001ahead and call us to order. This is the work session of the uh West Lafayette Community School Corporation Board of Trustees and uh Mrs. Mumford has been in touch and is having a train issue. So, she will be a moment or two late, but I'm sure she knows how to find the live stream. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Kron. >> So, tonight we are doing the um good timing. Tonight is the budget workshop for the 2026 budget. So, I will start um as I have the couple of years and shared the specifics of the 2026 budget. And then Mr. Reutder will then come on and um he's joining us through via Zoom tonight um to share the fiscal the fiscal plan, the long-term fiscal plan and kind of how
002everything plays together. Um so I have a theme for every budget every year if you remember and the theme this year is there's more changes to come. Um, as always, we have a lot of changes, but it seems like we have a lot of changes that are um coming down the pike here in the next couple of years. So, you have a handout of the actual presentation, and then you also have the exhibits that I typically give you every year as well. I'll just go over those really quickly for you. Um, the first one is the ADM history and funding history. So, that's broken down by fall and spring ADM numbers. Um, and those are ADM numbers, what we actually receive state funding for in state tuition support. Um, I give you the foundation funding
003and the complexity funding per student. If you notice in 2526, um, our foundation funding went up, but our complexity funding went down. Complexity funding did go down for most schools across the state of Indiana because they did say that poverty went down in the state of Indiana. What they're basing the numbers on for the next two years. Okay. Um and then I also have told you that curricular materials funding that $158 per student was wrapped into foundation. I have taken it out here for purposes of comparing apples to apples so that you can see um what increases we actually did get in foundation and complexity. Um and so we received a 1.13% increase this year. Next year looks like a 1.48% 48% increase not considering that $158 for materials. Taking that out. So I do
004have an extra um couple columns on there to break those out for you. Okay. Um and then you have the history of tables of corporation assessed value. You can see what that looks like. You have our certified tax rates as a total. The next one you have our excuse me our certified levy and budget. On the next one um I give you every year the debt service fund totals what what we're actually paying in debt service payments every year and you have that out through um the end of those those different um debts. And then you have the notice to taxpayers for our capital plan as well as our bus replacement plan as well as your visual aids. So I will jump right in. Um a lot of this will look familiar if you've been
005on the board before. I didn't change a whole lot. There are some things that um I'll go over again for the purposes of new members that we have this year. Um and then for anybody in the public who also wants to know It worked a little bit. All right. So, let's talk about what is a budget first foremost because different budgets mean different things. Personal budgets are different than our budgets. So, a governmental budget in the state of Indiana is a process by which tax levies or property taxes and appropriations are approved for the following calendar year in certain funds. and we have the education fund, the operations fund, the debt service fund, and the referendum fund here at West Lafayette. Budgets are based upon appropriations. We're asking for permission to spend a certain amount
006of money, and that's called an appropriation. Does not necessarily mean that it's what cash we have. They won't give us a budget unless we have the cash to cover it. Um, and it doesn't necessarily mean that's what we're going to spend either. Okay? It's just permission to spend a certain amount of money. After the public hearing and the board approval process, the last step for any budget is the approval by the Department of Local Government Finance. They approve a total appropriation for each budgeted fund. They do not approve line items. They just approve the total for each fund. And we have the ability to move that appropriation around in each fund to where we actually need to spend it. So we might budget it in certain line items, but those appropriations can move around to
007other other line items within the same budget fund. So once again, we have a budget adoption calendar that we have to follow. Um that's set forth in state code. There's certain things, day limits, things like that that we have to meet. So on August 27th, we published the form three notice to taxpayers, which lists all the different funds and what our budgets, tax levies look like. Um the capital plan and the bus replacement plan, all those were published on Indiana Gateway, which public site where everything is available and we also publish those on our school corporation website. There is no longer a requirement to publish in the newspaper that went away about five years ago. On September 8th, today we have our board work session to discuss the budget. We have a public hearing during
008our regular meeting for the budgeted funds and the capital expenditure and bus plans tonight. On October 6 at that meeting, we'll have the budget adoption and adopt the capital expenditures and replacement plans and as well um as pass uh certain resolutions that go along with the budget as well. On October 7th, um after you approve everything, I then submit everything, all the required documents to the DLGF for approval on Gateway. And then by December 31st, that is the deadline for the DGF to actually approve our budgets. And then January one, if everything goes well, the new app appropriations go into effect for the 2026 budget year. So, I want to share some realities that we're dealing with right now. We're moving into 20126. Um, let's talk about state funding first. We increased only by $79.37
009per student or 1.13% for the 2526 school year. So, we went from 6,99970 to 7,7907. That's net that curriculum materials payment. Um, our expected increase of 489 per student for the 2627 school year is only a 1.48% increase um net that curricular materials payments. So we're not getting big increases from state tuition support for the next two years. Um let's talk about net assessed value. We did talk about that at the last board meeting. Um there was a little bit better news when actual certified net assessed values came up or came out. Um but our increases for this district are small compared to other districts that I've talked to. Um the 2025 regular AV was 1,27 or 1 billion278,65,000. The referendum was 2 bill200,947,915. 2026, our regular AV is going up 1.62%. Um the preliminary
010actually had it going down. So it's nice to see a little bit of an increase for 26. Uh we went up 1.62% to 1.298 billion and our ref referendum AV is going up to 2.356 billion or 7.09% increase. So while we are seeing an increase our certified net assessed values for this year um in 2026 we're projected to start seeing decreases after 2026. you remember from the policy analytics presentation which will affect our tax rates in the operations fund and the debt service fund. So that's something to keep in mind. If our referendum AB falls that means we will get less money in our referendum because it's based on a tax rate. So if the AV is falling then our tax rate collects less money because it stays at that tax rate. Our total teacher
011compensation for 2425 was approximately 15.542 million. Our total basic tuition support uh foundation plus complexity, not the categorical uh was 15.185. So our projections um due to property tax reform show that we will be dealing with that decrease in that assessed value in the near future and thus decreasing tax revenue. Um, so financially speaking, knowing all this information, we're kind of moving into a cash conservation, okay? So, let's talk about the different funds that we actually budget. And the first fund is the education fund, which is fund 101 um on your fund report. And this fund is mainly funded by the state tuition support payments or our ADM funding and state payments and other miscellaneous revenue like our uh tuition that we get from TSC. Um any interest, all our interest that we gain goes
012into our education fund except for construction accounts. Um any reimbursements that we might get that are education fund related this fund, the state um allows for transfers up to 15% from the education fund to the operations fund. We have not done that here because of our referendum fund. We're able to keep the entire amount of state tuition support in our education fund and not to our operations. Um expenses in the education fund are related to educational programs, salaries and benefits for teachers, school building administration, pair of professionals, special education, the libraries, guidance counselors and nursing staff all come from the education fund. Any supplies, fees, and contracted services for the classroom come out of here. any special education supplies and contracting services, any instructional technology, so salaries and benefits for our IT staff um and
013instructional software and maintenance. And then in what was new in 2025 for this year, curricular materials all now come from the education fund as well. So that was a big change from the 25 budget that continues on to 26. So, I'm just going to break down by each fund our revenue and our expenditures that we put into the budget. Um, so the education fund revenue, um, this is the amount that we budgeted for revenue for transfer, tuition, other payments, our investment interest. Um, interest is still pretty far up there because we hedge pretty well with our certificates of deposit. We have those going out for a few years um, in case rates start to fall, which they have started to fall. Um, but we have those CDs out there that should interest over the next
014couple of years. Um, school corporation activities, the ECA reimbures our fund, um, 1900 other revenue from local sources like reimbursements, and then 3,000 revenue from state sources, which includes our state tuition support, summer school funding, things like that. So, we're looking at a total revenue budget of 18.996 million in the education. And just a reminder that we do advertise large for budgets so that we get the appropriations that we want. Um, and we can only get the maximum of what we put on that form three notice to taxpayer. So, we advertise high to make sure we get what we want. So, as far as our budget expense expenses, I broke that down by program or department um and then by object or type of expense. So total expenditures we've budgeted for is 19.5 million. Salaries,
015wages, and benefits make up about 88.7% of that. Um, one of the biggest differences I think with this one is that we're preparing for the disusion class and that we're going to be taking on a lot of those. So we may have more contracted services for special education. So our purchase services are a little bit more than what I would have normally put in other years because of that. Next major fund and this is one of the first property tax fund that we'll talk about tonight. It's debt service fund fund 200. This is revenue mainly from property taxes. Um the levy or the tax amount that we get is equal to the amount we need to pay in our bond and lease payments plus any carryover for the next year's payments because we're allowed to
016keep a cash balance to go forward to the next year. So we don't start zero. And that carryover is 15% of total payments for the subsequent budget year or the first payment whichever is less. Um expenses are purely for the payments that need to be made during the budget year. We don't ask for any extra. It's only for things that we need to pay. And those things include general obligation bonds, lease rental agreements, if we have any interest on short-term debt like tax anticipation warrants. Um last time I had to do a tax anticipation warrant was during co and the state um or municipalities weren't necessarily paying out property taxes on time because they they delayed when people had to pay because everything shut down. Um so I took out a tax anticipation board for
017that back in that day. Um state code requires a board resolution to do that. We will not have one. I don't anticipate getting one. And then common school fund loan repayments as well, which we still have a few of those left. Um, I believe next year will be the last year for our common school fund loan repayment. So, I'm excited about that because I'm not a big fan. So, revenue and expenditures for our debt service fund. Um, we advertise 7.2 million for property taxes with local tax revenue about 187,000. Uh, so total budget revenue 7.387. I said we budget high to make sure we get what we need. DGF formulates the actual property tax based upon the formula involving the actual expenditures plus carryover. I'm expecting closer to 7.15 million in debt service fund. Um
018and then expenditures for our bond principal bond interest. We did our 2024 go bond last year. Um our lease rental payments common school loans are down to 337,000. So that that's really good. And then any bond fees that we have so total expenditures will be 7.096 The next property tax fund we have is the operations fund or fund 300 and that is funded once again mainly by property taxes any other miscellaneous taxes um and facility rental. Um we are putting our commercial vehicle tax and financial institution tax at least we're budgeting for that um deposited fully into the operations fund for 2026 as DLGF has changed how that's done. It doesn't have to be prorated between the funds anymore. We can choose where that goes because our operations fund is in the greatest need of
019that money. We are budgeting to put all the CVT and the financial institution taxes the operations fund this year. Expenses and operations are mainly for the operation of the school corporation that support the learning process. So maintenance of our buildings, grounds and equipment. Um central office operations including superintendent office, business office, human resources. Um utilities come directly out of operations only. Used to be able to um have some come out of education fund. Can no longer work general fund obviously we can no longer do that. Administrative and operational technologies or IT infrastructure comes from operations fund. Facilities and land acquisition improvements. Um say we stripe a parking lot that comes from operations fund. Um transportation expenses and purchase of buses can come from the operations fund. Revenue we are but we budgeted for 4.7 million
020in property taxes. Once again, that's high. The DLGF tells us what our max levy can be in our operations fund. Um, but we always budget. We always advertise it high just to make sure we get that max. Okay. Um, actual max levy from the DGF is 4.573 million, but our estimated circuit breaker loss is 1.299 million. Um that includes loss from the new supplemental homestead credit that in 2026 residential homeowners will have on their property tax return and that is money after the fact. So that's taken after the fact. We they're just giving us an amount to budget for. We don't really know what the true amount is going to be. So that amount is approximately 250,000 of that 1.299 million. Uh we applied 800,000 to this fund for buding purposes. and advertising purposes for
021the operations fund because we want to get appropriation because we always appropriate more the operations fund just in case an HVAC breaks down or something happens with a roof that needs to be repaired. We want to have those appropriations there if we need them. Um local taxes once again we put all the fit and see that in there so it's higher for local taxes of 232,000. We have some other local revenue reimbursements, things like that. Disposal of personal property. Um, total revenue budget is 4.31. No, it's not. Yes, it is because circuit breaker lo. That's something I added this year because the circuit breaker we took off at 800,000. Our actual revenue budget on form 3 is 4.3. And then our expenses um broken down by program or department object. Um salaries, wages and benefits
022are pretty much a pretty decent part of that. Um just our basic maintenance um annual maintenance agreements and such and utilities and the staff that are covered in operations fund basically takes up whatever revenue we are going to be getting. Okay. So total expenses about 4.6 million. And then lastly, our large one is our operating referendum fund, which is fund 160 fund report. This is solely funded by property tax. Um, this fund taxes, excuse me, the tiff districts, um, unlike debt and operations. So, what's in the tiff district, the tax financing district, our referendum fun, our 37 cents is applied to that tiff. Um, we use the referendum fun items outlined in our revenue spending plan which we'll have at the next meeting which is teacher compensation including salaries and benefits and any operational expenditures
023that support learning things like custodial maintenance salaries wages and benefits student transportated student transportation related expenditures such as wages salaries and benefits transportation personnel and any transportation contracted expenditures that we have as TSC does the maintenance of our buses so we do pay for that as And then our re our revenue budget, we budget or we advertise this pretty high to make sure we get the total amount that we want, the actual levy. We know it's 37 cents as the rate, but we advertise the actual levy high to make sure we get the levy that that we need from that 37. So we advertise 9.25 million. We're going to get more like 8.7 million. Once that certified net is actually applied and then some local taxes go into that fund as well for total revenue
024pion 9.437 that was advertised. And then our expenses um $10 million in expenses that we're budgeting for. Hoping not to use all of that obviously um because we advertise high. Um educational programs will be 6.5 and then support services will be 3.4. for a total of 10 million. Notice that salaries, wages, and benefits are very large chunk of the referendum fund. Referendum fund mostly pays for people. And so if we lose money in the referendum fund, that's not a good thing. And then lastly, we have a small rainy day fund, which is fund 610. And that's funded historically by transfers into the fund from other funds. We've not transferred any since I've been here. We have a lot more leeway between the funds than we used to. Um so but we still have that ready
025day fund with the balance. Current balance is $965,325. Um it can be used to fund any expenditures made during the operation of a school district if an appropriation is budgeted except you don't pay for salaries rainy day fund practice. Um and it must be budgeted in order to use the funds. Another option is you could transfer cash um from rainy day into other funs. option, but we traditionally have budgeted about $800,000 in rainy day funds just in case um for emergency type expenditures for several years now. So we budgeted $300,000 under support services which is the 20,000 department and 40,000 facilities we budgeted 500,000 and like I as far as retirement severance I don't plan on using all of that. We don't really plan on using a lot of the rainy day fund at all
026but it's appropriate just in case we do need it. So, just some final comments for you um before I leave off and Mike then comes on to do his fiscal plan. Uh we will be dealing with changes made during the most recent legislative session over the next few years, including property tax reform and school funding changes. Um not only is our funding from the state limited, but our tax revenue is also becoming more limited. Not just because of limited growth in housing and the large amount of a caught up in our t But now we'll be dealing with new tax deductions and tax credits that we've not dealt with previously. For instance, I talked to you about the homestead credit that we'll have after the fact. We will also be dealing with increasing deductions on
027the 2% properties, which is typically the rentals. And so, while we're getting about 100% of their AV now, we're going to eventually only get a third of their A. Um, being that we are in a city, we have a larger number of taxing units that make up the total tax rate. Thus, total tax rates are higher, which leads to higher circular loss. So, I ask for 4.7 million in my operations fund, but I don't get 4.7 million in my operations fund because of property tax credits. Um, so less money in our operations fund because of that. Referendum dollars allow us to maintain our current programs and offer competitive wages and benefits to our employees. We keep that home. We're greatly appreciative of our community because that referendum fund, we wouldn't be able to do what
028we do without it. And then any changes to student enrollment, net assessed value have large effects on our district. We're going to be dealing with that over the next few years. All right, on to Mike in the update. Mike, you're not on yet. Um, can we wait until after Mike's done and I'll come back up to the microphone. >> Good evening, board. I apologize that I'm not there in person this evening. I had a personal family issue come up over the weekend that uh changed my plans and I had full intentions of being there. So, I apologize that I'm having to zoom in this evening, but hopefully we can accomplish the same goal and I'm happy to come to another meeting if there's if there are follow-up questions or you need additional information. Um, so
029Michelle did a great job of kind of summarizing the budget as we advertise the budget and and how we go through the budget process. Um, I actually then approach it from a different way and actually build the fiscal plan uh based on what we actually think might happen uh with revenues and expenditures as it plays out uh next year. Uh but before I go there, first wanted to start off with just a couple legislative comments and just big picture summary of what happened this last spring. Um that was probably one of the most intense legislative sessions I've participated in over my career. Um it started off like a freight train and it finished like a freight train. Uh it was very difficult uh to to get much movement. There was so much focus on property
030tax relief uh this year uh that it drove the conversation. Uh the first version of the budget that came out out of the Senate uh reflected the governor's proposed property tax cuts and those were pretty severe and deep. Um the uh Senate began to work with the governor's office trying to come up with something that may not be quite as drastic um as the first proposal. And the difference in the Senate version uh was different than the governor's in the sense the governor was truly cutting property taxes. Um and this senate version was really limiting future revenue and uh that uh too was not enough for the governor and he had been um threatening potentially a special session even beyond that. Um, so then it got flipped over to the House and the chair of
031House Ways and Means, uh, Representative Thompson, had been working quite some time on a pretty complex piece of legislation of how it affects property tax u going forward. And um ultimately that is what took the final form of of the bill that was passed with one exception in that how they got the governor's office over the finish line was they uh implemented a new property tax uh homestead credit. And the credit is different than circuit breaker uh because it's applied after the tax bill is computed. So circuit breaker essentially means if you're in a home and you you pay up to 1% and then it's capped unless there's a referendum and you go beyond that with the credit is going to be applied at the end. And so uh it's up to it's 10 up
032to 10% or a maximum of $300. and that does take effect in the year 2026. Um, and there were uh also additional deductions uh put in place starting in 2026. The homestead deduction uh as Michelle already uh mentioned is is increasing quite rapidly between 2026 in the year 2031. uh where we're at right now is a 37.5% deduction and by the year 2031 uh that will be a 666.7% deduction. So uh to use some simple math if you're living in a $300,000 house by the year 2031 you will you will only be uh calculating that home value on $100,000. And so we're going to see some pretty substantial erosion of our tax base um going forward which which is going to impact the most is is the referendum fund. Um they didn't stop there though.
