WLCSC - Regular Board Meeting June 9, 2025

001That helps. Hi, welcome to the board of uh board of school trustees. We're going to go ahead um and start by honoring our retirees this evening. And I've asked some of my colleagues to read their biographies because I talk enough during this meeting. So, um, George, would you like to go ahead and tell us about Mrs. Leisure? Business teacher Jana Leisure is retiring after a total of 12 years with the school corporation. Janna's journey with West Lafayette schools goes back to her childhood. She graduated from West Lafayette High School in 1983. She began her career at the high school in 2011 as the front office secretary. In 2015, she moved to the media secretary position where she remained until 2020. During her time at Westside, she was able to finish her bachelor's degree in business

002administration and then her MBA. From there, she received her business teaching license and taught elsewhere for a few years only to quote come back home in 2022. She tells us the saying, "Home home is where the heart is," truly relates to her time at Westside, and she has enjoyed every phase of it. During her time with West Lafayette schools, Jenna served as a faculty sponsor for Girls Who Code, which gives students chance to learn coding in a supportive and engaging environment. She also served as faculty sponsor for future business leaders of America. Jana took on the role of champion for the 3E grant where she mentored students in partnership with Greater Lafayette Commerce. This was a yearslong commitment to developing professional collaborative relationships for students. Janice says that she learned that teaching is more than

003just following educational standards and objectives, which are no doubt important, but some of her favorite moments came from talking to students about their future by highlighting the many career paths in business in her classes and college could open up. She says she loved researching scholarship opportunities and careers, creating budgets, teaching credit and debt management, home and auto purchases, writing checks, and balancing a checkbook, even filling out a 1040 tax form. She tells us it was an honor to be able to share it with the many students in her classes. With deep appreciation for her many years of dedication, we celebrate Jana's retirement and the lasting impact she has made on our school community. Great. Thank you very much. Um, Lawrence, would you like to go ahead and read Kathy Wolves? Cassie Wolf. After more than

00430 years of dedicated service to uh to the West Lafayette Community School Corporation, Cassie Wolf is retiring from her role as an elementary school teacher. Is beginning her career in 1993. Cassie has built a lasting legacies rooted in rooted in the student centered learning, compassion and community engagement. Affection affectionately known by her student as the wolf pack's classroom was a vibrant hub of curiosity discovery and academic growth from the sectioning oval palace to designing destinating city spaces. Her hands on projectbased learning approach brought the curriculum to life in unforgettable ways. Her classroom was a place of challenge, growth, and high expectations where students was inspired to raise to the occasion because they know she believed deeply in her potential. Through real world applications, Cassie empowered her students to take ownership of their learnings, fosting independence,

005responsibility, critical thinking, and lifelong skills. Cassy's impact reached far beyond her classroom walls as chairperson of Cumberland Cares initiatives which involved in which involved to include the beloved schoolwide popcorn sales. He guided her student in meaningful service learning under the moto help us help others. Her students lead every step of their process. Creating advertising, making announcement, toling orders, managing delivery, and the cleaning up. The fundrist supported a wide variety of courses including disaster relief, school memorials, local first respon responders, the West Laf K9 unit, Wolf Pack, animal shelters, and the West Lafayette elementary school students and the families in need. Through his uh through this work, Kathy taught her student the value of compassion, generosity, and the community mindedness. Her classroom was always a place where the love of giving matched the love of learning.

006This message for this message from Sarah Delini. Uh Kazzy took uh pride in supporting our young learners as they grow uh in their independence and responsibilities, organizations, study skills, life skills, and real world applications of a learning targets were the hallmark of Casey's classroom. When walking into her classroom, the sound of wonder, investigation, and the collaboration could be heard daily. Her love of children through each day and and her care for the teaching profession was evidence. Cassie will be missed and we wish her well in her muchd deserved retirement. Sarah Delaney, we are deeply grateful to Cassie for her decades of passion, leadership and heart. She had made an ineliable difference in the lives of her of her students, colleagues, and the community. We wish her all the best as she begins this exciting new

007chapter. Thank you. Thank you, Lawrence. And I I should note that we have virtual UA today. Um, and we're sorry for the the noise in the middle of that. And um no, but we'll get that worked out. And uh our last retiree is being read by Rachel. Did it work? She can hear Amy. Good. You can hear I can I can hear Amy. Wonderful. Thanks. Um yes, Beth Sher. Um Beth came to West Lafayette Junior Senior High School in August of 2012. She had 17 years of prior K through 12 teaching experience in special education. mostly in the Indianapolis area. When Beth took the job at Westside, she said she was looking for a part-time job and she agreed to take a full-time position and kept it for 13 years. Um Beth's bachelor's and master's

008degrees are both from IU. She tells us there have been some interesting days at school leading up to IU PU football and basketball games over the years. Um and some interesting days after those games as well. Um she says it's been a lot of fun, whatever the outcome. Beth served as department chair for five years during her time with West Lafayette schools. She also sponsored the chess club and the Westside Unified Club at the junior senior high school. In Beth's earlier teaching years in Indianapolis, she coached Special Olympics figure skating, bowling, and track and field. Beth tells us that providing quality chances for all kids to be involved in the community is important to her. She says that although she is retiring from her special education teaching job, she hopes to stay involved in some

009of these programs that provide great opportunities for all kids. She says she considers herselves very herself very lucky to have found such a great place to close out her teaching career. Some comments. Uh getting to work with Beth has been such a privilege. She is a passionate special educator, an inspiring mentor, and an incredible colleague. Beth's support, kindness, and dedication have made a big difference in so many lives, including mine. That's Carla Girk. Beth is an incredibly hard worker. She is detail oriented and has helped keep us all on track. She goes above and beyond every single day for students and staff. We are so lucky to work with her. That is K. Stevens. And finally, Shelby Johnson says, "Beth Sharer puts the special in special education. She is one in a million. Her mind

010works in ways that often leave the rest of us wondering how she always thinks of everything. She has worked tirelessly over her career to support student success. She has been a true friend and colleague, and we will miss her dearly. And I will add one more to that. She is a big part of the reason why my daughter is a senior in special education this year. So, she's inspiring the next generation of educators as well. We intend our we extend our sincere gratitude to Beth for her many years of exemplary service and unwavering commitment to education. Thank you so much. And I'd like to note that our uh representative Chris Campbell came to um give plaques to our retirees and we appreciate you being here. And um in addition to virtual UA uh David is

011out of the country so he will be unable to join us. So I think that's all my notes for the good of the order. Congratulations to all our retirees. And the next item of business is communication from the audience. And we have Carl Janich. Come on down. Note agenda. wanted to note that on the consent agenda on the calendar, the August meeting has been moved to the first Monday of the month in consideration of our new um hires so that we can affirm them and get them fully on board uh prior to the beginning of school. So, with that, uh we'll move on to the consent agenda. Um, I want a motion to pull off the accounts payable. Um, this is a unique month where we have an additional document. So, it would be helpful

012in my view to clarify what we're voting on. So, I'd like to pull that off. Is that something that you could ask a question or is it something we need a fully separate vote on? So, my understanding is consent agenda. There's no discussion, but Right. But to streamline things if So, however you want to have it, it's just for Dr. Griner to clarify that we're not just voting on the accounts payable, but what other documents we're we're voting on. I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean. So, in other months, we vote on just the accounts payable, but this month they've added an additional document. So, I just want clarification just so that it's clear what we are voting on pre-approval for. Oh, okay. Would you like to explain? Yes, I'm I'm happy to do

013that. Yes. And it if we're good not pulling it as long I'm fine with that. So the uh um the pre the the memo that you you've received from Mrs. Kron is when we're working with Tarquette, they've requested because they're putting a lot of materials into the work initially and they had originally requested could we be paid in advance and the response was no, the work needs to be done. So it wouldn't come on that we're requesting payment, but that we're requesting payment when the work is done. So it looks a little different as Mrs. Mumford stated. And therefore, the board is voting to approve payment assuming that uh the work is done. So once we've verified the work is done, that way we're not being presumptuous. We're not agreeing to pay them until the

014work is done um for that portion of the payment. Does that make sense? Okay, great. Thank you. Perfect. Okay, then um I need a motion on the whole consent agenda, please. Rachel, we'll move to approve the consent agenda for tonight's meeting, please. Great. And we're in second. Um all right, all those Oh, buttons. All those in favor? How are we going to do UI's votes tonight? We have to roll call because she's we have to do roll call. Roll call. Perfect. Okay. Um in that case, UA your vote. Yes. Yes. Rachel, yes. Dea, yes. Lawrence, George, yes. And that means we are six out of six for this evening to approve. Okay. Next. Next. Next. Next. New business. Dr. Grryer, talk to me about the strategic plan. I thought I was on Was that not

015on? No, I apologize. Regardless, thank you. And then highlight major goals. From there, Mr. Jones is going to entertain questions from the board. He'll take comments uh to get to a final edit for approval. Once the final comments uh from the board have been reviewed by administration and Mr. Jones and final revisions are made, the plan will be placed on the August agenda with a recommendation for the board uh to vote for approval. Mr. Jones, at this time, would you please present uh where we are with the plan and then facilitate questions. Thank you, Dr. Good evening, everyone. Great back. We are almost there with this plan. It's really exciting. Just as a really quick summary, we have collected nearly 2,000 survey responses. We had meetings at every school in graphing workshop for staff and

016community members. Virtual meetings and it was really a wonderful experience. that you have before you represent the comments of many members of the community and so we have a detailed strategic plan there and then a one page over so I would welcome any comments or questions so that I can take some detailed notes from all of you to prepare a final draft for your consideration in the near future. Okay, GEA. Um, my first question is I'll just go in order of the goals if that's okay. Um, 2.3A and 2.3B. I just wondered if you could clarify a little bit more what this actually would look like. Yeah, I think the format itself can be determined. I think the vision of these statements is to say we know that West Lafayette is an amazing school district.

