WLCSC - Work Session & Regular Board Meeting August 4, 2025

001So, I'm going to go ahead and call to order the um work session. Tonight, we're going to do things a little bit out of order. We're going to hear the presentation from Dr. Grryer about the enrollment trends and the transfer policy. And then we'll take we'll have a little bit of time for discussion um among the board and depending on how many people signed up we'll have public comment after that so that um people are speaking with full information and if your questions happen to get answered during the presentation and I call you you can just say pass. So um with that go ahead Dr. Bryer. >> Thank you very much. Can you all hear me or do I need to raise this up? I think it's on All right. So, first of all, thank

002you for your time today and thank you for the opportunity to discuss our enrollment trends and the current transfer policy that we have uh with TSC. During this meeting, we are going to highlight what's new and what remains the same in our current practice. Uh if you'll please hold all questions to until the end. uh please jot down any questions you have because then we can go back and forth through different slides as you ask your questions. I I'd appreciate that. So, we'll start off by talking just about uh what's different. Uh House Enrollment Act 1002 no longer allows districts to charge additional fees for transfers if they are accepting transfer students. Previously, we were charging an additional fee to TSC and then TSC was passing uh that along to the families that transfer into

003our district. Now, we will only be able to collect uh the average daily uh membership or the state funding per child. And we will collect that by continuing uh to invoice TSC. I can tell you that TSC's um average daily membership is about $150 more per student than ours is. Now, you'll recall that back in June, we were concerned because we knew that there were changes due to legislation and we were concerned, can we continue a relationship just with TSC one, we were also concerned, would TSC want be willing to continue to entertain that relationship? the sense of urgency isn't there today. I can tell you that's good news. Uh and that is because TSC is willing to continue the relationship and uh TSC is able to continue that relationship. When you look at this

004slide, what we want you to notice is our inro in district enrollment. Notice from 2019 2020 to now you see um a decrease in enrollment and we've seen a trend happening over the years and it was more profound last year with that lower kindergarten number coming in. If you look at 2019 2020 compared to over to the actual in 2425 you see an approximate 160 student difference uh to the decline. Uh you notice then up there uh at our kindergarten numbers in 2425 came in at 134 significantly lower than our typical classes. I can tell you that we were worried that that would happen again this year and that's what we're seeing. We're seeing it mirror that. So, it looks like we'll probably unless we have several show up on that first day or over

005the next several weeks uh into the new school year, we're looking at similar to those numbers uh as in uh of last year. So if you look then at this slide, it shows you our transfer history and you can see uh similar to the 2019 2020 data comparisons of the declining. You can see that we've increased slightly each year with our enrollment or our um transfers in. And I'm going to also, by the way, give this put this in a in box for you guys to um when this is all over so that you have that to refer to. Uh and so as in district uh numbers declined and we know that funding follows the child a little over $7,200 per student. Uh we've been able to stabilize and keep our funding, which pays our

006teachers and our staff and allows us to ensure competitive wages. We've been able to offset that by seeing that um uh in the uh transfers in increasing slightly. The enrollment process currently starts with TSC and TSC's superintendent approval. We don't see an application unless the superintendent approves it. Once the applications are approved, they are sent to our district for review. Our principles consider whether or not they will approve them based on grade level capacity, discipline, and attendance. Priority applications are due by April 1st with notification uh to families by late June, early July. And then we continue accepting those transfers throughout the summer until the TSC superintendent tells us the window is closed or until we make a request to close the window. So when you look at this slide, you're looking at in district

007enrollment, transfers, total enrollment, and then potential capacity. We typically enroll around 2,300 students a year. Um, which supports a stable revenue. Um, that's important. As you know, uh, we could comfortably accommodate up to 2500 students with current space. This slide's simply to talk about uh, right size and quality consistent programming. We believe we have the numbers at this time to offer that consistent quality programming. We also believe it's healthy and I've talked about this often with my own kids because I came from Hamilton Southeastern which was well over 20,000 students and that's where my children attended until I went to a more rural district and then came here which were very similar in size and that healthy culture of that smaller district it it's just special. Uh we believe we maintain that. We also know

008that if we were to decline too much, that can impact uh those uh if or if we were unpredictable in in our um enrollment, that could impact programming and it could certainly impact uh how often we offer like whether we went every other year for certain courses and so forth. We are certainly not there. We're in a very healthy position in this district. This slide presents options to address declining enrollment and transfers. We know they're very two very connected issues impacting our finances. We've outlined a range of possibilities per several board members asked me if I would show um a a range of possibilities there. And so these are there for that reason. I want to say again that we are not recommending a change. That sense of urgency is gone. But we wanted to

009put this up here because board members wanted to see this and so we we wanted you to be able to see this and then to be able to talk about these various options. Um if you look second from the right you can see that's the programming we currently do or current transfer with TSC. Uh and that allows us to stay at that 2300 uh student enrollment at this time. If you go all the way over to the left hand side, you can see that one option would be that you could completely close off all transfers, even the agreement with TSC. And you could say that in 2627, that we weren't even going to invite back those that have already transferred in. And so they would enroll in TSC. That would be about a $1.2 million

010loss today. And so our team would not recommend consideration of that unless you were going to pursue a referendum much earlier than the referendum expires. Uh, and you would want to certainly ask for quite a bit more money um or or cents to the dollar to make up for that $1.2 million. Now, that's all things constant. Today we have new challenges as you're aware through Friday notes and we're going to hear policy analytics speaking with you today about the referendum loss in re in revenue due to um the uh property tax reform. It's significant. It's it's something that we're going to want to have a lot of dialogue on in many weeks to come after we hear this presentation. We know that Mr. Reutder and Mrs. Kron will be speaking to us about our budget

011and Mr. Royer speaks to us about our fiscal plan and what that looks like long term. Uh we're we're going to have some things that we need to discuss and uh some some strategies that we need to consider because we're looking at some significant loss of funding due to this property tax reform. That's another reason why perhaps just staying in that lane where we're at with current transfer with TSC that might be a constant we that we want to be thinking about. Obviously, the board will want to have dialogue and the board will want to make decisions around that. I want to go back because I didn't finish. I apologize. You could go all the way over to the left too and you could see that we could open up our district. Uh if we

012did that, that would require policy change and it would also what would be different? It could be different in that we could accept if there was interest up to 2500 students. But it wouldn't have to be different in that you could say that we're going to stay around the 2300, therefore you'd implement some sort of lottery. That's not something that we need to decide to do because um TSC and our relationship can continue. So next steps, we are not recommending any changes at this time unless the board chooses to explore changes. We will continue current practices unless the board formally votes to direct us to make changes in our current practice. And we recommend from our view viewpoint uh reviewing trends annually regardless of what direction we go. As you know, we visit those trends

013and we talk about those each year when Mr. Reutder comes and he speaks about that fiscal plan, right? Longterm and then looking back at our history and then Michelle, Mrs. Kron ties in her her her current budget proposal. So we recommend regardless that that that kind of dialogue continues and looking at those trends. I'm not going to go into great detail here, but the key point that I wanted to make is this. If we open transfers, the process would start with our district and not TSC. we would receive funds directly from the state and so we would not be invoicing TSC and this shift would also require policy change that the board would need to adopt. We're going to open it up uh the floor to the board for questions. We're going to ask uh

014Mrs. Austin to facilitate that dialogue. Mrs. Kron uh myself and Mrs. Roth will help to address questions. Uh, and uh, we know, just keep in mind that we're going to be learning some pretty uh, alarming uh, information when um, Jane H. Hearnden from policy analytics comes to our board meeting and presents. And so we need to keep that in mind too given this. We're we should carefully consider whether now is the time to look at anything different. I just want to reiterate again, we're not recommending a diff different approach. We don't feel that sense of urgency that we felt in June. Uh and for now, um continuing to monitor may be the best practice, but we open it up to questions from the board. Now, Mrs. Austin, >> thank you. Um could someone please pass

015me the signup sheet for the um work session only, please? We should leave the others up there. Thanks, Yui. Um okay, David, do you want to start? Uh actually just a request if you can go back to the slide that has the different projections on it just for our reference. >> Oh this one right here. Correct. >> Yes please. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you had a question. I I thought there I'm sorry. I'm I was waiting for you to read it so you could >> Sorry. I was want I do have a question but I just thought that that would be the best slide for us to have. >> Sure. That's great. Okay, Rachel. >> And just so Right. I'll go to any slides

016uh throughout the process. So >> I wasn't just flaking out over here. I was calculating we have five people who would like to speak and so if we give each of them three minutes that's 15 minutes then five minutes for a break. So we're going to try to wrap up our discussion by 5:40. So go ahead Rachel. Um, when you say I just am looking for interpretation. When you say that the urgency is off, why are you feeling the urgency is off? >> The urgency to make any kind of decisions sooner than later on on a direction we are going to take is because we have uh TSC's worked with their attorney. They've talked with us and they're willing to continue that agreement that uh we currently have in place. So that this agreement that

017we have that's been working um can continue. >> Okay. So in June, why the urgency is that we did not have that understanding with TSC yet and we didn't know it was going to play out. >> Correct. >> Okay. I just I was looking for clarification on that. Thank you. >> Appreciate you asking. >> Um I am also curious when you mentioned that the decision is either TSC says we're done making transfers for the year or we go to them and say we're done. Historically who has initiated that closure? >> Typically TSC initiate initiates the the closure. And is there any sense of of understanding? I'm not asking you to expose private conversations you've had with Dr. Hanback, but is there any any understanding of what leads to their decision to close? >> So, they

018have to process the applications. Typically, it might be where the uh the office is getting ready to close down for vacations and so forth. So, it just makes sense that that's the time to do it. >> Clerical administrative type of thing. Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. So your projections on here were saying um if we keep doing what we're doing based on right sizing right now we're right sized but uh and there would be minimal impacts on our budget but you also said that we're not getting we can't charge them for for the overage that we've been charging. Um so it isn't really minimal. U there is a substantial amount that we're if we just stay as is um and right size then how much how much is it that we would be losing

019per year? >> You're correct that that is a a reset and we can get that information to you and get it in Friday notes. We don't have that exact number today >> per student. What is it? Okay, one thing she's going to look at it, but why we want to be careful is that changed from year to year, too, because they compared our cost compared to uh their cost by factoring in referendum dollars. But Mrs. K, please do speak to it. Just continue to reiterate that these are approximates and that it changes from one year to the next. >> So, when we made this this table right here, we looked at status quo this year all else equal. This year, all else equal, it's the 1.2 too because we know we can't get what we

020had before. Um and like he did say that that that difference is different every year because it's based upon actual costs. We don't have the actual cost for 2425 yet. That's not finalized until the form 9 is final finalized by the state which I will be billing on actual costs for 2425. So my 25 budget is still the same. So I will still be billing TSC for the actual cost of educating the students for 2425. it will be with 2526 billing that will change. So that's why we use status quo as of 2526 and that's where that 1.2 came from. >> Okay. >> So did the folks at TSC give you any indication that they will be willing to do this long term or is this a year-to-year decision by >> We're going to try

021it this year and there's not a long-term decision at this point. >> And also um you mentioned that it's normally TSC that initiates the closing applications. Did they give you any indication as to why? Like what reasoning do they use to close off the application process? >> Typically because they're getting ready for the new year and like I said um >> an internal deadline. >> Yes. >> Dea. >> Um so my first question is this information I think is important for our community to hear before we make any decisions. I would like to hear lots of feedback from the community in general through emails and talking to the community. I've yet to hear anyone that's supporting keeping doors open. There's a lot of discouragement with our current practice of accepting transfer students. So my first

022question is number one, can this information not only be shared with board members this presentation but also put on the website so that community members could have it? >> This presentation will be posted. Yes. And then my second and then another question I have is how can besides just putting it on the website we begin to share this information with our community broadly and then when can we schedule listening sessions? I mean I don't care if it's a town hall work session whatever so that we can begin getting feedback. I feel like tonight was the first opportunity our community had and there's a bunch of frustration with the timing of tonight's meeting for people that want to give feedback. And so my question is when um can we have those upcoming feedback? >> I would

023have that dialogue with Mrs. Austin um as board chair because we're not recommending any change right now. Um fiscally we've explained why and so if the board wants to explore and then explore other funding options I would encourage if you guys want to do feedback sessions or what have you. We're not recommending a change because from from our standpoint it's not fiscally prudent to do that. Um it in fact it it could jeopardize some things and that's the point of this initial presentation. But Mrs. Austin, I'm going to let you speak to that one. >> I want to know how a listening session would differ from what we're doing tonight and letting people speak to the board. >> So tonight is two days before school starts. There's open houses. There's numerous community members that feel

024like this was I mean I had one community member say it feels like it was intentional that this was scheduled tonight at this time to discourage community members from speaking and so I feel like when we are scheduling these meetings that this is a topic that's been a great interest to our community. We have gotten several emails already giving push back yet when are we really saying to the community here's an open timeline come speak besides in a moment where there's lots of conflicts. Well, we're not making a decision tonight. You realize that, right? >> We are making a decision if we don't make any decisions is what I'm saying. The >> like I said in June, this is the beginning of a conversation. This is we needed more information. We needed to present the

025various options and we need to make sure the community is fully informed of those options, which now they are because they've seen this online or wherever they locate it if it's on the website. but they'll have the background information they need to make an educated opinion about what's going on. And so I I guess what I would say is you have to start somewhere and starting with information is always better than starting with no information. So that's why I suggested that we leave the public comment until the end of this presentation until after we've had our discussion because if we all sit here and say we should do a and the community also wants us to do a then there's no reason for everyone to yell like there we just don't have enough information to

026be upset yet which is why I wanted to make sure the information was out there. Nothing is being decided tonight. Does that make sense? >> So my question is information has now been shared um about what is happening. Things have changed. We no longer get funding from TSC that covers the referendum expenses. So that definitely changes. >> We we don't get additional funding for those students beyond the ADM. >> Right. That's what I meant. I'm sorry if I didn't say it that way. So that has changed. I also am unaware of the board actually ever voting on a transfer policy with TSC. My understanding is this has just been a practice that has happened and nothing's ever changed. >> This practice predates all of us. It it was in place before Dr. Grryer probably before

027Rachel even began on the board and she's the longest serving. >> So the point is there's no documentation of we actually don't have any written um agreement with TSC. This is all just verbal. And so what is happening is we're started this conversation which I think is great. Information is being shared. So my question was now that information is being shared when can we schedule a work session, listening session, town hall, whatever you want to call it to encourage community members to give us feedback before we make decisions. >> And my question back to you is how would that differ from what we're doing right now? I'd like to schedule another one that's not at the exact same time that parents are having to be in the schools for opening house. >> We have one

028in September and October and November. We'll we'll continue to have work sessions and meetings where if people have something to say, they can come talk to us. We're not making a decision tonight. >> So that was So is the work session in September on the transfer policy and we're encouraging people to come speak. I think if there were enough emails and if enough people made it clear that they want to come speak that it would be better to start at five than at six, then we can go ahead and do that. But we'll have to wait and see what people have to say over the next several weeks. If no one says a word about it and everyone is content with going forward the way Dr. Garner and his team suggests, which is not changing

029anything, then I don't feel like it's necessary for us to schedule anything. Does that make sense? It does. >> So, we'll have to wait and see. But if there is a work session, it'll be advertised as all the others have been. >> Rachel, >> I was just I had a couple of questions. One, um, Dea, I hope when somebody asked you if this was done on purpose, you corrected them and let them know that this meeting was moved to accommodate the hiring of teachers. Is that >> Yes. out there. I understand if we're trying to give a perception that we actually want the community to give us feedback and be a part of this process if we can be sensitive to our scheduling conflicts. Um, not only is this work um, meeting tonight about approving

030a personnel agreement, we also are covering some pretty big topics. And so that was my point on that one. Um, I just am glad to hear that you told them that hiring teachers and getting that finalized prior to this first day of school was the priority there. I'm I'm glad to hear that you reinforce the work of the board and our administration in that way. Um, my question for you, Dr. Riner is um one of the things I think a lot of people in our community do not understand is what right sizing looks like. I'm not sure that they understand what number of our staff would be rifted if we went to a full rights size with the complete closing. I'm not sure they understand that what what that would do to the arts, music,

031phys physical education and even um things like our math curriculum and opportunities for students to take different programming. Um, so that's one thing that I think could be added to this information that would be very helpful to our community to understand. Um, because we do a lot in our community to enrich the educational process and give our students as many options as we can. The reality is if we give up $1.2 million, um, that's going to be a somewhat dramatic shift to how we do that. So, I don't know how you can, you have no crystal ball. I understand that. But if >> but you make a great point that certainly there'd be need to be um priorities set and there would need to be uh focus you talk about that's where your certainly your

032stakeholder groups would come in and decide where are we going to make those cuts how are we going to cut when are we going to cut uh to get to where you balance a budget and Mr. Reutder and Mrs. Kron will tell you they can balance any budget. It just may not feel as good as what we had hoped it would feel, but it will balance and we'll be just fine. It's just it'll look a lot different. >> Thank you. >> So, I'm curious if you could extrapolate just indulge me for a second. So you said that our talented team could um balance any budget, but define fine in the circumstances where our enrollment say drops to,900. What would fine look like then? >> I said our team would our fine team probably what what

033did I say? >> You said that we will do just fine. Um >> Oh, I'm sorry. We will do fine with a balanced budget. You won't be in the red when we're done. That's where you have to make some decisions on what the programming looks like. Unfortunately, that's going to be a lot on your guys' shoulders. You're going to be helping define that. And so, um, I can't define that right now. That's truly coming grassroots coming to the table and figuring out what do we prioritize? Do you prioritize transportation? Do you prioritize the orchestra in the uh, elementary grades? Do you or don't you? I I can't answer that. That's a community-based focus and together we would would and could get there. But that's dialogue that you have uh through stakeholder representative groups because it's

034the people's schools, not >> well certainly not mine. >> Well, that's true. But I think the reason Rachel wanted to mention it and the reason why will probably get talked about and continue to get talked about in the future is under a scenario like that. So there is a there is a baseline. The baseline is what state law makes us do to produce graduates and anything beyond that is what makes a school system great and what makes people want to move into that place because you know even in a place where there's only 50 students they will produce graduates but those graduates probably will not have computer science classes those graduates will probably not athletics pro have athletics programs those graduates will probably not ever touch a band instrument so those are the kinds of

035things >> you are hitting some very important points Mr. And this is why truly the board this is board input here and this is board guidance to our team because I'd like to give everything to our students. So we're going to have to together determine what it looks like moving forward. And I'd like to clarify some of the vocabulary just real quickly. When Dr. Grryer talks about right sizing, he means bringing in enough transfers for us to be the right size. I think if we're talking about reducing the number of students to only those who live in district, that would be called closing. So I just wanted to make sure that there's there's a level at which we are able to offer all the programming that we want to offer and also we're bringing in

036transfers and that's the right size. Correct. >> Well, there's two ways to look at it. We had talked earlier about we can before we talked here. We were talking about the right size curriculum right now to offer like a constant AP course for example. >> The right sizing that we've talked about is we can right size by reducing costs >> right >> and and if you do that over time um that's right sizing too but I Mr. Ly talks about that when you start talking about hundreds of students going then at some point programming's going because as you're reducing you're also reducing some of those areas. Does that make sense? >> Right. So there are two different ways. You can either rightsize the offerings or you can rightsize the number of students and it's kind