033Um they also have um eliminated business personal property anything below $2 million starting in in 2027. Um that doesn't affect the 26 assessed valuation, but starting in 27, any business that has $2 million or less in personal property, um they they won't have to report it. Um, and also, uh, new property, uh, that's put in place after January, uh, no longer has a floor. Right now, businesses can depreciate down to 30% and then it stops. Uh, any new property put in place after that will be able to be depreciated all the way down to zero. So, just in the big picture, um, there there was a lot of attempts to, uh, limit property tax going forward. In addition to that, and this is another place where West Lafayette may feel a little more than maybe
034some of the others, um, uh, rental properties for the first time is going to start having a a deduction. They've not had deductions in the past. And in 2026, that starts off at at 6%. And by the year 2031, uh, that will grow to 33%. And one of the reasons that's so important is you have a lot of apartment complexes uh that are inside the tip allocation area which currently benefits the referendum fund. And so as those apartment uh uh dwellings get a higher and higher deduction that will erode at our at our tiff tax base. So, um, unfortunately, schools just did not do very well, uh, in this session. Uh, when you when you look at municipalities in the county, um, and and even the townships and libraries, there is some ability for them
035to make up the loss of some of the dollars in the future with additional local option income taxes. Unfortunately, schools don't participate in local option income tax and um there are a few there are few districts that have been getting local option income tax and that actually goes away for them. Not all schools do and you have not gotten it but um that is somewhat of of a relief vow for the civil side of government but unfortunately on the on the school side uh there was no movement on that. So what we are um going to lose is um not no way of making up the revenue without rerunning the referendum. So um Michelle concluded her last slide with the last line by saying, you know, there there are really two key ingredients when you're
036building a school budget. one being the student enrollment and two uh being the certified assessed valuation the tax base. So just want to make sure can everybody see my screen and and do you see the student enrollments? Okay, zoom in a little bit. Hang on just a second. Let me see if I can make that a little larger here. I apologize. got to move the bar, I think, to get to it. Yes. I'm sorry if you're if you're following along. It would be page 45 and that would be the it's 47 if you're in the PDF, but it's page 45 in the bottom left corner. Is that a little bit better? Can you see the screen a little bit better now? Okay. Yeah, I think I think so without losing it. Okay. So, um student
037enrollment is is a critical um part of the budget because we're funded by the from the state we're funded by the number of pupils that we have, not not the number of seats that we have. And so Michelle talked about the per pupil funding over the next two years being 1.13 uh for 2526 and 1.48% for the the following year. But that's if you were to have if you were to have a a stable enrollment. If your enrollment remained flat, you would see that kind of an increase. But in our case, as you can see, our enrollment trends uh have been declining for the last few years and is projected to decline again this year. That's based on the uh a recent enrollment count. Um this is not the ADM official ADM count but as
038enrollment state uh stand recently and I'm not a demographer but what I do do is use some averages and looking out into the into those future years and moving those cohorts through the um through the through the system. And as you can see uh by doing so there is a trend to continue to lose lose some of that enrollment and that's using the same kindergarten class going forward as we have today. So this this is uh not a good trend for us uh because we won't even actually get the 1.13% in total funding increase. Um, I'm going to go to page um 15 first. It's going to be maybe a little bit small. I got to zoom back out. I apologize. Wrong way. I'll zoom in here a little bit more so you can see
039these. Okay. This is this is where it is a bit mis deceiving in how uh the formula works. And this this is the foundation amount for 2526. And if you were to compare it to the 2425 foundation, it was it's actually up 4.28%. But as Michelle pointed out, um that in now includes textbook rental, which has not been part of the formula in the past. But if you go down to the page 19 in the formula after at the end of the day when everything is calculated you'll see that for 20 2526 our total new funding is $271,000. Um, but that includes the dollars for uh textbook rental. And if you were looking in the in the detail of our of the budget being proposed for 26, you would you would see that we have
040over $500,000 budgeted um for for textbook rental. So, uh, our dollars are not keeping up, uh, with inflation, um, because of because of that declining enrollment. But even just rewind one year, just last year, uh, in new money in total, uh, we only received $105,000. So, uh, and then going forward, you know, if our enrollment continues to decline and the state continues to contribute about 2% additional dollars every year, uh, you can see that it's trending in the wrong direction that we're going to start potentially losing even even more money. Um, I'm going to go to page 10 and talk about the assessed valuation. Um, fortunately, you're one of the counties that have certified. There are still a lot of counties that have not been certified. Um, and um, there there are two numbers here.
041One being the 1.62. This was in Michelle's material as well. Um, our net assessed valuation excluding TIFF went up 1.62%, 62% but our um our assessed valuation including the tiff went up 7% which is really good. Um but that comes with caution. It it a large part of that increase uh was due to the state coming out with new uh cost tables for how commercial property was assessed. And so commercial property saw a large increase uh in their u assessments uh for 25 paid 2026. So that's somewhat of a one-time adjustment which which is actually kind of amazing that it was still 7% after you account for uh the additional 6% deduction on all the apartment complexes. Um but that so the the all the changes that were made um in the legislative session really
042didn't hit so much in because in 2025 uh the net assessed valuation was based on a 37 12% deduction and then in 20 excuse me in 206 that goes that only goes to 40%. So that's not a big increase, but going forward then uh that deduction will go from 40% to 46% and then in 2028 it will actually go uh from 46% to 52%. And so uh you can see also that I'm using a little bigger drop in the assessed valuation in 2027 and um that's really due to uh business personal property is going to hit that year. Uh it did not hit in 26, it's going to hit in 27. So there are a lot of models being run uh showing this trend going forward and what's going to happen to the tax base.
043Um, so, um, if you want to scroll to page 11, if you've been on the board, you you've heard me say this before. This is what's called the six-year non-farm personal income factor. Uh it's a mouthful, but uh years ago the state had made a policy decision to uh say we we don't want u property taxes increasing faster than income taxes are in increasing. And so they really tied our future revenue to that calculation. Unfortunately, uh that that uh income level has actually ri risen pretty quickly and they have overrode the formula and so we actually live by this formula for many many years. that starting in the year 2024 25 and now 26 they have overrode this formula uh and have limited the levy increases in the operations fund to 4%. So even though
044the six-year non-farm personal income factors calculating 6% adjustment for 2026 budget they have limited the levy growth to 4%. Um, one of the reasons for for the increase though in two in 2021, you see a pretty big jump in the income level of the state. Um, if you recall, that was the year of the pandemic and there was quite a bit of money uh pushed out from the federal government into the state and so that that's been driving the average up. Uh but nevertheless um now this has not been as the statute stands right now uh we revert back to the six-year non-farm personal income factor going forward starting in 2027 but don't count on that. Um, I think, you know, with all the effort they're trying to uh put in place to limit property
045tax, it is unlikely that they're going to give us um that much money. I'm going to go to page 20. This is the actual calculation of the maximum levy. It's really pretty pretty easy. You just start with the prior year maximum levy. Um that being the 25 maximum levy and then you increase it by 4%. And so the operations fund levy is 4 million 573 that um we we advertise higher than this but this is what we really think we're going to get as a budgeted levy. And as Michelle had already said, we may budget it, but we will not collect all this because we will lose some of this to the circuit breaker and we also lose some of it now to the new homestead credit. Um, but I I wanted to point out
046these future years because that's the way the law's currently written, but I would not count on that uh staying in place after this next session. I I would anticipate change. So, just touching on your big picture revenues, not a lot of money coming out of the funding formula and you have a declining enrollment. On the property tax side, you're getting a 4% adjustment uh for operations. And then on the referendum side, that's where we have one bright spot at least for 26 uh but thereafter it starts to erode pretty quickly. we're we're going to see a 7% increase in our uh referendum revenue for 2026. So, with all that said, that's a that's a lot of leadin, I know. And so, I want to walk you now through what this kind of looks like um
047in uh in in by each fund. And again, now these are not advertised amounts. These are what I really think uh how it will play out. And I need to zoom back out here, get all this on the page. So page one is where I'm at right now. I apologize it's a lot of little numbers. Um and we really um from a cash perspective uh we are in a strong position um in the in the education fund u but uh there is uh definitely a structural issue going forward that I'm seeing uh mostly due to that declining enrollment. Uh so at the end of 24 we did have $7.6 $6 million. Um I would anticipate by the end of the year that we'd be somewhere in that range. Uh but based on excuse me some
048reason it um but if we were to spend the entire budget in 2026 uh based on our enrollment and the forecast, we would actually be spending a half million dollars more than we we we would take in. And you can see that that problem does not get better uh the more enrollment we we lose. Now, fortunately, you're in a really strong cash position um uh to to handle this, but um one thing that we we may have to start talking about in the future, we're going to show you this in a little bit, but um we we are not a district that actually takes advantage of any of the up to 15% transfer from education to operations, which you're going to see in a moment, the operations fund doesn't look great either, and we may
049have to um consider transferring dollars to that fund. Um, I'm going to go to the debt service fund. This is there is a lot to talk about here. Um, so there's a lot of highlighted lines. U, my budget part 26 matches Michelle's to the tea. There's no reason to over advertise this budget. Um and this this levy reflects in this model the 0.5375 rate that the board um has been living by uh to to manage your your debt in the district. Um but we what you also see here is this new line where we h we have this $119,000 loss um starting in 20126 and that is the estimated amount of circuit breaker loss in the debt or excuse me u homestead credit loss in the debt fund. This is something I want to bring
050your attention to because I think this was in air at the state house. It was just an oversight in that I do not think the state intended for any of that homestead credit loss to be applied in the debt service fund because they know that we could raise levies in future years to make up for that. Circuit breaker losses that we currently receive, not credit circuit breaker losses are all taken in the operations fund. And this is another area that I would anticipate in the next session will be clarified in that this unfortunately this loss will not be taken in the debt fund and it will be moved to the operations fund. Um which which is not the direction obviously we want that to go. But um also more importantly um you see where we
051have approximately 6,981 in in a property tax levy for 2026 with that rate. In the future the conversation will no longer be about rate. It will be about levy and saying to the community that we need the same levy as we had the previous year. Because what you're going to see in a moment when I summarize with the tax rates, um those rates are going to start go going up pretty dramatically. If our assess valuation goes down and we just collect the same amount of revenue, uh we're going to to see uh tax rates increasing. So, um this is the dollars that we moved out of the old 2017 account to uh to to is to issue some of the bonds that we did this last year. And so our payments in 25 were actually
052much higher um in 25 than they than they are in 26 and and for going forward. So uh but when you look at the levy, the levy is really not going up much at all. So there's a lot going on in this fund right now, but at the end of the day, uh we should be able to manage to the same tax rate we have in the past for 2026, but thereafter you will you would start to see that rate increase starting in 2027. Uh going on to the operations fund, and I'm trying to wrap up as quickly as I can here. I know we have limited time. Um again, when you look at the levy on this first line, uh that's the budgeted levy and uh we we essentially got 4% in 2024, 4%
053in 2025, and 4% in 26. This has the higher 5.9% going forward, but again, I don't think that's going to happen. Uh again, another new line in here is this circuit breaker or excuse me, the the homestead credit. Uh the loss in this fund is approximately 179,000 that we we've not had in the past. Now, one positive note, the state did allow um districts to move all of their financial institution tax and all of their SEIT tax into their operations fund. So we're showing a a large increase in the ex or excuse me financial institutions tax going from 25 to 26 and a little bit of that is happening with seat although we don't get a lot of seat but that did help offset a little bit of of the loss that we're going to
054experience from that new credit. Um, but net of everything, when you look at the revenue for 2026, um, we're going to net about $3.7 million. We're advertising a budget of $4.6 million. If we were to spend that whole budget, um, our cash balance would be declining $864,000. Again, a trend uh, that cannot be sustained. Uh, we can sustain that loss for for a year. But at that point, we would we would uh be forecasting negative cash balances and the DLGF won't even allow that. Uh they would they would cut our budget. And that's why I alluded to we may have to start thinking about a transfer out of the education fund into the operations fund going forward. Um, this uh is is not a strong cash balance uh when you look at this fund because
055when your property tax is about $4.6 million, um you'd like to see about 50% of that in a cash balance to avoid any temporary loans from year to year. So, um uh this fund like the education fund is is going to struggle. Um, I won't spend much time on this. Michelle already mentioned this. We just continue to budget uh the rainy day fund without the intent of spending it. Uh, but it is dollars that could be could be used maybe on some one-time unexpected expenses. Then there's the referendum fund, and this is the one you can really see the revenue from 25 to 26 looks pretty good. Uh but then thereafter you can see the erosion of that cess valuation um will will cause the property tax levy to go down. Um and so with
056that uh again that is creating a a structural deficit in that it's it's not going to correct itself. Um, and it's causing a lot of districts to rethink when they might rerun uh their referendum. And it's tricky because the assessed valuation is going to continue to decline not just through 2028, but it'll continue to decline all the way through the year 2031. Uh, finally, and I'll try to take some questions, uh, tax rates. I've touched on this a little bit. Um you can see the debt rate that we anticipate that to remain flat from 2025 to 26. But then you can see even just collecting the same levy, you can see what's happening to that tax rate. The referendum rate because it's a rate fixed fund remains at 37 cents. But uh that's a problem
057because the the assessed valuation erosion. Um, and then when you look at the rate for for the operations fund just in the next two years, you can see there's a slight rate increase there. Uh, and that's because our levy is going up 4% in the operations fund and our assessed valuation only went up 1.62%. And so, um, you can anticipate a small, uh, increase in the tax rate for the year 2026. But then again, look look going forward um into 27 and 28 uh with that kind of decline assessed valuation, you're going to see rates uh increasing pretty rapidly. And I would say that that's probably going to be the one thing that I think the state will be the most shocked by is how quickly rates do go up. So I know that's a
058lot. Michelle gave you a lot and I gave you a lot in in just an hour. There is a lot that's going into this. Um I I've said to my clients, we had a pretty complicated system before and now they've doubled down on it and it has become even more complex of how we are going to receive u property tax going forward. So, I will stop sharing and um open it up for any questions for for Michelle or I. >> Well, it's 5:56 and our regular meeting starts at 6. So, I think you said you were going to come in person in the future and and share with us, right? So, >> I could I'd be happy to come to another meeting at another time to >> to go back through the the presentation. >>
059Oh, we wouldn't want you to have to do the whole presentation again, but um does anybody have any quick questions? >> Rachel, if you want to send us questions and we can also answer for you. >> Tonight's just a hearing, so >> I can be. >> Okay, that'd be great. Let's go ahead and Can we ask questions during the agenda when it's the budget work s works shop session um section also would that be okay >> maybe too I don't think Mike will probably be staying for that >> that's fine I'm happy to ask and then if we need to have it come back but I think it' be nice >> and that's totally fine thank you >> all right let's go ahead and take a three minute recess while we uh regroup for the
060next meeting thank you again, Mr. Reutder, for being here. I really appreciate taking the time. >> Again, I apologize for not being in there in person, but not at all. Happy. Let's uh call to order the West Lafayette Community School Corporation regular meeting of the board of trustees. Um the first item on the agenda tonight is um Mrs. Delaney is going to share with us about the elementary school. Come on down. You're the next contestant. >> It worked. I think we're good. You just have to point it at Mr. Hamilton. >> Okay. >> Well, good evening. Thanks for letting me join you. Um I promised not to talk a whole bunch of numbers, but there are numbers. >> Oh, no. >> Um so, just sharing some updates um from our school. Um some updated demographics,
061updated data. Um we're still looking at the same three school improvement goals that we've had over the several years. So, it'll just be a nice little update today. Okay, perfect. Uh, right now we do have um 18 students enrolled in our preschool. So, that means we are at capacity and we did uh just receive um complete and total lensure so we can accept um CCDF vouchers um and we do have one student participating in that already. So, we're excited to practice that process. Um and I will say the um lure process was pretty smooth. Um as well in preschool land. Um, and we do have 623 um, K through three students. Um, I think we have a couple more in the hopper just waiting to finish up. So, we're trying to gather some more kiddos.