017Unfortunately, some families are choosing other educational options. So, how do we really celebrate what we do and there are so many numerous things. What does that plan look like to communicate those excellent educational opportunities so that every family that comes across West Lafayette as an option is well aware of all the pathways for their students regardless of their given talents and So is it just the three of them? It looks like the super superintendent, communications coordinator, engagement specialist, they're just meeting together and going to create a plan themselves. Is there data being given to them from what was collected with this? Like what does that pathway to get to this look like? That's a really good question. the the far right column is meant to indicate that those are just the leaders of the work,

018not to represent the only participants in the work. And so the data, some of the data that might go into this plan is a result of what's been gathered through this process. But it also requires some more analytical data of transfer reports that the state publishes as well as more anecdotal evidence from our successful alums, our staff, and and other community members who want to highlight C. and opportunities for the community. I don't know if others want to add on that process piece. I think you hit the nail on the head. Does that help? Yeah. Okay. Can I say though, I do feel like um a lot of what has been described in terms of anecdotal from alumni and other engagements in community, a lot of that is redundant to the work of the education

019foundation. And I just think we have to be con, you know, um, consistent in, um, collaborating with them on those types of things, um, rather than just going out and and wasting energy on recreating work that they're doing. I'll make a beful that possible redundancy. I have a couple, but I'm happy to Please. Okay. So, my next one is about 3.2. Um, and the question is it talks about the sorry have to find there's just so much. Um, it says evaluate assignment homework and assessment systems to promote rigor while minimizing unnecessary stress. So I take that ri promote rigor to mean kind of depth and quality of assignments versus just a bunch of extra work. And so it you know kind of that critical thinking instead of just rope memorization is what we're I think

020we're good at and what we're encouraging if I understand from the terminology. It feels like in 3.2 two, we're addressing the workload and saying, "Let's look at that." But then we don't have anything that's kind of addressing that academic rigor about what can we be doing to encourage this higher level or like it feels like the um goal encouraged two things, but yet our actual measure only encouraged one part of it, if that makes sense. I think that's really strong feedback. And the word rigor there is meant to convey a lot. And maybe it's worth unpacking that a little bit. It's meant to say that for those students that are either on grade level or not yet performing on grade level, we're giving them developmentally appropriate task to extend their learning and accelerate their learning.

021It's also meant to say that um homework is not just busy work. It's meant to elevate learning even for those students that are advanced. And so I think it's really wise to maybe add a word or a phrase there to empathize about scheduling and also making sure we're aligned on that term. I think that would be great. On that note though, I do think that it's important to recognize that our teachers are the educators and um different students. Some students benefit from repetition and practice and some students benefit from um really uh aggressive timelines to get through content. And so while I agree that you could round that definition out a little bit, I would be I would struggle with any language that would uh would try and bind teachers to a particular methodology because

022ultimately it's their classroom to determine and know their students and work through what's best for them. So I just I wouldn't want to swing that too far the other direction. If that makes sense. It does. That's a wide classroom. I think Dr. Yan had a hand up. Go ahead. Uh, thank you. Uh, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Yes. Okay, great. Um, I think a Sean said uh he he will forward my questions to you. Not sure you have read them. I do have them and I have read them. Yes. Okay. I have um suggestion also questions. My um my suggestion is for the Yeah. First of all, I I think I It's great to see the plan and I I do feel that it address the common problems I often hear about and

023also I like the slogan in I mean the EA uh excellent education for all but just a slight modification. And I wonder whether we can change that to excellent education for everyone and because first the everyone feels more personalized and it shows that we care about each individual's educational needs and plus I think excellent education for everyone give us a strong uh um acronym like E we can call E cubed or E triple E or something kind of easy and to memorize and that's of my suggestion and then as for my questions and oh by the way I think in the previous um discussion we talk about the the two names and I I I remember some actually some other board colleagues recommended that I think that's a good idea and another uh several questions

024I have are first and what are the building committee couple places you mentioned that I wonder who will ser on those committees how those members will be selected and my second question is how will teachers parents and the students participate in each of the initiatives I think they are great initiatives I just wonder you know how different people participate in to brainstorm ideas or implementation and the next one is what's the uh board's role and beyond the listed leaders for each category because the board the board members are not listed there but I I wonder at what point the board board members will be part of it and the next question is how will the the we evaluate the result of each of the initiative and the last one is the timeline and so yeah

025you don't have to answer all those questions at this time but just when I read that that's the things I have in mind and uh I I think uh Sean already shared that with you. Yeah, I have those questions right in front of me and really appreciate them. I'll tend to answer the ones I feel most comfortable with and then I'll look to Dr. Grryer to jump in or others. Um, I think the three E is actually a really good marketing suggestion. I'll refer to this group. I mean, I like that E. You can kind of use that in a variety of ways. I also think that the word everyone, although it's a synonym for all, does emphasize more of an individual, everyone. So, I I align with your thinking there. The team does here.

026I see some nodding semantics. Okay. This allows us not to worry about it. Um in terms of the building committees, uh intentionally they're not specified here. The idea is that the building leaders and the district administrators form those committees. Dr. Gr, I don't know if you want to jump in on those. I think you're exactly correct and we would want to go back and discuss with the admin admin team. Um, and it might be now if the board wants that now or it might be more appropriate to as we're tackling it to communicate like we do and take input, but um, I would hesitate to make a decision right this minute because I think you'll want to facilitate with the leadership and then we can communicate that back and forth with the board before the

027board votes to approve if the board is wishing to have those committees defined beforehand. And your very excellent question about how teachers parents and students involved. There's an underlying assumption that they're involved in both or all of these in a really meaningful way. And if we need to spell that out in some front matter, like there's a a letter that Dr. Grinder will send out with this strategic plan and sort of set the few pieces that are contextual. Um, we can certainly do that to be appropriate, but we didn't think it makes sense at this time to put to list like all teachers as leaders of an initiative because the reality is there probably be a handful leaders on different initiatives in different In terms of the board's role, um, again, I'll refer to all

028of you and and the district team. You know, the board's role of governance and accountability is paramount. I I don't want to speak for any of you in terms of your desire to get in the weeds and creative documents or deliverables or lead meetings. And that's why you're not listed in the column, but it's not meant to suggest at all that your voice is not critical to the works. And then the results of each initiative, the progress measures that are listed there in that middle column. We would hope that on an annual basis, at the minimum, we're collecting the quantitative and or qualitative pieces. And this body is reviewing that as reported by school leaders andor the district so that you can provide the governance and accountability and feedback that's necessary to continue making progress

029on the plan. And the timeline, we try to be mindful that this is a new plan. There are lots of moving parts. We tried to phase in some of the initiatives happening in the first year or first two years and then postponing the achievement of some other initiatives to years three through five. We know that we can do multiple things at once, but we also want to be mindful of the load we're putting on our back. I welcome your feedback to those responses. Yeah, thank you very much. I I appreciate the information. It's very helpful. Thanks. Wonderful. Thank you. I have a question for you. Um, in the leaders column for all of these, where did those come from? Who made the decision to list the specific types of leaders for each initiative? Yeah, that

030was a discussion that I had with the district team and thinking about who would be best situated. We welcome your feedback on if those are the right roles and people to listen. And I'll add that it originated with Adam putting what he thought and then we gave details like if there was a leader that it made sense that he wasn't even aware we had in the district. Um we we gave him that input. So it originated with him and as a draft and then we met as a team and had additional dialogue with him and this is a strategic plan not a strategic specific assignment. Right. Right. Okay. So all even once we approve the plan all this can be changed at a granular level. Yeah, I mean I think very it's very important to

031say that I hope that this is the living document. It's can be folly to try to predict what's going to happen three years from now especially in today's world. So this is our best intentions today and if leaders need to change progress measures with tweak initiatives I think that there's great appetite for doing so. Anyone have anything? um on goal four and at the beginning it talks about expanding capacity. Um I feel like that lends itself to possibly some confusion that we're not looking to grow the school district through this goal. Um it feels like if I understood it correctly, it's more about strengthening our ability to meet needs. Um, so that one just was a concern that had caught my attention and actually another community member actually had made the same comment to me

032asking about if we're talking about expanding capacity and I was like no that's not what I think the goal of this is. So I just didn't know I mean I can have dual meeting meetings. Um, so just to clarify I didn't know if that would be something that would be considered. I want to make sure I summarize the concern accurately. So we are not to your val one thing you said we are not talking about expanding facilities expanding student seats other than serving reducing the number of students who choose to leave west um about expanding service capacity for student and families it may be really helpful to clarify that yeah even put the word service capacity in front of it I think would okay quickly just clarify because it's not you know we could be

033wanting to do either one in my view um with that Deja, may I um please the patron you were talking to, were they concerned about a potential expansion? They just asked on that one. They had seen that we had the transfer discussion also on our agenda. So they said, "What are your plans?" And I said, "There's been no discussion. No, I mean this is all I have no idea. We're just chatting." So that was what I had gotten so far. Great comment. Thank you. Okay. So another question is goal 4 point under goal four the progress measures 4 A and 4B to me they felt like just continue what you're doing and to me that's maybe not the strongest goal I think can't we do more so that was what I was wondering is can

034we make those stronger or do more than just saying keep supporting them what action items could we act you know when we come back as a board what could we say that they have actually done to consider feedback and strengthen relationship versus what it just looks like today was is a question and I don't know I mean you could convince me that it's good just to say continue. I didn't know your thoughts. I'll share how we landed here. These these progress measures went through a couple versions. They didn't start as continue. They landed on continue. The reason that that phrasing was used was to acknowledge that there's already strong work in these areas. That's not that there isn't some opportunity to add some concrete qualitative or quantitative measure there and I'm certainly open to that.

035Dr. Grryer team, would you care to add any context there? And feel free to chime in here. Um, Anna, since it's Dr. Grryer and team, but as I recall when we all had the dialogue about it, it was about exactly what you just said that we are partnering. We do have parents that come to the table and serve in amazing ways in parent counsel and even in amazing ways at home supporting our students and their learning. I mean, we are blessed in this community. So, not only do we want to embrace what we have and continue to celebrate that, but we do want to continue to understand uh perceptions, perspectives of of families and continue to not only celebrate what we have. It's wonderful that many districts may not have to the level that we

036have but to even go further if we can expand and so that's why continue was important to the team. Am I recalling that correctly Mrs. R? Thank you. Um my in addition to that would be that while the relationships and the practice and the policy are consistent, the external situations, funding, um societal changes, those types of things, those are going to continue to change. And so while it might sound like a static piece, it's really a progressive piece to say we're going to continue to make this important and we're going to continue to address changes and challenges as they come along with our families. So that's how I interpreted the reading of that was that hey society we're ready to go. Let's get it figured out. That's that was my lay person's interpretation. I I

037appreciate and if I recall Mr. Jones, am I correct, too, that in this one, we saw comments in the surveys where I may not come to the parent council meeting, but I'm here to serve and support our schools, even if it's a donation or walking during um during a referendum. I can't come every day and be a part of such and such, but I want to be a part and I am a part. And I want to be I want I want it to be known that I'm always looking for ways to support our schools because I value learning even in bite-sized opportunities. That that's what emerges the feedback. Like I may not be on a council, but I'll do that one afternoon because that's important to me to be have that opportunity to serve.