037of like a teeter totter. But >> well really what we what I was trying to say here was we're at the right size as a district. when I was saying with with 2,300 students is is a solid size to offer constant programming and competitive programming and and in a an orchestra that you enjoy coming to because you've got the rich sound and the band and right and some winning sports teams. >> You don't have to have one kid playing the trumpet and the saxophone. It's real hard. >> Correct. Cut it. >> Can I can I just be blunt for a second just to make sure everybody watching understands? We talk about two kinds of right sizing. We are talking about the right size for the district to be why we're all here. And we're also

038talking about right sizing as a euphemism for layoffs. So those are the two things that we're dealing with. Or we or we could as attrition happens as people move away or leave for other reasons, maternity and so on, we could not replace people, which is what we've been able to do up to this point. >> Yes, we've done some of that. You've seen that through like if we've cut a section, we've we've reduced no uh force. So, >> right, >> our our staff feels stable right now. Um we've even uh looked at um a difference when our when our dean retired. We looked at we looked at our strategic plan and we looked at what the public and community was valuing there. And then we also looked at what what what might that position look

039like today and came up with with what uh you're approving. this evening. >> David, >> I have a few things on my list. First, I just want to emphasize you when you said a 1.2 million loss, that's a per year loss. It's not a one-time loss. That's a every year that that's a decrease in our budget by one two 1.2 million, right? It's not just a single year that we can dip into >> each year. That would be that less. Yes. >> Right. It's a per year lot. We lose that every year. Yes. So I mean over 10 years that's over 10 that's 11 million dollars. >> Yes. >> Or 12 million. >> Sorry. >> But but I think that's an important point to to emphasize. It's not just one for one year. >> But

040you make a great point. That's why that's why we talked about the right sizing that Mr. L was talking about was >> but it's not and it's not something that we can just fix by dipping into reserves because it's it's annual. Um, another thing I I do think that we we need to have more discussion about a written plan and agreement with TSC because it it would be it put us in a really bad position if they were to decide in say early April that they don't want to do this this sub this next year. Um, and then we're scrambling to figure out how to handle that with only a couple meetings before the the year starts. So having some type of agreement that's a multi-year agreement that we renew at least a year in

041advance I think would put us in a much better position and that way it it's it's formalized. >> Excellent. Um >> sure that they're jotting down notes for us. >> I think also based on a lot of the feedback that we've received from families or from patrons over the last couple weeks. One point that kept coming up and I've heard it talked about uh we it came up at one of our last meetings as well um is about how um opening the district or or allowing transfers may reduce property values. And I just wanted to emphasize to the entire board that I think it's unethical for us to be considering anything related to property values in our discussions. Um, I believe all or most of us are homeowners and so, um, making those making decisions

042based off of that type of information, um, would essentially be making decisions that would profit us. And so, I think it's really important that we avoid those discussions because our responsibility is to figure out what's best for the school and for the education of our students, not for local property values. Um, the other thing that I wanted to bring up, um, is that it does seem like the drop is mostly in kindergarten in the last couple years. Uh, and I know you said that it it's looking like the kindergarten numbers are similar this year as to last year. Did the first grade numbers increase? Um, are those also similar to where the kindergarten class was last year? >> Uh, it did. We're not in school yet, as you know. >> Okay. Right. Or >> Yeah.

043But it looks like uh we're from 134ish up to 147. So not a rebound like we would want to see. But >> is I mean it's partly Indiana doesn't require kindergarten. Um and so I'm wondering if families are doing other things um instead of coming here. So maybe that's something that we also need to look at as an avenue for boosting the enrollment is trying to figure out why families are here for first grade but may some may not be here for kindergarten and seeing if there are ways that we can bring them uh back into the school um or bring them into the school >> and or continue to certainly monitor like we talked about regardless of the decision. >> Yeah. And then one other final point that I'm sorry there's a long list

044of things. Um I have heard from many people about um the the transfer policy and their thoughts. Um there were a lot of misunderstandings about what open means and a lot several of the people that talked to me thought that it meant just anybody could move in which isn't what it what it means. Um but actually mo some many were fine with having a transfer policy in the way that we have. But where there became more issues was when it also connected with sports um with students transferring in um with the priority on playing sports because maybe they weren't going to make a team in Harrison and they wanted to make a team here. Um, so I I do think that that's something that should be part of our conversation and how that affects um

045the the broader sense of of success that we are emphasizing to our students and um I I I think that that needs to be part of the discussion as we talk about the transfer policy because I know all everything with sports is changing. Soon enough we'll have NIL in third grade and >> I I blame college costs for that. Uh, personally the um the thing I like most about the open the farthest right plan is that it's fair in terms of the lottery. You know, we wouldn't be bringing in just quarterbacks or just first chair violins or just the people who can play both trumpet and saxophone. It would be pure chance. And then once once someone lotteryed in, we would keep them throughout their K through2 education, but we wouldn't have the ringers coming

046in under that system where under our current system TSC can say, "Oh, no, you're the quarterback. You can't go to Westside." And we wouldn't even know they'd tried. Or they can say, you know, well, I guess they wouldn't, but anyhow. So, I I like the the fairness of the lottery system. Um, it's not come to that that I'm aware of, but I think now that there's no additional cost associated with coming here. Once that word gets out among people in the county, I think we'll see an uptick in applications. And I a part of me wants to make sure that we have a way to keep it fair if we do get to the point where we have so many applications that we can't take them all and first come first serve doesn't really seem

047like the fairest way to do that. George, >> you know, uh, David, just on your point about property values, uh, you're probably right about the ethical thing, but on a much more practical level, with as long as the school district has been doing this, if it would have affected property values, it would have done so by now. Um, for my observation, property values here track with the market generally and with the market in West Lafayette specifically. And I don't I mean this has been going on for so long that I can't imagine that any transfer policy would affect property values in any meaningful way. >> I'm just saying that I don't think that that can't be part of our discussion. Like it can't be we need to make sure that we're not including that in

048our rationale for making decisions. We need to focus on what's best for the kids. >> That is only down to the depths of our souls that we can be responsible for that. So, um, >> Rachel, >> I I um agree completely with what David is saying. And now, because we're sitting here in this role, I'm going to make a public disclosure that I intend to sell my house in the next 12 months. So, uh, there you have it. >> And you've been planning that for a while. >> I've been planning that for six years. Yes. But so, that is not a new new thing. But um when we get into some policy later this evening, that's going to become very relevant part of our conversation is when is it appropriate and important for board members

049to share their personal investment in something. So u thanks David for bringing that up >> and thank you for disclosing. Um UA go ahead. Um where where does it say is an ethical to talk about the property values? I'm kind of confused because um eventually if the property value drops, assessment drops, then tax drops, funding drops, then school can get less money. I I feel that's then we cannot support our students and teachers as well as we do. And I feel it. Plus, we represent the residents in our district and they pay a lot of money to buy the houses in the district. We should protect them. We should not let their property value drop when they sell their house. And I I don't I don't I don't see that law that forbidden ours from

050talking about property value when we discuss this. Actually, there might be a big implication. I mean the the the polic transfer policy will have a big implication on the property value because as we all know SK is moving in many people are scared it's hard to say whether the SK will have a negative B uh impact on on the envir environment here but at least the scare is real many people you you I went to the six the the meeting up to 2 o'lock in the morning in the city hard. So many people are so scared, people cried. And so I feel if we decided to open the district at the same time as he scare people away then the property value will drop. Just look at the U farm. Before it's so hard to

051find even a single house people beat on the houses in U farm. Right now they're selling on the market. People keep reducing their price. No sale. So this is real. And as for those plans, I I personally feel the the middle one might be a good idea. It give us time and we lose some money. But this is not static. It will be a dynamic which means people will move in. Actually once we have a closed district policy, they know they cannot transfer anymore. they will move into the district and then then our enrollment from inside the district will go up. It's not I I yeah at least we should at least try that. So, so the residents in our district know they pay the higher tax. So, they have the right to go to

052our schools. And uh so if you don't you don't live in the district once our capacity is reached you are not guaranteed even the current transferred one they are not guaranteed to stay. And if we don't have the capacity to continue to host them and if we do if they are in they are in. And uh good for them. They are not paying the the difference anymore. But but once the the space is running out I you know they they have to move out. They can do a lottery to decide who have to move out. And another thing is as case coming in we will have a lot of families and including many Korean families. I as far as I know those Asian families will be very eager to live in our district. If only

053those families who live in our district can go to our schools, I feel they will compete for those houses and then property value will increase, tax will increase, we'll have more money for the schools. So I I feel that's fairly another thing is and just to clarify always for our teachers there's no change wherever they live if they want to send their kids to our schools. Yes. Always yes and always no charge. That's for sure. >> That's correct. >> Yeah. So >> okay everybody's >> oh sorry one more thing just uh um regarding your conversation with Dea about the meeting and uh I I agree today is not a good day to have this important discussion and many people are even including me I just ran from the school the the orientation to come here

054and barely made it and many people couldn't come and but this is a very critical decision and you When we campaign for the referendum, we notify our residents in so many ways. We tax them, email them, and knock on doors. I I did myself too. And but for such a critical decision, we shouldn't do it like a quietly. We need to work hard to notify the residents including those who have kids in schools and those who don't because everybody pay tax and we need to be responsible for them. Let's say for people who are moving out like Rachel and many other people who are moving out they want to sell their house they they need to get a good price so they can buy a comfortable elsewhere and if the property value drop they they

055won't be able to do that that's not fair when they bought it they they spent more money to buy similar houses here than PSC and we we have to protect them >> okay I'm gonna have to cut everybody off and I apologize you may sit I'm sorry to leave you hanging out. Um, if we're going to have time for everyone who wanted to speak to speak, we're going to need to stop here. However, I want to reiterate this is the beginning of a conversation. No decision needs to be made. We don't have to change anything, but I agree that we should formalize our policy and we should formalize our agreement with TSC. Those are important suggestions that we will work on over the next month. But nothing is going to change before what January at

056the soonest because we have already made a commitment to people who are here. So whatever sense of urgency has been shared with the public, we can chill them out because nothing is changing today. We have plenty of time for everyone to come talk, for everyone to share their opinions, for everyone to gather all the information they're going to need to make a good choice. Okay? So, whatever people have been saying that this is urgent or it's being hidden, it is not. This is the beginning of what is going to be a long and ongoing conversation as we collect information, as we finalize those kindergarten numbers, as we hear from the community, and as we see where we need to go in the future. This is a serious decision, and we need to treat it seriously.

057So, with that, I read this wrong the first time. It looks like um Elena is wanting to address the board. Do you still or I'm sorry, Aaliyah? I'm so sorry. It it I'm bad at handwriting. I once called um a teacher by the wrong name. Would you like to come address us, please? >> Okay. Um so, hi, I'm Aaliyah Scott, a parent in the district, a program manager, and a local licensed realtor. So, thank you for tonight's presentation. Uh, I know these decisions are tough and I appreciate the work that's gone into this. Like many families, I chose to live in West Lafayette for the schools. We paid more to do so. We pay higher taxes and we've we've supported every referendum. When I saw the slide showing resident enrollment is declining and that transfers

058are filling the gap, I understand the financial pressure, but I think we need to ask what's driving that drop. I heard that most of the decline is in kindergarten. If families are waiting to to enroll until first grade, we need to understand why. Is it child care cost access to full day options that deserves more attention before expanding our district in district enrollment? I also want to speak briefly to the point that property values shouldn't be part of the conversation. This isn't about money. It's about stability. School reputation affects where families choose to live, how engaged they are, and how invested they feel in our success. That support benefits all students now and long term. Right now, our agreement with TSC is verbal, and we kind of said that earlier, not written. If we're relying

059on it, we need clear boundaries and a plan if things change. I support a cautious approach maintaining the TSSE agreement, setting clear caps by grade, and preserving what makes this district strong. And my ask is this, if changes move forward, how will we measure the impact beyond just funding? And will there be a process to reassess if things shift? Thank you for your time and for listening. Yes, sure. Thank you, Marina. I am not a parent in the district yet. I have a four-year-old and she'll be going to kindergarten next year. So, very excited to be here. First time engaging with you guys. Uh, one thing that I didn't see in the options that were laid out was like um redistricting. If we're looking for a long-term stable solution to our finances and to our

060growth, uh everything that was up there was something that unless written and established with your deadlines will not provide the stability that could allow us to create plans of 10, 15, 20, 30 years. So again, like I this is my first time here. I don't know. I know it's landlocked. I know this is a big thing. um the community speaks about this in social media in meetings and I think there's a lot of um questions about that uh and why are we not willing to maybe open that conversation even to the community what could that look like and what would that impact be and another thing that um I hear uh in the circles that I'm in um I have a lot of friends in the district and somes that are also are going to

061be in the district soon um are um the voucher system, right? So, we are talking about a financial loss in very nuance terms because what we say like minimal, right? Um loss um what I'm understanding is that that is minimal to the proportion of transfer students. So, that could be a lot if we are expecting to have more transfer students year after year, right? Um and then what would be the percentage of families in West Lafayette that are choosing to transfer to private schools and then vouchers going in that direction. So I think um those numbers that we were seeing I see some gaps there. Uh so we don't have the full picture uh to make maybe more of like a full informed decision. Um, and then the last thing I think if we've learned

062anything in West Lafayette in the last semester is that uh communicating uh earlier uh more overcommunicating maybe is better. Uh I think we learned that with the SK Highex and city council and PRF and how close they were. Uh so I appreciate your comments and I think that more community involvement would be uh always better. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you and welcome to the district. You're welcome. Um, since it's a factual answer, I can tell you that redistricting would have to come from the neighborhoods. Um, we can't initiate that process because of >> Yes. Okay, great. If um did I miss anyone? Nobody. Okay. >> Amy, can I put one more request out? Yes, ma'am. I think um UA raised a question about um property values and and taxes and income and

063I do think that is relevant to this conversation. Um it would be important to understand the impact of tax caps. So uh property values get are only beneficial to us being high up to a certain point. Um and so I think that might be an important piece to include in this information whether that comes from Mr. Reuter or where that comes from, but um it to David's point um property values just really are not part of this conversation and from an ethical standpoint but also from a monetary standpoint they really are also not part of the conversation. So if we could include that in some way Dr. >> u be prepared to ask questions today uh when Miss Mrs. Hearnen speaks from policy analytics and they're certainly going to have a lot of information right

064down that avenue. So Uhhuh. And the same thing um when Mr. Reutder does his piece, you know, he's very knowledgeable and willing to express and or get answers with us if we need to go out, but you'll find a lot tonight of expertise from policy analytics. >> We have a lot of overlapping situations right now, which is super fun. Love that for us. Okay, let's take a five minute, seven minute break and uh we'll come back and have the regular meeting at 6. Thank you. party started. Um, I would like to call to order the uh West Lafayette Community School Corporation regular meeting of the board of school trustees. The first item on our agenda tonight is the special education update with There you are hiding in the back, Mrs. Polio. Come on down. Thank

065you. So, this is my first time being here in the room and it looks it so much more welcoming than the other space. So, thank you all for that. Doesn't surprise me. Thank you all for having me tonight to share a brief update as far as special education goes. So, I'm going to talk through a few slides and hopefully give you a pretty positive update that we've been that we've had this year. So, just as a reminder for our special education programs, we still currently have three resource room teachers at West Lafayette Elementary School. We also have one registered behavioral technician and 10 pair of professionals that work throughout the building. Um, at West Lafia Intermediate School, we have two resource room teachers as well as one essential skills teacher, one RBT, seven and a

066half pair professionals, and two essential skills pair professionals. So, those are solely dedicated to our essential skills classroom. At the junior senior high, we have four resource room teachers, one essential skills teacher, one registered um behavior technician, 11 pair of professionals, and we have four that are solely dedicated to our essential skills program. As a corporation, we have one director, which is myself, as well as we currently now have one full-time secretary that we are sharing between central office um to do some duties there as well as in my office. but she within the last week or so relocated to our office area and it has already going very very well. So um we continue to have one part-time secretary and then one contracted BCBA which is a a legal requirement when we have RBTs

067in our buildings. So um that's just kind of overall uh what we have in our buildings which has pretty much remained the same from last year. Uh just a little bit of a data overview. Um just to give you a little update. According to our December 1 count, um we have 237 students, not including preschool students that we serve. Um which is about 10.25% of our population. Um that number has stayed about about the same if you look at it across across the board um over the last several years. Uh so we continue to just monitor that and see how our numbers uh grow or decline and what we need to do to help support those areas when that happens. So a few highlights from our area is um unlike the other districts in our

068area, we have all special education positions filled. So uh that is wonderful. Um I have worked pretty collaboratively with glass this year and uh really tried to push for consistency. So in our buildings uh if if you ever go in there, you'll notice you'll there will be consistent glass personnel in all three buildings. So when you think about like our occupational therapists that come in um sometimes they were serving maybe the elementary school but not the intermediate school and junior senior high. Um this year I really pushed to have a consistent person be uh in our buildings and so that was one of the things that um we worked on this summer uh with class and um I'm excited to have that. We have all in-person SLP speech language pathologists which is amazing. Um we've

069had virtual for a long time and I don't want to discredit the work that they did. They were the most phenomenal virtual SLPs we could have. Um, but you really, it's just hard to replace an inerson uh, speech language pathologist. So, we have one um, that is new um, that I was a part of hiring and um, getting to apply and she will be working, her name is Casey, she'll be working at the elementary school. And then we have another one, Elizabeth. She's actually in collaboration with Purdue. She oversees the Purdue graduate program and um she will be bringing four to five graduate clinicians into our schools as well um to help service our kids at the intermediate school and the junior senior high. So, I'm I'm pretty excited to have that collaboration uh in

070place and not only to uh just give our students more because the more more bodies you have, the better, but also um hopefully get some of them to continue in the educational world uh with us. So, uh we are um implementing a new structured learning program um at the elementary school. Um we had a a staff member a teacher trained in the in the teach program as well as some some paras that then also got uh trained as well. And um what we have found is that we have uh several students that are coming to us from ABA centers and we're looking for ways to kind of fill the void and the gap. So um this program is a kind of a next step. Um they're in our school. They're just a lot of visuals,

071a lot of different things that we're implementing to kind of help with that transition because it is quite a hefty transition coming from an ABA center into an elementary school. Um, Milo the robot has been a great success. Uh, if you haven't seen Milo, you should. Milo is fantastic. He's a little robot about this big that, um, we got a grant for last year. Um, I have renewed that grant application and um have more teachers being trained on Milo. They have implemented an avatar system as well. So, I'm hoping that we can also get more teachers trained to even use the avatar version of Milo. Um, but they are implementing phonics and and math and our teachers are pretty excited to get Milo involved in those uh aspects of the of their world as well.