062Um, they seem to mostly be first and second graders, not kindergarten. So, we're still looking for some more. Um, right now our free and reduced lunch rate is roughly about the same. We're at 24.7%. Um, as far as students in special education, we have 79 students. Um, um, with some sort of an IEP and that's about 13% and then we do have several more in the evaluation process. So that number may change as we move forward. We do have 46 certified teachers and then 40 support staff. You can see all of our cute little faces. Some of them were annoyed at the face they made, but caught them in a blink. Just some data to go over here and then I will each one of these corresponds to one of our uh school goals. So
063we'll talk in depth as we go through looking at I read 3 data. Um last year we finished up with 91.7% of our students passing and that's up from the year before. Um I learn math. Our scores continue to increase. Um so that's excellent and we're excited to continue to put into practice some of our curriculum materials that we've been using. And then I learn English language arts. So that does cover reading um grammar and then there also is a writing portion um to this assessment. Um and that one um ELA continues to hover around that 70 low 70s um but still really strong especially compared with the state overall. Okay. So we do have three school goals. The first one goes along with I read. Um the state has a goal that by the
064end of the 2627 school year that 95% of the students will pass um by the end of that school year and that's at the third grade level. Uh we were shooting for the moon and said that we would get there by the end of this school year. Um I do see that we have um we have a great opportunity to reach that goal. Um last year uh so the 2425 that was the first year that students would be mandatorily retained in third grade if they did not pass and they did not get a good cause exemption. Uh we did have one student um that was retained um but the student did move somewhere else in Indiana. Um so they are not currently in our building. I believe I I've been looking on the I think
065October 1st will be when they share across the state how many students were retained. So it'll be interesting to hear those numbers. Um and then we did have 14 students who received a good cause exemption meaning they did not pass. They are not retained but they continue to have to take the test until they pass. Um so we'll um Mrs. Caros will be giving the um and then this year our current third graders so last year's second graders because they had to take the test last year. We have 10 students who are new to Indiana um or new to the US and have not taken the test. So, they'll be taking it for the first time. 13 of our returning second grade, now third grade students scored at risk. Um and those students um just
066this past week started receiving their intense interventions with our reading um specialists. And then 17 students scored on track, meaning they're being monitored. They will likely score. Several of them only missed passing by one or two points. So, we're looking great there. And then 130 of our students have already passed the assessment. Um, so we're looking at roughly by the time we get to take the test, we have 40 students who will still be taking the test. Um, so it is nice that those kids who've already passed, they're done. We don't have to continue to test them over and over again. Moving on to goal number two, which is dealing with the iLearn math. Um, and at the end of this year, our goal is to have 85% of our third graders pass. Um, last
067year we had 82%. So I we are, we could do it. We could totally do this. Um, one nice thing that we did last year, um, we, um, adopted a math screener called M-Class Math and very similar to the Dibbles assessment. It's looking at foundational mathematical skills. Um, and so that's a great way for us to look and see if there are any of those foundational skills that students are are lacking or need more support in so we can catch it early and intervene early so that hopefully by the time they get to third grade we have kind of hit any of those um those spots that needed a little more a bit more help. Um, that's something according to new legislation that that's going to be mandated for next school year. We're waiting to
068see which screener it is. Hopefully it will be the MClass Math that we chose correctly. Um, but this year we did We've already given our first round of assessments. I think our kindergarteners are finishing up with those. Um they did make a change to the assessment um platform. Um and so it was much easier to give this year and much quicker to get the results back. So um we've already started some math interventions as well. Um we also adopted um in grades one, two, and three. Um some parents may already know this if they've used it at home before. It's a great way to support individualized instruction, intervention, and enrichment. Um, because that was a piece that we were really needing a little bit more resources for is that enrichment piece. Um, so what we
069do is the students will take a benchmark assessment in that and then it'll help track them on what standard they may need to attack next. Um, and so it's been really exciting to see. Um, and the nice thing with EXL is it also gives um, um, not pre-EST, but skill plans to help students prepare for read and I learn. So, it gives them in the same format. It's a nice way for students to practice without having to take a practice test. And then we are continuing to meet with our PLC teams um as we continue to revamp our curriculum maps, making sure that they are vertically aligned. Um and then again this year, um we had worked on curriculum alignment. Now, we're going to move into common assessments across teachers at a grade level. So
070that way we can look at how can we support different clusters of students who may have the same needs but maybe in different classrooms. So the work smarter not harder model. And then finally goal three this was um looking at the writing rubric or the writing scores on the ilearn ELA assessment. Um it's a very wordy muddled goal. Um but what we're really looking at is on the rubric there's two sections. Um, there's the evidence and elaboration and organization. The other pieces are more grammar, punctuation. We always kind of knock it out of the park on that one, but evidence and elaboration were areas that we needed a little bit more improvement on. So last year, what we did is we focused on um looking at the third grade I learn writing rubric and then
071kind of backwards mapping that down to kindergarten. So that way we had ended up with a K through three aligned rubric so that way we could start building our curriculum around that. Um so last year we focused on narrative writing. Um and so this year when we got our scores back we had 37% of our students um scored um three make sure I say this right. Um a three or more in the evidence and elaboration or organization which those end up being the exact same score. might as well just together on the rubric. Um but which was an increase the year before we had 36%. Um but the biggest thing especially when looking at the narrative writing is that our students seem less stressed out. They were able to attack the problem. Um the I
072don't know if you've seen any of the sample problems. They are a lot. I think most of us would need a piece of paper in front of us to highlight and and look at what you can, but they're looking at it on a Chromebook screen for the first time. Um, so there's there's a lot that goes into this. So we saw less stress in our students. Um, we saw more joy in their writing in the classroom because they were learning how to attack a a story or a prompt. Um, and one other thing that we thought was interesting since we hadn't really focused on informative writing. Um, but we we did see a huge increase the year before only % of our students had met that um a score of three or four and then
073this year 19% of our students um so clearly the work in the writing is paying off. Um so again this year we're going to continue to focus on professional development um curriculum alignment and then instead of focusing so much on the narrative writing and the narrative writing rubrics, we're going to switch it to the informative this year. So that we're excited about that. Okay. And then moving on just to kind of how the the school year is starting. Um because we last year we saw some trends and we were looking over the summer like what are some things that we can do to be prepared for this school year. Um so one thing is that we had seen an increase in the number of students coming to us from ABA centers. Um so these would
074be students who are getting very specialized supports um typically with a one-on-one adult with them and they are transitioning into public schools. Um over the summer. I think there are some changes in Medicaid. Um so kids were trans transitioning much faster than what we had planned and they didn't have those transition plans. Um so we knew that was coming and we knew that we were having more neurody divergent students who just needed more support in kind of joining into the general education space. Um so Mrs. Van Djk at Dan Dyke our special education teacher of record um she really took into a um a training. It's called structured learning. I did include I won't click on it here, but there's a flyer that gives you a little bit more information about that. Um, and it's
075really looking at how can we create visuals, structured learning spaces for students within her classroom, and then it helps teach them how to take those skills and transfer it out out into the special area classrooms, out into the general education classrooms. Um, we've already seen great success. We have a few students who are already working to transition out of being in Mrs. Van Dyke's room most of the time to uh joining into their general education class. So, we're seeing great success there. Um this year, again, you guys know about this change. When Mrs. Holmes, our dean of students, retired over the summer, we were able to kind of look critically at what we needed to best support our students and our staff. And so, we were able to change that role. Instead of rehiring a
076dean of students, we opted for the student support specialist. Um and we have been so excited to welcome Haley Sanchez. She's also a Westside parent. been a great asset and she's been really helping us to support the behavioral needs in our classrooms as well as giving teachers new ideas and new perspectives of things to try. So, it's been nice getting someone um from outside of our our school building also to see what else has been working um across the county. Um so, we we really look forward to her. And then, uh we also have another fantastic staff member, our registered behavior technician, Mary Dixon Gives West. She's a retired teacher, so she's super overly qualified to do all the things that she's helping with. Um, but she has really been instrumental in and really helping
077us to focus on those needs, especially in our special education population. And she's um fantastic at collecting data, watching and observing students and taking that and helping build actionable plans um to help with any skills deficits and any um just any supports that we need. So, it's been it's been exciting to get to partner with her. Um, one other just kind of along the lines of like let's pull together, let's see what we can do to help our students. Um this year we noticed um several of our kindergarten students that were coming in just had a little bit more social emotional needs. It was harder to transition. Um just having a decreased frustration tolerance. We'll say that, you know, hearing, you know, no, we're not going to go to recess today turned into um you
078know, maybe some explosive behavior instead of okay, we won't go to recess. Um so we met together as a team and that included um Sasha Jones, our school counselor, and then also Allison Walters, our corporation mental health therapist, just to sit down and brainstorm what could we do? Um and they came up with this great idea of a way to increase the tier one social emotional um skills for our kindergarten students. So right now what we'll be doing, it started this week. I think Alison finished up today um her lessons. So she is going in and doing targeted lessons and helping students transition into full day school. Um so looking at things like um calming strategies, looking at what to do when you experience disappointment and how to um kind of work on growth mindset.
079So we have a couple kids who school is hard and not you know not being with parents is hard. Um so ways that that we can help them as well. Um, and so we are doing weekly lessons and then it's also has a kicker with Mrs. Jones. She comes in and also gives a reminder lesson in a different format. So that way hopefully either one of the formats will will click in for our students. And then we're also starting some skills groups with our students. And this is all taking place before fall break um or until um Allison's schedule and unless her case load fills up and then Mrs. Jones would take over those those pieces. Alison was excited to get an opportunity to get to be in front of all the kids um and
080get to meet them. So that way if they ever became a student on her case load, she would already be a friendly face. So we're excited about that. Um and with that, I did want to just thank you all. Um and I'm happy to take any questions. Yes, I am. >> Sorry, you know, I've got notes. Um thank you for all this. It's wonderful to get this review and wonderful to see the intentionality and what you're planning for students. It's really great. Um I am a little bit curious about where classroom sizes ended for you this year. What's your range? >> So I would say overall about 20 students give and take depending on which class we're in. Their grades a little bit higher. Um I would say they're roughly around 21 22. >> Okay.
081Um so a nice a nice >> nice um the PLC teams I know there was some issue in when in the day and how to do that. Um has that been able to settle with a consistent meeting schedule? Is that feeling more comfortable this year? >> It is. Um so we've been able to be a little bit more creative as well. Um we're doing something called power PLC's and so that's when um Joe Talinda comes in um as our corporation engagement specialist and he partners with our school counselor. Um so they take the So, if anybody wants to come over on PowerCl, come on over. Um, and they take the whole group of students and that gives teachers an hour and 15 minutes of of time built in, not over a lunch period, not over
082a prep period. Um, so that really helped us to decrease the number of of meeting times that may be over over a lunch hour or like that. So, we we have a creative. Um, and then finally, I know that as you're moving more of these students out of ABA centers and into other classroom environments, um, do you have an adequate supply of paras? You have an adequate staff to manage that because, you know, to make sure everybody's instructional process is not disrupted. What does that look like right now? >> As of right now, we have enough people to cover the minutes required in our IEPs. You know, that's something that we watch very closely. Um, so as of right now, I think we're good. Um, you never know who could walk through the door. So,
083as of now, we're good. >> Fair. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Yeah. Um, what kind of relationships have been developed um between school officials and the parents of the kids who are coming from the ABA centers and the parents of the kids who are having uh frustration tolerance. So um especially with the kids that are coming from the ADA centers, we actually held um like a little orientation night where they came over and got to hear about the program. Mrs. Van Dyke introduced them, came through and walked through her classroom, got a little sneak peek at what things looked like. Um and it was really an awesome event because at that night several parents connected. Um and it was it was much more of like you get me, you get what I'm going through.
084So it created this really nice support group. Um so those are some things that we've been partnering with there as well. Um and then can you remind me the second part of your question? I'm sorry. >> Same question but specifically for the kids that you um indicated in the presentation about uh frustration tolerance. >> Yes. Um so with that we've been able to first line is we rely on the classroom teachers to build those relationships because it's still very early in the year. um some students that we have had um that I will say have had more frustration. Um we're partnering with the parents um to work collaboratively to try to see what we can do to support that. I think the biggest thing is just keeping a very open line of communication. We've had
085some great problem solving meetings back and forth with parents that they share what works for them at home and that way we can institute that and and kind of keep the same language for the kiddos. I think a lot of this is just that beginning of the year. every week is getting better and better. We just have to keep it going in the right direction. Thank you. Thank you very much for the update is very exciting and just I have first a comment and you talk about the helping kids to transition to your school and I happen to hear a feedback from a parent and that parent was very worried at a beginning when when their child transfer from the preschool to kindergarten and they were even considering to have the kid in the kindergarten
086preschool for long for one more year to get ready and uh I think uh they contact you and they was encouraged to bring the kid to our kindergarten directly. It turned out their kid love our school so much. The teachers were very patient, helpful and loving and uh and their kid had a very good time and learning and broom brooming. So yeah, they are super happy and they told me that actually when their kid met the teacher outside the school, the the kid was so excited kind of hug the teacher say I love you or something like that. It's just so sweet and thank you so much for your team. >> So another thing is you you talk about several positions or collaborations. I I wonder whether probably they were in some personnel package before
087but I don't remember are they our formal employee or is some collaboration between our our school and some external consultant or how how they work. >> Okay. So the collaboration that we had Mrs. Jones is our school counselor um and then Alison Wal is the corporation mental health therapist. She's in our building on Mondays. Um so we were looking at what can we do to help as well. So, that was one collaboration. And then Haley Sanchez, our student support specialist, she is a new staff member, but she kind of replaced Mrs. Holmes when she retired. >> So, they serve all the three schools. So, they have are located a day time in your building. >> So, Haley Sanchez is in our building all the time. >> And then, um, Alison Walters, she's just in our
088building one day a week and then we share her across the and we've even talked about if we needed her more, we could look at, you know, different parts of different days that she could come over. Um Joe Tai Linda, um he does help us out as well with the PLC's and he's a corporation employee. Um but he's in our billing on Thursdays. Um and then I think that might have been it. >> So it's great. They they help other buildings as well basically. Okay. Another thing is you mentioned the ABA. I wonder how is that different from glass and so >> um so ADA centers I don't need to help me out um those are typically um like private centers um so there's like little star right now but those are private centers um
089we're really in they may have teachers in there but then there is a one to one ratio of there is an adult with a most of the day helping out with prompting of what to do next, guiding them through their day. Um, which is clearly not what hap what's able to happen in a in a um, you know, public school setting. >> Okay. So, as we all know, uh, glass is dissolving and so how are we preparing for that and at this time or we are kind of already transition. So, from my understanding, especially since the ABA centers are private, um we try our best, and I know Stephanie does a great job of going out and meeting a lot of our preschoolers, um who would be incoming kindergarteners, um meeting with their teachers, looking
090at their IEPs. Um so, a lot of that is what's happening before they ever get to our school. I think November conferences just to get to know a little bit more about the kids. Um and I think some things that we talking about overall as staff and especially Mrs. Van Dyke um really kind of led that charge is getting to know the students and helping share things about our building so that the ABA centers or the preschool um staff could kind of share some of those things with the kids and the families as well. Um so I know Mrs. Vandike created several PowerPoint presentations and showing pictures of what the building looked like and had several videos of what different staff members were as well. So basically the dissolving of glass will not have a
091lot of impact on ours. It looks like we are pretty ready and >> I believe so. I think the the things that really seem to impact us and and things were on a steady path for transition for a lot of our families. But when the changes to Medicaid came, the families lost their funding to stay in that ADA center. And so they didn't really have much choice but then to go to Okay, great. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Questions. >> Okay, Lawrence. >> Yeah, I have quick question. First of all, thank you for the presentation. Uh it's really nice to go through uh detail of the school how they operate. So really appreciate the uh your presentations. Just a couple quick quick question. So regarding the preschools, my understanding is once we get the license
092basically we can get a state fund for the student. Is that right? >> Um if a a family has to apply for and qualify to get a voucher so that they can voucher to pay their bill. And then I did just find out that they are decreasing the amount of money that the families get. Um so there's there's a lot of of of things happening in the early childhood, >> but the the parents of those 18 students, they still pay at least some of them. Okay. most of ours >> but financially this operation is kind of financially independent. Okay. Okay. >> And um so this not count ADM right this is not is kind of separate and regarding the enrollment we still give the priority to our teachers and the parents live in our district
093right >> I think we have three um staff member kids who are in the preschool. Okay. >> But in terms of future, do you think maybe we can extend this program, have most more students uh in this program or you think that that's pretty much 18 is >> we would have to look at opening another classroom. I wouldn't want to put more than 18 students in the room. Um I think that's something we would be happy to explore. Um I think we have a space available. We would just have to Michelle and I would be best friends. >> That's okay. That's a more difficult more complicated >> we continue to have people call all the time. Um so I I think it's out there especially now that we can accept vouchers. Um I'm excited to
094see what that looks like when we start opening up for next year. >> Yeah. I'm thinking if more student enroll in this pre preschool maybe next year they will come to our school just stay with. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate >> you. >> Thank you. Appreciate everything. I'll never forget the first time one of my kids came home and said mommy you don't have a growth mindset. Thank you very much. All right, the next item on the agenda is communication from the audience and Brian Messer has signed up to come on up. Three minutes on the clock, please. >> No, we got you. >> My name is Brian Messer. I live out a district with my wife and two children that attend the West Lafayette schools. My wife and I own Advice. We live in the
095community since attending Purdue 25 years ago. There's been some discussion about how allowing out of district families impact the school in the community. So, I'd like to share some perspective as an out of district family and how West schools have impacted us and the impact we've had on the schools. Uh my children have thrived in West Lia school system. Um there opportunities here for advanced classes, strings, and other programs that we're grateful my are able to take part in. I'm confident that my children are best served being part of the West Lafayette schools. Every parent wants to set their children up for success and one parent to another. We greatly appreciate that there was a system in place to allow our children to transfer into the school system and receive the best possible education. I
096would reasonably assume the kind of people that are applying to transfer into West Lafayette schools are like our family. We value education. We're willing to put in extra effort. Living out of district, my wife and I spend a minimum 15 kids back and forth from our house to school plus extracurriculars, fundraisers and other events. It's a big time commitment and we're happy to do that for the opportunities for our kids to be part of the West schools. Uh any other parent that would be applying to transfer would understand the extra time commitment that would be required and I think that's the kind of West. Being a part of the community has given us an opportunity to help in ways we wouldn't have been able to if we weren't in the West Lafayette schools. Uh officer
097uses to engage with kids before school, the intermediary school, so we saw an opportunity and bought him a nice big speaker so we can have a little more fun with the kids. We recently made a similar donation to the West Africies may keep the fact that they're out of district private. Um, in addition, I would I would also estimate that a lot of the contributions that these families are making are kept private like we do. Um, I only bring this up because uh people may not realize how all out of district families are contributing quietly to the community. Um, we value our school system. Uh, we appreciate that we get to be a part of it. We look for ways that we can help uh to try to make the schools and the community better.