038You know, this been occurring to me in real time. So, but maybe instead of continue and I really like what you said, Miss there's a need to say something like continue and maintain excellence of these elements. Is there a reaction to that? Thank you. I guess I'm just wondering how can we push it further? To me, the strategic plan seems to be saying we are amazing. We know that. How do we be better? And to me, those two goals is just saying, "We're doing a great job. Let's keep doing a great job." And I'm saying, "Wait a second. Here's our opportunity to have some like pushes. How can we support and partner with the parent councils and do even better? how can we gather input than we're already doing? Um, and so that's where I

039guess I'm trying to see, you know, that we're excelling in it and stuff. I think great, but I could have said that a year ago before you came and spoke to us and put this together. What is the strategic plan giving us is I guess what I am hoping to see on that one. And that was actually my same question with goal five. um you know so it's I think it's the same conversation is continue reviewing um so I would love to see more progress or innovation like I would love to see our parent councils and these topics where we're a leader in it not just continuing the status quo I guess is what I mean on on those two points with those words is what I was thinking of what about the word build

040build partnership with I but I guess I'm like by doing what I guess is what I'm thinking What I am hearing is a desire for aspirational language, right? That just says, hey, this is what we want to accomplish. Perhaps it is, but I also feel it's important to not necessarily tie our administration to say, you know, hey, we're going to we're going to accomplish these three things by the time we get together next year. So, I would I would feel more comfortable with that kind of aspirational language that says, um, consider new opportunities. So, we're going to evaluate this and we're going to consider new opportunities. So just simply adding in a little bit of I mean it's a few words um would make sense to me. The goal does already say that we're going

041to identify areas for continuous improvement. Maybe we just put that at the start. Very helpful feedback. Miss Mford, is there a desire? Is there a progress measure in mind of a action that you think would reflect that initiative for four or five? Okay. Turn on your mic. Um, but I'm happy to ponder that a little bit more anyways and think, like I say, I was just hoping to see something. You know, what are other school districts? I don't know. We have a lot of resources in our community of people and it's and I've heard things of people that are like in this parent council, they do this. Um, I think it was even like Maria one time shared some things she did in Detroit with the PTA and how that was able to strengthen them.

042And I remember thinking, oh, that may be an option for ours. So maybe it's even something about, you know, gathering input of what are strengths in other communities that we could adapt in ours. Not saying ours isn't great, um, but learning from others, gathering input or something like that. I just I think we're awesome, but I would like to see us change, you know, be better. I think the unique wonderful challenge that you all have is you're up here, right? So maintaining that is an incredible achievement. That's what the discount. And then on the safety front for 51 um you know just un almost universally students, staff, families, community members said hey we feel really safe here. So good. You know, it's it was difficult to identify like what would it mean to be safer?

043Um because I think people do feel that they're safe in these environments. That's great. Is there anything else for the good of the order, George? Yeah, on the goal five, I think um in a place like this, even the act of asking makes people feel comfortable just to that they know that we're always looking for ways to improve. So even if we're already doing all the things that we know how, uh the idea that we're going actively going out to people saying, "Hey, how do you feel about this?" And continually taking the temperature, I think that's a worthy goal in and of itself. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Appreciate your work on this. um if we uh continue this dialogue, I think it's our plan to um bring this for a vote

044in August. So, um that is correct. And I'd like to say thank you again, Mr. Jones, for being Thank you. Okay, moving right along. We've got item number 11, the English department novel adoption. Mrs. A recommendation to adopt and purchase novels for select ELA classes at the junior and senior high school was included as part of the board packet. The recommendation titles were selected by teachers after considering the input input and feedback from families in an initial survey regarding preferences and other recommendations and after considering the review feedback from randomly chosen volunteer parent reviewers. You are asked to approve this recommendation. Okay. I need a motion, please. Rachel, make a motion to approve um the English department novel adoption as presented. Thank you. I have a second war. Thank you. Is there any discussion hearing?

045None. Uh we'll do the Oh, UA. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, I just made several suggestions in um on Friday and uh so I think uh yeah, just re repeat my suggestions. I think in the future first of all I I really appreciated that we have right now streamline the process the adoption process and uh and invite parents to provide feedback and I yeah I really appreciate that and uh just for the future I think it'll be helpful to and to send the link to the book with for example Amazon link or something where people can see the book directly and because and otherwise people may not have time to go to the library to see the book and during the limited uh time frame and uh also I I appreciate that it I think

046Sean said um the English government also got input from the community regarding book recommendations. I I think that's great because we have a very diverse community and it would be nice for students to read books from diverse culture and to increase their global competency and yeah I think that's great just to repeat what I said on on Friday. Thank you for reiterating that. Anyone else have anything? Okay. Um Ua I'll start with you again for the vote. to approve. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Rachel, yes. Dea, yes. Lawrence, George, yes. And I say yes. So that is 6. Thank you very much. Now we are going to move to uh the policies and this is going to be a new experience which is always fun and exciting and a little scary. Um so because we

047can't vote this or that, we're going to present the um policy as it was given to us and then each individual edit by paragraph will be um up for a vote. So Rachel, go ahead and Right. So first I'll thank um David and Lawrence. We had a really productive and Sean and Anna and Michelle and very very Roberta. Oh my goodness, a very productive policy committee meeting and really um were able to get through quite a lot and this format that you're seeing in terms of our documents to vote and discuss uh on the second reading is the result of that conversation and hopefully this format works well and we can continue it um on policies going forward. So, just as an overview tonight, we have um four policies that are up for second reading

048and then we have five policies that are new that are up for first reading that we'll get to after that. So, the idea is that we'll go through and we'll start with A125. Everything in black, black text is what was given to us by the attorney. So, that is the legal recommendation for our policy. In some cases, we had recommendations uh from board members for specific language. So, when you see that, it's in blue in the policy recommendation, and that's not in all cases, but uh if we have just uh pulled feedback from a board member and put it in there, it is going to show up in blue. And then you'll see that um there are some paragraphs that have a uh a green text in there and that is the recommendation of the

049policy committee. So we've reviewed it in red and green and said these are the additions we recommend as a committee and in red strikeout. These are the additions that we or the the things we recommend um eliminating from it. So, uh, as we go through, and you can see it on your agenda, each paragraph, we're working with the numbering of the paragraph system. And so, uh, if you go through, it's just just just what it sounds. We numbered them from beginning to end. So, um, if there are questions or feedback about the way that we're trying to do this, please let Lawrence or David or myself know that. Um, but hopefully this format makes it a little bit easier to vote. As Amy indicated, if you uh as we read through these, there will have

050to be uh a motion um for any particular paragraph. Um and if um and so I would ask uh Amy if we could allow discussion before the motion because otherwise it's not really going to work very smoothly. So if we could go out of order a little bit, that'd be dandy. Okay. Do you want to go ahead and give the uh rationale for the first one in paragraph six? Sure. So, A125, nepotism, conflict of interest, gifts, and use of corporation resources. Um, all of this is pretty standard fair and I think in general the policy committee felt that it was appropriate. If you get down to paragraph number six, um the initial policy or initial paragraph reads, "Any employee has reason to believe that he or she may have conflict of interest is required to

051disclose the potential conflict." We just added a little bit more precise language to say any schoolboard member who believes they may have a potential conflict of interest must disclose the potential conflict annually in January. So that's aligned with our organizational meeting using the disclosure form found here. and that here word will be a live link to the form. Um, a copy of that form and it's a state of Indiana form is also provided in your board packet. Okay. So, is this the point where you want me to ask for motion? If somebody wants to make a motion to accept paragraph number six with or without the green text, that would be what we're going for. That'd be great. I have a question. When did you say you wanted the order of questions? Now it's fine.

052Right before the motion. Sure. So, I don't know how this works. Do why don't employees do it annually? I don't even know who knows this. Why are only school board members supposed to do it annually and not employees? Dr. Reiner, that was one that you really led the conversation on. Do you want to touch on that one, please? I think that's more it's board policy and the board's voting to approve it. So, the board would need to do that annually. make a disclosure that if you're going to vote on approving something that you're voting on things that um that don't conflict interest me because this is all new to me. I had understood when we talked about this months ago that like in some school districts annually they have all employees and board members complete

053one of these forms. They reach out and say, you know, if there's anyone that has a conflict of interest, please fill out this form and we do it once a year. what I had understood from a previous conversation, but I don't know. I haven't Is that typical or is it only typical for an employee to do it there one time and then the board does it annually? I don't recall the district I don't recall the discussion. Um, but I'm not aware in a district I've ever been, I'm not aware of that happening. Yeah. Is that accurate? Are you aware of one I should ask? Both ways. you've seen employees sign that they're they have conflicts every year in Do you want to explain that because that's that's not something I've seen. Nope, you're not on

054yet. I'm sorry. There's And Anna, feel free to chime in on what you've experienced. I've heard it both ways. Um we we've we've had some that in my previous district that did it every year and then we had some that only did it if one came up at the time that it came up. I don't know a lot of how this even is works. You don't know an advantage or disadvantage. It's just it's just a housekeeping thing that Yep. So the board doesn't or the administrator andor the teacher doesn't vote to approve. So what are when you've seen it, what are they doing it for? Um they were do so employees were doing it if uh they were related to a board member. um if they were by chance there has been note of business

055that the school was working with or something like that. Um those are just the two that I can think of off the top of my head. It's been a few years. Sorry. I mean to me it seems helpful. It feels like this has been something that's been law for a long time yet it's not something that's been done in our school district. I think it would be helpful to just have it say, you know, any employee or schoolboard member who has it does it annually and then it's just a reminder to everyone. If you have something, you need to disclose it. There's no confusion. There's no anything like that is a thought, but I don't know what others think about that. Rachel, I I understand what you're saying and it is true that we could,

056you know, hammer every nail on this, but in my way of thinking, our teachers particularly, they already do an extraordinary amount of training. They already do an extraordinary amount of paperwork. They already do a lot of this. In the case of a a um spouse of a board member, it would be upon the board member to make that disclosure. And the spouse doing it also is is fairly redundant to that. presumably they both know they're married. Um so really it comes down to if um in that situation where somebody's maybe married to someone with a family member who owns a business, but given they're not making the decision to purchase, it's somewhat irrelevant to to that. Um ultimately board members raise their hand and take an oath to make the good decisions and follow the