072So, um Milo sometimes had to had to go to sleep in his sleeping bags because he was just too distracting for the kids um because they really really enjoyed um having Milo out. So, we're excited to have that program continue with our students um as as we met last year and I someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was November when maybe I was here talking about the goals. Um, you know, as glass is dissolving, there's a lot of moving parts. And so, um, uh, you know, when I kind of reviewed the upcoming strategic plan and tried to think of the goals, you know, how would this fit into those if if I I believe that maybe they're on the on the discussion today. Um, but how would that work or

073what would that mean for my department? I think just continuing to to look for those ways to better support our staff as well as our parents. Um but for those of you who don't know um we have a brand new IEP system that was launched through the IDOE special programs in in conjunction with P school and um it has had some some hiccups to say the least um but we've already met as a team as a department to get the teachers trained and um provide them opportunities to learn about the program. So, we're going to continue. I have several trainings planned for them throughout the school year. Um, as well as we are going to continue those those um collaboration and communication with glass to make that as seamlessly as a transition as possible. For

074the next school, um we had uh I had talked about a parent study group. Um I have a survey created. Um it's the the survey has been sent out to um parents, but I think there might have been a glitch in the way I did it. So I need to get with Brandon because something didn't go exactly right. Um but our plan is to my plan is to create the parent study group. Um I had originally thought that I was going to get that off the ground and moving a little quicker. Um but with glass dissolving, there were more questions than answers at that time. and I knew that there would be a lot of parent questions and communication based on that. So, um, I have all the dates ready to go. Um, and I'm

075excited to get that going and started. So, that will also, I think, help be in line with our strategic plan as well. Um, so, oh, okay, sorry. Um, so as far as our our um highlights that we have, I just really want to make sure that our special ed teachers get the acknowledgement for all the work that they've been putting in. Um, they've already completed extensive virtual and inerson training for the new IEP program. Uh, it is I I going to be honest, they are building initial IEPs every time we go in there. Nothing transferred. Um, so we are putting in a lot of work which has been um it's going to be a lot but we're going to be in it together so that's good. Um, our glass specialist and psychologists, they've really been

076team leaders on that. So other teachers can reach out to them which has been phenomenal. Um, we have started the transition to our own forms. Um, those of you that don't know Glass and LSC, they're a Microsoft and we're Google and that doesn't always play nice. So, we have transferred all of them into Google and made them kind of our own uh forms for when we're trying to track data on students. Um, we're going to continue to collaborate with GlassS as we work towards the dissolution. Um, I feel like I have a pretty good partnership with our local leaders and I don't anticipate that changing. Um, and lastly, all of our special ed student files from GlassS are now in my office area. um which is so much more handy than having the mag glass

077and that has been wonderful to have that in there. So um as far as next steps, I know in the near future I have a meeting set up with um Dr. Grryer and Mrs. Roth and Mrs. Kron about uh getting our positions posted for our um like related service people that we're going to need for the following school year. and my goal is to get those posted sooner rather than later and get letters of insuranceances out to them. Uh the three districts are working on dividing up all of the glass equipment which is a lot. Um so we are working towards that this year and then um lastly our first parent study group meeting on September 15th. So I'm pretty excited about that as well. I think that that was my last slide maybe. >>

078There you go. I think that >> I think that that's it, right? >> Okay, good. Say I think maybe I had an end one. >> Could I have the signup sheet for the >> There wasn't anybody. Okay, perfect. Anybody have questions? David, >> the roughly 10% average number per year that has been pretty stable. Um, does that include just children that have IEPs, 504s and or is that all students who are engaged with your staff whether through tier 2 RTI? Um, how do those numbers? >> So, these are only students with IEPs. They're not even our 504 students that um we help with and our tier 2 kids. So that's just our students who have been evaluated and have um been identified as a special education student. >> Do you have the numbers on how

079many because if if that's just the students that you have IEPs or there's a there's got to be a huge number that your staff are also engaging with. Correct. >> In different ways. >> Yes, there are. Um, this this report is due to the state, so I have hard numbers on those, but I can certainly get you to those numbers. I just don't have those offhand. >> No rush. Okay. I think it's just something that would be useful to share with the community and or the board and the community so that um they're aware of how many students um your office impacts. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay. George, did you have something? >> Oh, no. I got >> Oh, okay. Great. you go ahead. >> Thank you very much for sharing the updates.

080It's very exciting. And so, uh, for I have a couple questions and so for the Milo, it sounds great. I wonder how many do we have? Do we have one for each school or we >> Yes. So, Milo, um, there's a Milo at the elementary school and there's a Milo at the intermediate school. >> So, okay. One each. Okay. That that's that's great. Just want to make sure because sounds it's very helpful for the kids and yeah it's great that you organize you send a service to those families and uh a few people probably want to provide some input and and so another thing is um I noticed that the pair professionals kind of have a lot of turnover from from time to time. I wonder whether we have any way to address that issue.

081I know probably it's a common issue actually nationwide but right >> whether we have any particular way to make our positions more attractive to them so they can stay with ours for longer time because otherwise all the transitions it's kind of costly for >> right no I understand that I you know when I think of the intermediate school because I worked so many years there um you know most of our paras they were they left because they were either relocating or they found a passion in teaching and were going back to school to become a teacher. Um, which is wonderful. Uh, or we've had um retired teachers who have come back and um wanted to be a parah in our building. So, you know, I think that continuing to support them, continuing to provide them

082with professional development and training is important, and I feel like we continue to do that. And um I think letting them feel valued and heard is is also important. Um, you know, everyone, of course, in my opinion, in education deserves more money, but there's only so much money and we're all realistic of that. I will say that I feel like we have a lot less turnover than the other surrounding corporations by far. Um they still have positions that are not filled at this moment, still many. Uh, so I feel very blessed in that area that even though we do have turnover, um, I feel like we're able to fill those positions and we have enough senior paras that have been there for a while to help train them and guide them through the learning curve

083in the process. >> Okay, great. Thank you. May I ask one more question? So I wonder whether at some point we can provide a training or professional development on special education to general teachers and the parents and because sometimes I feel you know some of the problem may go unnoticed because some you know PE uh special education educators have the expertise to identify problem and uh provide a specific support to those student who have the needs right special needs but for general including parents may not >> know some of problem actually associated with a certain needs and provide the the appropriate support to their kids so I I wonder whether it's possible at all to have some seminar or workshop something >> so I know that in um part of the communication like the study

084group that I am implementing. One of the things that uh I'm hoping to get from that is what types, excuse me, what types of professional development would be helpful to parents um to have evening events for them to and and it doesn't necessarily have to be just special ed parents. It could be any parent. Um but just to provide those extra opportunities for them to learn. Um I I know that some There are a lot of resources out there that I feel like are need to be shared more and getting out there more. Um, and my hope is to improve that uh for sure so that parents are aware of what is out there to help support them in the community and in our schools. Uh, so I that is my goal is to find

085out what would be topics that would be most valuable to parents to hear about. um so that then we can start arranging some of those. >> Thank you very much for to you and your team and I really appreciate >> Thank you, Dr. Ne, >> Rachel. Um I I want to just make sure that everybody else on the board is kind of also aware of this and um you may have thoughts on it as well. Um, it is wonderful that we're having a conversation in our school corporation about parent study groups. >> There are many, many schools throughout the state that cannot get their parents to show up for IEP meetings, that cannot get their parents to cooperate with what is needed in an IEP from home. So, the fact that we in this community

086are able to have a conversation and have leadership that says we need to be even better for our parents and our families. Um, that is a really remarkable thing. And, um, so I mean, there's a rule that if a parent doesn't come twice, you can do the IEP meeting without them. >> So, I'm guessing that you don't use that rule here in West Lafayette. >> We we do not. and and and I think that's something that that our community needs to know about our community. So, thank you for your work and I am grateful for a community that supports all our kiddos. >> Same. Thank you, >> Lawrence. Some followup question. Basically, first of all, I appreciate uh because you have a community and especially those uh parents with special needs kids involved. I think

087this is the it's not easy ever. So I really appreciate you and your whole team's effort. A quick question regarding a followup question regarding the pair professionals. So basically last year I think we increased their pay rate uh to $15 per hour something like that. So compared with our neighbor uh neighbor uh school district uh you think that's kind of competitive uh compensation >> it is comparable when you factor in we are the only corporation that offers our paris benefits >> and that is that is huge to a lot of our families so most of them actually I don't know any of them that provide health insurance they are all more of a part-time so that way they don't qualify for health care benefits um and that is a very unique thing to our corporation.

088>> So our our hourly wage is a a smidge lower, but when you factor in the health insurance and the benefits that they receive, um, you know, it's it far outweighs in in my opinion the tiny bit that they might make more at TSC or LSC. >> Gotcha. Another question maybe uh for the central administration. So basically we are going to uh transfer from the glass to our own I mean inhouse uh man standing every year we pay the glass something like around half million to put the for those special education service we get now we transfer back to our school I mean there's they need a lot of paperwork administrations also special teachers are we going to prepare for that or just any possible impact or transitions um Well, um, aside from the, uh,

089budget cuts that are coming down from the state, I would have said after looking at our finances, talking to Mrs. Kron as well as um the director of glass. I feel we all felt like we would come out pretty ahead with the money that we're paying into glass compared to what we were receiving in services. And so, um I know things are a little different now with the changes, but um I I really don't necessarily have any concerns. Um I've already started working with with Mrs. Kron on the grants. Um the grant cycle's already opened up for when we're dissolving from GL um from glass. So we've already started that process as well. So, um, I think that every area of education is going to be feeling this the the purse strings are going to

090be pretty tight, but um, I don't I don't necessarily have any huge concerns at this point um, specifically related to special education and the dissolving of glass and that hurting us financially. >> So, basically, you are quite comfortable with that money transfer back to our school. So we can >> that would be take care of the >> Okay, got you. Thank you. Appreciate >> y >> spoilers. We're not getting to the budget for a little minute. Okay. >> Okay. >> Sorry. >> Is that everybody? Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate all your work. >> Okay. The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda and >> communication. >> Oh, no. We didn't have any communication from the audience. So, thank you. But we're we're skipping past that and going straight to the consent

091agenda. And um Rachel, >> I'd like to move to uh remove the um >> the agenda. >> Sorry, move the agenda from the consent agenda, please. >> I would like to do that so that we can uh modify item 15 related to policy. >> Okay. And Lawrence, you're seconding. Great. All those Oh, I got to do the buttons. All >> No, I'm I got to do these buttons. Shoot. Yeah, we don't need a second. >> We don't even need a second. >> We don't need a second. >> Okay, cool. All right, then we'll do that. Um, then I would like a motion about items two through seven on the consent agenda. David, >> like to make a motion to approve items two through seven on the consent agenda. >> Great. Is there a second? >>

092Seconded by George. Okay, now I have to do buttons. Are they gonna show up, Brandon? >> Okay. If I hit yes, will it? No. Did it. Okay, here we go. Thank you. So, all those in favor of approving the items two through seven of the consent agenda, please go ahead and vote with your buttons. Great. Um, and so now we will pull back to the agenda for this evening. And Rachel, what would you like to remove? sources and policy library. Okay. Uh, let me write that down. >> And you're seconding that, David? >> Okay. >> Um, it's a lot of words. >> And 125. Got it. Okay. >> So, we're going to stop that one and we're going to start a new vote up here. There we go. All is there any discussion for that?

093>> Yes, I can. >> Oh, Lawrence, go ahead. >> Yeah, I'm trying to You want to remove all of them? Okay. >> Okay. Is there a second? Okay. Yeah, there are several things for example the 125 I think the last meeting we talked about that but uh we we end up with uh we want to get some uh feedback from the our attorneys and uh so far I don't think we got any uh anything from them and uh for the 250 the library things uh I think we have some uh different opinions I would uh say we can uh we policy committees can work and with a clean wordings of modifications of that policy uh present to the whole board so we can uh the school board can uh can vote on those uh things

094that will make our um that's the purpose of policy committee and also uh that will make our board uh process more uh clean uh clear and also professional that that's my uh my argument not argument my rationale to to think is just hold that for maybe uh next meeting. Thank you >> Rachel. microphone. >> Uh so those two policies in question A125 and H250 um Lawrence is correct. There are some difference differences of opinions on them but um resolving differences of opinion is not the role of the policy committee. Um that's the role of the board to vote. And so at this point there's having further discussion within the policy committee um doesn't really change the what we need to vote upon. Um, and so I would I would be opposed to overempowering the policy

095committee to be making decisions that are should be decisions rightfully of the whole board. And I'd like to proceed with a vote. >> Um, in the June meeting when we discussed A125, there were a couple different revisions that is not showing up on the document. So number one, the document's not accurate. Also, for example, um George raised some concerns about the internal consistency and wording. And so, um Rachel had said it would go back to the policy committee and get more information. And so, um for A125, we're not ready. The documents not ready, nor have we gotten the information that we were told we would get. And then H250, during the last meeting, there was a community member who spoke. Um after the community member shared some great suggestions, I submitted um revisions to that

096and Rachel said that they will not be allowed to be in the document that's shared with the community. She actually doesn't have the authority to say what goes in the document and what doesn't. So that document is not even ready to show what has been requested to be revised so that we can vote. So, neither of those two um documents are accurately even ready for us to discuss and vote on. >> Rachel, >> I'll I'll let David speak to that first. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> From this conversation, it actually sounds like right now is the perfect time for us as a board to discuss these two policies and then we can make a discussion if we want to if we have very specific things that need to get sent back to the policy committee

097or if we're not ready to vote on them. We have that ability once we if as long as we keep them on the agenda. We have the ability to discuss them, iron out what the issues might be, and then make a decision on whether or not to vote for them today or push them off. Um, but I don't think it's helpful just to send it back to the policy committee. >> Rachel, anything else? >> Um, what Mrs. Mumford has stated that I said is not accurate and I just need to state that that speculation is not helpful among communication between board members. Um but where I where I am with these um is that they have been out for first reading at this point for greater than six months. We brought them back to this

098meeting multiple times. um and specifically our community um deserves from us to pass some of these policies so that um even if they do not go in the way that I prefer them that is the point of this we as a board should be discussing them and should finalize a vote on them and prove that we are able to get something done. >> Okay. So, UA go ahead. >> And so, if you look at the these policies in the box, they still have track changes, different colors. And I feel when we vote on the policy, we need a clean version for everybody to look at. And so right now I I feel it won't hurt to table it and discuss this and so bring this back to the policy committee to clean up everything then

099bring them all back. The copy I'm looking at of A125, which is in the um WLCSC board policies. A basic commitments A125 is not marked up. >> So what's the number? Can you say that again? >> I I look at the you're looking at H250. Yeah, the library one it they're green, red, blue, many colors in addition to black >> and also over the weekend I talk about the clarity of this. For example, in the earlier part it talk about committee but the committee was not defined until the later part. So when readers read this they got confused when they see the committee the first time. So because of the revisions additions I feel the file is not that ready. Back in the olden days, we would receive a copy of the policy that included

100the additions and the retractions so that we could see how it had been changed by the policy committee and that was what we voted on. So >> yes, I was in the old time. I I remember that time. >> So I don't see that as an obstacle. that time we were revising and the old policy right now I feel to some degree we are creating new sets of policy and so because we don't have them right now right so we are creating I feel it's just it will be helpful to to see the final version even some of the you know spacing gram grammar all >> do you understand Rachel's point though that that overempowers the policy committee If they're writing the policy and bringing it to us finished, they're making the decisions on do

101we want the red or the green and that's overreach on their part. Does that make sense? >> Okay. I Yeah, I would prefer to see a clean one. >> Okay, David, go ahead. I would suggest that we move forward with voting on Lawrence's amendment and then whatever final version of the original motion we have and then we can then we can discuss what is and isn't ready if if we are going to vote. >> So would that be a call of the question? >> Sure. Okay. >> Call question. >> All right. Then we need to call the question. >> What we're voting on I thought that stopped everything, didn't it? >> No. We're voting on Lawrence's motion. >> I'm just recommending it to us because then we'd have to vote on calling the question and

102really I'd just like for us to move forward with voting. >> I thought we didn't have to vote on that. Okay. >> Okay. I think we're all ready to vote on whether or not we are taking all of the policies off of the agenda. That's so a yes vote removes the top and bottom and a no vote keeps those. No, the other way around. We're we're voting on >> We're voting on Lawrence's amendment to also remove >> a A125 and H250. >> So, a yes removes them and a no leaves them on. Correct. >> All right. Go ahead and vote. Okay. So, that looks like we're leaving them on four to three. Okay. >> Now, we need to vote on the other one. Let me write >> Rachel's motion of removing the others and just

103leaving those two on. >> Okay. So, a yes vote would mean we are removing the middle and a no vote means we're not removing the middle. Correct. Okay. Just want to be sure because it's lots of double negatives. All right. There we go. Okay. So that's 70. Okay. So when we get there we will talk about A125 and H250. But first >> and what I was going to say um when we get there can we display those policies on the screens? >> Is that possible Brandon if I send them to you? >> Okay. Um, let me send them to you. Coming out of retirement though, before we do that is Mrs. Jane H. Hearnden. Please come on up and um share with us. Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Grinder. You were going to introduce her, but

104then I wouldn't have gotten to be cute. >> Mrs. Hernand, feel free to stand there as we introduce you. But please, >> Mrs. Hernand from policy analytics is here to share revenue forecast under the new property tax rules. Like other districts, we've received concerning projections, especially related to the referendum fund. What you'll hear today is alarming and will serve as a starting point for important and difficult discussion uh and decisions ahead. Mrs. H. Hearnden, >> thank you very much, Dr. Grryer. It's nice to be back here. Uh it's nice to be here not practicing law. Yay. I did kind of fail retirement a little bit, but I'm happy to get to work with school boards, especially at this important time as we talk about changes to potential revenue going forward. So, with that, I want

105to explain a little bit about what policy analytics does. We actually look at parcel by parcel property tax data, specifically regarding West Lafayette. So these are not necessarily state averages or things like that. We actually looked at the parcels in your school corporation. Senate Bill one or SEA1 had a lot of different effects on units of government. We're going to look at the effect on tax rate and sort of a tail end of the tape here is that all units tax rates are going up if they ask for the same amount of revenue going forward. We'll also look at the amount of revenue that you are likely to receive under certain scenarios and then also the impact on taxpayers. Just a little reminder about how property tax works. Uh at the top of the screen

106there, you take the value of the property within the school corporation or your net assessed value. you apply a tax rate to that value and that gives you the revenue, the levy that you can collect. Many districts for the last recent years have been in places that the assessed value had been growing. That allowed you in some communities to lower your tax rate and still collect the same amount of money. and other communities were able to keep the tax rate the same and get more money. Senate Bill One changes that in that across the state we are seeing net assessed value decrease and really the first time in my career seeing a decrease consistently across the state all communities. So, how did Senate Bill One or Sea 1 reduce assessed values or shrink the PI?

107It did it a few different ways. First of all, we are seeing homestead deductions that will increase over the next five years until they're fully implemented in 2031. At which time homesteads will have a 23 deduction, meaning 2thirds of their value will come off before that tax rate is applied. What else did the general assembly do to help homeowners? They added a new kind of supplemental homestead credit. And this credit comes in after the constitutional tax caps. And it's equal to the lesser of 10% of tax liability or $300. So, just conceptually, if you had a $300 $300,000 home, and I'm only picking that because the math is easy. $300,000 home, you know, it has a 1% tax cap. So, the most that taxpayer is going to pay within the caps is $3,000. This now

108adds an additional $300 credit to that. So, the tax liability or the bill comes down to 2700. That's good for homeowners, but that's loss to schools, county, cities, libraries, people like that. What else did they do? They provided deductions for the first time for 2% types of property. And we're talking about apartments here, which is important for you all or nonhomestead residential long-term care facilities and egg. They will now have deductions. And you can see that that is increasing over the next five years. Again, it's fully implemented in 31 until it reaches a third. So a third of the value of an apartment for example will come off before the tax rate is applied. How about businesses? There was a lot of discussion about business personal property. And when we use that term, we're talking

109about tangible assets in a business such as computers, furniture, fixture, equipment, uh, farm combines, things like that. Under current law, any property, business personal property in the amount of $80,000 or less within a county is exempt from taxation. the general assembly increased that 80,000 to two million. So, we've looked at the parcels in your school corporation and if there's business personal property of $2 million or less, you're going to see that comes out of our model beginning in 2027. In addition, for property that's newly placed in service beginning January of this year, it will no longer have a 30% floor. So what I mean by that is each year the value has depreciation and so you're taxed on the value less the depreciation. Historically, when that got down to a 30% floor, it just stayed

110there until you put took that piece of property out of use. They've gotten rid of that. So, the property will continue to depreciate down each year. That is not in this model yet because it's property that is just now being placed in service. What we don't know is how this may affect um for example business decisions. Is this a time that businesses might choose to replace business personal property? So now it potentially could have a depreciation table that's more than that 30% for example. So that's something we're going to watch going forward. You may have been talking to some of your bond folks about this change. Uh, as you may remember, if your debt service tax rate was 80 cents or more, all projects had to be put on a referendum ballot. They lowered that

11180 cents to 70 cents going forward. So, let's look at West Lafayette's net assessed value makeup. And you can see the far left pie chart there shows you your net assessed value in this 2025. And you are very heavily residential but also apartments. Probably one of the larger percentage of tax base of apartments that that I've seen. Uh you do have 12% commercial. You have business personal property of about 5% and then your residentials about 40%. Looking then in 2031, this is after those deductions have been put in place. How does the pi change as they compare to one another? So you can see your apartment percentage comes down because remember they have more deductions. Now your residential comes down a little bit. Your commercial has grown. Why? Because commercial didn't get any new deductions.

