bash Valley Education Center expenses. Of this amount, $2,772,333 were paid towards wages, salaries, and benefits. I've provided the final fund report for September 2025 in your board packets. Total cash on hand in all funds was 27,232,917. The education fund had a cash balance of $7,314,28. Cash flow through the month of September showing the flow of revenue and expenses for the education referendum and operations fund is also included. No volume. Okay. Uh the last item is our

241board reports. UA would you like to go ahead and go first? >> The glass meeting will be next week and George will attend it, right? Georgia will attend it for me because >> Oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot. You're right. George, would you like to tell us? >> No, the meeting will be next week. >> Oh, for heaven >> sake. So, that's true. Yeah, we haven't met yet. >> Right. Okay. Thank you, Rachel. Go ahead. >> So, I'm reporting tonight for um the West Lafayette Schools Ed Foundation. Um, when it became clear in late October that SNAP benefits would not be distributed in November, a note was sent to West Lafayette families enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program, inviting them to register for the VAT backpack program. Uh, families responded and the volunteers

242went from packing 27 bags of food to 56 bags of food weekly. This represents 48 families, 83 WLCSC students, and provides food to not only our students, but their non-school age siblings and parents and guardians. WLSF made an appeal for donations to the backpack program in their October enews and donors responded with over $3,000 in donations. This will help WLSF to produce to purchase additional food for the remainder of the year either through food finders or local stores. Just so you all know, um they have to give their numbers to food finders in August for the whole semester. So they have to purchase additional food from other avenues and they do typically along with this and I will just tell you that the the backpack program needs additional financial support. And so anybody who's listening

243to this and has capacity to do that um just keep in mind that if they want to donate food items it is very helpful if they donate 56 of the same item so that that can be equitable. Um cash donations are also extremely helpful and anybody who would like to make those could contact Wendy Eer. Um along with this uh there was a thoughtful family in our school community who expressed concern for students who have may have difficulty paying for the fees for AP exams. This family has offered a matching gift up to $1,000 to cover the AP exam fees for West Lafayette students who are enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program. So this amounts to approximately $2,000. They have already received 500 towards the massing matching gift challenge and we'll be highlighting

244this challenge on giving Tuesday. Um, this is part of the foundation's new school enrichment fund to assist students with AP exam fees and school field trips. If you have questions about that or as I said the backpack program, please contact Wendy. Um, as Dr. Grryer mentioned, the foundation also did host the um West Lafayette retirees for lunch uh at the Whitaker Inn. Um there were 43 retirees in attendance. Um and they represented hundreds of years of service to our schools. Chase Nuome and Trent Johnson of uh MBNB Wealth Management is sponsoring sponsored this year's lunchon. Um and um again I just I want to highlight in general this is part of the beautiful work that the foundation does in our community and not all schools have the benefit of an active and vibrant foundation to

245support the work of the schools that's needed. And so um I really want to express my gratitude to Wendy and everybody on the foundation who um really lends their talents and also their personal resources to support kids in our community who need them. That's my report and I don't have anything from the ISBA. >> Thank you very much. May I ask a question? So I quickly Yeah, quickly. I I remember our district covers the AP Gazan >> last year. I I remember that several teachers I mean students came to petition that then Michelle said yes we will cover it. Is is that the case? >> We said that we would cover it as long as cash allowed. We were trying to conserve cash and so we are now back to where we were. >> Oh.

246Oh, I see. Thank you for the time. >> I know I paid for exam fees. >> Validate. >> Thank you both. David, >> it was a late meeting at parks and wreck. Yeah, as of the last meeting, there's still some positions they're hiring for the new Americanore grant, which is wonderful. Although that was a few weeks ago. They may be filled. I not 100% certain yet. Um they're also in the process of develop developing a food truck policy for some of the parks uh so that there can be more food trucks. And I use the term truck very lightly because there's actually what initiated this is a community member who has a pizza oven bike which is super cool and I heard the pizza's really good. Uh but they're developing a policy uh to to

247kind of streamline that process so that um it can be fairer and equitable uh for allowing food trucks in the in certain parks so that they don't interfere with family parking and things like that. >> Okay, cool. But if you want bread sticks, you have to talk to the guy on the unicycle. Da. >> Um, the public schools foundation has their fall grant reception on Tuesday the 18th from 5 to 6:30 at the new TSC administrative building. Um, we didn't re they didn't receive any applications from our school district um this round, but they did grant one award to GLCA which encompasses our students and it's to do launch a your future career fair which I think will really be awesome. So that's thank you for their update. >> Great Lawrence. >> Yeah, I attended

248the uh so community uh meeting so-called community meeting on October 20th and uh we have uh the local uh stakeholders and mayor come here um all the schools parent council they have represent there and also first lady school first lady's office they have people in there and on that meeting Dr. grer share our uh school's um situation especially financial uh challenge we are facing and I think that's good um information sharing with local uh stakeholders so I truly appreciate that thank you >> okay thank you George you're going to warm up for the legislative session in a couple months right >> yeah so um the federal government is still shut down although there was a vote in the senate to reopen Uh that will depend on what happens in the House next. The U Indiana

249legislature will convene a session in December to focus on whether or not to do midcycle redistricting to um follow the wishes of Donald Trump. Uh that is a perfect opportunity for people to flex their telephone fingers and call their representatives and senators and let them know how they feel about that. Uh that is supposed to be the only thing going on in that session, but uh of course they always reserve the right to cover other things um even before the next general session in the spring. >> Okay. Thank you. And the redevelopment commission project updates include the public safety center which is now a big hole for the parking structure and there was a delay because of the soil and they'll hopefully be moving forward already because this was a couple weeks ago. Um the

250demolition is ongoing for the basement. The fire station 3 on Calbearer's layout is being modified. And um the next exciting community improvement will be the South Street Plaza, which is that goofy triangle parking lot that's in front of Vienna. Um and Ry's already gone. He likes it there. Um anyway, they're going to remove that parking between Chase Bank and those businesses along uh that road and make it a pedestrian foot traffic plaza instead of a parking lot everybody hates. So, it's been discussed uh for a long time and the plan is anticipated in December after public input and board teacher discussion was cancelled last month. And that concludes my report. Our next meeting will be December 8th at five o'clock if we need a work session and at six if we do not. And um

251I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving if you're traveling or if you have college students traveling. I hope everything goes safely and smoothly and without weather and school will resume on December 1st. So next I need a motion to Oh, go ahead. >> Oh, was that you motioning to Great. Thank you. Any second? And uh