057law and ultimately are held accountable for those divid those decisions and any perversions to those decisions. So I I'm that's my thought. Those are my thoughts. So in reading this uh I'm actually uh got a concern. So, if I'm reading this correctly, um, are we saying that employees cannot have a conflict of interest at all? Because it says employees shall not engage in or have a financial interest in any activity that conflicts or raises a reasonable question of conflict of interest with his or her responsibility to the corporation. Now, the very next set of words makes it sound like schoolboard members can as long as it's disclosed. You know, it's a good question, George. This is the the content was provided directly from legal counsel. So, my inclination is to say I have some confidence

058in their ability to to navigate any situations that arise. But because they're telling us that this is the language they would use, um when we were looking at this revision, it was just very important to us that we um we specify uh the form and um and that we make that form accessible for people to see. That was really what we were focused on adding on in this paragraph. Because the reading it could be interpreted as, you know, for example, if one of our teachers also runs an ice cream food truck, the district would be prohibited from hiring that food truck. And is that is that a road that we really want to take? What is Yeah, I didn't I did not read it in that way, but Well, in the previous paragraph, it says,

059"A conflict of interest occurs when a school board member or employee knowingly or intentionally may benefit financially from a contract with the corporation. So, first it would have to be a contract, not necessarily just a transaction. So if I own a cookie making business and the school purchases a hundred cookies from me, I may financially benefit, but that's not a contract. It's not um formalized in that way the way like a if I owned a tennis court rehab facility, it would be more of a contract. So, I don't know that we need to so much worry about the decisions that employees would be making if say their spouse were to own a retail establishment because that's not a contract, right? Well, it does say or a purchase. So, it's or a purchase. Well, it does

060it does wrap around. It does, but I I just think that it's more focused on the school board because we are the ones with the high value transactions going across our desk. You know, it's I don't think they're so much worried about 100 cookies as they're worried about a million dollar deal to refurbish the gym floor. I think that's the the scale of thing that we're looking at here that that it's Am I correct, Michelle, that it's more of a things over the level of $50,000 that would come across the board's desk as a contract. It would be that kind of transaction, not necessarily Amy's daughter is selling Girl Scout cookies and and she brings the list to school, right? it it's something involved with the operations of the school corporation operations like for instance

061I I will say that Cooko based upon the law I think we went above and beyond what was required by law now me because I make recommendations and Dr. Granner because he makes recommendations. We would disclose if we had a conflict of interest if anything were to arise because we're the ones making the recommendations. Right. But the um I think the meaning of the law is really the school board because you are the ones approving everything. Excuse me. Right. That that's how I read it too was that it's the big stuff. It's not the little, you know. Yeah. But that's kind of my worry. If we're getting to the point where we're talking about how we read something, that means it could be read in 10 different ways, which to me it feels like, but

062correct me if I'm wrong, George is talking about paragraph five that says about employees, doesn't talk about contracts, and then the other conversation has been about paragraph 8 that's talking about contracts. To me, there's different points being made. And it feels like that the employee discussion isn't about contracts. It's about that paragraph before. So, I don't know if we need to take send this back to legal counsel and see what they recommend or I don't know. It feels like we're not ready for this. Honestly, I think we should because, you know, normally you take a policy as its whole document and this particular conflict of interest policy, I don't think it does precisely what we want it to do. I would like us if you don't mind to please go down and look at 15

063and 16 so we can also have those discussions about this policy tonight. Absolutely. Um policy committee proposed revision to paragraph 15. Um you will notice that we've substituted non-monetary for nominal uh in both uh paragraph 15 and paragraph 16. Um the reason for that is is really to honor uh some segments of our community culturally believe it's very important to give um teachers uh cash as a sign of good fortune and and well wishes and that's culturally important and we want to honor and respect that. And so the idea of this is that uh we would allow a nominal gift. And yes, that is a subjective term, but we're going to leave that at the discretion of our superintendent to determine what nominal means. Um and that they could give, you know, this the small

064red envelope with whatever that token money is. Um and that would also include things of a cash value such as gift cards. So Okay. Does anyone have any issues with the word nominal instead of non-monetary there, George? I don't have any issues with it considering the statement about the superintendent shall develop such procedures that is necessary. I will just give you a gentle warning that you probably should keep so that you're consistent because someone will notice if one year you approve somebody getting $100 and the next year you approve somebody getting 250. I think we're more talking about things in the under $50 range is what we're we're in this small gift category here. Nominal, I don't know about your budget, but nominal to me is lower than that number. I mean, we we have

065to consider all the things because true. It's true. Well, while while I am a public employee, there are people that own startups here. So, their definition of small is going to be a little different. Fair. Fair. Okay. So the decision is to take this one back to legal for clarification on uh employees and um yes and the um nature of yeah and also on board disclosure because we do talk about disclosing things we know about in January but you may not always know what kind of contract's going to come up in October and there's actually nothing in there that says you need to disclose. It just says that you can't benefit. So, you know, like to say exactly what we're going to do and I'd like to put it in words that nobody's going to

066try and do something underhanded. I know we're, you know, legally bound by our oaths not to, but it's always good to say it in policy if we're going to have policies. So, maybe something along the lines of in January and as it may come up unexpectedly throughout the year kind of a thing. Okay. Mrs. Wick, can I make a request? Certainly. Would you state for Mrs. Julian to cut and paste exactly what you're asking? And that's important to me because if you were to just ask her what do you recommend, council's recommendation was what they presented you initially. The green is what the committee has put in. Right. So I think it's really important that we're very clear on what the board wants and we want to make sure that we communicate that clearly. Yes,

067I will do that. And I also would just like to remind the board um you know this policy has been trying to get going now for many months and we do have to move our way through policy. And so um at some point we may need to to make a vote and then come back and do some cleanup work if we're going to continue to move through the policies and get them done. So, would the board be interested in entertaining the policy without the green up there knowing then that we would we're going to do the annual disclosure for the board members. I think it's been a very long process, but it feels like the policy committee has put in some very clear like we're moving very quickly. Last month was, you know, as we're

068started this new process, it was just last month the first reading. I feel like they've done some great recommendations. we take, you know, taking three months to pass a policy with discussion to me seems reasonable. And so I don't see any reason to rush it when it feels like we have clear steps to find the answer and then be able to bring it forward next board meeting is my view. If I could clarify, this is uh in the A policy group and this while yes, we we renewed the first reading at our last meeting. it was actually brought in the first time many months ago uh and then stalled out as we were working through voting. And so uh ideally we'd be able to move through policies based on kind of their category uh the

069A's and the B's and the C's and the D's and that's how we're trying to work through them. And so I just want to remind everyone I'm not I'm not arguing that we shouldn't take this back to legal and get clarification on those issues. I just want to remind everyone that at some point we are going to have to potentially pass a slightly less than meticulously perfect policy in order to move through the process. Okay, thank you. Hopefully the next one will be uh less controversial. So that's right. Yeah, that wasn't controversy. That was discussion. All right. Discussion. It's it's making our attorneys do their jobs. Okay, fair Yeah. So basically we are going to send the both of these uh two amendments to the So what the yeah what the outcome will be on

070this one is that no one made a motion to put this this vote forward. They've given uh feedback on a couple ask for a couple clarifying questions. So I will type that up into the notes that we have and it'll get sent back to legal and we'll take it again next month. Uh we'll take it again in August. In August. Yes. Okay. So is it okay board chair if we move on to policy C475? I would love that. Okay, we move on to C475. It is the recommendation of the policy committee to approve this policy as presented with no modifications. Okay. Is there any uh discussion regarding school sponsored publications and productions? George, no questions, just a comment. Um, you know, just a small bit of ego. As a former journalist, I really appreciate the

071carve out where you won't prohibit students from criticizing the government. That's much appreciated. Our pleasure. I'm not going to editorialize. Okay. Um, so hearing no uh discussion, is there a motion regarding C475? Thank you. As presented. Great. Is there a second, George? Awesome. Uh, we are going to write down. Um, and I'm going to start. Um, my vote is yes. George, yes. Lawrence, yes. Dea, yes. Rachel, yes. UA, uh, yes. But there are some format issues and uh some extra space those things and uh before it's published whatever need to be cleaned up. Okay, we'll clean that up. Uh I think the spaces that she's referring to it's fully justified I believe and that's what's caused some of that spacing. Gotcha. Just it's formatting. Okay. Other than that though, what's your vote? Yes. Okay. Great.

072That is [Music] 64 C475. Next we have H200. Rachel, go ahead. H200 is relations with special interest groups. U policy committee reviewed this one and it's it's pretty brief and to the point and we make the recommendation to um pass it as written without any modifications. Okay. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Is there a motion? George second. Second to uh pass H200 as written. Uh UA, do you have a vote? Yes. Okay. Rachel, yes. Dea, yes. Lawrence, George, yes. Amy says yes. That is 6. Look at us moving right along. All right. The final one for this evening is H250. And I don't have it open yet. So Rachel, why don't you go ahead and talk to us about that? Sure. This is the school library material rep removal request procedure. Uh this is

073one of our longer ones. We do have three recommended changes um to this one. I'll cycle through those and then I also would like to address a couple of the comments that that we heard this morning or earlier in the meeting. The questions I'm sorry it's going to be morning for me all day today. Uh so um starting here first uh paragraph that I will draw your attention to is um as you scroll down after the two Indiana code citations um the requesttor should first discuss the item of concern with the school librarian. The only change to that is we've added a link to the removal request form. So specifically in the policy there will be a live link so somebody does not have to go try and find the form. Um, moving on down

074to par. So, I didn't I've just noted that we haven't done anything special with that. Moving down to policy committee proposed revision to paragraph six. So, this this is where you'll see in blue that was the text that was presented by one member uh as proposed language. We took the current text as well as the um the recommendation from a board member and we tried to to kind of condense those down into something that might fit and would still align with um legal council's uh interpretation. And so what we as a policy are recommending is a request for removal of school library material will be reviewed with consideration for the specific school where the concern originated. The committee may determine whether the material should be removed from the individual school library. So this kind of

075directly addresses one of the the questions that we heard at the beginning, but we didn't feel it was appropriate that the committee would make a decision on behalf of all schools. uh and that it's it can be very subjective based on age of students and and engagement education. So um that is the first of the changes to this policy. Do we want to go ahead and work on that one first or you want to go ahead and go through? Are there any questions I guess about that those changes? Um so there's a typo just whether the material I just saw that typo. Um so the question is just understanding the process if let's say they decide that the book's inappropriate for the whole school district that's a whole another so it would be done what's