112Industrial didn't get any new deductions. Your business personal comes down some from 5.2 to 4.4. That tells me that you have some business personal property that is above that 2% and you have some that is below and so some of that is now exempt. Now let's take a look at who pays. So this is tax burden and we've added in the concept of your circuit breaker loss as well as that $300 credit. And again, we're comparing 2025 this year to what happens when all of the deductions are in place. You can see again that apartment has shrunk. Your residential has stayed pretty strong. Uh and then commercial has gotten greater as far as a comparison to each other and who carries the burden in West Lafayette schools. We ran two different scenarios. The first one

113we call the levy scenario and we're assuming that your debt levy amount stays consistent for the next 10 years. Meaning the amount you levied for debt in 2025 will be the same amount going forward. That scenario though does assume your operations levy increases by what the state allows. Right now we're assuming 4%. So I don't want you to think your levy as a school corporation is staying exactly the same. It's only the debt levy that's staying the same in this scenario. The other scenario we ran is called we're calling a rate scenario. And you can see here what we did is we took your debt rate in 2025 and we said if Senate Bill one didn't happen and you had some growth in your assessed value, how much could you have raised in your debt

114fund? So for simple ways to think about it, the levy scenarios, the same amount of money in your debt fund each year, and the rate scenarios, a little bit more money in your debt fund. These are just two examples. They may not be where your administration and you, the board, end up going forward as a strategy. Could be that you decide that you want to uh levy less in the debt fund or maybe you want to levy more than what we're showing in the rate fund or maybe it's someplace in between. There's just two places to start the conversation and see the effects of Senate Bill one. This is the green line is the gross assessed value of West Lafayette schools. You can see historical data here with regard to what your gross assessed value

115has done in the green line in more recent years. You can see that it's been fairly steady for the last couple years and we are showing that business personal property coming off in 2027. that's coming out of the gross because it's an exemption not a deduction. You can see after that we are showing some growth in your gross assessed value. We're using somewhere between two and 4% trending over that 10-year period. Obviously, we could have an economic downturn. the general assembly could make additional changes, but we're showing some growth in assessed value. Why is that? Because the assessment system didn't change. It's still based on market value of homes and the same system we've had for a long time and assessments didn't change. It's the deductions and credits that changed. The blue line is what

116we would have projected your net AV to be if Senate Bill One hadn't occurred. And the orange line is where we are projecting the West Lafayette's net assessed value to be over the next five years. You can see 2031 is the low point at which time you start to get growth back. Why is that? because the deductions are fully implemented and you can start capturing some of that market growth. Again, trying to find slivers of good news. I will say that 2026 in this report is probably more conservative than what we actually will see. Um the 2026 AVs are due out at any time and everything we are hearing is that those are likely to be stronger than what we're showing in here. And I want to tell you a little bit why that is.

117The first is 2026 home values are based on 2024 market values. So if you think about what was happening in the home market in 2024 still very very strong. Two commercial and industrial and to a certain extent apartments assessed value are based on certain cost tables. Those cost tables are put out by the state. They haven't updated those since precoid. And you think about what costs have done over that time period. they are updating that this year. So, it is very likely that you'll see stronger net assessed value growth than what we're showing here. I say all that for some positive. I don't think it's likely that you will be able to grow enough to make up for the deductions that are forcing that net assessed value down. But at least for 2026, I think

118it could be that you see a better picture than what we're going to show here tonight. So that pi shrinking, the net assessed value shrinking, what does that do to your overall tax rate? On this chart here, we're going to focus on the solid red line. The solid red line is that flat debt levy option. your tax rate, total tax rate including your referendum rate was a$1.25 in 2025. And you can see if you levy the same amount in your debt fund in 2031, the overall tax rate grows to a $160. That's solely due to the Senate Bill One deductions and changes. That's an increase of 35 cents. We looked at all the school corporations across the state and it turns out that actually is about the average. We're seeing about a 35 cent increase

119on average in school corporations across the state. I've seen them as high as 65 cent increase and as low as 23 cent. So 35 is is uh in the average. Let's take a look at the debt rate. So this is your debt service rate. In 2025, it was a little less than 54 cents. Again, due to Senate Bill One, assuming a flat levy, that would grow to 68 cents or an increase of 14 cents. on this chart. This keeps you below that 70 cents um a and uh projecting out assuming you could manage to a flat levy. One thing to think about that though is you got to look at your outstanding debt and how much each year you have to levy in order to pay your outstanding debt. And I know that's something Mrs.

120Kron and Mike Reutder are working on and I'm sure they'll have more information for you going forward. We will run this report again after we get your 2026 assessed value and we'll also bake in your plan with regard to making sure you can pay your outstanding debt. And if there's any plan for any future debt, we could also add that in here. You can see eventually your debt rate would come back down because remember after 31 you start to get some growth again. We need to talk about local income tax. Most of our report is focused on property tax and only the funds that fund pro are funded by property tax. So your operations fund, your debt fund and your referendum fund. Here though, we need to talk about how Typicanw County currently uses its

121income tax. And if you look there at the bottom of the page, they use a little over eight $8 million each each year as property tax relief. And what that is, it's called PTRC, a property tax replacement credit. And it's probably something you've never noticed or seen, but on each tax bill after the tax bill is calculated, the county takes some income tax and they use it as a credit to lower people's tax bills. Potentially through Senate Bill One, this goes away, the use of this income tax this way. And you're going to see that in that your in your information that means more homeowners are hitting the cap potentially because of that credit going away. So here is the operations fund net levy. How much we're projecting that you would receive in your operations

122fund each year. And you can see actually Senate Bill one with the solid red line potentially helps you a little bit in 2026. How is that happening? Why is that happening? Because the the debt burden is being pushed to the two and 3% properties who aren't necessarily at the cap yet. And by pushing that to types of properties that aren't at the cap, you actually get a little bit of circuit breaker relief. And so you're able to get a little bit more money potentially in 2026. However, when that PTRC is eliminated in 28, you can see that you actually uh go down to less than what you are in 2025. After that, you get some nice growth. Again, that's happening because of that shift to the 2 and 3% properties. We need to talk about

123the $300 10% credit because it's different than our traditional constitutional circuit breaker loss. This was a new statutory provision and unlike our traditional circuit breaker which is protect which is the debt is protected from that loss. In other words, that circuit breaker loss you currently have all of that falls on your operations fund. You're able to collect all the dollars you need in your debt fund. This statute wasn't written that way. And currently we're showing it as some of the loss would come out of your debt fund and some of the loss would come out of your operations fund. You can use your operating balance in your debt fund for a little while to pay or to to use to offset that loss in the debt fund. We think it's probable that the state will

124come back and basically protect the debt from this $300 credit as well because the rating agencies, if you think about it, are going to want to know that you can collect every dollar possible for your debt. If that occurs, basically the poll turns blue. So the numbers there have to be able to see. So instead of 122,000 in 2027 out of ops, you'd have to add the debt in as well and you'd get up to about $300,000 in loss that would be felt in the operations fund for your district. The referendum fund is probably one of the more difficult data points um because if you remember when a referendum is passed it has a rate cap on it. So your community approved that 37 cents. That's great when the pie stays the same. But remember

125we've shrunken that pie. So now we apply that same 37 cents and you can't collect as much money in revenue. And so you can see here by 2031 the revenue that you'll be able to potentially collect in your referendum levy drops down to 6.6. And I think this is the data in my mind. Lit is a problem for you. But I think this is the the real concern here. Um, you can see I marked on here what I think is your last year of collections under the current referendum, the 2031. Um, that means there's some very difficult decisions that will need to be made uh from 25 into 2031. Many districts who are in similar situations are thinking about perhaps coming back and renewing their referendum prior to it expiring at at a higher rate

126quite frankly. Um but if you're not thinking that or doing that, it may be a situation where you're having to look at some prioritization to be able to fund what you've been funding with your referendum money. We thought we better model that all into one graph. So we looked at your ops fund, your referendum fund, and then we also said if you had to put the debt loss associated with that $300 in ops, what does that look like? So you got 11.5 revenue in 2025 and by 2028 it's over a million dollars less in revenue. And you the dotted line is where you would have been prior to Senate Bill one. There was a lot of discussion and for some schools this is true that it was just going to be less of more. I

127think because of your operating referendum and because of the lit in your case it's just less. A reminder there are three taxing districts within your school corporation. We're mostly going to concentrate on the middle one. This is 2025 rates. This is not the 26 rates. And you can see taxpayers living within that West Lafayette city, West Lafayette schools-B. It makes up about 84% of your tax base. And the total tax rate those folks pay is about $26869. That is made up of the county rate, the township, and most specifically the municipal rate. So you can look at Wabesh Township because they don't have a municipal rate. There's no town rate there. They have an overall lower tax rate. People living in the middle taxing district are paying higher taxes because they're getting city services. Basically

128digging in then to the median home value. That's $313,000 in your entire school corporation. And then we looked at a taxpayer, a homeowner living in that West Lafayette city taxing district. It's the one that makes up 85% of your tax base and it had the $268 overall tax rate. You can see they had a total bill of 3743 in 2025 and their bill will go down approximately $248 mostly due to that 300 or 10% credit. Um the next year we get that property um personal property tax coming off. The year after that we see the PRT PTRC eliminated. And you can see those bills increase over time. This homeowner, the median homeowner in this taxing district is at the tax caps. How can I tell that from this graph? Because if you took the scenario

129that you kept the debt levy the same or if you picked the scenario that you raised more in your debt fund, this person's paying the same. Let's look at a different taxing district. So this is West Lafayette By C. It makes up about 15% of your tax pay U base and it's $2.56. And their reduction due to Senate Bill one would also be about $248. And then finally, the last taxing district. Maybe try pointing it that way. There we go. Uh, this is Wabash Township. Remember, they have a smaller tax rate because they don't have that mis municipal rate. They're at a $188. And you can see here, this taxpayer is not at the tax cap. Its reduction due to Senate Bill one is about $28. So, I was doing a presentation at a school

130board not too long ago and I had a school board member that basically said, "Where'd the money go?" Because they felt like the taxpayer wasn't necessarily going to get the reduction that they thought they were going to get based on the headlines and yet units of government like schools were have not receiving as much revenue as they had expected. And I think you have to remember that Senate Bill One made a lot of changes. It wasn't just about homesteads. Remember, they changed the business personal property. They changed the deductions for apartment owners. They changed deductions for egg. Uh, and all of that is kind of thrown at the wall at one time. And every school corporation is different on how it affects them depending on their makeup. If they have a lot of two and

1313% properties, it may look differently. If they don't have homes that are at the caps, it can have a different effect. And it's really amazing to me how every school corporation is different in its effect uh due to this. There's appendices here and uh they have a lot more of the numbers backing up those slides that we show showed you. You can see here across the top, it demonstrates that flat debt levy. It shows you in the middle of the page some of the loss due to the circuit breaker traditional and the new $300 credits. And you can see your percentage of circuit breaker loss in your operations fund grows from 22% in 25 up to 32.5% uh by 2028. We do the same thing with the rate scenario. We provide you a net assessed

132value projection for the next 10 years. And then all of the data that I know Mrs. Kron likes to dig into with regard to the levy, the rates, those kind of things. And then finally, a slide showing you just the rate. There we go. The rate tax rates. Um, I understand that's a lot of information and I think part of it is just trying to get our heads around the fact that our traditional tax rate goes up, units of government get more money. is we need to decouple that because that's not the way it is right now with Senate Bill one. So obviously there's some communication that needs to happen in the community. So educating people about how this is going to work. Um, and then I guess from my perspective, it's looking at the

133operating referendum levy and how you think best to work with that and then also your lit uh what happens with that income tax. Do you uh end up losing some of that those credits that way as well? U be glad to answer any questions. These are the times that I actually like being lawyer because then I could come and tell you how you could do things and now I just bring bad news. So >> you have a very soothing voice for someone with such terrible news. >> I I do want to make a quick statement that um I saw you taking pictures. We wanted to wait till she presented because we knew that it would make much more sense. This will be posted on the website and it'll be posted in box after after tonight's

134or after she's finished. So thank you. >> Okay. Okay. Anybody have questions? Lawrence, >> can I have a few question? Yeah. Before you came here present, my understandings uh by um 2031 we were lost about some 1.6 uh million but from what I can look at your chart I think it were more than that >> and sometimes it depends on if you compare to how much you would have received versus how much you were receiving 2025. People use a lot of different numbers. Do you understand what I'm saying? Sometimes people say we we are losing from what we could have gotten versus to what we get in 2025. So I'm always a little cautious when people put out that number. You need to find out what they're comparing it to. >> Okay. Another question uh

135regarding the that service. Basically uh that's kind of uh fixed. We want to collect enough amount to cover the le the the the duties the the the responsibility the the that payment >> it's set in the amount of debt that you have already issued and there is a payment stream sometimes they're flat sometimes they're increasing sometimes they're decreasing that's where Mrs. Kron and I think Mr. embroiderer are putting together what yours looks like as far as what you need to pay your debt you've already issued. >> Yeah, no question with that. What I'm saying as you said the basically the taxable assessment value kind of shrink. So now our tax the death service tax rate pretty much same and then basically we end up with less u surveys collected. In that case uh we have

136to I mean man sending the debt service kind of priority. We have to cover that from other money to pay off that debt. So >> I'm glad you brought this up. So uh my understanding is kind of remembering years ago there were promises made with regard to the debt service rate. Okay. And I think when that was made, it was assuming that assessed value would at least stay steady and maybe grow a little bit because that's what it had done for the last 10 years. >> Um I think most districts who had are in that situation that promises were made prior to these kind of major changes in the assessed value. Many boards are looking at that and thinking about can they live with that? Because if you actually lower your rate down to whatever

137was a promise, you might not be able to collect enough in your debt fund to make payments on your existing bond. And you have to do that. I mean that you don't want to be in a default situation. That that's not good for anybody. um you know how you handle that is different from community to community. One is Senate bill changed. We need to get the money that we uh in order to pay that debt. Other things could be well we'll take money from another fund but then you also have to consider you're already getting less money in those other funds. That's right. So those are all things that I think that the board and the community will have to discuss. Okay, thank you. I think very nice review pretty much cover everything. Thank you.

138>> I like it when I see people sh Yes. I'm making sense a little. >> Yeah. Not a little a lot because that's be when there's several hundred page. I mean, you have a very nice uh very nice uh summary. I spend a lot of time and then I realized probably I would better to just >> I appreciate that. The other day I I pulled this up and the board members said 30ome pages. Why do we have to go through this? What was that? 300 bill. So, thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> You go ahead. >> Sorry, I have more questions. >> Uh, thank you very much for the sharing the information. It's very helpful. And I wonder so for the assess for the p long-term prediction and uh how do you factor

139in some important uh event? For example, we have a SK coming. We are talking about the transfer policy and those uh very important event especially for our small district >> and I wonder whether those deci those changes or decisions will impact those numbers. This is just property tax and this is just property tax in your ops, your operating referendum fund and your debt. So it doesn't affect what you're doing at in your education fund except to the extent you transfer and it doesn't take into account what agreements you have with other districts with regard to transfer students at this point. That's not in this model. >> Right. uh the property value may change due to those >> correct >> new factory and different transfer policy right so it may increase >> make the property value

140increase or decrease >> we get data from a lot of different sources and we do look at it by community by community we don't necessarily like in your case we don't have what we call new buildout new residential buildout isn't necessarily included that in this but we looked at what you historically happens to you with regard to your assessed value what data we're getting um with regard to the market value over the last four or five years and what has home values done in your community we get information frankly from Purdue with regard to a for example so a lot of factors go into our assumptions to come up with that 2 to 4% growth over a longer period period of time. >> Okay. So, you already consider the new factory that coming in town.