098Uh, I'd bet that most families applying to have their children be a part of West Lafayette are families that value education, that are willing to extra effort for their child's education and appreciate the opportunity to be part of the schools. Uh so in short, my kids are doing great because Westfield schools and every every parent can relate to how much that's appreciated. I feel that we've been a tiny part of what makes the community excellent. My understanding is that every student brings additional funding and support to the faculty and the programs here. So, it's up to you to decide if allowing more families like us join the West Lafayette community to help support and grow the school system is a good idea. Thanks for your time. >> Thank you very much. Um, all righty. The
099next item is the consent agenda. I'd like to note that item number four, the uh Japan trip has been pulled. So, that will not be considered this evening. Um, I am in need of a motion. Rachel, >> I'd like to make a motion to remove the personnel report from the agenda, the consent agenda, please. >> Okie do. Is there a second? Okay, so that's the one that I don't need a vote on. Correct. Correct. >> Okay, super. That has been pulled. We'll consider that in a minute. Does anyone else have any motions concerning the rest of the consent agenda? David. >> Motion to approve the rest of the consent agenda. >> Okay, so moved by David. Is there a second? Second by Rachel. I need to press buttons. So we Nope, that's not it. There
100we go. Okay, please cast your votes for the consent agenda. And yours isn't working. Okay, >> thank you. Okay, right on. So, that passes. So, the next item is the personnel report. And Rachel, since you made the motion, you get to speak first. >> My question is Dr. >> Yes, Mrs. Wit. Uh the process is that at the end of each season or annually, each head coach has a written summitive evaluation completed by our athletic director. >> Anything else on the uh personnel report? So as a followup, I wonder for that um evaluation uh families solicited a feedback for the or only the >> families do not provide feedback for a summit of evaluation that is completed by our athletic director, Mr. Strode. >> And so family are not giving the opportunity to provide feedback.
101>> Correct. It's a job evaluation. So they're um not solicited. No, >> I think it would be helpful to solicit feedback from the team members and uh I know a lot of coaches works extremely hard and uh think those parent the families will love to have the opportunities to share their gratitude or feedback whatever. >> Noted. Thank you. Anybody else have anything to say about the personnel report? >> Okay, then I'm looking for a motion about that. >> Well, to be clear, um since we pulled the personnel report from the consent agenda and I'll go ahead and say there were questions about uh one of the coaches. Is that something that we need to discuss right here right now or move on? >> No, we don't. >> I'm not I'm not asking about names. I'm
102just asking about the situation. >> Nope. >> N >> Okay. In that case, is there a motion? >> Okay, Lawrence moves to approve. Is that seconded by Rachel? Okay. And I'm going to do the vote button there. Okay. Please cast your votes. Thank you. That passes 70. And next, there is no unfinished business, so we will move on to new business. And I have paper. Dr. Grryer, do you have anything to say before? Nope. I'm too fast. That's not it. >> First, we'll do the budget hearing and that'll be Miss >> Mrs. Kron, do you have anything you'd like to share? >> Yes, I do. >> Darn it. >> President Austin, I ask that you please open the budget hearing to hear public comment on the 2026 budgeted funds, the capital expenditures plan, and the
103bus replacement plan. >> All right. I hereby open the public hearing and if there is public comment, no one signed up and I'm not seeing anyone running to the microphone. So I shall close the hearing to of the budget. Do you and then we move on to the next page which I had on top. Next is the pre-bargaining hearing. Dr. Grryer >> um Amy, >> I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Can we ask some questions since there wasn't time during the budget? Sure. And like I said, I will try to answer what I can and if not, I will type them down and have them for Friday night. >> I was say Mr. Reutder may be the better one for some of these. And so just a few questions um if you know now would
104be great and if not we can wait. >> Um my first question, so a lot of discussion has been coming up about making decisions on how we handle transfer students. Things have changed um with the budget with that. So my first question is how much money are we gaining because we have this agreement with TSC instead of just an open enrollment. So if I understand correctly we have about 170 transfer students right now. >> It's about $150 difference from what we would get if they're on our ADM. >> Okay. So 150 is the only I mean it >> is a little bit >> compared to what it used to be. >> Okay. And we have about 170 >> about 160 >> 60 right now. Yeah. >> Okay. Um then kind of down that same route
105is if it was decided to go to open enrollment instead of an agreement with TSC, what difference would it make in the budget? Meaning um if we opened it up, we may have more transfers coming in >> possibly. >> Um more control over the grade levels. Like it feels like if my understanding was correct, TSC is kind of what limits our numbers. It does start with TSC >> and then they're the ones that shut it down, not us. And so there would be a possibility if we were to open it up that it could make our budget better off if we chose to um >> and they would be on our ADM and thus we would be controlling the whole process. >> Okay. Um Okay. So then another idea that's been shared by Dr. Yen
106is putting a pause on the transfer students. So keeping all the transfer students we have >> but not accepting new transfer students um in the future about I guess about how much we would be down next year like if we said one year from now what do you see >> I dropped >> cannot think of the number that we currently have in the senior class and those we would be losing. So my guess is we'd be down is about 20 to 30. Chad Chad's nodding yes. So, so 20 to30 times that ADM number that we were getting from TSC would be how much we were down. >> Okay. That's So about $200,000 um is how much we would lose if we just stopped that right now. >> That sounds that sounds about right. Yes. >>
107Well, we're talking that we're talking about um kinderg lower kindergarten numbers compared to higher seniors graduating. And so that loss will be there. >> And so yes, that would at minimum be the difference if we weren't taking and trying to maybe balance. >> And we're just talking about transfers right now all else equal. But yes, we are also getting smaller numbers coming in. So that also would be an impact to the budget. >> Yeah, because I mean some question is if we would stop allowing transfers because that has correlated with our enrollment numbers going down. Those enrollment numbers may go up. But I do agree that no matter what we do, our kindergarten numbers are going to be down. Period. >> Yeah. >> With that. >> And that is and that is a trend across
108the nation. It's not just here. Um it is a trend. >> That makes sense. Okay. So then my last question um if so we've talked about 1.2 million is how much we're bringing in with our transfer students. >> That's what I'm expecting for next year >> because of the changes in budget. >> Um if we were to raise our referendum 1.2 two million which we did have one community member email the board and say that that's what they would like to see done to get the funding about what would be the increased cost per average household >> that I cannot tell you because we are also dealing with that projected decrease in AV and so that the next policy analytics uh review will actually model what that would look like for us um and I
109think I asked them for a 45 cent to see what that would look like um but we have to take into consideration what that assess value might do. So, I really can't give you that answer right now. >> Um, we could talk about all else equal, but we know it's not going to be all else equal. >> Okay. >> So, >> but it's certainly something where you could run numbers for different scenarios and even set something at a certain level of a promise not to go above that because that's what's approved. Would it be a commitment? It wouldn't even be a promise. >> Uh, and and then from there, you could manage it based on under the concept that Dr. Yen was talking about. you could manage it based on what number came, you know,
110in with regard to enrollment versus >> how are we managing it with what we talked about uh with regard to the the referendum fund going down until 2031 where you get that reset and then it starts to um go back up. you if you if the board were to run rerun the referendum, you you could certainly have numbers run to show what and where that might look like and then move it up and down based on the need. Does that make sense? >> Okay. >> And the referendum question has been changed by legislature. So now they are asking for a max rate and a max levy. So we would have to determine what amount of money we would also need by 2031 as well as a higher tax rate because of the following assessed value.
111So we probably wouldn't use all of it. Like it used to be run for 42 cents I believe and we never never used that because of the changing assessed value. We have to put those things into consideration and run it for higher than of what we might need down down the road because of changes. Does that make sense? >> It does. >> Yeah. >> And then in that situation each year the way we report out now on the budget that that would be included in the budget and where we were going and why. >> Those were my questions. Thank you. Okay, Rachel, you were next and then George and then David. >> Um, Dr. Riner, first of all, thank you for the financial explanation video. That was really helpful instruction to our community and I
112really appreciate you taking the time to put that together. Um, along those same lines, I noticed on page 20 in Mike's packet, he did include transfer tuition uh projected out into the future. Um, and I would be curious to see what his projection looks like if our district were closed and there were no transfer tuition added to it. Um, I think >> you can see if you look on the enrollment page, I think in two years it you're talking about enrollment, correct? >> Talking about if the transfers Yeah. specifically looking at page on page 20 of his report, he has the 1.2 this year in our budget, but he's projected it out into future years. And I'd like to know what it looks like if we just say, "Hey, there's nothing coming." >> I've written
113it down. >> Thank you very much. Um, also, and these are just quick questions that I think are for you, Michelle, but out of curiosity, what is the range of interest on those CDs that you have? Roughly, >> we are anywhere from, I believe, four to five and a half percent. Right now, >> well done. >> It's a good thing to hedge them out for a little while. We uh Baker Tilly does a really good job of assisting us with that process um and helping us make sure that we're hedged. um so that we we we have that revenue into the future because I mean if we had $500,000 in revenue last year, that's like the most I've ever seen in my 13 years in school finance. So, um to lose that um would not
114be great. >> Exactly. No, thank you for that. Uh and my last question, the operations funds budgeted page, you have um 40,000 building and land improvement or item 40,000 um building and land improvement. I think it was at $230,000 that you had budgeted. What kinds of things do you think would fall into that money? >> Um, so that could be under the 40,000. That could be anywhere. Um, any type of building improvement that's kind of a placeholder for appropriation that I use to build up the operations fund budget. And so that's any building improvement things like doing an HVAC project or anything like that. >> Okay. And a lot of times we don't use that appropriation necessarily, but it's a placeholder to build that budget up just in case. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Okay,
115George, you're up. >> Did the state legislature also change when we're allowed to hold referendums as well? So, I think I'd call that going through, too. >> Yes, we can only run them on the even years now in November. >> So, we're going to do it. We have to do it fairly soon. >> Yes. Okay, David, >> that was effectively my comment of we only have so much time to make a decision on how we're handling this because if we don't run a referendum in this upcoming year, we'd have to wait another couple years to be able to do that. Um, what is the timeline from that we have to make that decision by to be able to run it in the in the next uh next year's election? Um the resolution has to be
116passed. I believe it's the middle of July. Okay. >> Um but we we would need to start talking about that, having more serious conversations probably a lot earlier in case the legislators get back together and they make even more changes during the next legislative session. >> And we talked also about in in my presentation cost-saving strategies as well and obviously be a combination of things. But so if the board were to decide that we were going to run the referendum and it didn't pass, >> what we have now, the 37 cents rem is remains. So we could continue with the cuts and then rerun again in two more years and we wouldn't be losing the 37 cents. We would have time to continue to educate. And does that make sense? And so, um, if the
117board's interested, we do need to start having discussion. Not obviously not this evening, but sooner than later. >> Go ahead. >> And to follow up with Rachel's question for Mike to figure out the how much we will lose if we don't take more transfers in the future. I think uh it'll be also helpful to ask Mike what he thinks about the dynamic because I I said it last time I want to repeat again which is okay when we talk about this uh laws assuming that the new policy will not change pe people's decisions but the reality is people will act according to the new policy that we make. So if we decided to open the district and uh people can transfer in without paying the fee according to the new law then people will be
118encouraged to move out as I said before at least the SK actually arrival with the uncertainty some people are scared whether or not that's a has a foundation but many people are scared so in the city council there are like seven protest kind of thing. You you probably know and some people already want to move out. Now with this new pol open district policy, more people might be motivated to move out. Then the consequence will be we will have fewer in uh in district um enrollment and uh at the same time the property value will drop and as actually Mike also mentioned that the property as uh value drop then we will have less income for the school to support our teachers program everything and so I just feel this is not a static it's
119a dynamic and so when the policy changes, people's behavior will change. And on the other hand, if we decide to close the district completely from now on, then people will be encouraged to move back like some of the parents who love our schools, they currently or actually for them, they actually can even stay. But for those newcomers who want to send their kids to our schools, they will move to our schools. And then our residents will maintain their house property value because before when they bought the houses, they have to pay much more to buy to live in a district and they have to pay much more and every year for the tax referendum everything. Um so actually uh recently because I after last meeting I wasn't sure whether my interpretation of out all those
120factors are reasonable. I try to figure out what the residents think. So I cast a little survey um and um and collect some feedback and actually uh so far 52 uh 5 it's a small sample because I don't have a power to reach too many people 55 um people responded and 78% of them actually they they believe we should stop uh receiving new transfer for students and they also said actually 92.7% of them said uh if we our district decided to open it they will not support referendum next time. So that's also a factor very important one we we got the transfer money but we we may lose the ref referendum alto together that will be a disaster and some and also another thing is let me see um actually 52 51% uh 51.9% of
121people said if our district decide to open a district and accept a transfer students without the fee and the they plan to move uh 52 about 50% of those respondents said they plan to move out and transfer their case back in. So then I I feel that you know you can see the dynamic with all those decisions. In addition and according to the state law and if we decided to open the district it means we should open it to everyone not only to TSC but to LSC any any county any district. So, if we only keep it to the open the transfer option to TSC, I I'm worried that we may violate some state law in the long run. I I don't know. Actually, I I >> That's a lot of words and Dr. Grer
122would like to respond to some of the things you've said. >> Yeah, I I asked the legal council. Actually, they confirmed if we open our district, we should open it to everyone. >> Okay. Let's let Dr. Grryer have a chance to respond to some of what you've said. >> Well, I the main thing I wanted to point out and then the board can have dialogue among among itself, but what I wanted to point out because you had said make note for Mr. Reutder and I just wanted to make clear to the board that he's going to make recommendations financially. He's not going to make recommendations to be an open district or a closed district. What he would tell you, and he will come back if we want him to because he said he would, but
123he would state and Mrs. Kron would state the same thing that if the board wanted to entertain closing the district, what he would say is let's talk about how we get there then. So is the community willing to support sort of where Mrs. Mumford was going, a referendum that could fluctuate to address he's not he I want to make clear that Mr. Reutder isn't an outside person making recommendations that we do or don't take transfers or that we open up completely or close completely. what he would do is share um how that would impact revenue and then from there the board and administration need to work together to determine what does that look like or mean if we're going to go one way or another if we're going to completely close what would that look
124like when Mrs. Mumford was talking about the and and does the community want to study and look at that but I I don't want I don't want you Dr. or any other board member to feel that Mr. Reutder has a stand stand or viewpoint on whether we shouldn't take re take um um open up the district or close the district or keep it the way it is. He he wouldn't that would be we we we understand that's the board's we can give recommendations and talk about the results of revenue versus where the board wants to go. Obviously, we understand where the board that that's their that's their level of decision- making. Does that make sense what I'm saying? We then would determine what we would need to do to address revenue strategies for that >>
125and or cuts. >> A good point. And or andor cuts if we didn't look at other revenue strategies. So, I hope that makes sense. I just because Mr. Reutder is not here, I wanted to make clear that he wouldn't tell you here's what I think the board should do. He would say, "Here's what it will look like if you do this. Here's what it will look like if you do that." As you determine what you want to do, let's think about what strategies we can engage in to make sure that we have the necessary revenue to support our students learning. >> And I try really hard as the chair of the board to stay neutral, but I would like to um let you know, Dr. and that not everyone is afraid of the um company
126that's coming into the research park. I actually think that that's going to be great for our community. It's going to bring a lot of great jobs and I've lived here since the late 90s and I have no intention of leaving um because SKH is coming in. And I also would like to state that I care very much about a lot of our transfer students. And if I were a child sitting at home watching this meeting and hearing people talk about whether or not I'm welcome in my school, I think that would be very hurtful. You talk about fear of SKHEX, but but what about the fear of those kids who are hearing this kind of dialogue about whether or not they're welcome? So, I just want to let those children know that are watching at
127home or that might be hearing these words that they're welcome and that we we want them as much as we want any other child. And I don't think we should be flip about saying my property values are more important than these children and how they feel. So, I you you said a lot of words. There are several people who would like to speak, but I want people to know that I welcome those kids and I want them here. So, we're going to let David and George and then if we have time, we'll come back. >> George was first. >> No, Dr. Yen, you referenced a number. I think you said 50% of people uh would move out of the district if we were to open transfers. Um I I just want to get some clarification.