076that view right so the way as we discussed this in policy committee and the the view is that the person would need to make that decision or that make that request per school and that would change the makeup of that committee. So the parents would be from that age of child that the or that the the people involved, not parents, excuse me, but the the staff involved would be most informed and closest to the child in question in that age group. And so uh intentionally we pulled district as a whole out. Um but a parent who wanted to make that or a community member who wanted to make that request for the form and the form does indicate the school of engagement on it. So, it just didn't feel good, for example, that um a

077high school teacher or a high school librarian would be commenting on literature that was put forth for a fourth grader. That wasn't going to be the best decision necessarily. Anything else? UA, do you have anything to say? Um, yes. I um so the uh the committee is mentioned multiple times in this document but it was only defined later in the document. I think it would be helpful to define the committee who will be the committee members the first time when the committee is mentioned. So otherwise people will be wondering who will be the committee then later they read the clarification. I think yeah it should be defined at the the first time when the committee shows up in the document. So the way that where it's placed in the document because that is an interesting

078kind of of view on it but where it is placed in the document is in the order of the process if that makes sense. So it's working from a process point of view. this is what the law says specifically. Um this is who may have a complaint about it, this is how they should bring their complaint forward. Um and so then the committee actually is fairly late in the process, which I think is why the definition of that um was a little later in the policy. Um the hope is that that I would just say I understand your point. And I agree with maybe the desire to rearrange things, but for me, all of the content is there and I I can also understand the placement where it is. So, I would be inclined to

079leave it myself. Obviously, we did leave it. So, but I I mean I I agree it could be shifted around in numerous different places inside this policy. Okay. Do you want to carry on and talk about the blue before we go? Well, so the blue, the green and red is the redistribution of the of the blue. So the blue would not be So somebody at this point would make a motion for either the green text or the blue text. They would make a motion for one of those to be voted upon. I see. Okay. Do we want to do that first or do we want to go on to nine and 10? Style choice. Up to you. Let's go ahead and talk about nine and 10 and give people a chance to think. Okay. Okay.

080Um so in looking at nine and 10 um and this again touches on um one of the comments made at the start of our meeting today but how can we limit um how can we can we limit abuse of this if that makes sense. So um this one in particular if the requester this is proposal from the policy committee and what we did is combined two paragraphs because it felt a little bit clumsy and redundant. Um but it reads our recommendation is if the requester is not satisfied with the recommendation of the committee. In other words, if if we didn't if the committee didn't find in their favor, right, and they were not happy with the the explanation given, a written appeal may be made within 10 school days to the board of school trustees,

081the appeal should be sent to the superintendent. The board will make its decision based on the recommendation of the committee and the appeal documentation if made at the next regular meeting of the board. And that al lines with the question again at the beginning about how to make it public. Uh if if the actual rationale needs to be published online, we uh in in reviewing this felt that um it was really appropriate to have the discussion happen in a public meeting. Uh and so it would be by our by the state's definition, it would be either a regular meeting or a work session. uh and then that conversation could be had in public and the community would be available and be available to comment on it. That felt like a healthier dynamic than read about

082it on the internet and decide if you're happy or not. And so that was kind of where we placed that that thing is to make it a little bit more um live in this. I'll also touch about I touch on the makeup of the committee. Um in particular um there was because we had a a pretty hearty conversation about including um students and andor parents in this particular committee. But we did feel um first of all the language says very clearly that it will include at a minimum uh these people. the superintendent has discretion if he wants to add a student if or a parent or other a specialist in the community. For example, if it were something that dealt with um certain topics, they might draw in uh a mental health professional, right? So,

083in other words, we're kind of asking our superintendent to make a great decision about who should be on that committee. Um but so that's why it says at a minimum. Um and and there is concern I think an in a decision to include a student on that in particular should be handled very cautiously um because uh it is quite likely that there will be strong feelings uh about a decision pro and or con and we would not want to intentionally put a student into an inflammatory situation and so that's a piece of it. Um along those lines, we also, you know, we had a lot of conversation uh in policy committee about what that means, obscene content. And the point that I I made to the committee and I'll repeat here tonight. Um there are

084very few examples in history where um somebody's done horrible things to a section of society or a human being and it has not been indecent and and sexual and abusive and violent. You can pick any. I mean, you could you could literally eliminate all of United States and world history um if you just said it can't be obscene by this definition of obscene by the state. And so I do feel like it's very important that these discussions um be had with also our goal of raising globally aware citizens, right? and citizens who understand real history um and and are doing so in the context of their school as opposed to Reddit or any other such thing. So, I I think that I would just uh I would that was a conversation that just was had

085that I would want to share with you um tonight that really the the desire and the way that we made the edits on this was to really place control uh into our superintendent's hands and into our educators hands, but also still respecting the law that says we need we need to follow along with this law. Um and addressing the con the other concern that I haven't touched on yet. Um with regard to what is an extenduating circumstance that's found at the bottom of this policy. The discussion that we had among that it would probably be truly a changing of of knowledge as we know it. It would be a matter of hey leeches work so we should write about leeches and then you know a hundred years later maybe we shouldn't put leeches on people.

086So it would be a change in what we know to be true and accurate information that would qualify as an extenduating circumstance or it would be a significant change in the community perhaps the demographic of the community or in the leadership of the school corporation or a staff member if somebody came in and said, "Hey, I really feel strongly about this. Uh I want to revisit this again." Um because what we know what we know can can change. Uh and so we wanted to leave that extenduating circumstance in there. Um, and then, um, finally, the one other recommendation, I would love it if we could say we would limit each person to one request at a time, but I don't think that's in line with state law. I think that we felt hesitant about that

087from a legal standpoint putting any further limitation on it. um than we did. If you'll note, there was one limitation that we did put in um that you know that we had a lot of conversation about and legal recommended to us um which is a first talk to the school librarian. Um and then b um to I'm sorry, I just totally lost my train of thought on just a second. um be to um put the request in but they can make a request one time. They can request they can't request the book year after year after year after year. Some of these books and some of these resources are quite long and it'd be very labor intensive process to review it year after year. War and Peace would be a full-time job for a whole

088group of people to get through. So, I didn't get it through at the one time I was supposed to. So, anyway, that's a lot. That's a lot. I've kind of gone out of order, but I if anybody has any questions, I'm sure Lawrence and I, we both This was probably the most discussed policy that we had in our prep meeting. And so any other things you feel like we've missed or you see, let me know. Ju, you didn't miss anything. Just some context. Um, that definition of obscene matter performance, unfortunately, that's almost verbatim language from a Supreme Court case from the 50s. And that definition hasn't changed as far as I know. And I think what the justice was trying to get at at the time was that it's going to be different depending on

089where you are and who you're talking to. So the the great quote from that case was, "I don't always know what it is, but I know it when I see it." And so our standards here of obstine may be different even than standards of obscene over in uh Benton or Fountain County. And that's okay. Well, if we want to talk about any war at any time, we want to talk about black history in America, if we want to talk about um the Holocaust, any of those things or atrocities against human that could be labeled as obscene. Yeah. And that's hopefully why this policy will give uh learned people and people in the community the opportunity to say no. Yes, I agree. And that was really the focus I think and Lawrence can weigh in on

090this, but I think we were trying to comply with the law, give a reasonable framework in which our school leadership and our educators and our community could voice opinions and have a respectful dialogue and make the best decision for kids. We tried to not put any more words in this thing than was necessary. Um, I really appreciated the comments from the community member and I would like to see the committee adjusted in our policy. I think we have a very active community and parents who like to be involved and I think should be allowed to be involved and not it just be at the discretion of an administrator. So, I think that we should add to it um that a parent should be on the committee so that it's not just, you know, school administrators

091making this decision. And then I actually really liked his point of bringing a student in. And I think we need to clarify in it if it's at the high school level, bring a high school student in. I personally don't um think that an elementary school or a middle school student needs to be on it is my view. But I really think that this generation of high school students, they see and view and experience the world very different than our generation. And I find a lot of value in having them give input. And I think that a student that wouldn't be comfortable with some of the controversy and other things wouldn't choose to serve on the committee. But we have some very active students. And so I think that it would make this policy be a

092true representation of what our community desires if we put a parent on every committee and when it's at the high school level um put a student on that. And so I would like to see that changed. I can make a motion. We can send it back. And then the other one that really resonated with me was um publishing the rationale online. Um, what it's saying is when we're ready to make the board's ready to vote on it, we're taking the recommendation from the committee, possibly the appeal, and we're doing and we're going to vote on it. It would be very nice if that rationale was in the board packet so that the community could come forward and know what we're even trying to vote on instead of waiting till the meeting, hearing the conversation, and

093then being like, well, we all disagree with that. And so I feel like if we want to hear from our community, um, number one, putting it online gives them that rationale and number two gives us an opportunity to hear from the community before we're asked to vote. Um, so both both of those suggestions really um, rung true. I thought the other ones were valid concerns for me personally. I don't know if they're super important at this point, but maybe better ones if we see an issue possibly adjusting the policy. Me personally, um the first two to me um I would like to see added and am happy to make a motion or recommend this go back to committee and talk about it. I don't know what the best way to handle that is. Rachel, uh

094I would like to address the point of the information in the board packet. All of our documents are in the board packet, so that's a given. That's not something we need to make a special vote on. If we have documents in our packet, they're all out there. So, um, that's just that's just how we do it. So, there isn't any need for that. I interpreted the feedback to be I'd like to have them be published like as a separate thing on the website and I don't really see that as necessary. The board packet would be released as usual and we would we would have that discussion. So, it's kind of asking for something we we already mandate. Um, I again so here I want to just communicate with you all the timeline. If we are

095able to pass this bill or pass this policy tonight, it will be in place prior to sorry it's been ISBA week. If we are able to pass this tonight, uh then it could be in place at the start of our school year, which I think is a very important timeline. If we are not able to do that, we're not going to meet until August the 4th. We're talking about three days or four days before school starts. Um, I I would ask the board to consider paragraph by paragraph with the vote and then uh if it doesn't fly, we can take it back. Um, we can take it back, but it'd be awfully nice to pass this one tonight and let our superintendent do his job. Da. Well, then I'm happy to just make a motion