141>> If it's not in there already, we wouldn't have done included that, but we can find out more information about that and come back with with >> more data on that. >> Okay. Thank you. My my second question is this is alarming. I mean, we we already short of money and now we are losing more. I feel we are not alone probably in Indiana, right? So then then what will all the schools do and do those lawmakers are they worried about this and are they destroying schools? I mean this is really strange. I can't comment on policy >> and Indiana frankly I checked I compare different states our property value I mean tax rate is already quite low >> and I don't understand why they lower it even more. It doesn't make sense just I

142I'm going to probably show my uh where I stand on things so I'm not going to answer that. But I will say, I mean, you can listen to what the general assembly members said, uh, who who were leaders in this, they were concerned about, um, tax values going up. So, and and that was happening because those home values were going up, not necessarily because units of government were raising tax rates, but they said they were hearing from their constituents that our bills going up every year. So, that's what they said was driving some of their decisions. Um, I agree that I think it's really important for you all to talk about how you best talk to your legislators. you know, you probably want one voice that everybody is saying the same thing, but it's it's

143a good idea for um your representatives and senators to know how this affects your school corporation. You're absolutely right, though. I will say your operations fund, as hard as that is, there are some schools, I ran one the other day, they go down negative in their operations fund. Um it's it's devastating for many many districts with your referendum. I think it's very difficult to get that much less dollars than you thought you would have and what the community expected you to have. Absolutely. You're right. >> Rachel, >> to be clear too though, I just want to make a point before we go on when we were talking about Mr. Wong brought up the 1.6 million less and that yes, it's way more when you're looking at what you would have made. But we've been hopeful

144and Mr. Reuters been hopeful that we wouldn't have gone down. And so that's when we heard that those that were running a referendum were going down, that's where we became very nervous and we knew we needed to get in touch with policy analytics. And so our nightmare came true that we are we are not only down from what you could have made in increases, but we're making we're going to be bringing in less money and it's devastating. And so that that's the point we were making in Friday notes. I just want to make make that clear. Good. Sorry, I didn't know where the one points. >> No, I wanted I just want to explain why we we wanted to make sure everybody understood that that this is even more serious than than what the loss

145to the gains. It's it's loss in revenue. So, please continue. >> Rachel, >> thank you. >> Um, thanks. >> I um I'm not in the same constraints as showing my colors here, so I'm going to just speak candidly and it's not at you. Thank you for your work. This is really helpful. Um, the state is is obviously takes issue with us defaulting on our debt and they take issue with us defaulting on a whole variety of things and I'm not proposing that we default on our debt. Um, but what they are doing is asking us to default on our teachers and students. That's what that's what we're defaulting on. And so if that isn't making the people in the room very frustrated, if that's not making the people listening very frustrated um to the point

146where we do need to raise a voice, we do need to make sure that these things are understood. They're complicated. It is hard to listen to 30 pages. It's hard to read the little tiny numbers, but we have to engage at this point where public education will not exist as it does today and our students will suffer. it. We say we're West Lafayette. We're a special place, but we're not special from that. >> We're not. That's going to get us. >> And and we have to find a way to communicate that. We have to find a way. I don't know what that way is. That's my two cents. >> George, >> um did I hear you correctly when you said that essentially the property tax replacement credit that's a local initiative, but the state is

147taking that away? I don't think I'd say it quite like that. The current law or previous law with regard to income tax designated certain uses for income tax. They have redone that taken away the current agreements. We don't know what the next um what what will happen down the road. How will the county or the city use the lit going forward? you think about it, they potentially would have the same kind of loss in their um funds or property tax funds. And is it likely they might want to use some income tax to help with that? Probably. So, it's a little hard to know how it's going to get used in the future. So, we are assuming that it gets taken off the table. That doesn't happen until 2028. So that could be conversations with

148both your city government and your county. It could also be talking to your legislators about that. >> So unless we can get some major changes at the state house, the local conversations will have to be who goes without what. >> Yep. Elections are having consequences unfortunately and Braun ran on this. This isn't a surprise. It uh was his whole campaign. So go ahead one more question. >> Sorry. Basically I see the chart regarding uh the tax burdens and also assessment this bar chart though the pie chart. >> So basically there's I'm a little bit surprised because apartment occupied I mean count about 40%. I'm just wondering because most of those apartments is in TF T districts. >> So when we calculate uh our diet surveys and operation fund, we don't count those u properties. So

149did you take that into consideration? >> Remember it does count for purposes of your referendum. >> Yeah. But for the regular data service and operation we don't uh we don't charge on that. So basically I think my understanding my guesstimation probably apartment or business is not less than 40% but but I just this is my guess. So >> yeah this is net assessed value and so it should exclude the tiff properties. I'd be glad to go back and look at that >> and ask that question. Sure. I'd be glad to do that. That's my understanding. >> Yeah, because I mean look at this chart. I think our residents, local residents share more burden I mean in terms of diet service and operation cost. But if you can double check that would be a great absolutely

150be glad to do that. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate >> Thank you very much. Appreciate you. It's good to see you again. >> Uh even with the bad news. >> Um >> can I make a statement? Um so you saw on Friday notes um where our team was suggesting you know you've got um the ground floor project on the agenda. We've been talking about partial demolition which was a geo bond priority of of Happy Hollow. And it's our recommendation that when you discuss those items that you discuss whether or not we postpone uh those projects uh or or delay until we can further understand what we're dealing with here. And we know that Mr. Royer and Mrs. Kron are going to be talking about budget and so forth, but as Dr. Yun said, it's

151very alarming. And so with that, we we suggest push, pause, or table those, but we know that that's the board's uh uh discussion and decision based on the recommendation that we're making, but that would be our recommendation at this time. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> It's kind of a layer cake of problems this month. Um we've had a request for a break, so if Do you have one more thing on this topic or is it separate? >> No, but there's a motion to move something on the agenda, but I can ask you about it during the break. >> Okay, let's do that. So, we'll take a five minute break. Okay, great. Thanks. call us back to order. Dr. Grryer will be here in a minute. >> Um, he's out of order anyway. >>

152David, did you have some >> I do. I'd like to make a motion to move number 11 on here, the appointment of Sergeant Smith, up to now. um so that we can move forward with that so you can go home because I I imagine the next few things will take some time. >> I think that's an excellent idea. Is there a second? Lawrence has a second. Any discussion? No. Okay, go ahead and vote on moving that up to right now. Dr. Grryer, did you catch that? We're going to go ahead and we're going to appoint do uh Sergeant I almost called you Dr. Smith. Sergeant Dave Smith now. And everybody voted yes. I can't see it, but okay. >> Oh, >> one more person needs to vote. >> Oh, there we go. Okay, super. Let's

153go ahead and take care of that so he can go home. >> Fantastic. >> And then we'll uh return. Okay. So, Dr. Grinder will recommend the appointment of Dave Smith to the required district school safety position. Duties were previously completed by Mr. Olrich and Dave. While Dave may need additional hours outside of the normal school day, it is not expected to bring additional costs to the district. >> Do I get to wave my magic wand? >> You do, but I apologize. I thought you said you voted on it or I would have spoken. >> We voted on moving forward. Now, we're going to vote on that. >> All right. Well, well said then. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Is there anything to add? >> No. >> Does anybody have any comments or questions

154or anything like that? Rachel, >> thank you for your service. We appreciate you stepping into this role greatly. >> Is there anything you want to say to us tonight? >> You just want to go home. All right, >> go ahead and vote on that appointment, please, on your magical screens. Look at that. Fastest vote. Oh, one more. There we go. Fastest vote we have ever had. Thank you very much, sir. You may go enjoy your family and relax for a minute. Okay. Now, we're going to go back to the church church hit and answer an answer presentation on CMC. And Michelle, go ahead and introduce our guests. >> Yep. Um, as part of the process we are looking at for Happy Hollow, we asked uh Mr. John Becker, attorney at CCHNA, uh, to present on

155the construction manager as contractor method. um he will share the different steps involved with that particular process. So thank you Mr. Becker. >> All right. Anybody else? I cleared the room. >> No no it was me. It's all right. >> So mine is a lot shorter. I don't have a lot of numbers. I will be talking about statutes but um how many people are familiar with the CMC project model? Okay. So I got one. Any anybody else? So in the past have you used CAS, construction managers and and mainly architects? Okay. So with the CMC um CMCs are used on public work projects. So what's a public work project? Pretty much any kind of construction, reconstruction, alteration of a building. Um sometimes we get into a public work project could be drainage, for example, on

156a soccer field. Um pretty much anything that requires a building permit. Um, sometimes we'll have like a scoreboard. Is that a public project? Answer is probably not because scoreboards can be moved just like you know TVs for example, attaching that to the wall is probably not public. Um, it also includes anything that you're leasing. So if you've got a building corporation, I assume you do as part of your bond projects. So anything that the building corporation would be renovating is technically a public work project as well. So construction managers as contractors or or constructors u governed by Indiana code created by Indiana code um basically you've got the public works statute which is Indiana code 36112. So that's the statute that if you didn't do a CMC and you were doing uh just the architect

157or construction manager as advisor, basically that would be the public work statute and they're both tied together. I'll talk to you about that in a little bit. So definitions, these are straight out of the statute. Not going to go through them because already half the audience has left. So I'm not going to have the other half leave. Um the one thing uh is going to be big difference is going to be your CMC services. So that's going to involve preconstruction services where where the architect and the CMC work together. Uh there's then basically a construction phase where they actually move dirt, build the buildings, install the electric. Uh and then there's the big thing is also going to be your GMP, which is your guaranteed maximum price. We'll talk about that a little bit. So

158how do you start the process? You do an RFP. Um, what is the bonus for an RFP? Right now, if you do a competitive bid, you have to select the lowest bid, right? So, as somebody that has traveled to St. Martin and picked out the lowest priced car, why was that a problem? It had three cylinders and I had to go down the hill to get up the hill. So, you know, every day in life, we will choose things when we go to the grocery store. And so, you know, Chick-fil-A is a good example. When we're going on vacation, we will go to Chick-fil-A. Why? Because of the food quality, customer service. You pay a little bit more. Why don't we usually eat at the gas station going to Florida? Because the price doesn't really

159get you to the point of the quality and the good experience. So, with a CMC, you do an RFP. With an RFP, you can select what I would call the best bidder. The best bidder is somebody that is based upon price, experience, warranty, customer satisfaction, all those kinds of intangibles of, you know, if you go to Walmart, you have an experience at the grocery versus if you go to Meyer, you have a different experience. And so that's kind of where with a lowest bidder, let's say that's Walmart, might have the prices, but I stopped going there because the ice cream would melt before I could get it home. So, I go to Meer, have a better customer experience. I'm willing to pay a little bit more. Now, um, with the RFP process, you still advertise

160it in the paper. And so, we recently did an RFP. We published it twice, seven days apart. Uh, by law, you're required to publish it for 14 days. I think we did 30 just to get more people involved. Um, with the RFP, you basically outline the nature of the pro project. So, we had architect drawings, but we don't have to have the plans and specs. Basically, it's an idea. Is it going to be a pool? Is it going to be a football field? Um, is it going to be a solar project? So, um, after you publish the RFP, then you have a committee. Usually, I suggest you have three people so you can break a tie. But basically the committee sits down, they look at the proposals, they score the proposals and then at that

161point they give a recommendation to the board and then the board at that point would decide who they want to select as the CMC. Um now when you go through this process uh the board could simply they can also do interviews. That's that's another huge bonus. When you do a competitive bid on a construction project there is no interview process. with the CMC process there is. And so as part of that interview process, you may ask questions that will come up because of other people's interviews. You can actually negotiate during that process. So when you do an RFP for public purchasing, when you buy buses, for example, we can do an RFP. You buy computers, you buy these TVs. We actually could do interviews and then during those interviews learn information and then other people

162how they would deal with that. Uh warranty, for example, a lot of times you may talk with somebody during the interview and find out their warranty is going to be bumper-to-bumper coverage and then you can ask that question the next person. Would you be willing to offer the bumperto-bumper coverage? And so you can actually use those proposals to negotiate the best deal. There it is. Okay. So, the other thing that's different about the CMC project is the CMC can perform a portion of the work up to 30%. Most of your CMC's are going to be what I would call prime or general contractors. So, the person that built my house, he didn't own any of the equipment. He didn't do the roof, didn't do the landscaping, but he basically got all of those trades together,

163sort of like a symphony. And that's what your CMC does. The bonus to her is she'll have two checks to write every month. She'll have a check to the architect and a check to the CMC. The CMC actually goes out and does the bidding for you and hires the labors, landscaping, the concrete people, uh, the roofing people, and so the CMC takes on all the responsibility of making sure that the symphony is going to work together with a regular uh, competitive bid process. You, as the person with the contracts with each phase of the project, take responsibility if something doesn't go right. So, let's say you have a weather delay because you had the contract with the masonary and the masonary people couldn't get it done. You then could run into the problem of the

164roofing company installed. Therefore, you have to pay them more. And so, you in essence get rid of that liability the rest. The other nice thing again is two checks. So, on a typical CMA, how many contracts you have? 20 or 30. Yeah. So, some of our school clients will be writing 40 to 50 checks a month because there's 40 to 50 different types of trades that involved. Um the other thing is the CMC again is required to go out to bid. So, they actually have to follow the same bidding process you would. Um and that also makes Basically, you're not going to have to do all the work. They're going to have all that work. CMC contract. So, after you go through the RP process, you decide who you're going to use as the CMC.

165Um, basically, they still have to have payment and performance bonds, same as if you'd used a general contractor. Um, you can also put in there the details of adjustments. So, tariff, for example, what to the prices if if there's tariffs or not tariffs. The other thing is you can do change orders. So, we have had CMC projects where they had money left over. Um, hey, we would like to build the parking lot over there. So, the good thing about the CMC is that you can do that versus with a competitive bid, that's a new project and therefore you probably would have to go out to bid on that. Um, the other great of the CMC project is that the architect will have again very basic drawings and plans for the building. So we're going to

166have a building. It's going to be 100 foot by 100 foot, but they don't know the carpeting. They don't know about the chairs. They don't know about the lighting. Once you select the CMC, the CMC then works with your architect to come up with those things. And so when I talk with the architects, I ask this question, what happens to your change orders? What I'm hearing is is your change orders go down. And the reason is is because the person that's going to do the work is collaborating with your architect. And so they're talking to each other and saying, "Yeah, this is going to work on this project or maybe it's not going to work because of soil, electricity demand, those kinds of things." So that is one of the biggest selling points is, you

167know, if you're in a regular CMA, how many change orders? Yeah. So, and the the problem with the change orders is is because your prices, your cost of your project go up and there's a lot of things that the contractors are going to try to force on you because they're going to say, "Well, we didn't know about that, so we need to do a change order." The CMC process, it's is not absolute, but it helps you avoid those change orders because the CMC and the architect were working together before they went out to bit. And so that's a huge bonus. Um, if for example, your architect and your CMC go through the process of doing the designs and the plans and then they go out to bid and the bids come back too high. So,

168for example, we had a school uh they had $10 million loan. The bids came back at 18 million. So, you can't do it. So, literally in that case, that was an issue because you can't go back and undo the loan. You've already taken the loan out at this point. With this project, with the CMC method, you could get to the point where the CMC goes out to bid and the bids come back too high. And then at that point you can walk away because your contract with the CMC is basically two phases. Pre-construction and then construction. And so that's another layer of added security that the CMC offers. Um the other thing is the CMC when they go out to hire the laborer and the other contractors doing the work, putting in the carpeting, painting

169the walls, the CMC has to follow the same laws that you did. So, when it comes to payment and performance bonds, safety programs, um, making sure they have the safety vest and the hard hats, the CMT CMC takes on that responsibility and then basically does all of that work for you. Um, back to the bonds, CMC, before they can do the work, before the contractors can do the work, it's all bonded. So, it's no different from a risk standpoint. You're still going to have the insurance there. If one of the contractors doesn't perform, the CMC at that point can go against the payment or performance bond of the contractor. Now, the nice thing is that's not your problem because the CMC is supposed to make sure that the subcontractors are getting. >> So, any questions?

170>> Anyone have any questions, George? >> So, given how you described this process, why would any group choose another process. When you compare it to the standard um bid process, it seems like it has tons of advantages and no disadvantages. Am I missing something or >> um I think a lot of it is is popularity. So I do probably of 100 contracts in the last year, most of I'd say 90% are now CMC contracts because a lot of schools have realized we really don't want to be orchestrating and if you don't have a facilities person at some of the smaller schools they don't have a facility director and so unless you have a facility director the is really the way to go for you. Um, you know, question is is I think a part of

171it is some of the architects are used to doing it the way they've been doing it for 30 to 40 years. Um, the CMC process I would say became really popular about five years ago. Prior to five years ago, everything all the contracts I was doing was construction manager advisor contract. Um, I think some of the general contractors don't want to take on the risk and the liability. And so for those companies that are CMA firms, they're obviously going to discourage the school from going CC because it's a lot easier just to be the project manager versus actually have ownership of the work. >> It's a good question. >> You go ahead. And this cost money, right? So that I guess kind of follow up to George's question and if it's so good, why don't

172people use it? And so I wonder how much money it cost, >> right? So So uh I was talking about the GMP. The GMP is what we call a guaranteed max price. Once the CMC goes out to bid and gets all the bers from the carpeting to the ceiling people to the roughing people, they will break down all of those different cost and then that becomes your what we call cost of the work. The CMC usually takes a percentage of the cost of the work. So let's say it's 5%. So if you have a million dollar project, the CMC will get 5%. Um there's not an additional cost because because the CMC is the project manager and they're also responsible for getting the work done. >> Rachel, >> um that would be 5% would be

173their take, but then they could also take up to 30% of the work on top of that. Is that correct? >> Correct. Only if they are the best better. >> Okay. And so if they wanted to bid out, let's say, the carpeting, they would actually have to go out to bid, post it in the newspaper, and then their bid would have to be close to the next, you know, company that's out there. >> Um, I think the reality is is that unless you're a huge company like Hunt or the the companies that are building the IU hospital in Lebanon, a lot of these CMC's don't have the materials ies the education, they're going to subcontract out something eventually. >> So, do they if if say they were the low bidder and they did do 30%

174of the work, they don't also get 5% of that 5% of their own, >> right? >> Is that a duplicate? How does that work? >> Um, well, usually they get 5% of the cost of the work. And so, let's say that they had $100,000 in carpeting. Theoretically, you would put into that contract a formula that basically excludes them getting paid 100 plus 5% because at that point they would be getting 105%. >> Right. Right. >> Okay. And another comment you made. I'll argue with one thing you said which you said if they run over for example it's not our problem. I guarantee you that if something runs over it is our problem. We will hear about it. So what does the oversight look like? because you know that that's the piece I'm not quite clear

175on. Um because yeah I mean it's just it'll happen. It'll happen in any construction project. Something will happen and we will hear about it. What is oversight? >> Right. And so I'm going to give you a real life example. You find a cemetery which happens. Nobody knew about it. That's not the fault of yours. It's not the fault of the CMC. At that point you would sit down and you would you try to figure out what do we have to do because you can't build right? Um, usually with the CMC models, you have the architect. Your architect is also responsible for your payment affidavit. Your architect's responsible for making uh architect contracts that we just did. I think the architect is going to be there at least weekly making sure that that the workers are

176doing the things they're supposed to do. Um, there's also uh any type of warranty work. So like if you wanted to warranty on the roof. The manufacturer, let's say, is Dupont. Depont will send people out there to make sure that the roof is done correctly. So, there is still that oversight. Obviously, your architect who's the engineer is also going to have to be working to make sure that things are getting. So, for example, uh if you had an exterior water pipe, you would want that to be insulated because in our winters, they're going to they're going to freeze. Um you do obviously have to go out there and make sure that the things look right. So, for example, if you were willing if you were building a basketball court, you would want to make sure

177it's not sloped because obviously the ball would be not going the same place. Um, same thing with your lighting, you know. Um, you also have a choice when the CMC goes out to bid. They actually give you their recommendation. And so if there's a company on there that you don't like, that you got a bad experience with, you can say no. And so you're right. I mean, there's all these we have a meteorite or a Russian satellite hits the the building. Um, yeah, that that's going to be weather is obviously going to be your your unknown that you just can't, you know, deal. But >> I'm sorry. Um, so with the architect, it sounds like the architect is still actively engaged and so we would have architect fees >> and then we'll also have the

178CMC fees. Are the architect fees any lower to traditionally in this or are they holding steady and then we're adding another 5% on there? >> Um, that's a great question. I could research that because I think all the contracts I do are is public information at this point. I mean, technically the the architect um is managing the CMC, but it's probably a lot less work because they're not managing 20 different firms doing 20 different things. They're only looking at the CMC at that point. Um I think that's a good question. I I think that's going to be a negotiation conversation with with your architect, but I would suspect their fees are going to be a portion of the cost of the work. >> So that's the that was I guess my question is the fee

179structure is not going to be per hour. It's going to be per percentage of the work or is it >> it can be on a per job basis. Most of my bigger contracts are going to be a percentage of the work. And if you if you were to take their fee, the architects kind of can estimate what the cost of the work is going to be on most projects, like, you know, $200 a square foot. And then the architects a lot of times will say, well, I'm going to take 6% of my estimated cost of the work. So, you can actually reverse engineer a lot of times. Um, with some projects, um, let's say roofing for example, or asphalt, maybe you want to do an hourly versus, you know, a fixed percentage because of the

180fact of with a roofing project, maybe they do need to be there more. Um, but you know, most of the time the GMC or I'm sorry, the CMC is really controlling the cost of the work, which then helps control the architect's fee if you do it based upon a percentage. But the contracts that I use, it's usually architect fees are usually a fixed amount, flat fee, stipulated amount with a percentage. And then sometimes it's a variable where you know the pre-construction phase is 80,000 and then you know hourly fee is going to be during the construction phase. >> So if I'm understanding you and to kind of go cycle back to George's question, the reason somebody might not take this approach is that they've gone from a scenario where they are maybe going to have

181a 6% project management fee to a place where they may have an 11% because they're not managing that inhouse. So that I mean I think it does make a project more expensive. That's how I'm understanding the numbers anyway. David's better at math than me. >> No, I I think you're right in terms of um with the CMA approach, you just have to take the lowest bidder, which is almost certainly going to be lower than the CMC approach. Um but the CMC you can then negotiate certain things to make sure that you have higher quality and also it removes a substantial burden from the school administration on managing aspects of the project um and has a high likelihood of reducing any upcharges. There was a different word you use for that >> you know change orders.