128So, uh, these are 50% of people who responded to a survey that you sent out personally without the input of the rest of us, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Because the board >> and how many respondents did you get for that survey? >> Yeah, 50. Actually, I shared this with everyone. >> Oh, I know, but I just want to get this out in the open. So, there's 50% of 50 people. >> Yeah, I'm never saying this is a represented. I I at very beginning I said the sample size is small. I didn't say this is a >> it's just important that people know how small the sample size is, right? >> Sorry. >> It's important for people to know how small the >> s but even our strategic plan we only have 200 something
129families who responded. So 55 is not super super small I would say with my personal connection and not not necessarily connection the the way there you know some places I can reach people I know for sure they live in the district. I don't necessarily know them. So, actually, I think sorry, but you you go ahead finish yours, but I do want to respond to Amy's the point. Go ahead. >> We did just have a gentleman who got up and talked about the experiences that his transfer kids had in the school and the money and the time that he's donated. Are we going to be so quick to get rid of that goodwill? That that is a danger we have to consider. So this is similar to Amy's I so what proposed last one so don't
130kind of mislead or maybe you I I made you misunderstood or whatever but I have been saying we stop taking more I'm not saying we we don't we push the current students out right so we have been saying once they are in we'll make sure they graduate from our system just for the new transfers we should up because now the state doesn't allow darts to char face and fair for for the people who live in the district and who pay extra money everything and for their house and for tax everything then now they don't yeah it's just people feel very unfair and I also think eventually this will hurt our district and I'm worried actually I'm worried people will not will stop supporting our referendum in the future. Then we will lose a big chunk
131of money that that that that will be a disaster for our district and I please don't say I I'm against the current students transfer students in our district. No, I never say that. We have been we all agree once they are in we make sure they graduate from our schools. It's never about students. It's it's about our policy. So if we have policy that we only take students who live in our district then people will move in move back in and also back to um Sean's point about Mike's uh the question for Mike and uh yeah I understand Mike will not help us decide the policy however I want to make sure that when he estimate those numbers and uh he need to see the dynamic there. The those numbers will not stay and those
132numbers will change when our policy change. So if we have let's say we we lose okay when we lose those when let's say if we close the district from now on we don't take a new transfer students and uh the transfer students will drop however more people will move in the the within district enrollment will increase so >> and the property will increase >> I I don't know that you can back up that assumption you but >> but if we don't try it how how can you know I'm wrong or not. >> Sure. I I do think it's time. Was it David was next or and Rachel's after that? >> I think that we need to get back to with all of this whether it's budget or transfer. What is going to make our continue
133to make our schools better? W with budget aspects. We're talking about well we have we may potentially have to rerun the referendum. Um earlier in the meeting it started with the focus on rerunning it rerunning it to make up for the substantial gap that's going to be coming uh because of the property tax reform and then um potentially using it to make up for what we could lose if we stopped taking transfers or or modified how we're doing it. um that's $2.5 to $3 million based off off of some of the projections right now. That's a lot to be asking our community to add into. Um I think that we need we need to approach this of where do we need to maintain at a student body to be able to offer the courses and
134the services that that we need to have as a district. does it um where do we need to what funding do we need to have to maintain the exceptional teachers that we have and what do we have to do to really make sure that we have long-term sta stable funding whether it's through um the we we shouldn't be cutting off some of our own funding um that we don't have to at the moment so I I think that we need to focus on that not on how we might think that people will react to um whether or not we keep keep transfers. I think it or or how finances might change or property taxes might change. We need to focus on what's going to be best for schools. Also, um Mrs. Kron, um do you
135remember the the amount that each household on average pay pays into the referendum, isn't it roughly about 300 a year? Is that correct? >> That sounds familiar, but I'd have to look back at our notes from when we ran the referendum. So, >> from when we ran it a couple a couple years ago, I'm pretty sure that the average cost to families living in the district is about 300. The reason we get so much um more is because of the broader base of taxes including the tiff district that that covers. Um and so there that's a small premium to be paying uh to to live here which it's an important premium and it's an important contribution but um it's not I don't think enough to make me um sell my house, pay 6% to a
136realtor um couple thousand in moving expenses and six months of chaos in my house. >> Rachel I am not a researcher and I'm not going to pretend to be, but I question the validity of anybody asking 50 of their friends their opinion and then calling that data that we could make a decision upon. Um that said, using that information that um Dr. Yin provided, um it seems to me that those 50 people wanted to keep the district closed so they could keep their property values high. That's been tossed around quite a bit. Um and that effectively means that people who um have an elevated socioeconomic position can afford to live in this community. Um so then if we do that we can charge tuition which means that only people with as elevated socioeconomic position could
137afford to send their children to our schools on a tuition basis. Um, and all of this is based on really what is a a groundless assumption that our children um would be best prepared in a homogeneous socioeconomic environment. And I don't believe that's true. I think we do our students a disservice if we're having conversations about how to make only the wealthy people be allowed to bring their their families in. And I want to highlight the fact that none of our teachers at their rate of pay would qualify to live in the district in which they teach if we go down that path. And to me, that is a phenomenal statement of disrespect to educators in the state of Indiana. It is terrible that the state has put us in the position that we are
138in. But that is the position we are in. And this to me is a moment in which we decide if we are going to pursue a classist perspective on our community or if we are going to continue to function as public education in this community. Those are my thoughts. >> Thank you, George. >> Just uh one more quick note uh just for anybody out there listening. I'm on Zillow.com right now and uh home prices within the district and out of the district depending on home age and home build quality are roughly the same. Now, the tax burden is going to be a little bit different if you live in the city limits or not because you're paying for city services, but like Dr. Perper said, um the uh referendum increases a little over $300. paying
139city services just because you live in the city and get access to things that the county does not. Um, these are all choices that we all have to make individually. But I don't believe that a decision we make about transfer students is going to cause a mass exodus because I just don't think it makes any financial sense for anybody who's looking at the numbers. >> Okay, I would really like to move on from this conversation. Has everybody said their piece? Great. Where are we even on my pieces of paper? Um, Dr. Grryer, do you have anything to say before I open the public hearing related to bargaining, which is the no exhibit thing under number eight and on top of number nine? >> Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Austin. were required by Indiana code to hold
140a public hearing before the start of um collective bargaining, the formal process of collective bargaining and uh the hearing will allow opportunity for members of the public to share comments on the matter related to teacher compensation and bargaining. Uh formal bargaining can start September 15th or anytime after and should be closed by November 15th. Uh so we're preparing to do that and so at this time it would be my recommendation that you open for public hearing. >> Okay. Thank you. At this time we will open the floor for public comment. Okay. And there is no comment. So this concludes our public hearing. At this time the public hearing is closed and I thank you. Um is there any discussion about bargaining? I don't believe there should be at this point. It has not begun. All
141right. The next >> May I say something? >> Sure. Um yeah actually I got a information from a community member regarding the the salary information and uh it looks like that and from like five years ago till now and our teachers salary didn't increase dramatically but administration's salary like increased dramatically. So I I my question is typically we review for example the the teachers maybe only increase like 5% in one year but the administrators increase 50% in the same from that that that time same year. >> I'm sure they'd be thrilled if that happened but I don't believe that's accurate. My question my question is um I I'm kind of yeah I I'm still learning how this works because I every time we we bar uh we negotiate about teachers salary and we review it
142and approve it and who determines administrator's salary and uh do we need to approve that review that and how how it works is a question because I I got from the community member I I figured Oh, actually I don't know how that works and I need to learn how that works and so I hope to pay our teachers better. Basically, >> I believe the difference that your community member is seeing might be because there were added um administrators over that time period. For example, we didn't have um uh I'm trying to think which positions changed. We didn't have an assistant superintendent five years ago, but we have one now. Um, so it may look on paper as though those salaries have increased by a large percentage, but I think if you looked at individual people's
143salaries that it would show that it has been a reasonable increase over that time period and we have just added and subtracted different positions within administration. So um the uh I believe you participated in bargaining last year. I did that on only for teachers but I never know how the administer administrator part works and actually you mentioned another thing is about the positions and uh actually the what other concern the community member share with me is do we have a bigger comm uh administrator group than before and uh because we keep talking about oh we we don't have enough money that's why people need to we have to take more transfers That's why we have to pass referendum and so the community member asked about how you guys spend the money and so everybody wants
144to support our teachers more pay our teachers better but you know where did the money go where can we save money so we can better support our teachers so I think that's I I support that you know to support our teachers better so I think it would be helpful to >> to look at the data and to see you the the positions we have right now and the the the the change over time and also the compensation for different uh positions and uh figure out a way basically to to save money and to better support our teachers in general and also I think recently and Dr. Grryer also mentioned some good strategies. For example, we can combine some of the positions and so we don't need to pair some more new new people and so
145to be more efficient or something like that. Just figure out a way to you know given the budget given the difficulties we have due to the state and many other things and we need to be run more efficiently. So we can still like I'm s I'm signed to serve on the negotiation team for that. I always want to give our teachers more. The more the better. But where do we get the money from? I we need to cut the money elsewhere so we can support our teacher better. So >> okay, George and then Rachel. >> Uh Dr. Grinder. Uh forgive me if you don't have the numbers tonight. And if you don't, we could uh certainly take them at the next meeting, but how many administrators do we have in the district? >> You want
146to add pulling up a spreadsheet? We'll we'll give you the actual number >> and then um if you can while that's happening who's classed as an administrator. >> So we have assistant principles um central office staff the three of us. So there's 16 administrators uh and then um principles, assistant principles and well dire not other directors but but director Stephanie would be our special ed director but yeah 16. >> And then just one last thing how many of those administrative positions were added based on a need within the last five years? one and then we actually cut one too. So, it actually balances out. >> Gives us some perspective. Thanks, >> Rachel. >> I'm concerned that anybody in the community would hear this and draw an incorrect conclusion that we are um you know paying
147the big bucks to our administrators and um and because we all want to short the teacher pay. I I am very comfortable that there is a long pattern of wanting to compensate our teachers more um and understanding that um the state doesn't they they also say that but they do not fund us appropriately to do that. And so there's been a long running tradition of trying to um compensate our teachers as fairly as we possibly can. I'd like to add that just because I think it's important um with regard to the assistant superintendent, that position was developed through combining multiple jobs. The board required that of me, which they should have. Uh and and in fact, when I was interviewed for the position, the board told me that we were short in central office and
148that it was in some ways an expectation that that position be developed. And with that, multiple positions were combined. So I I just I want to make sure that whether we go back to unccombining it and if we're suggesting that the assistant superintendent or the superintendent or anybody shouldn't be here and I'm not hearing that anybody suggested that, but the conversation here that we're having, I just want to be careful that we don't start pitting our all of ourselves against each other in a time where we're in financial crisis. And I would tell you additionally, we are working. We've got we're developing a priority list and we can start making cuts and we'll do what we need to do to balance a budget, but we need to go at it from multiple ways. And the
149worst thing we need to do is start suggesting um that we're pitting ourselves against each other. And I haven't heard that. I'm just saying the dialogue we're having kind of makes me nervous because the one thing I will tell you, every year I've been here for collective bargaining, it has been the most collaborative work that I've seen anywhere. And I'm very proud of our teachers. I'm proud of our administrators. I'm proud of our community. And I'm proud of our board. So, I just want to make that clear. >> Right. And Dr. Griner, you kind of hopped into what I was about to say next, which is um historically I want to offer this perspective. Prior to Dr. Riners joining our corporation. We were incredibly undermann in central office and the effects of that were felt
150at every level with building administrators who couldn't be supported in the way that they needed to be um and with the variety of other problems that have happened. And so really to to Dr. Griner set me up for what I was about to say next very very well and that is um be careful what you wish for. If you want to start cutting positions and start talking about us being administrativeheavy, you really need to go back and look at the history of what that looks like because the work doesn't stop. So, it just funnels downhill to the people in the buildings try to manage it and that funnels to the mental health professionals, that funnels down to guidance, that funnels down to classroom teachers. it just funnels down and the weight doesn't change where it
151is positioned changes. So I just I am with Dr. Riner, I want be very cautious about where this conversation is grow goes because I will tell you from my ISBA participation perspective. Other school corporations do not have the situation that we have working collaborative collaboratively on negotiation. They don't have anything like what we have. So I don't know how to say more eloquently than this. Please don't screw it up. I'll I'll make one more point about um ju because I want to be clear that for for months now we've seen what's coming coming and we know and I said it in my uh presentation uh regarding the state of the finances um our goal is to protect the classroom and and when we start looking at some of the cuts if we make some of
152the moves that we we would possibly have to make teachers and everybody are going to feel feel it because the work doesn't stop as you said and it gets funneled down and redirected. Um, we've been making cuts. Now, when every time we have a a person resign, the principles and administrators come together and we evaluate and and re-evaluate. Does this person need rehired? Does it need re-imagined? And and if if we if we would before we would start making classroom sizes bigger, for example, we would cut administrators. But with that is going to come reassignment of duties, too. And it's going to go all the way down. >> Okay. I'd like to close the renegotiation hearing. And I would really like to hear about >> Would you like to talk about things? >> I don't
153remember honestly. Uh did I >> You closed it, but there's nothing saying you can't reopen it. >> Okay, I'll reopen it. Come on down. Mr. Jo, >> my students would think I do. >> Hey, my name is David Jo. Pleasure to be in front of you today. Uh, I've had the pleasure of serving on bargaining team for probably seven or eight years now and uh as the chair for the last couple years and and just want to say thanks uh so much for uh your continued uh collaboration. uh certainly echo what was said a couple moments ago in terms of the spirit working together. Um just to to dive into the the fund that was was brought up. U I I'm kind of curious if the numbers that were referenced I those caught my eye
154potentially a couple years ago as well. I I think it has maybe more to do about how benefits are or aren't included. Uh and so I I think that what looks one way as it's reported probably isn't an apples to apples comparison of uh teacher and and administrator salary and benefits and that kind of stuff. So, um I think just in the sake of trying to make sure we're we're all on the same page here, I think that might be some helpful context. Um I uh yeah, I'm very appreciative of of the opportunity to be here and our team uh and I are looking forward to getting together as soon as tomorrow to try to start the fund. We certainly recognize that uh there there have been better environments to negotiate in, but nonetheless uh
155we're grateful for for your leadership, Dr. Grinder, and look forward to seeing what we can do to uh keep this thing going. Thank you. >> Thank you. Not even half your time. >> All right. At this time, if no one else has anything to say, I will conclude our public hearing. And the public hearing is closed. And now we'll move on. And Mrs. Kron, I would love to hear about the pool. >> Yeah, that's super exciting, isn't it? >> Yeah, it's my favorite. And then after the pool, we're going to take a brief recess. >> Okay. Good. All right. >> In order to move forward with work at the uh West Lafayette Junior Senior High School nitorium, we will need to approve an architect agreement with Fanning Howy so that design specifications can be finalized
156and go out to bid at a later time. Architects have been working directly with Mr. John Becker of Church and Church. He presented at the August meeting on the architect agreement enclosed in your board packets. The cost will be $115,000 which is in line with the 10% to 12% of construction cost that's estimated um as seen in other projects. Please approve the architect agreement as presented so that design work can be finalized. >> Okay. I am looking for a motion. >> I'll move to approve. >> Move to approve by George. >> Seconded by Lawrence. If is there any discussion? Sorry. >> Go ahead. >> Is the pool still being used right now? Just we need to fix the problem. Is the pool still being used right now? >> Yes, the pool is still being used
157right now. >> But we just need to fix the problem too. >> Yes. Okay. >> If the the during the project it would not be able to be used obvious obviously. >> Okay. Lawrence. >> So uh the estimate the total cost will be around 1 million something like that. >> Yes. I believe we shared that in a Friday update not too long ago with um some sign engineering and so on and so forth. Yes, that is their estimation at this time. It could come in higher, it could come in lower. >> Okay, thank you. >> Anything else? >> Great. Oh, yep. George, >> just as a reminder, just so we can get it on video, can um you give us a short uh blur about what the pool project is supposed to do? >> The
158pool project would be to um um give some attention to this. I believe it's a south facing wall um and the pool deck as well as um back fill. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and start the vote. All those in favor, please indicate. Great. All right, I've been asked to uh have a quick recess, so let's come back at 7:28. hands up. Um yeah, so Lawrence and David and I met with our administrative team and went through um each of these policies. So the first policies that we have just to give you an overview on deck tonight um as we have a series of policies tonight that are on second reading. Um and so what we've done is we went through and made sure that every board member's commentary to the best of our
159ability um was included in um these policy revisions. Um and that is as you said the green is what we as a committee felt was the best language and the blue is what we had other board members um present. In addition, we went through each of these and kind of looked at what policies these were going to be replacing, if any. Um, and we looked through what the current policy is and make sure that everything that that needed to be covered that was unique to our school corporation had been covered. Um, I I think that these are very well presented. I want to thank um Lawrence and David and our admins for really sticking with us through this process. I also really need to thank Roberta because we are not easy to work with and
160she has managed to do so. Um so my recommendation is that we go to each paragraph u make a decision about those paragraphs and then we would hold a vote to pass or not pass the policy if the policy passes. Included in that would be the recision of the outdated policies as noted. Um, we did have a couple questions about um, recision of policies. Um, and I've responded to those, but I'm happy to repeat those responses um, as we go through if necessary. >> Okay. And all of your notes are in the Google doc which is shared with all the board members. If they go to docs.google.com, it will show up in their shared. >> That's correct. We have still that shared compiled document. We actively edit in that document as we go so that
161board members have a full um understanding of what was discussed. Um if they just go read it. >> Okay. David, what you got? >> You'll give that some clarification. >> By all means, >> um ju just to clarify. So um some of the green does include things. It it includes things from other board members. It's not everything that was from other board members that's in blue. It's the three of us and the administrators talked and discussed about which things we should accept um or or make the changes on and if there were substantial portions that we um we we didn't agree on or didn't come to or or didn't feel or felt like one one way was um our preferred way as as the policy board. Those are the ones that are in green, but
162we wanted to make sure that the major uh revisions from other board members who had proposed things we're here for us to for everybody to be able to see and to make decisions on. >> Okay. Okay. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Um all of the Just second I have a question. All of the words in blue have been vetted by legal. >> That's correct. >> Correct. Okay. >> That's correct. We're not proposing any option in these draft policies that is illegal. >> So if someone were to not see a suggestion they made, it would be a safe assumption that it was either not in line with our attorney's advice or not in line with our uh administrator's practice. >> Correct. Okay. And I also would um offer the additional explanation that if it does not
163appear here, it may be because that language is more appropriate in administrative guidelines. >> Correct. >> Um or in in student handbooks or those types of things. And so um it's not it's not necessarily that whatever they don't see here is not legal. It's just maybe not the the forum for it. Um, in addition, I want to just remind everyone exactly what I said last month, which is passing these policies does not mean that they are permanently going to be this. All policies are editable. Um, we just need to move through and get policies done because we have no administrative guidelines and we really need to put those in place um to benefit students. So you want to talk about board actions that directly benefit students. Having administrative guidelines in place is critical to that.