096and have it all resolved tonight because I do think that there's not a lot of new information on adding that to the I think we have further comments first. So yeah, I'm just sharing that I'm have whenever you want that procedure and the second one about the packet that clarification and viewpoint that the committee will be sharing the documentation with the board in the packet that the community sees I think addresses that one. So I just want to clarify that. George, you know, I appreciate the sentiment of wanting to have a student and a parent involved on these committees, and I hopefully these committees don't come up very often, but I actually cautioned against putting a student and a parent on the committee because then the questions become, how do we choose the student and

097the parent? Does the parent or the patron who filled out the form feel like they deserve to be on the committee to make sure that their vote goes the way they want it? And then do we also I I respect our high school students. They're young adults and they're going to shape our future. But do we really want to even if we select them at random put a 15-year-old on this panel and have them take the heat potentially for the entire school for voting to keep or ban something that everybody else liked or didn't like. I don't know that I want to put any student in that kind of position. Any other discussion before Lawrence? Yeah, I think uh I I tend to agree with Dea basically. I think this uh very likely in the

098scenario is kind of parents submit something uh want to remove the books. If we include the parents into this committee this kind of we can you know we make a collective decisions regarding this issue so they will feel more uh be included uh processed and regarding the students I think um maybe senior junior students uh if they can join the committee that's maybe uh we can have some insight from them at least I mean the whole purpose of our education is so the students and uh we want to hear what they uh what they say and uh yeah I think it's quite a difference because generation to generation so I think uh that's a pretty that makes sense to me and u regarding u uh tonight's uh decisions there's several paragraphs maybe we can pass

099some of them and then uh we don't I understand we won't finish this sooner the better but uh We want to make a high quality decisions. We don't need the rush, you know, if we are not ready yet. So I think um regarding these committees, maybe we can talk about that back to the committee and the rest of the three the green one and the the blue one green one. Maybe we can vote on that for this meeting. So we can partially finish part of this and then we work on something else and next meeting we can you know these kind of things. That's that's my uh my approach to this policy. Thank you. Thank you. UA, what have you got to say? Uh, are you calling me? Yes, please. Oh, okay. Thanks. And I

100also agree. I think it would be helpful to have a parent representative to serve on the committee. Maybe for example, a parent council president who is typically elected, right? Or or I don't know. But anyway, that that's a a parent council leader. And I think either that person or that person can appoint somebody to serve on this committee. That's my first suggestion. Then my second one is I wonder whether that decision will be banner removal or cleaning or what what will be the result of the review and let's say if people universally say oh let's remove it or let's keep it. That's a simple decision. What if people have disagreement like half of people think we should keep the other half think we should remove it because it's a controversial book or something. I wonder

101how we deal with that situation and do we want to keep uh some thing in the middle for example I remember my younger daughter once bring back home a slip um saying Oh, if she wants to check out this book, she need a parent signature. A kind of a the book with a parent permission. I feel that that can be an option too. So it's in the middle not removal completely not keeping completely but with some caution because people may have different parenting styles believes and uh so we give parents more choices and so if they feel oh I'm okay for my kids to read this book then their kids can read the book. if they feel no I I don't want my kids to read this book for whatever reason you know religious or

102whatever I think it'd be good to honor the parents choice in that case and so just to give them a little bit more option there one is have parents to serve on the committee second is should we have another option besides removal and keeping the binary ation. Okay. Thank you. I don't know what the law says, but practically I I feel that can be a Rachel. Um, so first I want to make it clear this does not include classroom libraries. So this does not include that. This includes media centers in our schools. Um, and it does not include curriculum as I understand it. It's truly what is in the library. Um, and I would say that if a parent felt strongly about their child reading a particular book that had somehow been restricted that they

103could go to the public library uh and get that book for them um and or purchase that book or otherwise make it accessible to their child. The reality is that um you know I'm about to age myself terribly, but when I was a young girl pre-teen, uh are you there God? It's me. Margaret was like the big book that nobody's parents wanted to let them read. And so, of course, there was one copy that traveled around every girl in the group. So, I think that the idea that that kids aren't going to hand books over to one another is I mean, they're going to to do that. Um, but I would recommend, you know, based on this, I like Lawrence's idea of perhaps approving what we can approve tonight if we can agree on certain

104changes or I would suggest that we um do take this back to legal to ask for a clarifying point on the committee. Um, the policy given to us by legal did not include parents and students specifically. Uh I think we don't have real agreement as it sounds right now on whether or not parents and students should be included on that. Um I just want to point out to everyone that it is must include superintendent builds the team and it must include these people. It's not restricting anyone. He could call anyone and ask them to be on the committee. And he could call anyone to ask them to be on any given committee based upon the book, the age of student, the school, the administrative opinions, anything along those lines. Um hopefully he picks an odd

105number of people should there be a disagreement. I have a couple of thoughts. Um, first, this policy is not addressing what parents can let their own children read. It's addressing what individuals believe other people's children should have access to. And as such, if if a community member is coming to the high school library and saying, "No child should have access to this book. It is obscene and it should not be accessible to any children in this building, then it doesn't make any sense at all to have a child on that committee." Right? if if we're reading something that's so purant and obscene that it's dangerous to children, why would we put a child on that committee? I that just doesn't make logical sense to me. Um and second, when this issue of having parents versus

106teachers and so on has come up before, we've pointed out um that most or many of our teachers are also parents and they're parents of students in our district. Um most of our administrators, if not all, are also parents and parents of students in this district or recent graduates. So um almost definitionally if there are parents or if there are teachers on the committee they are also parents and understand from that point of view. Um but I do agree with you Rachel that we shall uh bounce this one back to legal with those questions. Would we like to go ahead and vote on paragraph six? Do we have enough agreement on that that we think we could get somewhere or shall we just can I maybe there would be a motion? I think these two

107par one is blue, one is uh green. What do you think? I mean maybe we can consolidate into one paragraph and then we vote or so they're the same paragraph but with edits. policy. When we met in policy committee, we agreed to put forth the green with the red strikeouts, but I didn't I wanted to honor the the member who put forward the blue text and so we left it in there and Oh, yeah. Yeah, I truly understand. Appreciate that. But I pro I mean probably we we consolidate them one uh one proposal, one motion and then vote or or we could maybe propose to vote to approve the green text since you're on the policy committee and presumably you've already gone over it. And then we could vote on whether or not the green

108text is what we want to stick with and or someone could propose through a motion to approve the blue text and we could vote on that and whether or not that should stay. Maybe. Yeah, let's do green one then then blue one. Okay. So you you're moving that we should retain the green text and not the blue text for paragraph six. Is that what I'm understanding? And then that will be uh for the blue the proposal of the blue tax probably if we pass the green one there's no opportunities for us to vote on that. You see what I mean right? So would you rather propose that we accept the blue text by a motion since we can't do an eitheror vote? Maybe you have both of them either or apples or oranges. They say

109two different things. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Probably we need to decide whether or not to include the whole district or maybe just school. I mean that that's probably the difference. So perhaps there's a motion from Rachel. Could I move that we accept um the paragraph uh six proposed language in green with red strikeouts? So that would be the policy committee proposed language. That is correct. Thank you. Is there a second to that, George? Thank you. All right, we're going to do a voice vote again to retain the green text for paragraph six, which would definitionally mean the blue text would not be retained. Does everybody understand? Okay, UA, is that a yes? Sorry, I can't hear you. Yes, I hear you. Okay, great. Yes, Rachel. Yes. Yes. Dea. Yes. Lawrence. Yes. George. Yes. And

110Amy is yes. So the green language stays 6, which means that the blue language, which is the second line on the agenda goes. And then um do we want to try to attack nine and 10 or shall we just bounce that back? I think 9 and 10 should be my my opinion is okay. Yeah, nine and 10 don't seem to be a subject of much conversation today, I think. And I just want to clarify with everyone to make sure that I have the notes correct, but what we're going to do is go back uh to legal and just ask the question about parents and students being added to the committee. Was there anything else in particular that we were going to include for questions on the bounce? Doesn't sound like it. Okay. I'd like to

111make a motion that we accept the revised policy policy committee proposed revision to paragraphs nine and 10 in green on the draft policy. Great. Is there a second? Lawrence. Super. Okay. A voice vote again to to switch to the green for paragraphs nine and 10. UA. Is that a yes? Yes. Okay. Thank you, Rachel. Yes. Dea. Yes. Lawrence George. Yes. And Amy's a yes. So that's 6 as well. Okay. We are not gonna we're not going to vote on the policy overall. We're going to take it back for that last question. Okay. Correct. Is the question can parents be on there? We're going to ask legal their recommendation on parents and students and if they have any other knowledge or experience about so they're going to recommend what they have in writing. So I think

112really the board's going to need to decide if they if we find that they can do it. Correct. I don't I think I would just like to bounce it back to legal. How I'm good with that, but I just want to make clear to you that they're going to ask they're gonna say it's the board's choice on what if they can. They'll tell you whether or not they can. They're not going to tell you what they should do. Yes. Yeah. Okay. We'll probably see that again in August is what I'm thinking. Okay. Thank you. Okay, that happened. So next we're going to be talking about um the first reading for A200 which is firearms weapons and destructive devices. Um policy A225 is reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect. A285 which is no distracted driving.