182Um and so >> it it's a more stable potential price. Um and and you can also negotiate for higher quality. Um and it just reduces the burden on the administrators who have a few other things to do. >> Right. The the one thing that I would say is is that time is money when it comes to construction. And so you you want them to start during the end of the school year and be finished, let's say by August the 1. With the CMC, you're they're going to have to meet that goal. If you go the traditional CMA, it's kind of your responsibility and the architect's responsibility to make sure that everybody's there at the job site. And it does create, again, if you don't have a full-time facilities person that's only looking at the construction,

183it's it just becomes complicated. Most of the the bigger schools with 10 12,000, even they have facility directors, they're like, we don't have time because they're doing all the all the other buildings and making sure that the landscapers. >> Yeah. >> Are there any CMC's that have their own architects and so those costs get combined? >> No, they can't do that. So that that would be what we call a design build arrangement. Under design build, the architect and the contractor are are one and the same. >> I I wonder maybe it's a naive question. I I wonder how is the legal firm associated with CMC? We legal form is expertise is the law, right? Then the CMC is more village of construction. It has a law component in it. But how they are collaborating? So

184you are you represent the law firm? >> I represent the school. Yeah. I don't represent the CMC's. Um the CMC's primarily uh have their own house inhouse council because they're so big and so they're negotiating the contract on their behalf. I negotiate on behalf of the school. Um we we I don't think we represent any CMC's because it would be a conflict of interest and I can't represent both sides of the table. >> And you are from the church church, right? >> Yes. So you are from the law firm. So you represent because you serve our your your law firm serve our district. So you >> you will collaborate with CMC. Yes. >> And Okay. >> Yeah. So the RFP that we just did, I drafted the RFP. I shared it with the architect. I

185then help publish it. >> Once you select the CMC, then I'll negotiate the contract. It's on your behalf. And so I have any interest in the process. You know, I'm here to paint the picture you want me to paint. >> Okay. >> And so if you say we want 4% then I put 4% in the contract. We in addition to the 5% that add of the construction cost we do we also need to pay the law firm these >> no service I get paid in so I don't I don't get paid based upon the project >> Mr. Becker is from church and church like Miss Billington he's our contract guru and so he's the one that reviews all the contracts that we bring to the board. So when I say it's uh council like legally

186um reviewed that that's Mr. Becker that's looking at those >> and so he is helping to walk through those processes with us to make sure that we're following state code. >> Okay. >> Actually it's probably cheaper because the fact that I'm only looking at two contracts versus 20 because I look at the architect contract and I look at the CMC contract and then I'm I'm out of the process at that point. >> Okay. I see. Thank you. We are trying to figure out the relationship between the different components. Thanks, >> Lawrence. >> So, basically just follow up. So, basically from your point of view and also from our SP point of view basically we can save some cost of legal service as you said if you review I mean 20 contract other than two contract.

187>> Yeah. I mean just I'm going to go back to the you know the CFO is going to write two checks a month instead of 20. So there's already a cost savings there because there's uh you know entering into there's a cost of your time. You would have to look at 20 contracts versus two. Um same thing with making sure everybody has the insurance. Each of your contractors need to have certain insurance to do >> and so there's there's a huge savings when it comes to internal resources. Uh but for my cost Yeah. I literally um I don't I mean once we get the contract template the next time you actually don't even need to call me unless you want me to because I give you the word document you fill in the blanks. I

188mean that's kind of the nice thing about the CMC process. Another question the first the first things I learned this kind of different deliver mechanism different arrangement and the first thing I heard is they say 99% of the project not finished on time and on budget so from your experience uh when you we have this kind of CMC arrangement uh how many I mean there you have you say there's a guarantee the maximum cost whatever that's quite attractive but uh from your experience uh how many of them pretty much finish on time and on budget? >> Um you know the time issue is because of weather and so you there's always going to be you can >> you cannot do the concrete. Yeah. Okay. >> Right. >> Um unless it's an indoor project and then

189at that point you can probably you know probably control because you don't have weather isn't you're enemy. If if the question is do I do a lot of change orders on CMC projects? I don't. Do I do a lot of change orders on non CMC projects? I do. And usually it's because of the fact of a contractor didn't show up which delayed everybody else which then caused because they have equipment around. >> That's right. >> And so I um I used to see a lot of change orders and a lot of change order disputes. I I don't get that with the CMC process. And and I think quite frankly it's because they're working with the architects to minimize that. >> Thank you. >> One other short thing. Um how is this different from us hiring

190a general contractor in the first place? >> General contractor you would have to do a competitive bid and that person would then be subbing out all the work. But the problem with that model is that you would have to be overlooking the subcontractors. Most of your general contractors don't have the ability to do all the work themselves. So they're always going to have subcontractors involved. >> Well, that's what I mean. So either way, they're going to be subcontractors involved. >> But you know, in you know, the CMA method, we accept the general contractor that made the lowest bid. In this one, we don't. But there are still subcontractors no matter what. So other than the bid process and the ability to negotiate not using the lowest bid, um is there a clear difference between hiring

191a general contractor or not? >> Um I think it goes down to with the RFP process, you get to choose the best contractor versus the lowest. And the issue that you're going to see with the lowest contractors is that usually the lowest will underbid their competition and then at that point hit you with change orders. And so you know going back example. That's kind of the reality. In fact, uh last year there was a local general contractor and I wanted to make sure that the school was going to hit their project within their budget and at one point he admitted during the call that he had under bid. >> So what you're saying is dur during the CNA process, even after you have the general contractor, we still not only approve the subcontractors, but we

192had to accept the lowest bid for each of them, too. >> Right. You you have the discretion as to who's going to do the work. your building. And so if you had a great experience, obviously you can go to the CMC and say, you know what, and if you want to keep it local here in Indiana, for example, you could still put that within >> the CMC contract parameter. >> All right, looks like everybody's through. Thank you very much for staying and spending your time with us. >> Um, the next item, speaking of people who've stayed, is our strategic plan. Dr. Brander, would you like to introduce? >> Absolutely. So, we now have a finalized strategic plan. As you may recall, we began uh with a stakeholder survey followed by input from representative focus groups.

193And after developing a draft, we engaged both stakeholders and board for further feedback. The draft was then posted on our website for additional public input. And of course, board u gave input at that time as well. And so we are at a point where it is my recommendation that the board vote to approve the plan. >> Thank you very much. Um need a motion. Rachel like to move that we accept the strategic plan. >> And do I have a second? >> I can second >> motion to accept proposals. Any discussion you over the weekend I submitted some submitted some suggestions and so I wonder how that will be addressed including those the first page or the >> you guys can discuss that and decide if you want to postpone the vote. Um, we knew that

194it was going to be on the agenda and as I said in the Friday weekend Friday adjustment notes, if you want to postpone this and continue and move into future months, you guys can do that or the board can certainly vote to do that. >> I I would uh move to table it. And so if you Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure whether people have time to read the suggestions I made. If you look at the first page the the contents under the values are not parallel some of them none some of them verbs some of them adjectives so I feel yeah that and some other part need to be revised as well >> so you >> and I I even I would even suggest that we we have teachers input as well and administrator teachers

195and uh so as for teachers and I happened to went to a talk given by Mr. Smith the debate speech teacher. He has a lot of great ideas about how to make a slogans those things and I I feel the language teachers may be may be able to help us as well to make yeah kind of re refine the languages because once we are we pass it it will be relatively permanent I mean >> so you move to table >> table yeah okay Yeah. >> Does anyone second UA's motion to table? Okay. So, that means it dies for a lack of second and we're back to >> verifying. Yes, ma'am. >> If I understood correctly, it is not a document that can't be changed. And so any of the concerns, my understanding is that we

196have collected feedback and tonight we were planning to vote, but if there were things that came up that it definitely still can be adjusted and changed. If I you're basically we're gonna have we'll have Adam come Mr. Jones come at this time but yes you're actually you'd be voting to accept the work of the people uh and then little minor things Mr. Jones please. >> Yeah it's intended to be a living document. Absolutely. If you feel the content reflects all the feedback we've received um I would humbly request that you move forward. >> Rachel >> Mr. Mr. Jones, just for clarity for the people listening who maybe have not been following this, as I understand it or my my recall is that you did solicit feedback from teachers, from students, from parents, from community members.

197I mean, it was a very wide net that you cast over this process. Could you also remind us what month you started collecting that? In my mind, it's May, and I might be wrong. Well, we have been working since the fall of 2024 and we've had many survey opportunities, attended every single building and was available all day for staff. Um, met with the principles and then we did workshop writing in here that was open to anyone who wanted to participate. >> I would caution to so it is a living breathing document but we wouldn't want to I don't think we would want to go in and uh make changes to slogans and things like that. It's a caution the board's prerogative. Obviously, you can but at then at what point did I mean I feel

198like Mr. Jones really did a great job of taking community input. I sat in on those and I was impressed with his approach to really respecting um input from our community and our stakeholders. And I would just want to be careful that we truly are valuing and respecting the process. Um, Mr. Jones, if you had anything to add to that, please do. >> I would just say it's been an honor and we've we did virtual sessions as well. I I feel that we made every possible effort to provide as many avenues as possible for everyone of every um stakeholder group to participate in this process. >> George No, you looked like you were looking at me meaningfully. David, go ahead. >> We could talk about the wording for hours. >> Um, but the wording that's

199there, this is a guide for us. It's not the specific actions that we're going to take over the next five years. Um, so I we need to move past I think just the wording that's on there. I think that there's just been so much input over time. clearly lays out what what our goals and um and and um our broad goals are, but it's the actions are the things that are going to be really important now. And so I think that we need to get this out to a point where we can start working on each of those action points. I mean, as it is, as we saw the first presentation from um Mrs. Quio earlier, people are already taking parts of what we have for the strategic plan and using them for their goals

200in in what they're planning and so we need to move this so that they can actually use that. >> And Dr. Grryer, are you um planning on using if the strategic plan is approved this evening, are you planning on using it in any of the new teacher orientation or uh beginning of school situations? Well, we'll we'll talk about it at if the board approves it, we'll talk about it tomorrow um about the opportunity for us to become focused um on on multiple stakeholder um uh input of a of a plan for us moving forward. Um I wanted to say something and I lost my thought based on that question. >> Sorry. >> No, it's okay. Oh, no. No, I just wanted to make the point that actually not only did you see it there in

201with special education but our office even and our principles and we we're now using that document because it's the we truly believe this was the and we're talking the major concepts here of what we heard as areas of focus to become even better. We're using that when we have vacant positions to ask ourselves is you know where are we? How does this align with the strategic plan? Those are the bigger things that we're looking at and that's what we gleaned from the work of Mr. Jones gathering the input from when I say community I mean every stakeholder representative group. So those are the kinds of things that you're correct they're driving they're driving what they're already starting to drive what we're doing. Um so >> thank you. All right. Anybody else have any comments? Hua

202go ahead. I also appreciate all the work you have done and also the community engagement and support to this whole process and and including all the teacher staff members and so what I'm suggesting mainly the I I think the wording are important too just to give you some examples for example under the values the first one is excellence and lifelong learning that's nons then the next one is engage and inspire Your motion already died for lack of seconds. So I think it's time to move on to talk about >> what we're >> this is a discussion right before before the voting people can discuss. That's what my understanding. >> So okay so the second entry is engage and inspire. They are the warps. Then the next one is growth and well-being that they are the

203nuns. Then the next one staff and the community that no then the last one is welcoming and safe that's um adjectives. So typically I think they should be all parallel and we can convert them into the same type of vocabulary to have those like a neatness and yeah they're just things like that I feel they are again I I love the content. I think they are they are great and they reflect a lot of things I I learned from the community and but just as for those details I feel they it's not completely ready to be publicized and oh unless like what a disha said we can still change things around the world said that's okay but >> if we say this very last one and we cannot change it and I don't feel comfort

204comfortable people may feel we don't do a >> what who told what >> who told you that it couldn't be changed >> just now I heard we finalize it >> we're finalizing what we're putting out today but >> so that's why I'm saying if like what a disha said we can still change things around that's okay >> but but if we but if we as a board decide hey the strategic plan is not working for us we can come back and revisit it >> it's not the plan works just a publicize it on the website saying okay that's the best work the board can do. I don't feel I don't feel comfortable to say it's like just when I graduate a PhD student if the dertation is not well written I'm not vote yes. So

205it's just something like that. Let's see what David has to say. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the strategic plan as is. >> Okay. the >> second from Rachel. >> Um, okay. You were going to respond. No, you're good. Okay. >> All right. In that case, I will go ahead and do the vote. There we go. Please make your votes. Okay. Motion passes. Thank you very much for being here and um for all your hard work. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thanks. All right, let me hit the stop button. It's not that turn myself off here. Okay, next item that we have is Happy Hollow. Dr. Grryer, if you'd like to. >> And we have Mr. Jones standing. >> There we go. >> We have Mr. Jones standing. So this evening,

206we welcome Mr. Jones from Skybound to share our approach for gathering community input on the long-term future of Happy Hollow Site. This effort responds to the board's request for a recommendation by the end of 2025 calendar year. Mr. Jones will now outline the next steps for engaging stakeholders in this important planning process. I would like to remind before he begins though uh the board that we are recommending a pause on the partial demolition of the Happy Hollow uh due to concerning forecast declines in referendum fund revenue provided by policy analytics this evening. So, Mr. Jones, >> thank you and thank you for inviting me to support this project. I really appreciate it being part of the strategic planning project and I'm excited about this as well. You've got this building, this site where there's tremendous

207possibility. So, we've been asked to I've been asked to help think of how can we invite community input on the best future uses of this space. And given the recommendation for the pause in the partial demolition, we're hoping to put out a survey relatively soon, quite soon, perhaps even in within the next two weeks to the community saying, "What are your potential use cases for this? how would you like to see it used with some framing that aligns to the board and the financial situation that you've heard here about trying to begin that educational process about some of the financial constraints or design principles if I'm being neutral in my language um that limits some of the maybe more ambitious things we could do and keep it focused on what's best for our students and

208existing programs and where you'd like to be in the future. So I the process would be gather that survey data. I think we've also outlined doing some focus groups as well um virtual and in person and it would be a much shorter more succinct process than the strategic planning more narrowly defined. Would you add to that Dr. Grryer? >> I think that was well said. >> Yeah. And so this evening, I'd love to take notes and listen to any any feedback you have on that process and anything you'd like us to keep in mind as we're inviting the community to share their thoughts on Happy Hollow. >> And just to be clear, are we going to go ahead with this whether we decide to pause on our Happy Hollow decision or not? Or do we

209do we want to pause everything because of what we've learned? You are correct that by the end of 2025 you expect a report from me on direction future of this is simply planning understanding. So we know from meetings we've had that parts of that building are a necessity. We know that for our current programming right we know that we need the gym. We know that we need a space for robotics. We know that um uh we've we've uh we've got some classes in there right now and that's where that partial demolition uh was coming into play where immediate needs versus long-term planning just long range planning. Um but now we need to think about um that we we may need that money that was for the partial de demolition preserving what we know we have

210to have that we should put that we should table that too although we haven't brought a proposal for that portion yet but so the uh important information from the community uh to address the board's request to get information to you by December. He's going to help us gather that information. >> I'm going to reiterate though that the portions of the building that we were going to maintain, we we need those spaces for programming. We have a chiller that it's gone. It died. We knew that was going to happen three years ago. It's at the end of life. We could put $40,000 in and maybe it would last two weeks. Maybe it'd last three years. We we don't know. and they're telling us that. So what I what we would also suggest is that if we're

211tableabling that and we're collecting this information, we've got to keep portions of the building in use for the programs that are in there. So chiller will be something we bring to you later. Uh which then even if we still demolish a portion of that building, um we would maintain and use the chiller on the part of the building that we maintained. Does that it's all >> I'm trying to give you a full picture here, but um to answer your question, the partial demolition being on hold does not stop the work of collecting the information of what that site might look like. >> Thank you for clarifying that. So, >> you're welcome. >> So, the discussion before us is what additional information, how do we want to frame the conversation? Rachel, go ahead. You And I

212just make sure not tell you how I would like to have information. >> I think that's very wise, George. So, one of the initial conversations was about um essentially money that will be saved by doing partial demolition. But now that we're not doing that, how much money are we going to end up paying to make the usable portions of the building safe if people have to walk through the unsafe parts to get to where they need to go? So, it's going to cost us money either way, but have you done any projections about um which one will be better in the short term and the long term? So, >> well, we're really worried about where money may may need to go depending on what the board decides with how we address the shortfalls to get

213through some tough years. Um, so we are talking about where what portions of the building would be used as storage, what portions of the building would be cleaned up. Um uh and so that which we would have done if we would have done part partial uh de demolition and then the fact that we do need to replace that chiller so that we are maintaining consistent heat he heating and cooling uh to address factors with regard to the health of the building too people being in >> rough order of magnitude. How much are chillers going for these days? >> Uh I believe the architect mentioned they were planning about $300,000 for that. Thank you >> for the size of what we would be replacing. >> Okay, >> David, >> building on what George has said, I

214think that one of the questions that I had asked one of the last meetings was about um if we do the partial dem demolition um relatively quickly, then does that save us on the cost of the chiller? Like because would we need a substantially smaller one? because I think >> um talking with the architect, it's not going to be a substantial difference with the size of the building from what we what we have there now to what it would be down the road. Um we thought it might be substantial, but there would be a difference, but I don't think it's a substantial difference. >> Okay. but also coupled with the cost of maintaining the rest of the building. Do we have >> If we if we have the chiller, we at least have consistent heating

215and air throughout the building to maintain what is there and things won't degrade any further. We've talked about shutting off the second floor. Um we we've been doing a little bit of that already, but we talked about moving like our storage upstairs and cleaning up the rooms downstairs that the storage is currently in so that we could start using those um for programs and so on and so forth. >> So the spaces that are storage may be managed a little differently than the areas where there would be people. The other thing that I think is going to be important in this process is setting expectations for families and community members about the timeline >> because looking at the numbers um that were presented earlier, we're going to be seeing decreases until 2031. >> So >>

216really most people in the school district currently um may not see the fruition of what happens there until their are either out of the schools or like their kids that are in preschool now or in high school. Um so I think that that's going to be a piece that we need to be thinking about with this and um making sure that people understand that um as we move through this planning process >> and I feel like that was where Mrs. Wit was going back in the work session earlier in the summer and we've already communicated that with Mr. Jones regarding the importance of that communication. But we also we really Mrs. Whip brought up I'd like to see the information and by I I think she means the board. Um this is something this is

217why Mr. Jones is here to gather everything that you're saying today and then before any kind of communication would go out we want to share that information with the board. We want your input and we want to ensure that the board feels like they have the information they need to further communicate its vision as well. So >> Rachel, >> one more. >> Oh, sorry, David. Go ahead. >> Um, I think it's also going to be important to kind of set a stage of what are things that we could collaborate on for that space with other community groups because that's something that might push up our timeline. um whether it's um parks and recreation or the city um or or or or any other group where we might be able to speed up that timeline where

218it's um there's more contribution a public works project. Um even if it's a temporary public works space like turn it into outdoor garden space or something like that. just um throwing something out there, but I I think setting the stage beyond like school buildings and things that are specific um to what we already have >> speeding up. >> No, no, the actually being able to do something because likely at this stage we're the funding stage. Yeah. Because we're we're likely not going to be able to do something funding wise for at least a few years unless the numbers change. Um but collaborating with other groups might lend towards something quicker or finding public works funding if this is something that benefits the broader community might be an avenue towards um towards realizing the benefits of