164So that's if if if every comma is not quite where you want it, um if if we could still move forward with a general feeling of goodwill towards these policies, that would be helpful. >> Okay, Lawrence, what would you like to say? >> Yeah, just a quick comments before the uh before we start this policy. I really appreciate the Rachel and also David who work together last month we have two meetings three four hours we work together so it's very a very nice uh collaborations uh so and regarding the procedures I agree with um uh uh Rachel's recommendation we go through each individual piece piece by piece and then we back to the whole policy I think that maybe make our uh the whole process more clear and uh easier we cut the small in
165small piece so we vote on that and another things regarding the uh repeal the Niola things. I think we talked about that in general but we didn't talk any specific things. So I think probably that that's what I'm thinking maybe you have different opinions. I think probably we can uh we can discuss those things in the policy committees and the next meeting we can have kind of official recommendations from the committees so we can save some times uh I mean in this meeting. So that's that's just my opinion. So >> have you got your next meeting set? Yeah, we already said next meeting will be 29th, September 29th, uh 7:30 a.m. So >> 7:30 a.m. Okay. So if the board has any suggestions about the policies that we are going to first reading tonight, it
166would be good for you all to have those maybe on the 25th. >> The 20th September 20th, it's the deadline. So if you have any suggestions or >> Oh, yes. We're going to call that deadline September 20th. >> So, we we can discuss that. >> Yeah. Can I can I also just throw out there um we do not do any changing of the of the policies that are going out for first reading. They're coming directly from legal and going directly into the board packet for our community to see and for all of us to see, unedited. So, >> yes, there may be formatting things. There may be some odd language things. We have not touched them intentionally. So, everybody's looking at the same thing. So, >> okay. >> Um, just >> it's it's uncooked. >>
167Uncooked. Okay. >> One more one more question. So, we we three work together pretty much I'm pretty um I'm confident 90% of confidence I collect pretty much all people's feedback regarding those policies and we all pretty fully truly with also with administrations discuss all different uh option different wording different proposals. So the recommendation from the policy committee is already take pretty much everybody's uh feedback into consideration but we still want uh have the board members individual revisions be discussed and u considered in before the whole board. You see what I mean? >> Why don't why don't the three of you make the initial motions for me and then we can go from there. >> Can I can I have one additional request? >> Yes. Um, please be specific in your recommendations for any changes. The
168readings that are up for the policies that are up for first reading. If it's something like um there should be something like this in the policy. Um, that's not super helpful. Um, that's like me providing feedback for some of my grad students. Um, we it really it really it really needs to be specific. Okay. >> Um this word should be this and that word should be that. >> Yes. Or >> please or or include this sentence um here in place of this. Um that that would be much more useful to us than vague recommendations. >> Okay. >> And so it sounds like it would also be very helpful if we keep it succinct. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, why doesn't one of you kick us off with a with a motion on A125? >> Start
169motion to paragraph. >> Okay. >> All right. So, we have a motion and a second by David. Um, any discussion, Dea? So, I'm the one that gave the recommended proposal revision and I do appreciate that the policy committee added about the board members where they'll disclose and when they'll disclose. I think that will be very helpful. My question is the part about the employee was left alone um for the recommendation of the policy committee. So, when and where do how do employees disclose it? Rachel. >> Right. So that falls into on here. Um I'm getting there. Hold on. Oh. Um that is um D225. um that is passed related to employee ethics. So um we would ask for and that is up for first reading this time. Um but this putting employees in with board
170members is a very cumbersome administrative process requiring all of them to file a form. Um it doesn't really um make a good value of their time. But if every educator or every employee in our corporation is compliant with the 225 provided it is passed then there will not be an issue um uh aligned with A125. So my first um question or statement is I believe that all our policies should be consistent and if someone were to turn to this policy instead of D225, it should be very clear here how employees will disclose. This also does not say that every employee and every schoolboard member will be submitting a form. It very clearly says if they believe they have a potential conflict, then they submit the form. And so leaving the employee part arbitrary um I
171think just complicates it and is unnecessary. I also don't think it's that complicated and I think it's pretty common for a lot of us um in a lot of professions that we work in where yearly you're sent uh an email that says do you have a potential um conflict of interest? Check yes or no. And if it's no then you're done. If it's yes you fill it out. this isn't like some huge thing we're asking to check. And so, um, that's why I had recommended that we also have very clearly when the employees, um, and how they would disclose disclose it. And so, that's my first comment. My second >> So, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's do it one at a time. Otherwise, it's going to be a mess. So, there's a motion on
172the floor to adopt paragraph six. That's green, right? >> Do you have a motion to maybe amend? Yes, but not yet. I'm still discussing. >> Okay. But I I would really like to do them one suggestion at a time. >> Right. But it ties into what I'm suggesting on my one sentence on blue. So, but I appreciate what you're saying because I think it's a valid point. >> Okay. >> Um the part that was left, an employee who has reason to believe that he or she, my also understanding is that we were going to change all the language to they and not have this he or she, which is what I had recommended that we do, but yet that's been left. So, those are two parts in the green. Um, which is why I now
173would like to make a motion to amend the motion. Is that the way I see it? >> I'm sorry. I have a question. >> I move to amend the >> How do I word it? >> Move to amend. >> I move to amend the policy to the recommendation in blue. So the way I read this is that the green where it says policy committee proposed revision. What the green sentence replaces is the black words that include he or she and the green has your they >> any school board member who believes they may have a potential conflict. >> So the employee sentence. >> So are we taking out that first sentence or are we are we adding the green sentence? Does that make sense? Does the green sentence replace? >> Green sentence replaces the black
174sentence. >> Okay. So, we're taking the employee out entirely of this paragraph. >> Even though the lawyer's the one that put it in, and this is coming directly from the lawyer, which seems to be something important to all of you, >> there's a separate policy that addresses the conflict of interest of the uh employee. And so the black would be removed and the green with the they would be what has been moved at this time. So are you moving to replace that whole paragraph six with the blue words below? Is that am I understanding you? >> So I'm recommending that paragraph six reads as blue says. >> Okay. Is there a second? Okay. That motion dies for a lack of second, so we return to the green. Um, I believe we're ready to vote. >>
175Okay. >> Are you referencing the copy in the box? >> In the board packet. Yeah. >> Everything is in the board packet that we're looking at tonight. So that our we know our community has seen that. >> Okay. So >> just so in that paragraph, it does still say that Right. So that we're just approving the green text. >> Yeah, that the black was the original paragraph six. The green is the new paragraph six. >> Okay. So we are moving Lawrence. >> Yeah. A quick uh just kind of explanations. We discussed this uh paragraph in the policy committees. So basically if I remember correctly so we saying all employees who have reason to believe u they he or she may have conflict interest to disclose these kind of on on demand if they when they
176get involved in some recommendations or they need to do something they need to disclose >> right >> but uh for the board members uh because we always make decisions so we we have to clo disclose it annually so I think that's the original purpose of this uh paragraph we uh what do we say we pretty much cover everybody so that's uh okay I think that's our discussion if >> so my understanding is that first sentence in black and employee you has reason to believe is that staying or being removed >> that that's what we stay there that doesn't matter >> so I thought that was being removed >> being removed you remember then probably I was wrong that's fine >> that entire section that talks about school board shall not knowingly approve >> board member
177may participate in the blah blah blah corporate employee or agent of the board blah blah blah. >> Okay. >> Well, the paragraph before is about employee. So, it is very confusing what it says. >> So, the employee things will be covered in another policy. >> Correct. Okay. In the D225. >> Okay. >> I'm going to put a note in the actual file. Um, >> so now I just clarify, we are voting for the green things and these black things will be removed, right? >> Yes. Correct. Okay. >> Okay. Correct. That should have a line through it. >> Okay. So, we're voting just on the green in paragraph six. >> Okay. Need one more. There we go. All right. That passes. So, paragraph six passes green. Um, six to one. Okay. Next. >> Where you going?
178>> Yeah. So Rachel, am I am I to understand that the employee conflict of interest is going to be covered in another policy? >> D225. Okay. So that means we're um because we can, like you said, this is a living document, we can edit these things. Just wanted to point out, and I'm sure you saw this, but um the paragraph immediately proceeding for paragraph 6 does mention schoolboard member or employee. So do we need to change that part, too? I would recommend at this point that we move through to the next edit, approve the policy, and then make note if you'd like to refer that back to policy for review again. We could definitely do that. But I mean, we're um this particular policy has been in front of us so many months at this
179point that I think we need to perhaps just >> finalize something. And then >> I know I get it. I just >> We're always open to edits. I think I can speak for my fellow policy committee. If this is not exactly what you want, we're we're definitely open to >> it's less about what I want and more just making sure we don't confuse ourselves later. >> Correct. Correct. >> Oh, no. Too late. We're already confused. Okay. The second edit is the same in the last two paragraphs. So, we're replacing nonmonetary and other than money with the word nominal. Can we take that as a single? >> Yes. >> Motion. Okay. So, David, are you moving? >> Yeah. a motion that we accept the um the modifications in both paragraph and 15 and 16. >> Okay.
180And Lawrence, is there any discussion? >> Uh yes, the um the rationale um we there we decided to say nominal rather than nonmonetary. Um in particular, some of the discussion revolved around um cultural reasons for um provide uh pro providing um small monetary gifts and we felt that this um kept it within bounds and um recognized how different families work. >> Okay. Um Rachel, >> we also had quite a lot of conversation of what the word nominal meant. So I just want to throw that out there. And really what we um determined is that that would be a decision better based within the school rather than us putting an arbitrary amount on that. So that really you know we've kind of delegated that then to the to the administrators and leadership of the school to
181determine nominal. >> Okay. Um you was next and then you George >> go ahead. >> Just a general suggestion. And I wonder whether we can project the policy being discussed on the screen otherwise people don't know what we are talking about. >> So >> um it's all in the board packet which is available. >> I understand I I know what what we are talking about. I mean for people the audience they may even though right now we don't have many audience but people they watch online or they don't know what we are talking about. I would refer anybody watching online to to go to the board packet for tonight. Everything's in there. I agree. It would be great to display it on the screen, but >> it's going to be tiny. >> It's going to
182be real small. We already kind of had that experience tonight. But I I'm really open to that, but I think it is available and has been available for quite a period of time. >> Okay, >> George. >> I just wanted to make a quick note for the administration's consideration. The federal guidelines for Domino typically around $50 or $100. >> Okay, good to know. >> Not much. and the context is different depending on if you're government or non-governmental. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. We've had discussion. I'm going to go ahead and start the vote on whether or not to use the word nominal instead of non-monetary and other than money. Okay. And that passes seven to zero. Now, I think the time is here for us to have a motion on the
183entire Rachel. >> I'd like to make a motion that the board uh vote to pass policy number A125 with the corresponding recision of Neola policies 1130 1214 3214 4113 6460 and 7230. >> I got bingo. >> Okay. Do I have it second? All right, I'm doing the buttons. Hold on. There we go. Buttons. And there we go. Okay. And that passes six to one. That is A125. And I even have notes. So, we're moving on. The next one is a doozy. It's H250. Um, let me pull that up because I'm not there yet. Uh, okay. Can I intro this one to you? >> Yes, you may. Please do. >> Um, on A2 H250, this is another one that we have had in front of us for a lot of months. Um, this is one that
184we really um need to try and get in place so that our community can better understand the way that they could use this policy to request removal review. Um there is some question over maybe we've voted on one or two of these paragraphs in the past. We don't believe that we have. There is no harm in voting for them again if we haven't in fact voted for them in the past. So um that would be my recommendation is that we treat all paragraphs in this uh as a as a first vote. >> Okay. And so in paragraph seven, which I believe is the f Nope. Nope. Um oh that's blue because it's a link. Sorry. In paragraph seven, which I believe is the first edit, it says upon receipt yada yada. And that is remaining
185this time. Correct. Because the only change is the addition of it may also include a parent and so on. That's correct. >> Also the little >> and the exing out of at a minimum. >> Yes. >> Okay. So I would like a motion on paragraph seven, please. George, what are you moving >> to adopt the green program >> and the recision? >> I thought we got to that >> the red line. >> Oh, the red line. Yeah, include that, too. >> Okay. And was that Lawrence who was seconding? Okay. Any discussion on paragraph seven? >> If I could. Um, yes. The the reason for this is to allow our superintendent some latitude in determining the best possible committee. This falls clearly within the purview of a superintendent to manage. Um and so we've we felt
186offering op you know um perhaps some suggestions but allowing him the final authority to build um to build the committee appropriately. >> Okay, sounds good. Dea, >> um I'm the one that made the recommendation in blue under paragraph 7 and wanted to share that I believe that um the administration should be I feel like it's important that our communities involved in this decision and that the administration should be required to have community members in it and not be allowed to just have school staff which is currently how we list it. So I move to motion that we ex Sorry, I tried to write this down so it's better. I make I move to amend policy paragraph 7 to include the blue. Okay. Is there a second? >> Okay. Discussion on the blue. Um I'll start.
187I think if we're considering removing a book from the school library because it is not appropriate that it makes no sense to have students read it even if they are juniors and seniors. And I also think that this is too small a town to require that of parents that it could be a very divisive issue and that it's better left to school personnel. Nisha um just to add I think the books we're looking at have already been approved by a librarian. So that's why I feel very comfortable with saying when someone brings this forward. Our librarian has already determined that they think it's in the best interest of all our students. So I feel comfortable with the juniors and seniors why is why I supported the recommendation from the community member. >> Okay. Anybody else
188have anything about the blue? Lawrence. >> Yeah. Quick question quick comments. Yeah, I just I think uh you know this process should be get uh students I mean especially their junior senior and also parents uh involved. So I I would see some involvement with student and parents in this whole process. Thank you. >> Okay. Anybody else? All right. We are voting now on the motion to amend paragraph seven to include the blue and it should be Oh, it's uh I can see it here. We're missing one vote. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. So, we if we include the blue, will we remove anything from the >> we would remove paragraph seven, the policy committee recommendation, and use the blue language instead? >> Okay. So, okay. To replace the the current one with the blue one. Move
189to replace. There we go. Okay, we need one more vote, please. There it is. Okay, that is um that motion fails. Uh how do I write that? Three to four. Okay, so now we're coming back to the previous motion which is to adopt the green. It has already been moved and seconded by George and Lawrence. Is there discussion on the adoption of the green in paragraph 7? Thank you, Lawrence. No. Okay, I'm going to stop that vote and close it and then I'm going to start the new vote to adopt the green and the red line of at a minimum in paragraph seven. And that passes six to one. Okay, the next paragraph is paragraph eight which simply adds at a regular board meeting um do I Rachel go ahead >> I make a motion
190please to um vote to approve the paragraph 8 recommendations um for in green so it's the black text plus the at a regular board meeting edition in green >> okay is there a David. Okay. Um any discussion? Uh Rachel, go ahead. Um just to be clear, we really had a lot of conversation about this one in committee. Um and really felt that the spirit of this policy was to make sure that our community understood what had happened with it and that it was very public. And we felt that putting the documentation in a regular board meeting, which would mean it would go into the regular board meeting packet, the documents would be available to the public electronically and it would have the volume of participation that we normally have in a regular board meeting um
191as well as a live stream would accommodate the spirit without providing additional administrative burden on anyone to get that done. >> Okay. Um, and to be clear, the difference between paragraph 8, uh, with the green text and paragraph 8 in the blue text is that the blue text requires that it be posted on the website or in the upcoming board packet at the superintendent's discretion. Dea, >> so I'm the one that made the recommendations and I think this is great. I mean, what they did was I just wanted to make sure it was publicly available and being in the board packet, it is on the school's website and so I think this is a great addition. So, I um have no issues with the recommended revisions by the committee. >> Okay, David? >> Yeah, just
192part of our rationale there was there doesn't need to be a separate section on the site and so yeah, right. >> Great. >> Wonderful. Everybody ready to vote on um paragraph eight including the green at a regular board meeting language? And that passes seven to zero. And now we are through. So we need an overall motion from Rachel who likes numbers. Go ahead. >> I'm just going to make a recommendation that we vote to approve H250. There are no recisions attached to this. Okay. And I'll stop. Great. Uh, your RWLW. Okay. Stop one. Uh, >> oh, and I apologize. There's been a lot of policies. Why are we not rescending the one that we currently have that talks about library materials with the same topic? >> Um, because there is one matter that is not
193covered between um H250 and the existing policy. Um and that is and that is uh PO2520 and that is related to loss of materials fees. I believe that'll largely be addressed to administrative guidelines um and student conduct policies. So that would fall inside of B175 also up for first reading this month. Um PO2520 is not in conflict with H250, but it does create a gap if rescended prior to B175 passing. So I do not recommend recision at this time. All right, I'll go ahead and start the vote here. All right, that passes 6 to one and we shall move on to A200. Let me bring that one up. Um, okay, A200. Um, we have a lot of blue. Um, does someone from the policy committee want to discuss Rachel? Um, we reviewed this policy and
194felt that the language um given by the attorneys in this case was um generally appropriate. But we did not have any complaint with the blue text adding it on. And so we did not have any other recommendations and we would just propose this policy pass as written with the blue. >> Okay. So you have a motion to pass with the blue. >> Okay. Lawrence moves. And >> did you want to go ahead and put the recision in there as well? >> Is there a recision? You are check. >> How did I miss that? >> You're good with those recisions. You're good. >> And also >> Oh, I see. Yeah. >> Also, the included recession recession uh repeal those U policy uh niola policy 1617 3217 4317 uh 7217. >> Okay. And is there a second?
195Rachel, thank you. And is there discussion? Wow. Okay. Let's go ahead and vote with this record breaker. Holy moly. All right, that passes 7 to zero. And we will move forward with number A225, which is reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect. Um, who wants to tell me about this one? There's blue text in there. Um, this was another one where we didn't have any um concern with adding the blue text as is. And so I would recommend make a motion that we approve policy A225 reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect and resend NEOLA policy 8462. >> Okay. So Rachel and David and just to be clear, you are motioning to approve it with the blue text. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Um is there any discussion geisha? >> Okay. So just to
196clarify and it maybe just is the typo is the first the second and third paragraph is equal and the second paragraph is what ISBA originally sent us. The third paragraph says it's a revision submitted, but it's actually I'm not aware of anyone submitting that. So, just to clarify, >> right? No, thank you, Dea. It Thank you for clarifying that paragraph two should go away. Paragraph the current paragraph three with the blue text would be what we would leave. >> Right. So, the second one would disappear. The third one with the blue text would be what we would land on. >> Okay. Sorry, it's not struck out, but yes, that is what the recommendation is with the blue. >> Okay. >> We have a little color coding issue right now, but that's the recommendation. >> Gotcha.