113uh B 100 which is board authority and philosophy and B125 which is duties of the school board. Those are all available online for first reading and Rachel has information. Well, I just wanted to kind of explain to everyone the numbers might seem to be a little bit out of alignment. What we asked uh Amy to do, if you'll recall last meeting was to release A, B, and I think C policies. Um, and then we went through and tried to capture all others, uh, or all that were in those cues. So, we've skipped around a little bit. And so, that's why you're seeing some from A and some from B. We're trying to sweep back and get everything and move them through and get caught up. So, once we get through these, I believe uh, this

114will be the last of the A's anyway that we have have wrapped up and finished. So, now this I want to point out to everybody if we bring back two policies that we had up for second reading next month and then we have an additional five policies, we're looking at working through seven in our next meeting in August. So, so maybe bring a lunch, do your homework, be ready to go. And I asked, could we take ones that need a bunch of discussion and just take it to the work session so that the whole community is not having to sit through? You know, I think most of us, we didn't have questions on several of these policies. So to me, they were ready to come up for a vote, we do it during regular meeting,

115but these couple where there's still a lot of understanding questions. If that happened in a work session, then when they're ready for a vote, then we put it on the agenda. And I feel like we're just a little bit more sensitive to it's the same amount of time for us, but community members who are coming to see what we vote on, it will make these regular meetings a little bit shorter. It's just one idea. Rachel, so my difficulty with that is a lot of our conversation, particularly about the library material meeting uh happened uh because of someone coming up and speaking at the start of our meeting today. And so I don't really care if it I don't think that it it makes much difference if it's in the work session or in the regular

116meeting. I don't care if it happens in either place, but the intent is to format these so that we could vote paragraph by paragraph and work through it. We are going to have the situation come up where you know we have things we don't expect. Great. That's but I wouldn't I wouldn't want to say oh sorry you came to our regular meeting to speak and we already talked about it in our work session. So that that doesn't that doesn't make much sense to me either. Thanks Lawrence. Yeah I think uh the Ritual I think uh my opinion is if we have some working sessions because we will spend more time working on the policies and a lot of details back for back for things. I think uh the working session working session from five o'clock

117will be better for us so we can get a lot of things discussed and we have the regular meetings we just go fast and those admin people stay here. I hope I want them get go back home very I I I used to work for a company and then the whole day is really long day from 7 8:00 until afternoon time is very tired. It is also you have some work I mean your home you have some commitment in home, take care of family, everything. So, I think we start when then we can maybe finish that soon. Yeah. Well, um do you have a date set for the next policy committee meeting? When is that? Yeah, we're working on that. We still uh we try to narrow down some one day, but we were still

118waiting for David's uh resility. He's he's I think he's out of country. So, yes. Yes. In Lawrence's defense, he had a great date planned and I had a meeting come up in conflict. So that's we're on round two of scheduling at this point. That's on that. Yeah, that's okay. But assuming that someone had a comment about one of the five I just mentioned or the two that we pushed, they could email the board and we could receive those comments or a board member could email the whole whole board before your policy committee meeting and that would maybe be more expedient because then it's all in writing and it's clear and everyone has time to think about it. That's very that would be very helpful. the feedback that we got early this time really we were

119able to have conversation about. That's right. Okay. Super. Hi. Hi, George. Um, maybe jumping the gun, but just for your awareness, I'm skimming through the first read policies now. A285 needs to be rewritten slightly because right now, unless I'm losing my mind, it looks like it only prohibits distracted driving while you're driving a school vehicle on school property. You're welcome to be distracted anywhere else. You own your own cars. If you're on your own car, school property, then it's fine. Yeah, it is. I I think that's an important distinction. This is the reason for the first readings really to put them out there and get all this stuff. You know, this it's everybody. Please read them. Yep, we'll do. Okay, I am in the wrong meeting. Okay, there we go. I got into Feb or

120uh May somehow. All right, next item that we are talking about is the transfer policy discussion and this is uh kind of a large one. Um there has been a change in the law and we are our current agreement with TSC doesn't necessarily align with the change in the law and so our we're at kind of a crossroads where we need to decide what we are going to do regarding transfer students. So, of course, we are going to continue to welcome the children of our staff and teachers. That's never going to change. Um but we haveundish 160 students from TSC who have transferred in and our choices are are we going to continue to welcome those transfer students and also transfer students from other districts or are we going to not welcome any transfer students

121which of course as we that's not actually accurate so the question is do we want to continue with the current practice knowing that we now cannot collect additional dollars or or do we want to open the in and in that situation those students are on TSC's uh ADM and the decision begins with TSC right and so do we want to continue that practice or do we want to consider opening the district and the pra the the decision ision is with this board regarding what is put in place with regard to policy because now you can't collect the difference anyway. And so if you do that it'll be through a lottery system. We would set the dis the uh numbers to ensure that we're in in a common practice of keeping consistent class sizes and also

122keeping at the capacity of our buildings where we're maximizing uh dollars versus being efficient. Right. Thank you. So it wasn't it was yeah it's not are we going to stop taking transfers or are we going to continue with the current practice and not collect dollars additional dollars or are we going to put the power in the board's hands through being an open district and still maintaining class sizes that the board which is represented by the community expects. Right. Thank you. That was much clearer than my words. And uh item number 21 in the polic or in the board packet in includes the two different policy possibilities and how those would look depending on which direction we go. And so basically we brought this for info only so that we can let you all know that

123you have an opportunity to speak about it and also so the community can take a look at those two items and share their thoughts with us. So George, so Dr. Grer, you just explained um we can no longer charge the difference in tuition but under your team's understanding of the law. Does any funding at all now follow students who transfer into this district? The funding of the child, the ADM funding would follow the child. So instead of us charging PSC for the dollars and them having them on their ADM, they would come directly to our district and then we would collect the funds directly as a student. um which is typical of a school that is an open district and accepts transfers. So the funding would the ADM funding would the basic grant funds would

124follow the child and the ba the grants related to special education CTE and so forth. Rachel, what is the administrative burden for that look like? Does that change what you have to do in the office to make it work? Uh it would actually it would change it. It would be that we're enrolling the students in the way that we enroll them now. So, it would literally just be taking out TSC superintendent making the decision first of whether or not that transfer is coming to our desk. So, it's easier. I would say it's easier. Yeah. But I I want the board to have this dialogue. Yes, it's easier. I think this topic is a topic that our community is very passionate about on both sides. Um I think there's a lot of information that has changed

125because in the past when we talked about transfer students coming in, they were bringing referendum dollars that you know they were bringing some money with them. Now they're coming in and people who live in the district are paying the referendum but others are not. Yet there's advantages to bringing them in if we have interest seats. I think to me this is a I personally think before we vote as a board or honestly have much discussion, I think we want to give the community an opportunity to be well informed by our administrators and have them share why this is an advantage to our like what's the pros and cons and just the straight dollars, what is it going to look like for classes, workload, everything. have it a town hall so that the community can just

126dump information on us and then we have a work session discussion discussion and then we vote on it. Um to me before we kind of get and start making decisions I think it's important for the community to share with us as much as they can because this is something that's been talked about forever and I think the community should be able to share their input um with us. Okay, noted. UA, did you have something? Um, yes. I um I think we should be super cautious and I expressed my concern a couple times while email regarding the the transfer issue and we our enrollment ADT is getting low esparely the residents who the students are within the district actually are getting lower and lower every year and so but on the other hand if you look

127at zilo there's so many houses in within our district that are on sale and now with with SK coming in and uh it bring a lot of uncertainty and uh they say oh there's no health concern but many people as you can tell do have a lot of concerns about the implication of the having the the chip company come in and basically like super close to our district. And so if we leave our district open, I'm worried that people will move out of the district and especially if they can still easily come come back to the district, then that means the the property value will decrease and that means we'll have less students within the district. And um also the the tax will lower eventually if the property value dropped. Right. Another thing is in

128the long run and if the this situation continue I I wonder how can we get another referendum in seven years also and I feel there will be a lot of implications for this decision. And we need to be super cautious because it's not just one decision. There will be chain effect and we we need to be super super cautious. I am worried really worried that people will move out and then they just drive their kids into our district and leave far away in LC TSC and as farther as possible from the factory. I I I don't know about the the really I'm not expert. I Yeah, they they promise there's no much negative impact on on the residential area. But I I I don't know. But I'm I'm really kind of worried. Yeah. With the

129two factors, the factory moving, then open district, people will flee, then the the price of the house drop, tax will drop, we won't get another referendum. That can be horrible if that that's the case. I don't know. I I cannot predict the future, but I'm just worried in general. Okay. Thank you. I agree with U.A. It does have definitely have implications. I think um we also have to recognize that there's a natural um capacity of our schools. Um and I think we need to understand the timing of this a little bit more. I'm hoping Dr. Grryer can talk about the timing. And I also um I I would just like a very clear answer. If we close our district and we say no transfers by my math, we'll be riffing teachers. Is that an accurate

130statement, Dr. That is accurate. So we've actually had this dialogue um multiple times in our office because really you could rightsize. In other words, close the district and rights size. And uh and if you close the district and rightsize, it is cutting not just teachers, but it's cutting at every level. And even Mrs. Munford and I've had that dialogue before that it's not just teachers, it's support staff, cooks, administration. It's literally right sizing across the district. And you could do that or you could run another referendum like Dr. Yen just shared. Uh and you could run not not at capacity but but o uh under capacity and make it up through additional referendum dollars or you could keep it the way it is which is the relationship we have with uh TSC. This is why

131I would say the relationship we have with TSC or open the district and not increase but keep it we're keep in other words keep at the capacity that we're at. So the dialogue from our perspective, just so you know, is not we just wanted the board to understand, we're not collecting additional dollars. And so the only there's no benefit one way or the other uh as to whether or not we're taking those 1660 students and putting them or whatever it is depending on where enrollment goes and putting them in our ADM or if we're keeping them the way it is now uh on TSC's ADM and billing them. That's that's why I I asked Amy to be clear that the our administration is not suggesting you discontinue the relationship we have with TSC and remain

132closed. That that's not the the question was is this the time for the board while they're adopting policy, is this the time for the board to determine which route to go? And and that's why if if there were community forums and so forth, it would probably be wise to be led by the president with with the superintendent and his team alongside you. We're not recommending that you change something. We're recommending that you guys have an opportunity to have dialogue on which direction of those 160 or 180 next year whether it's TSC and us what wherever kindergarten's going on which way you choose as a board to go if I I feel like we'd be very um negligent if our suggestion to you were to just take it take it away. Now, let me explain why

133I feel that way. Because there's also a point where programming, when you offer programming at the high school, the number of students matter. So that you've got the number of students to go the different directions in your arts, in your competitive, not competitive, leveled math or uh math that is advanced to meet the needs of of students. You start getting in at a we're at a good at a right size for for that. you get below 2,000 now you're looking at you could be looking at are you offering certain courses every other year versus every year like we're able to do now and that's where the challenge could lead to people fleeing like Dr. Yen discussed if we don't have the programming then the benefit of what we recognize here with the competitiveness of of

134students and I don't mean a negative competitiveness I mean healthy competitiveness um with our students their classmates challenging each other through good dialogue why would you not go to a district that offers those courses that we're not offering or we're offering every other year. So that's something that I think the dialogue is important among the board to understand. Um I think that was that those were my were my main points. What does the 256 school year look like? Are we going to lose the referendum on say that ask that differently. So the what what's the impact the next year? Okay. Uh yeah, we we will lose next year. We won't be charging for those incoming students. Losing the referendum. Yes. Next year. Yes. Now, to address Dr. Yen's concern, uh correct me if I'm wrong,