219the space much sooner. >> Rachel, >> um something David said kind of triggered a thought in my head as well. If if we know looking at funding that 2031 is maybe our best case scenario for that building, what does the rest of it look like? Is the roof good in 2031? Is the plumbing good in 2031? Is something I mean where where >> plumbing is already not good? >> The plumbing is already not good. I'm aware. I'm I'm aware there's a plumbing issue, but you know, and so I know that you don't have a magic ball, you know, a crystal ball to tell us that, but I I mean, I think it would be a pretty much a travesty if we moved all the storage upstairs and then promptly flooded it. So, that's that's kind

220of where I'm leaning. >> Yeah. According to Mrs. I know that you don't want this answer right now, but the according to Mrs. Grunk, the build the roof is in fairly good shape. That being stated, >> that being stated, you know, the condition of the building because the board voted to close it and to build a new school building. So, we've been charged with this since I've been here. >> Yeah. >> But >> since your interview? >> Yeah. Disha, >> um I'm really excited that you're doing this. I think, you know, since it was closed in October of 2018, I think our community has been asking what are the plans? And so we do have budget constraints. We have had that for a while. And so um I appreciate that you're doing this. A couple

221thoughts was if I understand correctly, the survey question, the information is going to be sent to school, um families through the school avenue and then the city is going to help us spread out that. The other area that I just don't know is it feels like the neighbors themselves right there around Happy Hollow has a lot of thoughts and input and I don't know if the city's the best way to reach some of those that don't live in the community but it just has felt like um over the last years as this topic has come up um they feel directly impacted even more so. So, I would want to make sure that we're reaching out um a portion of the whole community, but especially to them. And then my other um question that comes up

222I feel like more often than even what are we going to do with the building is the pool itself and getting more information from the city of their willingness. You know, that pool is not in its best state. You know, we're trying to think long-term plans. What are their long-term plans? I just feel like that whole um property has been something um and the pool is what I think our community is almost most passionate about >> um and so having as much information from the city their willingness to be involved >> and how that connects I think would be helpful as we're collecting information >> and we do plan to continue dialogue with with the city particularly that we've already had some conversation with the mayor but um we will continue to make sure to

223factor that component into I think you make a very good point there >> David >> yeah just build in on that I think I even doing focus groups with um leaders of the different organizations within the city uh would be really good and and building in some of their strategic planning ideas or looking through the strategic plans that are there. I know parks and wreck has we're almost done with our five years of our five-year plan um and starting a new one. And so, um, looking at those existing documents that are already there and seeing if there are things that could be connected as well. >> Rachel, >> the neighborhood in particular has come up at their annual meeting every year is the new Chanty neighborhood. They're really the the folks that have a lot

224of concern about that um that property and the use of it. And they are very organized and have a good leadership group. And so, um, you would be able to reach out to that that neighborhood group through their leadership. >> New Chanty. >> Thank you, >> George. >> Um, running focus groups isn't going to cost us too much, is it? >> No, it's In fact, it's a pretty humble proposal. I would say >> you've seen that in the Friday notes, too. He's already kind of developed laid out that. Yeah. Are there any other issues that we should bring forward as we're >> so the the sur uh the survey question draft in we saw earlier >> kind of as as the plan to demolish the part of the happy hollow now with the funding constraint.

225Will that still be part of it as a kind of set plan or we will leave it more open? >> I think Go ahead. I'm sorry. Please. >> No, you you're the boss. >> That that's the component we're recommending is on hold. So, no, that's not going to be part of the me that's not going to be part of the messaging. >> We will have a more open feedback uh idea solicitation. Okay, great. I I think that that's great. Also, actually for the demolishing, I I feel we need a more um knowledge about the implication of one way or the other. For example, for the chiller, even though that whatever that people give the quote says there's no big difference, but I wonder whether that what what they are talking about installation and the equipment

226or include the later facility utility bill, right? So we we run the machine for the whole building and or only part of the building. I I don't know how the chiller the air conditioning system works in that building whether we can shut down part of it or whether we even we can shut down or whe those things. Yeah. So that we run the whole building and also whether there's any safety concerns or whether we can lock down part of the building or I feel more information is needed. >> Okay. No, there was we were going to like turn decommission parts of the building and you had a term for that. What was that? >> Was it decommission? >> Yeah. And there was a way you could do so that would preserve it and prevent it

227from decaying, but we'd need to still do the new chiller. >> Yeah. So we have to do a new chiller, but they can decommission areas of the building, particularly the end where the severe plumbing issues are in such a way that it would preserve the rest of the building for use, but it wouldn't make it continue to decay. >> We've already started that process because we had a lot of >> Sorry, we've already started. We've already started a lot of that process over the past year or two because we had a lot of plumbing issues and we we started that process already on the second floor. So >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So is that does that answer? >> Yeah. But for see for the regular home if we keep the temperature and if if

228we don't run air conditioning there might be mold in some of area. If we don't keep the heat on in winter some of the pipes might be broken in winter. So yeah, I don't know the this building totally different from residential, but I I just feel I need more knowledge about the implications of different plans and the cost on ours. >> Another point I like to raise is um I feel as for the funding how to fund fund the construction or demolition of the building we need to be more creative. I feel we talk of some of you talk about the collaboration with the city also. I think another big player will be Purdue, right? They have students and faculty members and staff members living in our community and they will use the utility uh

229the building in the future. >> If only they had a plumbing school, we could go over and fix. So they're >> yeah they I hope they can contribute to to the building construction in the future. Another thing is one thing I have been talking about many times is the naming right issue. How we can raise money to build it and uh maybe we found a bigger donor who we can name after that person or whoever that person want to honor and otherwise we have to keep borrowing more money and I feel that probably not realistic especially given you know the presentation we just learned earlier. It's just I feel it take forever for us to have the money to build it and we have to be very creative to get money elsewhere and rather than

230rely on fully ourselves our residents here. >> Okay, David, >> I have to preface what I'm about to say by I am not saying this in my capacity as a Purdue employee. Um, but getting a university to contribute to construction that's not university property right now, I think would be near impossible. And on top of that, the fundraising um situation more broadly um at the university and beyond right now is a phenomenally complex and um more restricted um process right now given broader economic settings um and concerns about tax implications for donors and all of that and and not knowing where investments are going to be over the next few years. And so I I don't think that that's necessar necessarily an approach that we need that we can be looking into right now as

231we move to actually develop something that could be a potential and it was something that we George and I had some conversations with um Mr. Strode as we were um we were getting a tour of the the high school locker rooms a couple weeks ago or months ago around there. Um and um the education foundation has indicated that like they could probably focus on one thing at a time. Um but things like locker rooms aren't or or or demolition aren't things that people would be excited to donate to. I mean I maybe some alumni would like to help demolish. >> Yeah. But um I I I think it is something for us to think about, but only um once plans get further down the road for that. Where things are right now, those aren't things

232that either um a university or donors would contribute to. >> One thing nobody's mentioned that I've thought of is selling it. Is that something? >> No. Okay. >> Okay. Tell me more. That property is incredibly valuable in West Lafayette, Indiana, and we absolutely do not want to let it go. >> Even if we could build like kid-friendly houses. >> No, you want to hold it. >> Okay. >> But I had another comment and then I'll >> We'll come back to that. You can tell me how dumb I am. >> No, no, no. I not I we've had the conversation. So, you know, historically that conversation has happened. What if we built housing on that property? What if we, you know, develop something there? Um, but it is such an incredible asset for the school corporation.

233I I don't I don't know that it would be wise. Um, but >> um, one thing that I think might be interesting and I I understand what you're saying and I think that you are correct. People do not want to spend money right now. Um, and they're being very cautious about those decisions. But one thing that might help move the funding timeline along a little bit is if there was some variety of commitment for a revenue generating operation that would help us feel more confident in the construction piece. So if we knew if we get XYZ done the city will partner with us for this that would generate revenue then it might make sense to proceed and take a little bit of a risk. So that that might be another way to move the funding

234a little bit. Okay, David, what do you want to say? >> Yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. I mean, I being part of the broader baseball community, there are things that could be revenue generating like we baseball uses the gym, but there's also no local um space for for kids to go to batting cage and um and getting some hits. Like kids are driving down to Indianapolis to do this. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> Wow. Okay. >> There there's no easily accessible place locally. So there there are some revenue generating things that might it might be worth um talking to some other groups around like there are lots of baseball teams who would probably love to be using the gym. I mean our teams already across the board are using it a lot

235but there there could be some other things that could be built even as temporary spaces that could generate revenue in the short term. And so exploring those possibilities I think could be beneficial. >> Miniature golf you I wonder I wonder how did the uh great Lafayette career academy got money to build their building and so we probably need something similar here and also something kind of like a wellness center and people in that area will like to have something nearby. So it can be a learning center for all people not only K to2 students but also adults career changers and to come and learn. So it will benefit benefit to all the residents in the school district. >> Rachel, you want to give us the background on the money on the >> GLCA? Yeah, GLCA

236was really funded um in part with donation of that building from Lafayette Life. It was um the Greater Lafayette Commerce um had a big um contribution to that. Um they did a great job with fundraising uh or or getting contribution from local businesses and industry that would use that as a training ground, which is kind of what I'm saying is if if we know if we build it, they will come and they will bring money that that does help our funding timeline. that GLCA was an incredibly complex um construction and development project that even was not fully funded and had to come out in phases. But when the conversation really started happening, the state was pretty willing um pretty aggressively willing to fund um uh vocational education programs and they are well they're not funding

237any programs now but they were at that time funding vocational education programs. >> George >> um Dr. Grinder, has any market study been done um by a third party or even internally about potential uses for uh the site? >> There have not been any market studies since I've been here. >> Yeah, I think that would be a useful thing to do because we can throw out all the pie in the sky that we want to, but we would need to have some real concrete evidence about what would make sense. If we want to if we want to do a money-m operation, that's fine, but we need to have an idea of what would actually make money instead of just incurring even more cost. >> And we we did the closest thing we've done so far

238is we were in um uh we uh entertained the idea of partnering with the city um with regard to child care and Mrs. Munford was a part of that process and it was determined that this site is not the place for that. >> Correct. Yes, thank you. >> Another big potential player will be the SK. They are coming. They have a lot of money. So, we collaborate with them maybe to >> SK high is a cheap company. >> Okay. >> Yeah, they are coming in town actually where many residents are not happy about it. uh you know they will be our community members and we can partner with them and to build something that beneficial for both. Okay, >> David, I saw your hand. >> Yeah. Um I was just going to say, have you

239done any research on what other communities have done when they've um expired a building? Um what have they replaced it with? >> Yeah, I haven't to be truthful, but I'm happy to dive into that. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think that that that would be a helpful baseline of what have other people done. Um I mean I imagine a lot just torn down and left as fields. But >> y >> one other potentially drastic question. Um I know that the building right now is not in a completely usable condition, but has anybody thought about what would happen if somebody were to take advantage of the state law that would force us to sell that building to a charter school for a dollar? We have thought about that and that's been a concern. We are not in

240danger of that today under um a current code, but we've been fearful in the past that that could change and there was discussion at one point a couple of years ago about changing the language and that's something that has made me nervous since the day that I got here. So, yes, that you never know what they're going to do at the next session. Legislators, >> isn't that the truth? All right. Has this been helpful in directing your efforts? Can I make one comment? >> Absolutely. >> I just wanted to thank you all again on the vote for the strategic plan and um I'm very sensitive as an English teacher to the parallelism and I'm happy to make refinements as needed. I'd be happy to do that uh you know at no additional cost. I'll just

241say that when you write with that many people, that big of a committee, and you're asking for validation, sometimes parallelism falls to the wayside. So, but we'll certainly be happy to to work on refining that. And in terms of Poppy Hall, h happy hollow. Very very excited to be part of this. And I wish you, your students, your staff, and your families all the best this week as you start school. >> Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Appreciate you. >> All right. Next item on the agenda. We already did that. So, we are to the uh locker room project hearing, which is a script. Michelle, >> does the board first wish to entertain whether you wouldn't work through the script if you were going to post table that? >> Oh, that's a good point.

242We could if if there were a motion to table the project hearing for a later time. David, >> I'd like to make a motion to table the locker room project to a later time. >> Okay, >> I'd like to second that, please. >> Okay, so David and Rachel. All right, go ahead, David. Oh, >> we have to vote. Are we going to discuss? Do we need have any discussion? Okay, then we shall start the vote table there. Hit it four times. Okay. So, in that case, we do not need to talk about that. There. Okay. So many buttons. The next thing then also falls off. Yes, sir. >> Can we take a brief recess? >> Sure. >> Say three minutes. >> Sure. I >> just three. >> Five is fine. Let's do five. We'll come

243back at 8:55. Okay. order. So considering that we tabled number 12, number 13 is real similar. So in a perfect world, I'd have a motion about that, too. George, >> move to table 13. >> George moves to table 13. Is there a second? >> Yeah, I would like second. Okay. And >> yes, Rachel. >> Um because of our engagement with the um West Lafayette Education Foundation on this particular project, I think it's important that we give them um some variety of response and an understanding of why we have >> that has occurred. >> Huh? >> That has occurred. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Um because I'm going to sit in that meeting and I would like to >> No, you got you. >> I would like to know that is done. Um because I don't

244want they they work very hard for us and I don't want them to feel as though their work is is not appreciated, not valued. >> 100%. Um yeah. Okay. Anybody else have any comments before we go ahead and vote? I'm going to start the vote to table number 13. Yep. Okay. That is seven out of seven. Okay. And I have a buttons. Okay. Next item is number 14, the 2526 school fees. Uh, Mrs. Kron. >> Okay. The recent legislative session addressed ambiguities surrounding curricular materials and fees by defining curricular materials and allowing for certain reasonable fees for items outside of that definition. Curricular items are defined as textbooks, workbooks, technology, hardware, and software. This change allows school corporations to charge for additional expenditures that are not covered by the current $158 per student the state

245is currently passing through to districts through a monthly tuition support for curricular materials. I've included in your board packets proposed fees by grade level for Wills and Willis as well as by course for the junior senior high school. Fees cover supplemental materials that students will either consume, keep, or use as part of a project that will be taken home. Once the fees are approved, we will send a message to families before assessing the fees in Skyward. I ask that you please approve the 2526 school fees as presented. >> Okay, David, >> I'm strongly against us adding fees for families. I don't think um it's appropriate for us, especially at this late time, to add them. And and the fees do add up for families and um I Okay. >> Okay. Moved by Rachel, >> seconded

246by Lawrence. >> Now, go ahead. >> Okay. Okay. So, what I just said, um, but I I don't think that this is something that when when we charge fees for books before, I thought that that goes against the spirit of public education. Uh, when families have to pay money, um, even if some families are able to get it covered, um, uh, because um, it it still goes against I should be able we should be able to send our children to public school and not have to pay anything. Um, and those are my thoughts. I I I have some more thoughts, but I'm going to leave it at that for now. >> I appreciate your thoughts, Staca. >> Um, I agree with a lot that David's saying. I think that there are some offerings that we

247provide to our students that are more expensive than others. Um, and so I would love to see something that maybe students and families know ahead of time as they're making course decisions, maybe in the spring before they sign up to say, "This course is going to cost this much money. If you can't afford it, here's an option because we don't want to discourage any kids from taking it." Um, but I feel like at this point, our um, students and families have felt like we're starting off the school year. It's not going to cost us money to send our school kids to school. So, I agree that I do feel like for this year it's too late, but I do also feel like we don't need to pay for everything. If there are some fees that

248we want to pass on to families if there's some of these classes that are going to cost money, if I want my kid to take it, I either, you know, apply for a scholarship or pay if I know that ahead of time. I think that's a fair um option. >> Okay, Rachel. Microphone. Sorry. I also agree that I don't I don't like putting it out there the two days before school starts and saying this is the fee you're going to pay. I just think it's a little late um for budgeting purposes. I also struggle a little bit with this because it is kind of specifically overwhelmingly actually directed at arts programming in our schools. And um my issue with that is that there are consumable items in a physics class, consumable items in a chemistry

249class. There are consumable items in these in these other programs. So when we charge for them for primarily creative education and we do not charge in them for STEM related education, I see that as being a bit of an imbalance and and I that troubles me a little bit from a philosophical standpoint. >> Um let's let George and then we'll come back. >> But we are charging for some science fees according to what I see here. So >> the elementary level the high school program where the fees are a little higher it's >> and is that because traditionally particularly in course like a chemistry course reagents were just part of the school budget anyway. >> Um I we worked with I worked with the principles um to determine what some of those fees might look

250like. I showed them what the other two school corporations are doing and we kind of based our recommendation upon what the other school corporations are doing in the county. Um and they so at the high school in particular he pulled together lab type classes and those that would be taking things home. Our science classes we get actually um class sets of like goggles and things like that. So that's why there aren't any fees for that. So we are paying for those things as a district in those classes um because those things are staying in the classroom and those are not going home with the students. And like we can't charge for like dissecting a sheep's brain because the kid's not taking that home. At least we hope the kid's not taking that home. >> Okay,

251David. >> I think we also have to think about the bigger picture here. If we spring this on families two days before school starts um and then in the next year make a decision that we need to move forward with voting on a referendum, families are going to feel nickel and dimed and I think it will make passing a referendum a bit more hard and in this environment a bit more hard or harder um will might be the difference between passing it and not passing it especially given new changes to the years in which referenda can happen. Um, so I I think that we need to be aware of that. >> Rachel, >> I have one other question. Uh, Mrs. Kron, what's the bottom line on this? How much revenue will this actually bring in?