197All right. Um, in that case, are we ready to go ahead and vote? >> Hearing no objection, I will start the vote. Okay. A225 has passed. Now, we're going to get to A285, which is no distracted driving. And let me find that guy. All right. There is just a little bit of green. >> Yes. >> To clarify that it is not only when you're on school property, but also when you're off school property. >> This seemed to us to be quite a common sense addition. And so I'm just going to recommend please that we vote on policy A285, no distracted driving. Um and the addition of the language in green. >> Okay. And seconded by David. Yeah, we don't want anybody playing Candy Crush while they're driving. So let's go back to the but it's
198too many buttons. There we go. Okay. Oh, is there discussion on that one? I'm sorry. No. Okay. Now we'll vote. Um, we're missing one. >> That's me. >> Oh, sorry. There you go. Okay, that one passes seven to zero. And now we have B 100, which is board authority and philosophy. It's the talk on the serial box. That's an old deep cut. Okay, B 100 looks pretty um much like it came to us. Is that correct? >> Okay, >> correct. >> So, was somebody have a motion? >> Motion. >> Um right. So with um B 100 there is um I would just so here's what I would say about these B policies. They are all very connected. We just have the first two of them tonight. I would recommend that we not resend um much
199until we get through all of the B policies which should happen in our October meeting and then we'll have a clean package and we'll blow all of them out. So >> okay and seconded by George who's GL not GW George Washington. Okay. Um any discussion on that guy? >> If I could just clarify too that there is not a conflict. So we're not having any additional exposure. B 100 is not in conflict with pol the old NEOLA policy PO0122. >> Great. Anything else? Cool. Let's touch the buttons. Sweet. Okay, that is seven to zero as well. And finally, oh my lord, we're on the last one, B125, which is board authority and uh I'm sorry, duties of the school board. So, let me pull that guy up, too. There we go. Oh my. Okay, go
200ahead, Rachel. >> Well, I'm just going to throw this out as an introduction. This is um a policy that had a lot of feedback on it. Again, I want to just remind all my fellow board members that uh as we worked through this in policy committee um one that a big premise to start with is that we have changed the scope of this from board members to board officers. Okay. So again, in reviewing all of the B policies, we really realized that what the gap was is that these items really belong to board officers um which are elected by the board. Um and so I would just like to throw out there that this policy is in context with all of the other B policies that we're going to look at next month. It will
201make sense, but understand the scope change. >> Okay. So, are you >> I would like to make a motion that we um look at the first paragraph in particular that is paragraph one's revision and I would like to recommend that the um board um vote to approve the policy committee proposed revision to paragraph one which is to add language that says work collaborative collaboratively with board officers and members to appoint. >> Okay. Do I have a second on paragraph one? That's George. Okay. Um, is there any discussion on paragraph one only? Dea, >> um, I'm the submitted surprising the recommended changes to paragraph one. My first question is to the policy committee. Um, in what I recommended, we talk about the board president being the official spokesperson. In our old policies, that's covered in a
202totally different policy. Is the policy committee recommending that we remove all references to the board president being the official spokesperson is my first question. >> So I need to go back and look, but I believe that that is covered in the communication section. Uh so it's a different format. It's not in an officer duty as I understand it. If I'm remembering correct cr I'm sorry. I don't I don't want to move my screen to go look for it. But that real role is currently with the secretary of the board and it would continue to stay with the secretary of the board as long as the rest of the board agreed with that decision. >> Meaning sorry that's not what we have nor is in about the secretary currently it says the president does it. So
203are you saying that it's changing to the secretary or what are you saying? As I understood it, the current policy is that the secretary is responsible not I'm sorry for responding to community inquiries perhaps is the better way to say that. >> The president would be the spokesperson if things on behalf of the board. >> Um I'm sorry for that. >> No, that's okay. >> distinction. Um >> that is not included in this. Um I think that that probably falls within perform other duties essential to the operations of school business. >> Okay. Um so I would like to say that the reasons that I made the recommendations is because of issues in the past which to me demonstrates that we need very clear policies that demonstrate what it what um the president is responsible for.
204And so that's why I have included very clearly here that we should have the official sports person and how that works and it should be here where it lists the duties of the president. Um I appreciate adding working collaboratively. The concern is that word means very different to different people and depending on if the board is divided what that collaborative means. And so the recommendation is that the voting takes place which is what I have found I found in another school district does that. And then um the third one that I added was that all members should have complete access to information because that was a third issue that we have had. So that is why I'm recommending that it's very clear in our policy of the expectations of the president. So I sorry I
205move to amend the policy paragraph one to be blue instead of the green recommendations. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Okay. Huie seconds. Any discussion on that amendment? >> Go ahead. >> I agree with Staca. I think without this collaboration sometimes we made mistakes. So it's good to have it unless we have some other policies that explicitly address this communication issue and in that case we should have that policy together with this one to make sure that we don't miss this important information. >> Okay. >> To address that question there is no specific language as um Mrs. Mumford has requested here in the proposed policies. >> Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. The vote right now is on amending the policy to include the blue revision to paragraph one. And that would replace the green.
206Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> Okay. Okay. That motion fails. So, we are back to the original motion, which is to adopt the committee's revision to paragraph one. Um, let's see. Is there any more discussion on that issue? >> I would just offer to fellow board members that we have already passed the policies in the A section that deal with board member conduct that would apply to all of us. Um and and that and actually everyone who is engaged with our school corporation from students to board members and our superintendent etc. Um and also point out that the board has an opportunity to discuss the performance or perceived performance of board leadership um annually at the organizational meeting. Um as well the policies do allow for a structure for removal of any board
207leadership if at any point during the year that doesn't feel uh like the leadership uh represents the board. So there are mechanisms in place in the policies to make a change if that would be necessary. >> Okay, super. I'm going to go ahead and start the vote if that's everybody and this is to adopt the green paragraph one. Sorry. Can you repeat your adopted the green part? >> Yeah. Paragraph one. >> This right here, >> the green language >> where it says board officers >> the collaboratively. Um, but >> yes. >> So, the president of the school board shall preside over all board meetings, work collaboratively with board officers and members to appoint any necessary committee and perform other duties essential to the operation of those school business. So I we saying just add that
208green part or because right now we the board decided to drop the blue one completely, right? So >> so we are only voting on that green >> on just the green the much smaller green paragraph. Yes. >> Okay. All right. So that's six one and buttons. Okay. >> Go ahead. >> I My original motion included that header. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. Cool. Now we're on to paragraph three. Rachel, do you want to take us home? >> Sure. Um, this is the part that we, uh, as a committee looked at. We added as defined by state law because we know that state law changes. um in a very rapid pace. And so there are times when it is important to just say that we will follow the law and reinstate that publicly as opposed to
209trying to keep catching the moving target of what that law is. In additional in addition, this is where we added the line in about the board secretary ensuring that parties who send written communication to the board receive a response on behalf of the board. So to be clear, that language was very intentional um to say that the board secretary is responsible for making sure that it happens. That doesn't mean that they necessarily would be the one to write it every time. If for example, it is a delicate uh legal situation, the superintendent may respond on behalf and in that case the secretary has um fulfilled their obligation to ensure that it has been done. So, that was an intentional language I want to point out to everyone. >> Great. >> Um, DeAsha. >> Okay. >>
210Oh, wait. I need a second before you go. Sorry. Is there a second on Rachel's? >> I didn't actually make a motion. You didn't actually. >> I would like to make a motion to approve the language and policy committee proposed revision to paragraph 3 and that is the black and green text. >> Okay. Is George is seconding. Okay. Now, you may go, Dea. >> Okay. So, I appreciate the end adding that. Um, I think it's great to make sure that the community knows that we are receiving their communication. My question is the part about post all legal notices. I didn't realize the secretary is the one that does that. From some of my research, it feels like this is like maybe old law or old practice, old policies. I guess it's not in the law.
211So, help me understand why this is something or I guess George, help me know. What are you doing to post all legal notices? because I thought administration was posting all legal notices. >> It's ensuring that it is done. It's the secretary's responsibility to make sure that that is being done. It's not he's not physically taping them to the door. But it says to me is just to me that's why I had pulled it out in my recommendation is because it's not something that he's actually that the secretary currently George is doing. So why put that in our policy? >> It was recommended by legal, >> right? But we don't have to do everything legal says and it's not law. So >> okay any other discussion on that issue? >> I agree. I think the practice
212should be aligned with the policy we are proposing. So if we don't do what we say we shouldn't say it. Okay. Hang on. George is next. Then David then Rachel. So a lot of these and similar policies and laws are written so that the um the office mentioned has the ultimate responsibility for the action. They don't necessarily have to do the action. >> Okay. >> And that's an assumption that goes back several hundred years. >> David >> like to amend the motion to modify the language post all legal notices. um is changed to ensure that all legal notices are posted. >> Okay. To >> I will second that. >> Ensure who is that? Rachel. >> Rachel. Okay. Ensure all posted. Uh hang on. Hang on. Okay. Is there any discussion on amending that? Okay. I'm
213going to start the vote. that. >> So, we're amending the word post all legal notices to ensure all legal notices are posted. >> Does the legal notices include >> That's what it does. >> I don't know. Does is that a legal notice? >> Legal notices would be notifications of meetings. Okay. >> Okay. >> So, the meetings >> like meetings and hearings, those >> the ones on the front door. >> Yeah. George is gonna come over here and take >> the minutes part. >> I'm going to put on leather breaches and track >> and hear. Yeah. Okay. So, posting the legal notices communication community, but I I can't hear it right now. >> So, that's a big part of >> minutes are covered in our policies specifically. >> So, we don't we are not there yet,
214but it will be >> correct. minutes are will absolutely be covered as part of our policy. >> You do, >> but we don't want to describe that in this >> not on this exact wording because we're just voting on post all notices and striking that and making it ensure all legal notices are posted. So, the the sentence we're replacing doesn't include anything about the minutes. So let's leave the minutes aside for now until we get to the part with the minutes. Okay. >> Okay. So we will address that in a different >> some other time. >> Okay. Thanks for and if we get to the end of the be and there's not minutes addressed I believe there are but if for some reason there's not we can double back and figure out where it belongs.
215>> Okay. Thanks. >> Okay. We're waiting on two people to hit their buttons. There we go. Okay. We will make it ensure all legal notices are posted. I'm going to put that in the thing. >> I'd like to make a motion that we um accept the policy committee proposed revision to paragraph six. Um there's only one >> there. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Are we Oh, we're still voting on the Sorry. >> Yeah, we have to I'm finished three. I know you are. Um okay, but we've had a motion in a second. We've revised it. So now we're going to go ahead and vote on paragraph three as amended. Correct? >> Yes. >> Okie dokie. >> So we already text. >> No, >> we haven't had a motion on that. >> All right. >> Okay. So
216paragraph three as amended. Okay. One more. Is it me? No. So sorry, I like to have a clarification. So we passed the green revision and we passed the the proposal that David proposed. Yep. What are we doing now? >> We're voting on >> voting to pass it with the amendment. >> Just the correct paragraph three as amended. There you go. Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Okie do. Okay. Now, one more. >> I would like to make a motion that we um pass policy committee proposed revision to paragraph six um as explanation. We felt that this paragraph was succinct and to the point, but we changed the word problems to issues. We did not want to presuppose that something required legal intervention was a problem. It could just be a general question. So, as the
217reason for that revision. Okay. Is there a second? George, thank you. Any discussion on Yep. Basa? So, I had made the recommendation for changes which is really just that last um two sentences is what I'm recommending to be added. The reason for this is I think it needs to be very clear in our policy um so that all is informed of the proper use of this authority. We have had misinformation given to board members in the past about who is allowed to talk to legal counsel, who's not, how those communications work. So I believe this needs to be included so that it's very clear so that no board members can be misinformed of how that works. So, I move to amend paragraph three to include the blue. >> Oh, paragraph six. Thank you. Paragraph six
218um to include the blue. Um which actually I think matches everything else except for the last two sentences. >> Is there a second? >> Lauren seconds. Okay, go ahead Rachel. >> Um well, there's a couple of different reasons we did talk about this language that was put in. One of them is um it is uh there's a financial repercussion to all board members um pelleting uh legal counsel with questions um and also be reminded that legal counsel is obliged to advise us on the law not to navigate disputes among different board members. And so um in a in a desire to perhaps retain a healthy relationship with um legal counsel uh the idea was that a a common voice uh through board leadership through our superintendent to legal counsel um would provide for the most
219efficient best utilization of that resource. Also, um it is a very slippery slope to require that legal counsel provide information to all board members. In the case of human resources law, different employment complaints or different um con student concerns, it is not appropriate for board members to have all communication from legal counsel um and could actually owes uh expose us to considerable liability. So, I would strongly recommend against doing that and that is the reason why we've left the language as it is. Okay. Any other discussion? Dea. >> Um, so to address the first comment about board members directing questions. So I actually reached out to several board presidents in other school districts wondering about this because we have had this issue in the past and they very clearly said legal counsel works for all
220board members. It's not just the president or anyone else. And I feel like the way things work is if for example we had a situation where Mrs. Austin did spend a considerable amount of money from the school district to talk to legal counsel. That was public information. We talked about it and so that will be shared and that's how that's supposed to work. But if a board member is misusing school funds, then you can share that. So that part >> I'm sorry. You are you saying I misuse school funds in talking to board represent? >> Came up in a past meeting about the 200 I can't I won't give a number. several hundred dollars because you were arguing with the legal counsel on what door law means for um interactions. >> Uh Mrs. Austin, if
221I could interject here, as I reminded everybody on the board, this is not a forum to nitpick or critique any current or past board presidents. This is a forum in which we would determine the best course of action and process for our policies going forward. So I would just caution that maybe going down a critique of other previous actions no matter how strongly you feel about them is not constructive to the outcome of passing policies. >> Appreciate that reminder. Uh is anyone else interested in speaking to the blue? >> So I'm going to make the comment on the LA. So that was the second to last sentence why I think that's important. The last sentence I think Rachel has a very valid point. It needs to be rewarded. My purpose of submitting that was because
222we've had in the past where some legal council recommendations were only shared with certain board members and so that would need to be rewarded. We could spend time rewarding it right now, but if we're going to just have a 4-3 vote, I don't know if we really need to spend time. So rewarding that since it seems um but if someone is actually interested in making those changes um outside of the three any of the others then I do think we want to reward that but I will leave it where it's at for right now to save time. >> Okay, George and then David. >> So just to be clear and I know we've talked about this before, but legal counsel does not represent us individually or us as a unit. They represent the entire corporation
223as a whole. And under the way school corporations are organized and administered, the superintendent is the day-to-day manager and thus they would do the day-to-day managing of the council corporation relationship. Now, as dually elected public servants, we have the right to go to legal counsel and ask them things. But I will second what uh Rachel said that will get very expensive and very contentious very quickly and if it happens too often it is a great way to get dropped as a client. >> Anybody else? David. Yep. >> I just wanted to point out that the policy committee proposed revisions um are ones that all three of us on the policy committee uh agreed on. um across every every single one here, we all fully agreed um in that in those meetings that those were what
224we wanted to put forward as a group. >> Rachel, >> I do also want to commend uh Lawrence though he is very open to having these discussions in a public forum and I appreciate that he's offering seconds to some of this blue language to allow that conversation to happen. But I agree with David. we do as a policy committee. There's nothing in these policies that we as a group of three and our administrators felt was that that was what we put forward as a suggested edit. >> Okay. Anybody else? Lawrence. >> Yeah. Quick just quick comments regarding these uh blue proposals. I think it's pretty good, but the only thing uh I think probably I think George and the Ritual have a pretty valid uh concerns regarding the the cost. I mean um we don't
225want to send people ask question about legal counsel. Maybe we can modify this uh blue one like u ask direct question through superintendent to legal counsel or something which is pretty much uh m what our current practice. So we we have questions uh consolidate uh to uh to superintendent superintendent contact with um uh with our legal councils and then back uh ready to offer us so we everybody got the same page. >> Are you moving to amend the blue? Yeah, I would uh yeah, I would like amend to say authorized to direct question to superintendent for any legal issues. >> Okay. Where are you at? Board members are authorized to direct questions to the superintendent. Is that correct? Direct questions to the superintendent. legal issues >> for legal issues. >> Could we read sentence one
226though in that same paragraph because it says that as I'm reading it, the board shall appoint legal counsel to advise or I'm sorry, the board may appoint a legal counsel to advise the board and the superintendent and others as designated by the superintendent on specific legal issues and to make such recommendations as required. Yeah. >> Right. Yeah. I I feel like it addresses that. I don't know. It could be more literal, I suppose. But David, >> um, so there is a motion on the floor. Um, let's address that first. >> Okay. Is there a second on Lawrence's motion to amend the blue text? Is that Dea? >> Okay. Is there any discussion on that, David? we cannot have that language in there in case I'm going to say 30 years from now um passed when
227Dr. Grryer is here. So that is not an example about about him. Uh if the legal issue is about the superintendent and we have in our policies that we are required to go through the superintendent and it's a legal issue about the superintendent. >> That's correct. >> We cannot go we cannot do that. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> All right. recommendation. I mean, he's just recommending that we write down my big message just I don't like this imbalance. >> Yeah, we know. Okay, David, did you No. Okay, Rachel, >> no. >> Everybody's looking at me. UA, go ahead. I would like to have a a clear understanding about the procedure. Let's say a board member has a questions for the legal counsel and the board member will direct the questions to Shan then Sean will
228decide whether he will forward that question to the legal council or will the rest of the board play any role in this process or it up to Sean to decide. >> I think Rachel has an answer for you. Um, I just want to remind everyone that we are not solely dependent upon our uh, retained legal counsel. Every member of the board is a member of the Indiana School Board Association and has access to legal resource through that as well for general information questions um, that don't cost us any money. Um, so it's not as though we have no opportunity to to grow in our understanding either through board member development programming uh, or direct inquiries to legal counsel there. Um that said, as I have seen it work in a very healthy way, it is
229this issue has come up. We have a question. It happens often with the policy committee where we say, "Hey, you know, we're not sure. We'd like to understand what the law says to us on this." Dr. Grryer forwards that question to legal counsel. Legal counsel immediately answers us and then we adjust the language to match what legal counsel said. That is a much more efficient and productive way to do it than us saying, "Okay, Lawrence is gonna email that question and then I'm gonna go I don't like the answer, so I'm going to go ask another question." It just is a streamlined approach to utilizing our resource of retained legal counsel. >> Okay. >> And I I think Yeah, I just think blue the language in blue is is really an attempt to put additional
230controls on what those communications look like. I actually agree with Mrs. Mumford that it is important that the board be informed about everything that they can and should be informed about. Um unlike Mrs. Mumb, I I don't feel that there has been a concern with that in the past, but we can have a difference of opinion there. This is about structuring the policy that will work um at least for the immediate future. >> Okay, George, did you have something? just to say that no matter what other changes are made to the blue version of paragraph 6, the uh last sentence of paragraph 6 makes it a no-go for me for various legal and logistical reasons. >> Okay, you first I like to follow up with what Rachel said about the Indiana schoolboard legal council. I
231feel that's a great resource. We should use it as much as we can because it's a free for us and we >> it is not free. We've already paid. >> Yeah. Right. I mean, we already paid, right? So, we don't >> be charged more. Correct. But for the our own lawyer, we besides the regular things covered by the retainer, we have to pay more. So, unless we have to consult them otherwise, we don't need to. >> So, we can save money that way. and and so still I I feel the the part of language we we talk about the process why I feel it's not that clear yet I actually I would like to propose more to table it so we fix the language we don't need to do it on site right now and
232last thing also for the last sentence in the blue paragraph um I I wonder whether we can change it in a way that basically when if the information from the legal council is available to so should be consistent for all the board members shouldn't be okay available to some board members but not others basically that'll be fine in the case when it we shouldn't have access to it then nobody should have access to it I guess that's probably should be the way it is and now I I cannot phrase that sentence very well but if we have time to do it later and it'll be helpful. >> Okay, that was seven different ideas. Which one are you making a motion on? >> Are you making a motion? >> Yeah, I my motion is to table
233this policy. Do we have time to fix it and rather than discussing this in right now? >> Okay, you move to table. De should move to second. So, we are voting on whether or not to table this policy. Okay, we got one more person. There we go. So, that fails. Uh, >> we're back to the blue paragraph. >> Now we're back. >> Now we're Yep. Now we're back to amend the blue to say direct questions to the superintendent for legal issues. Okay. So, I'm gonna Is there any more discussion on that? UA. So that means it will be Sean's call to decide whether he will forward whatever question to the legal council or when we >> we are changing the blue words to say direct questions to why is it dark. Sorry it just went
234all dim. the um it says all board members are authorized to direct questions to the legal counsel and instead Lawrence's proposed it say all board members are authorized to direct questions to the superintendent for legal issues. That's the change we're voting on right now. >> Yeah. I I mean that that implies that Sean will decide whether he will forward that question to the legal council, >> right? Is that implication? clarified. >> Yeah, I think we just have >> I think we need a connection uh basically work with uh with the legals and the superintendent is pretty uh pretty I think the best person and he's also uh uh what we are doing and it's pretty good current practice. So I think that's u that's my my purpose with that proposal. Okay. Any other questions or
235comments about this? >> I can try it. So, we can say what if I understand what you're trying to say. One way to say it is board members may submit questions for legal counsel through the superintendent who will coordinate with legal counsel to ensure appropriate and consistent communication. >> That would be a different motion. Let's stay with >> I'm trying to find out because there was some confusion with Lawren's if he would like to do that wording or his wording. It was just a question. I do think we need to figure out what Lawrence's wording is. And >> okay, I do. >> Is this helpful to do that or do you like the way you said it, which is totally fine. I'm just trying to This is one way board members may submit questions for
236legal counsel through the superintendent who will coordinate with legal counsel to ensure appropriate and consistent communication. >> Can you repeat that very slowly? Um, >> I'm going to email it to you. Is that easier or no? >> Just repeat it. Board members, >> all board members >> may submit questions >> for legal counsel through the superintendent. >> Se Okay. >> Who will coordinate sorry with legal counsel? Sorry. Um to ensure that ensure appropriate and consistent communication. Okay. And Lawrence, you're amending your motion to say what Dea just said. >> Okay. >> So, amend the blue to in file. All right. Any discussion on that? >> I just want to point out that this does not work if the problem is the superintendent, not that you'll be a problem. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I'm going to
237go ahead and start the vote. Okay. That motion fails. >> Okay. Then I would like and make a motion to fix that final sentence so that there's no confusion. >> Tell me >> in the green or the blue >> in the blue that last sentence that we talked about with the communication. >> Okay. >> So I um move to have it say all communications from legal counsel that are accessible to individual board members shall be equally shared with all board members. accessible to individual board members shall be equally shared with all board members. Sorry. With Yeah, with all board members. Okay. All right. Dea has made a motion to amend to what she just said. Is there a second? Lawrence a second. Is there discussion? >> I agree with the content, but I wonder whether
238we can refresh it into all the board members should have equal access to the communication from legal council. So, so reverse it to the active rather than passive. >> Okay. >> So, DEA is that acceptable? Okay, repeat the words that you want to strike then please. >> All board members, all board members should have equal access to the communication from the legal council. >> Is that the full sentence? >> Yes. Should have equal access to the communication from the legal council. >> I wish I knew shorthand. So basically if they if it's inappropriate for us to access it, nobody can access it. >> See, but that doesn't work in practice. There are certain scenarios in which the superintendent and a healthy board superintendent relationship would inform the board chair or solicit the board chair's opinion
239on what is the best course of action. you are effectively putting a wall with this proposal between the superintendent and the board chair and restricting the superintendent's access to their board. I just want to remind everyone we vote to elect the board chair. If we don't like what they're doing, we change that. But that doesn't mean we change policy to micromanage how that relationship works. We're tying our superintendent's hands and being able to communicate on sensitive matters that happen. And I can say this as a former board chair. There were times when Dr. Griner just needed to call me and say, "This is what is going on. What do you think is appropriate? This is what I can share. What should I share? And what should that timing look like?" It's an important dynamic. >>
240So, >> is there a second on UA? >> I second. >> Okay. And to clarify, I have asked past legal practice if there's anything that a board president is supposed to know that board members are not and I was told that there is not. So that's the basis between behind this recommendation. >> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else have a comment? U so I feel for that what the scenario that Risho described maybe it can be sold by the superintendent share. the nature of the problem but not necessarily the content of the the communication. So I feel that that that's okay. But once they decided oh yes I'll share this communication the legal council's communication with the chair then the superintendent should share that with everyone but the preparation for that I I'm okay with it.
241Okay. Anybody else have anything to say on this one? Okay. We are currently voting on the motion to amend the last sentence of the blue text to say all board members should have equal access to the communication from legal counsel. Go ahead and cast your votes, please. Oh, look at that. You all did. Okay, that fails. Uh, okay. We are moving backwards in time now to the original. Oh my goodness. The original original motion. >> What number is this? >> Let me know what I >> correct. So, we're going to the whole green A125 with the recision of problems. >> We have to do the whole blue text. >> The whole blue text first. Okay. word. >> Okay. Um, who wants to make a motion on that? Just so we have one already on the
242table. >> We already did. >> Okay, let's go ahead and vote. That's fun. Um, cool. So, we're mo we're voting on the blue proposed revision. Okay. Okay. One more. Okay. Now, we're back to the green. So, that proposal I put on the table and I would just like to remind everyone that we're going to get through the rest of these B policies. We're all going to be looking at those next month. And I just would encourage everyone to consider that this is one out of a whole series of policies. We can double back if we need to double back. >> Okay. So, we are voting on green paragraph six green paragraph six >> as presented with the word issues instead of problems. >> Correct. None of those passed. I >> think we're waiting on Lawrence.
243>> Yep. Green paragraph six. Uh oh. What happened? >> You broke it, Lawrence. >> Okay. The green paragraph six pass. So now I need a motion for the entire B125 with par with the changes. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve policy B125 as discussed tonight. >> Okay, a second. >> Amended. Yes. >> Second by Lawrence. Is there any more discussion that needs to take place? >> Cool. I will start the vote. Okay, that one passes 52. Spiffy. Okay, that was an exercise in note takingaking. I am going to read for the record the policies that we are doing the first reading on. B150 organizational meeting board of finance and committees. B175 functions. B200 membership. B225 board meetings. B250 school board member ethics. C 100 entrance age and requirements. C125 determin determination of
244legal settlement and eligibility for enrollment of students without legal settlement in the corporation. C150 homeless students enrollment rights and services. C175 student attendance academic engagement and truency prevention. and C200 anti-bullying. All of those have officially been first reading and any board member who has suggestions about those is encouraged to email the entire board by no later than September 20th at noon. There was a suggestion made by Dr. in that we make the um subject line of the email consistent so that we can find them more easily. So I would like to say policy letter and number suggestion and that can be the thing. Rachel. Um, I just want to, um, caution all board members as you look through these policies, and I want to say it out loud for community members who might review these
245drafts. Down at the bottom of every one of these policies, you will see IC and a series of numbers that indicates that there is legal code attached to these. This next section that we're getting into, um, entrance age, homeless students, student attendance, etc. It is very heavily dictated by the state. there's a lot of code attached to that. So, please just be aware it's is not a whole lot of room on some of these uh for what needs to be said to be compliant with the law. Also, I would just like to ask fellow board members, we had a discussion in policy committee about trying to move through 10 new policies every month to try and expedite our process. I know that this takes a lot of time. Uh by David's calculation, if we do
24610 a month, we will still be at this for a year roughly. And so I understand that that's a burden. Our administrative team have very graciously agreed that whatever number we throw at them, they will make happen so that we can get this done. So, um, really it's on us to just keep her moving. Um, keep in mind also that we're still expecting, um, recommendations for updates and modifications from legal counsel and policies that we already have in place and we may have to jump some of those things ahead in order to stay compliant with the law. >> Thank you. and there are no points for having the most revisions. Um, okay, Dr. Grder, you're still here. Would you like to give us your superintendent report, please? >> In the spirit of respecting the board's
247time, I will not provide a board report tonight and include any updates in my Friday notes. Mrs. Kron, would you please report on accounts payable and fund reports? >> Yeah. Claims for the period of August 2nd through September 3rd total $4,720,610 including regular corporation expenses in the Wash Valley Education Center expenses. Of this amount, $2,420,355 were paid towards wages, salaries, and benefits. I provide the final fund report for July 2025. In your board packets, total cost cash cash on hand and all funds was $29,598,470. The education fund had a cash balance of $7,416,53. Cash flow through the month of July showing the flow of revenue and expenses for the education referendum and operations fund is also included. >> Thank you very much. I will start with my report from the RDC. Um board teacher discussion
248was uh cancelled because everybody's happy. Um, the RDC approved paying for a preliminary design plan to add restrooms and water fountains to LML Park in Barbberry Heights, which would have made my life a lot easier when my kids were small. And um, the ISBA IAPSS collective bargaining webinar was on August 26th and it made me very grateful for our very competent central office experts who can do this with one hand tied behind their backs because I understood about twothirds. Um, George, >> your committee update. Yeah, >> just a couple items. Uh, the Indiana State Legislative session has been over for a while, so no reports there. There are two new important federal items. Uh, the soontobe deconstructed Department of Education has also cancelled the Blue Ribbon Schools program. So unless something changes, no funding will
249be allocated to that and there will be no more blue ribbon schools named by the Department of Education moving forward. So um West Lafayette Elementary may be the last for the foreseeable future. Uh the Supreme Court also issued an emergency ruling in favor of law enforcement being able to use the appearance of race and spoken language as basis for reasonable suspicion for a police stop. This was done in the context of the ICE invasion of Los Angeles, but the implications of the Supreme Court decision means it could affect anyone anywhere who appears to be a racial minority or speaking a language other than English in the presence of police. So, this is something that everyone needs to be aware of. And uh just on a on a personal note, I am now offering open office
250hours to any patron who wants to come and speak to me on the Mondays of board meetings starting at 4:00 until the board meeting starts. So, um take the opportunity to come down, say hello, and ask anything you feel like you need to ask. >> Okay, Lawrence, go ahead. >> Yeah, just quick, uh I really appreciate the day we school board work together. Uh so we finish seven policies. Uh we do the policies through uh follow rubber rule and we handle that in a professional way. I really appreciate everybody. Another things I would say uh recognize appreciate is Rachel and the pol the and David the whole policy committee. We work together. That's really um a nice experience especially have background information regarding the niola policy and also new policies very good u and also
251David dedicated several hours to work in the morning at 7:30 and also school our school administrations they come here very early so there are a lot of insight and practicals so that's really should be uh recognized and appreciate so appreciate that and uh I also Alo joined the collective bargaining uh seminars and there's some update of legal um legal things. So I have the report in the box. So anybody interested can take a look. Another uh appreciation is our secretary George. I think uh uh she sent out several emails uh from the reply to patrons uh in professional and neutral ways uh as a representative of our whole board. I think that's really uh really nice uh communications with our communications and these words to be recognized. So I really appreciate that. >> Thank you.
252That's all. >> Thank you and I appreciate all your very helpful suggestions on how to run this meeting. It went much better than I expected. Dean >> um public schools foundation the cupcake run is September 21st. So mark your calendar. New this year or teams. If you get 10 members on your team um you can get a $100 mini grant um that can go to a school to purchase recess and PE equipment. So, if you decide to sign up, um, we've had lots of staff members and students participate in the past, sign up as a team so that we can help our PE departments. >> Thanks, David. >> Parkinson wreck has been pretty light. Um, the pool uh, the wellness center was recently uh, the the flooring around it was recently redone. It finished a
253week ahead of time and we're able to open uh, or do a soft reopening. Then also Caseman Family Park still opportunities if people want to um dedicate benches and other parts um by making a donation. >> Thank you, Rachel. >> Um so from the West Lafayette Ed Foundation um they're hosting their annual tailgate on Friday, September 26 at the Cumberland Park Pavilion. They're expecting nearly 80 alumni and guests from the class of 1975 who are celebrating their 50th class reunion that weekend. The Will S Nature Center um in memory of Colin Kippen Brock is nearly complete and students have already been using that space uh and are really enjoying it. Um tomorrow the 9th the Ed Foundation is hosting the Indiana Association of Public Education Foundations at central office for their fall regional meeting. um
25420 public school education foundations, directors and staff will participate in professional development opportunity um led by our board member and West Lafayette parent Tanya Frinkbinder. Um the foundation is very grateful to Dr. Grryer and the corporation staff for um accommodating that allowing us to be a leader among foundations. And finally, there is a confirmed date for the retirey retirey lunchon to be held at the Whitaker Inn on Tuesday, October 28th. It's always a fun annual event where our retirees get together and um have some great conversation and fellowship together. Um finally, those of you who are attending the ISBA conference on September 15th and 16th, I will see you there. The app is available for you now, so you can download it and pre-plan your educational sessions um for different formation. Also, if you are
255planning to arrive on Sunday evening, know that there is a Colts game at 400 PM. So, you will want to adjust your schedules accordingly. Not a good time to drive in downtown Indie. >> I was not aware of that. Thank you very much. >> You are very welcome. >> UA go ahead. >> And no update from Glass so far and uh I several things to comment on. First for the policy discussion, you mentioned that we should label it in the subject line when we propose any suggestions and so I just want to iterate that suggestion I because so far when we propose any changes with the different subject lines it's hard to track the discussion and we cannot build on each other's input and so Yeah, in particular probably we should all just write a
256policy then space a no space 20 or something just 25 in like a very consistent way. That way when we do the email search we can easily locate all the emails around that topic. Um, another thing is uh regarding George's initiative of having the office hour every month right before the board meeting. I think it's a great idea for the board to listen to the community and actually when when Rishu was the chair before we had that and every every once a month on a Saturday morning and but at that time we actually the whole board are involved. we we uh take turn to sign off and so every time we have three people only as a to meet the so to make sure that we we are not over four we are not over
257three so I wonder in this George's case for example if multiple people multiple board members want to come and join the conversation listen to what the community has to say how do we coordinate and should we make it a a com the board effort or just individual board members do it and then if so how do we report back if the community has some in feedback and so I feel yeah I need some clarification because I also wish to listen to what they have to say and so we can improve the district and make it better for students >> judge what I'm doing is not an official board action and that was by design to avoid any problems with quorum or unauthorized meetings. Uh so if any one or two of other board members want
258to also come on down and I I have them here in this room. So if anybody else wants to come down and participate that's fine but we do need to be mindful that we're not having an unscheduled board meeting as a result of too many of us being here. And this is also just simply something that I said that I would do during my initial campaign. And so this is just me fulfilling a promise. I'm not doing any official action on behalf of the board by doing this. >> So are you welcoming other board members to join you then? Because many people actually want to hear what the community has to say when today I came a bit earlier than me and David and you are already here. I'm become the number four and but
259fortunately today nobody else were here and we are not discussing anything important but but I I feel it can be risky and because oh unless we every time people sign up with you make oh make sure we >> people don't sign up with me they just stop by >> I mean we the board members >> so Amy and I were just here because we got here 15 minutes early board meeting we weren't part of is >> I'm going to be coming from work. I'm never going to be one of the conflicts. So, >> don't worry, you're down to just six. >> Why don't you and George discuss this after the meeting? >> Oh, then let's say um are we all allowed to the office hours? So let's say if I point a certain day time
260I uh in the community say oh certain days you welcome to >> I will say that I when I did this I did not intend to coordinate with anybody else on the board and that was by design but because I'm using this room which does belong to all of us anybody else is welcome to come but if we do have the rare case where four of us decide to show up at once I may have to do it in the hallway or the front best to be able to avoid >> the car. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, everybody >> I think you just to clarify everybody is welcome to host an office hour here in the boardroom and >> you would have to coordinate that with Dr. Grryer and Roberta if it's anytime other than
261the hour before the meeting. >> Okay, >> that's great. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Speaking of the next meeting, um it will be on Monday, October 6th, which is the first Monday because of fall break and the work session will not be public. We're going to have a closed executive session to review the safety plan. Um, so it will just be us um on the board >> at five o'clock here to review the um safety plan and then six o'clock for the regular meeting um and then the following week is fall break. And with that, I will take a motion to adjourn. Rachel and George. Okay. Uh let's do buttons start. Yes, please. Hey, that's the fastest one we've done all night. Have a good evening.