252Like what's the total? I estimate that we would get about probably 75 to $100,000 from these fees, which would cover what the state is not covering with the curricular materials reimbursement because we've been spending about a hundred to $250,000 more than what we get back from the state. So, that's coming off of the bottom line in the education fund. Um, I think something to consider in the future is my concern would be if we don't, you know, I don't want the finances to limit what our children have access to. Right now, they, you know, I've had children that participate in a lot of these art classes. I'm grateful that they are able to bring things home and do projects and if we don't charge something that may limit that. So that's why I do think

253um we need to consider is it going to change the curriculum if we have to just pay it out of our pocket, meaning the school district. Um like I said, for me, I'd like to have options ahead of time and then um backup for families that can't afford it. But I do realize some of these are expensive classes and I don't want those to be taken away from our students because of the cost. And so it to in some ways makes sense um that something needs to be you know some way we get funding. The other question I have is is there other options? So I know from personal experience the PE uniform you know that gets sent to Goodwill at the end of every year for all of my children because they've never you

254know so it's like can that be reused? Can that be >> that is what we have been doing. That's what we put into place when the fees went away when the state said we couldn't do anything. We came up with a plan where we weren't buying those every year ourselves and that they were putting them that we would pay for the first one when the students >> um got to the high school and then if they wanted to replace them they then bought one but we bought the initial one >> and so that had already been in place. >> Good. Well that um so then the question is is there a chance to even recycle? You know, I know for some of them I don't care about some old shorts or something if it was

255free, but I don't know if there's some of these >> options to >> If you don't vote this in tonight, we will continue a status quo like we did last year. >> Anybody else? >> Okay. So, the motion on the table is to approve. Is that correct? Okay. Because we kind of did that out of order. So, I will go ahead and start the vote. >> I asked if anyone else had anything. We already had a motion in a second. Do you have something you need to say? >> Can you turn on your microphone? And so we are worried about the some of students may uh families may have trouble affording afford to uh affording this. I I wonder whether we can just like the reduced price lunch for for the families that cannot afford

256it. whether we kind of have a discount price or even free and would the kids with free and reduced lunch get a deal? Yes, as always the free and reduced students will not be charged the fees. >> That that was that was what happened before. That would still continue to this day. >> That hasn't changed any >> including this. So >> free and reduced lunch that they are also eligible for free textbooks and free curricular materials. >> So okay. >> Okay. >> Got a couple more people. Do we with this information or people will stay the their vote? Right. >> They can change on here if they need to. >> Okay. >> Like see you can change. >> I see. So this is for this year. Yes. >> Then for next year we can people

257talk about okay this is too late for this year. Then next year when will be a good time to to vote on this? probably will bring it in June instead of >> I would probably bring it more like May is when I typically would would take um textbook fees um >> okay >> prior to the state making all these changes. >> Okay. Okay. So that that makes because I just want to get a clarification. I I I feel that given this the financial difficulties that school is experiencing I feel it's okay for family to share the cost especially given that those disadvantaged families actually can access all these free right so I I feel that that's fair >> okay >> and so but now we are talking about timing then yeah I I don't know

258how how if if the community can understand this financial difficult because I'd rather you know have a good support for the teachers and we have you know we have limited funds and if the family can share share some of cost so we have enough to support teachers staff members I I feel that's >> so it's not going to pass regardless of how you vote so because there are already four nos So if you want to just vote and then we can move on, that'd be >> okay. So yeah, not for this year, but I will say yes next year. >> Okay. >> So thanks for the clarification. All right. >> And just to be clear, um we learned of this through the previous most recent session and you're breaking it all down and so there's

259where we understand the concerns of the late notice. Um, a lot of districts are doing exactly what Mrs. Krunk described. I'm just telling you so that you understand. It wasn't a lack of responsibility. It was Yeah. But but I hear what the board is saying too and respect that. I think that that great points are made here. >> Well, I think this is very helpful to honestly to help parents be aware and everything. So, I think to me it seems clear that this wasn't a delay of timing by choice. It was when it needed to come forward. But, um, so I really appreciate all the effort that Mrs. prompted to put this together. >> Thank you. >> Um before we move on, can I ask um so now that we've done that, what was the

260status quo that we as a body just endorsed? the status quo is that we didn't have any fees for the >> vaccine. So, we just covered that >> because the the the state legislature really left a lot of ambiguities and so um at least in this county the three of us talked and because of the ambiguities and no not really explaining a lot of things. We we all decided that we weren't charging any fees because we didn't want to do something and then get in trouble by the state from it later on. Um, and so prior to that, we used to charge for textbook rental, for leasing of the computers, for the workbooks, for consum a consumable fee. Um, pretty much all the whole gamut. Um, and those typically were when I came I was

261seeing fees anywhere from like 120 at the lower levels per year to $350 at the high school level per year. So, >> and just so just so I'm I'm clear and so we get all this out. >> So, what we just voted down was what would have been essentially fees but less than before >> much less fees but to break even as Mrs. Croc said and districts across the state obviously as we are done right here um and the points that Dr. Yan made the districts across the state are are reimplementing fees to some degree. Um many are I'm not saying everybody because obviously Westside is not at this time. Um but it's something where the loss is coming out of the education fund and so it's a way to recuperate and balance that. Uh

262and so it is something that we would probably continue to have dialogue with the board on in the future. So, we are going from slightly high fees, $130 to $300 to no fees at all. Correct. >> No fees and continuing to pay it out of the education fund. Correct. >> Okay. >> But we we've been at no fees. We were at no fees for last year. >> Yes. >> And >> that is correct. Rachel, >> given the late hour, I would like to make a motion and that we uh table the two policies in item 15 that we agreed uh to um discuss and vote on tonight. However, um I I think I can speak clearly for the policy committee on this that we would like some extremely clear direction from people on what they

263personally would like to see because we we as a committee cannot make decisions about what that is. We just have to provide clean documents and and information for people to make decisions on. >> Okay. Would anyone like to give clear direction to the policy committee? Dea >> um I think it would be helpful and appropriate that all the suggestion revisions be included. um you it was done this way on in June. I don't remember the number where whatever the policy committee put their opinion but they also included what a board member had recommended and instead of the policy committee or an individual saying I don't like that revision I would like all um revisions I know for myself that I've emailed to the policy committee to be included in the document. Um, and then the

264second thing is I think it would be helpful the H250 in June. We actually approved both those green documents. Uh, the majority of the board already said that they approved those parts being changed. So, it would be helpful to have that cleaned up and so that we're not wondering what's going on with that. >> And the problem with that is that we did not vote on it. So it it >> we did not vote on a final policy is what my point to you is. >> My my thing is and and I have definitely been criticized for this in the past specifically by you Dea. So that is why you're seeing me be very hesitant right now. Um we are not as a policy committee going to make decisions about what policies need to be

265put out there. We are going to put documents together that inform every member on the board equally and their ability to vote on them. And that is going to mean that we sit in these meetings and we have options and we are going to have to actively edit. And our board president's got a task ahead of her because that means she's going to take a motion. So we could have taken 250 out today, but when she put it on the table, you would have had to make a motion to change something and amend it. and then we would have had to vote on that amendment and then we would go to the next one. We would vote on that amendment. So you're not being limited in what you can do. You're being asked to communicate

266so that it's public what is being voted upon which is exactly what you have advocated for for a very long time. So, I would ask that everybody understand that you're not going to get one finished clear policy in front of you because we're not making those decisions. We're making we're presenting options and we're making sure that we're in alignment with the law and we're getting answers to questions. So, >> so I have a question. When we appointed the temporary ad hoc policy committee, it was to streamline this process. And from the difficulties that you all have had aligning your schedules to the fact that we're just reiterating the work once you get to this meeting, it doesn't sound like the policies are being streamlined by the this process. So, is there a suggestion from anyone

267for how we could do this better? David, >> I think the policy committee in the last three months has got more done than the last two years. >> Okay. >> Um I think that >> it was summer. Yeah. >> All of us had very different schedules um with lots of travel between us. I think that now that >> everything's starting back up, just keep moving forward. We've made a lot of progress. I don't think we need to change things now. That's that's totally fair. >> I agree with David. I think that the pro the conversations that we've had have been very constructive. The streamlining that you are um getting is that we are able to identify when policies don't cross reference correctly or there's a question about what would be um what would be replacing

268um what is legal. We've gotten feedback from board members. We'd like this and this change in a policy. Well, it turns out you can't legally do that. That's the kind of those are the kind of issues that we've been um resolving so that the board has good information to make decisions on. So, >> okay. It was not an accusatory question. I was >> I didn't feel accused. I just just >> No, I'm literally asking if there's a way we could make this easier for you guys. >> Short of locking us in a room with an attorney and everybody on staff for two days. I don't think that it would >> George will bring gummy worms. You we ate what you got. and you ask for suggestions and given that we have so many policies to

269revise to make I wonder whether it's possible to have two committees so we can each committee can take care of five let's say per time then exchange to see the other one so so everybody >> that might put a burden on our administrators because then they'd be meeting. Yeah, because they attend the meeting as well. >> Yeah, I would agree with that. But then you also have committ. >> Okay. If the policy committee is happy with the process, I am too. I just wanted to throw that out there as a possibility of of revising how it works. Go ahead. >> And we have a lawyer here and George has knows laws very well. I wonder whether he can play some role there or he's waiting >> his role on the board. >> Yeah, I I

270I I can offer expertise but I cannot offer legal advice. I am not corporations attorney. Um, that said, I do have a couple of what are going to sound like very basic questions to see where we're at. Who writes the policies? >> So, the policies originate with CCHA. They're fairly boilerplate text. So, they're coming to us in theory able to be published as is. and we've had that conversation that they could just be published as is, but we as a board have kind of been in a place where we've needed to make some edits to better fit our school corporation. >> Okay. Um, so they're coming from experts. 99% done. >> Yep. >> So they're coming from experts that we pay for. >> Yes. >> And they're 99% done. >> Uhhuh. And uh presumably because

271we're not a special snowflake and we don't get exceptions from the state, state law applies equally to us as it does to everybody else. So if CCHA probably has two or three other school corporations as customers, they sent them the exact same package, right? >> Yes, they do. I will say that in in the flip side of that um the it's the crosswalk that gets you because we have a history of policies that align in a certain way. >> And so that's the only special snowflakiness of the whole thing is us going and crossing and saying, "Hey, wait." For example, in the weapons one, we have a fencing club. We need to add fencing equipment to fire or to weapons, right? um some of those things happened >> and has that alignment happened >> for

272the most part >> in what we've been doing like >> so like the the basic operational differences between what CCHA sent us and the specific things that we need not even on a like personal preference basis from board members but just operational like for example the fencing team we need to add swords to the list of things that we might um permit has that work already been done >> that is part of what's happening in policy committee that's The one we're talking about 1% it's 1% of the information in these policies is what we are negotiating >> David >> but also >> not really though because when you guys start changing all the words when we get here it really becomes 25 to 30%. >> So the pro >> I'm sorry let me let me

273say this what is necessary for us to change is 1% but we're actually looking at 30 to 40%. >> Yeah. Okay, David, >> but I will add something that Rachel has said multiple times before. We can't just accept the boilerplate because this is our one of our main responsibilities as a board is to ensure that the policies work for our district. And so we do need to work through this process and make sure that each one does not just blanket accept. Well, that that wasn't what I was suggesting, but uh the other thing so once we have made our revisions, do we then need to send them back to CCHA to make sure that they're in compliance? >> Sometimes, yes, >> sometimes. >> Or really all the time, like even changing the word if and

274change. >> And so if if I may be so flippant, every time we change a word, a punctuation, a tense in a sentence, it incurs some potential liabilities that we need to have exempted. >> So the process is costing us money. >> Most of that cost is built into the >> Yeah, >> it's built in. So we don't pay a per hour rate for this. It's built into the purchase price, which >> Well, that was a good thing. >> We are probably CHA's worst policy customer of all time, if I had to guess. But it likely also does prevent us from getting other leniency with time in other places. Correct. If we're using a lot of that time. >> So there may not be a direct dollar cost, but there is a cost in time.

275There's a cost in reputation. >> Okay. So the the >> I'd like to second the motion that's on the floor to table these till next month. >> Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Um >> yes, Lawrence. >> Yes. regarding the policy committees. I think uh I mean my opinions uh say like people want a clean uh final versions to vote. So that's why I recommend the three readings. So the second reading will be any modifications and the third reading will be the clean uh final things we vote. So that's my uh suggestion and regarding the policy committees uh is very difficult for us during the summer time to find a good time. So I'm just thinking maybe we can do that in morning time or some other time so we can have a meeting together.

276>> That will be another uh think another thought I have and also the policy committee I think what we are doing is do some research discussion and also incorporate all the uh motions uh into the proposal presented to the whole board. So that's my my vision of uh what uh policy comp committee uh supposed to do. So we have a clear uh wordings motions to submit the whole board. So that make a whole board the board meeting easier and also make you um present Amy's job easier. He has already have list all things here in front of her. So she just go ahead each one discussion discussion world. So uh that's my uh excitation for uh for this uh policy communities. I think we can make that better. So uh and we can we can

277make these uh policy things uh going uh faster. Thank you. >> I would be happy to do three readings if we could move through some of these but I don't think that would necessarily help the issue. I'm getting two negatives from your fellow uh committee members. Um if you don't mind if it would be really helpful I think for the policy committee to meet work through these policies and let's just see if after our summer break we are able to move some things forward >> that'd be great okay UA you need to >> I just sent out the the uh August and September you guys are not available for that time or you want to change some other times >> we'll schedule >> okay we can talk so that's fine sure >> you just Uh

278two clarification questions. So when you schedule meetings, do you have to schedule face-to-face meeting? I mean in person meetings or you can meet online as well >> meetings. So we have to do them together. >> So you have to do it uh >> the whole process >> In person you publish the this kind of some some what we meet here >> even with the three people. >> Yeah. That's public meeting. Yeah. That's committees follow the open door law. So >> okay. And then you talked about earlier that you need to have school administrators um be in a meeting every single one. Is that the case? >> That's at the discretion of Dr. Ryder. He invites people to the meeting who he feels need to be there. >> Yeah. We don't we do not have all

279the administrators come. So if there's something that pertains to like the principal, I'll take that document uh to a principal meeting and get input and then bring it back to the policy committee. Typically in these meetings, it's Mrs. Croc me and Mrs. Roth. >> Okay. Yeah. Just I I just feel it may take a lot of meetings and for you to discuss I don't want to add too much burden on the administrators at the same time their input. It definitely is very precious and so maybe when the policy is in a good shape then share that with administrators. >> I think we still need some uh participations uh I mean input that's is very valuable and that's why it's very difficult for us to find the common time because I mean we don't want them

280stay here very late and we don't want them come here six o'clock in the morning >> so that's why >> staying very late how about we go ahead and vote >> let's let's do that let's do that >> what >> on tableabling we are voting on tableabling the policies >> table this policy for next meeting so >> okay thanks Okay. >> Yeah, there we go. Okay, those are so tabled. Dr. Grryer, go ahead. Give me your report. >> Tomorrow is our first teacher day with a district-wide staff meeting at 8:30 in the morning and then the continental breakfast will begin at 7:30 in the morning. Board members are invited to join us if available. Our first student day is Wednesday, and we're excited for a new year of learning and growth. I want to thank

281our administrators for their efforts in preparing uh for a smooth and safe start and to our teachers and staff for the preparation, care, and enthusiasm they're showing as we prepare to welcome our students. It's shaping up to be a great year and we appreciate your continued support as well. I'd also like to congratulate our band and their success and their efforts that they put into state fair band day and preparation. They were 17th this year and so they just missed uh sweet sweet 16 but they did a great job and I'm very proud of them and I certainly was proud of them when I attended uh their pre uh show. Uh I want to thank our um directors and I want to thank uh the students and families and parents who have supported this process

282because them our our band should be very proud of the outcome. I'd also like to congratulate Paul Helggerman and Marcelo Holmes on their retirement. You approved that and uh we are grateful uh for their years of service and we wish them happy retirement. Um Mrs. Krunk, I'm not sure I put this in the wrong spot. You've already done that. So Mrs. Krunk, do you have anything to add? And you'll say no. >> I do have accounts payable and >> yeah, >> are we doing that? So, I was right in that. I got confused because of >> But that wasn't intense. >> My brain's already asleep, so Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> All right. Yes, I can go on. Yeah. Claims for the period of June 5th through August 1st total 13,484,73944, including regular corporation

283expenses and the Wash Valley Education Center expenses. This document includes four payrolls over its two-month period amounting to $5,59,180 and the June debt service payments that we had to make. I've provided the final fund report for June 2025 in your board packets. Total cash on hand and all funds was $32,365,848. The education fund at a cash balance of $7,280,237. cash flow through the month of June showing the flow of revenue and expenses during the first half of the year for the education referendum and operations operations funds were also included. >> And I apologize too, Mrs. Krunk. My thoughts were back up at the um consent agenda and so I was like, well, we did that a while ago, but um >> it feels like days. Okay, I have one really cool thing from the RDC

284that I want to share. They are getting these very Star Treky magic uh translator doohickeys that they're going to have on their body cams. And if I am talking to George and George speaks to me in Spanish, it'll automatically translate it into my ear in English and then whatever I say into it will translate back and speaker him in Spanish. And it's the coolest technology ever. And they approved that in June. So, I think not only will that be great for the police department with um the variety of languages that are spoken here, but also our SRO's will have them. So, I think that'll be really neat for families who may come in and need to discuss something or for students who may uh need them. So, I'm very excited about that. And that's all

285I have to say. Go ahead, George. Um, mercifully, the state and federal legislative sessions are mostly over. Uh, I highly recommend everybody look at some of the things that the ISBA sent us because they sent some very useful summations of all the laws that were passed, particularly HA 10,0002, which has a lot of provisions in it. Uh, several dozen things were repealable from the state general education law. Several dozen more things were approved as part of the general education law. Um, one other special note, uh, it doesn't affect us directly, but it does affect the community at large is that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's funding was pulled back and as a result, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has decided to close entirely. Now, that body was a a funding organization that sent funding to

286public radio and public television member stations so they could either buy programming from PBS and NPR networks or to put on community programming. So, that is a loss that hopefully the members of the community will take into account and perhaps uh decide to donate to our public radio and television stations. >> Thank you, Lawrence. Go ahead. >> Yeah, I don't have anything to report. >> No report. Okay, Dea, and I also don't have a report. The meeting's tomorrow and mark your calendars. The cupcake run is September 21st. >> Okay, David, >> since I wasn't here in June, um I'll report back to May. Kasein Family Park opened in May. The parking lot is always full. It's a fantastic park. If you haven't been there, you really should go. Otherwise, things are going really well. Uh,

287summer camp is now over. Um, it was packed all summer. Great programs. Um, things are going swimmingly. >> Great. Literally, Rachel, >> um, the ISBA president's round table is this Wednesday. I'll be facilitating that on behalf of region 4. Um, there was a bill summary that came out from COSBA today about um, some year 2026 appropriation bills. um those uh largely rejected Trump's uh President Trump's proposed cuts that would devastate working families. Um and it does protect um some important educational related programs. So that is a new report out and I am assuming Dr. Reiner you received it. I just got it this afternoon and it's very long so I have not read the whole thing but it's new news. Um news from the West Lafia Ed Foundation. Um the um alumni association so far

288has met with four class reunion groups including the classes of 1999 through 20 or 2002. Um they tooured through the school in August 2nd and they held a combined reunion um led by the class of 2000. This is so disturbing. Who celebrated their 25th anniversary. Um the alumni association is busy planning the um homecoming tailgate. That will be please mark your calendars. Friday, September 26th. Um the class of 1975 is planning to participate as part of their 50th year reunion um activities. The school supply drive wrapped up at the end of July. Um we they are very grateful for the many donations they receive from the community so they have a nice supply for our students who need it. Um the foundation appreciated the opportunity to partner with the junior senior high school counseling team

289for the new student orientation and openhouse today. Uh, in particular, a shout out to Lauren Alexander and the Alexander Group for providing Gibson Shaved Ice and the many community partners who participated in the event. Last but not least, you may notice um at the back of West Lafayette Elementary School, the nature center pavilion is underway. Um, it is being built with memorial gifts contributed in the memory of Colin Kippen Brock um who was a paraprofessional at Wills at the time of his passing. Colin donated his time and talents um when he was there u maintaining the nature center for students um really brought that forward. So it's very appropriate tribute to him to put that pavilion in. Um it is going to provide shaded classroom space in the nature center. Um and great thanks to

290the Kippen Brock family for their very thoughtful and generous gifts. >> Thank you. and UA report and no committee report but just like to share some of my observations this afternoon. I went to the high school for the uh student orientation later the meet your teachers walk through and it's so impressive and at the auditorium it's almost four for the the so many parents and attended the orientation and the principles and the school counselors answer so many questions and is yeah it's super helpful and afterwards we got to meet many many teachers and I at that point I always feel you know I wish I can be a student here. It's just so exciting and really look forward to the new semester and we have such a wonderful community. People are so engaged and supportive

291and teachers staff members so wonderful and feel very grateful. >> Thank you very much. Our next meeting, uh, we have a work session if needed on September 8th at 5:00 and a regular board meeting on the same night at 6 here. And, um, I wish everyone a wonderful new school year. I need a motion, please. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Moved by David, seconded by Lawrence. All shoot, I didn't do the buttons. There we go. All those in favor hit a button. Close enough. Forger.