135but no matter how we decide to do it, living in the district still guarantees admission. Living outside doesn't. That's the other point. When I said I couldn't remember, I'm so glad you asked that question. Um Mr. Ly, the other point I wanted to make is when we weren't charging, it was pretty safe to live outside the district because not everyone's going to pay that difference. And you see that if we open up the or it may the same thing may happen. Uh if this is why it's okay, this is I'm going to say this. So regardless of where you go, sticking with the TSC making the decision, initial decision versus opening the district, now that we're not charging a difference, I I I think that you're going to as a parent, I would see more

136students probably coming in and there's now there's going to be a cut off where there's not room for you. And so I've lost my guarantee to guarantee to get in. And as a parent, I knew I where I wanted my my children, one, and two, I wanted to know that I was guaranteed they would be here. And so I think you'll see more competitiveness regardless because there's not that additional fee, which leaves it to not every family. Does that make sense? It levels the playing field. Less capacity, so it's a more competitive environment to get in. Yes, is what you're saying. Yes. Does anyone else have any initial thoughts, Dea? Um, can we schedule like I would I mean I think this is a very pressing issue with us already losing the funding that the

137sooner we get decisions made the better. So I would like to ask that we that we schedule a town hall and start getting input as encouraging input from the community so that we can move forward as quickly as possible to make these decisions because families and kids and teachers a lot of people are in are affected by this. Rachel, I yeah along those lines, I've got this question. The reality is that with this change, the 2025 school year, the funding is just dropping. We're going to be at capacity, but we're going to be at capacity with TSC students only. But either way, we're losing the referendum dollars that that the difference. Is that a is that a true statement? Because really, it that is a true statement because you can no longer charge additional dollars.

138So, it's truly just the AM dollars. So, that is a true statement. Okay. So, this school year, we already have our TSC transfers in place. We're already going to go ahead with them. This doesn't impact anything realistically until the 26 27 school year. So, we need to have a thoughtful conversation with our community during sometime during this school year is how I understand the timing because it's not we're not going to get halfway through the year and say, "Hey, TSC kids, you're out of here. We're going to we're going to bring in we're going to open the lottery mid year." We're not going to do that. Well, that wouldn't happen regardless. So, you're I think you're trying to say is there is it timesensitive this year? It's not timesensitive for this year because those students

139have been accepted. Now, what what where it could change where Mrs. Munford makes a point is if we went and open the district and there was still capacity and we could accept a few more students, it could it could impact positively the greater Lafayette community. Well, and I would imagine too that if it is the housing market is tight in West Lafayette, so giving people the opportunity to have time to purchase if they wanted to do that and get into district and and and as far as this Yes. Yes. And as far as the students uh the TSC students, those students wouldn't nothing changes for them. It's just that incoming students. Is it open to TSC only or is it through uh the TSC administration making initial decisions or is it open to surrounding areas

140which could prompt the need for a lottery which could lead to a bigger question of of the parent living outside of the district. Oh my gosh, am I going to get in? And once Oh, sorry. You was meeting, sir. Once a student is in though, we're not going to they're are they going to lottery every year or are they only going to lottery the years when we're at capacity? No. The polic Well, yes. Yes, they're going to lottery every year. They're not going to lottery our students. And once our students are in, our students are in. Right. So, if a student lives outside a district and they lottery in in kindergarten, they're in. They're in. Yes. Now, the the same rules apply uh that apply today regarding discipline and attendance. And that's important because if

141the family is unable to get the student to school, we have to think what's best for the student. And while the family would like to see them here, if they're unable to get them here, then attendance becomes a reason that the next year you would deny it. that there would be no reason to deny a student that is doesn't have attendance issues and or uh suspended 10 times or more. Okay, Tisha. [Music] So, to me, oh, go ahead. Oh, okay. Go ahead. Thanks. I I um I'm not sure I I forgot whether I emailed the whole board or just Sean before regarding the international international students option and if we can resume um the old policy we had for international students and basically we take international student charge them high price for example 20,000 per

142year And given how how high our school is ranked in the na in the nation, we pretty much right now it's a 200 or something in the whole nation. It's a really a marketable very marketable school for international student you know in our town and several private um schools take international students charge them high price. If we can do the same, we can solve the um financial problem without you know take whoever transfer and just I feel that that way if we can fill our spot and then people will will want to live in our district to have a guaranteed spots in our schools. And uh I I I wonder whether it's still an option and whether there's any legal conraint or whatever for public school but I I feel that that can be an

143option if we think out of box given how well our school is ranked and how international we are already and uh so frequently we have visiting scholars kids who attend our schools but couldn't have finished it before they go back to their home country and If we give them option to continue to to graduate from our school and they can do home stay with the residents in our area and then then you know people will be motivated to live in our district for various reasons either send their kids to schools or be a hosting family for international students. I don't know. I'm just, you know, brainstorming and out of box through the low ADM problem and and opening the district back up to uh international students that were interested is not something that we would

144discourage looking at again if the board wanted to look at that. It would require having personnel trained and available to address the paperwork because there's a lot of paperwork to it. Uh but it would not I can't see 160 students each year finding a place to live uh in a parents um home that is wanting to or willing to host that. So I I would see that as if the board decided they wanted to do that as a richer environment for the students we were hosting and the families students that are in our district today. I think that would be a good reason. wouldn't be a reason to say that we were or weren't accepting transfers. And that's why I wanted to be clear that we have a system that's working. We're taking about 160

145students a year and we've been doing that and it's not doing anything except addressing keeping us at close to capacity so that we're maximizing the dollars and having the opportunity for the programming that that we are able to offer. the the question really is do we do it the way we're doing it or do we switch and become an open district which would allow even LSC to consider our district which actually could make it more competitive harder to get in and the Griner family would certainly be looking we already had been for obvious reasons anyway to find our home here but without a doubt we would be if we thought there was a chance our kids couldn't have been here um most people or Um, lots of people look at it the way our family

146did and want their children playing in the streets with students, classmates that are going to be going into the West Lafayette schools when school's in session as opposed to going out out outside and not being connected, if that makes sense, and or with two working families. enjoy the opportunity to benefit from the transportation. So I if you were to decide you wanted to go with the policy that opens the district, it doesn't change what we're doing. It just changes opportunity for families in some ways and in other ways it restricts the the better chance that they'll they'll have a seat. Does that make sense? Okay. Go ahead, George. Yeah. Um, if we're going to go the international student route, which is something that we could consider fair ways down the road because that's a lot

147of administrative burden that we would take on by doing that. Um, we would also have to at the same time uh consider what kind of policy we'd write for that because if we want to turn it into a profitm exercise, we could just devote all 160 of those slo international students, make $6 million and upset everyone in the state of Indiana. or we could put a cap on it or not do it at all. So that is I think that's a prime question we have to talk about before we make a decision engaging on that particular piece of business. There are definitely more questions than answers. Yes, Staca. With the current situation and no decision being made yet, information to be shared and collected, is 160 our limit with us now not getting referendum dollars?

148this is having an impact more of a financial impact on our budget. And so if we were to let 200 students from TSC come in at this point, is there any limit to the number of transfer students until we make a decision on no this bigger picture? Great question. So we can accept more and it's particularly we we've always been I' since I've been here, I've been told at the I think it's a great question, Mrs. Mumford. I've been told by our high school administration and counselor that we don't we don't want you to limit because when we have more it's the programming thing we talked about. Um and so the answer is no. There's not a limit. It really was more about our our us having on the ADM versus um TSC having them

149on their ADM and we we billing them annually. There is not a limit at this moment. The limit would be class size like we do now. Well, that's my concern is before this moment the limit was those that were willing to pay the price difference. Now that that has been taken out of the picture, if there's no limit when we accept transfer students in the next year, we are committed to these students and it doesn't matter what class size decisions, what programming I mean this is a big decision to me in this next year because I agree that whoever we take, we're not kicking them back out. Yeah. And so I don't want to see us until we make a decision accepting a huge amount of transfer students. I misunderstood your question if that makes

150sense. It does. So our our principles are very protective of the class sizes and so right now they would tell us there's been times where we've so we just sent out our notices and that's because Mrs. Julian was waiting on the principles to go through each student and look at class sizes and this is something they do every year and determine if if if the students could could be accepted. That's what I meant by there's no we can continue that process. That's what I meant. So I thought you were asking are we stuck at the 160 this year as opposed to that we weren't in the past. No, we it nothing changes nothing changes with regard to our practice and the principles protecting class size and so forth. But but if more students came came

151to the high school that doesn't change either that the the the principal would like we'll entertain additional students. So that's my question. Could we be coming to an August meeting and our transfer students are at 180 and 200 which to me there is a line that it's definitely not the advantage to my high school student because some of these classes are already large. So that's what my question is as a board not having a board meeting between now and August kind of having TSC families have a little bit more free reign on our school district um where is that boundary and limits that we can feel comfortable with until we yeah every year they could have done what you're asking and so the boundary or limits would have been considering numbers um and I hear

152what you're saying so it it would still be administrators looking at class sizes and and making a decision according ingly like they've like they've done. I just mean it's going to be a different conversation now because now as long as they have transportation are it's easier to get in than it was before. There's not more affordable. That's what you mean, isn't it? Yes. Okay. Yes. And so I just am concerned that I don't want it just the flood plates because we will pay the price with our students. Absolutely. Until this decision is being made. So, I just I guess I'm asking I would like to see not just open door policy with the TSC, right? Because this does affect our funding is what I'm sharing. That's fair and makes sense. Thank you, Mrs. Muffford. That's

153all no matter what we decide. I just mean once we have the students come in, that's where it's out of our hands. That's what I'm meaning. Rachel, it's on a little bit different topic, but do we feel on the question of international students, do we feel comfortable that federal government's position on immigration is something we would want to make business decisions on right now? may want to hold off till I just I just feel like that feels like a I'm not opposed to international students, but I just feel like there's a lot of ambiguity in what's coming out right now and I just would be concerned about really investing heavily in that as a as a strategy right now. I will say too as a as as administration, it's not something we prioritize right now,

154but if the board said, "Look, we want we want that opportunity." We would entertain. We would make it a goal to review for the board if the board came to us and asked us to do that. That's not a priority for us right now because we do not in any way see that as the solution to being at capacity. We we would see that more as an opportunity to have students from different nationalities, countries that are visiting to bring something enriching. Um so we would entertain we we're where Mr. Ly is um it it it is a lot of paperwork and we didn't feel like we had the expertise or capacity for one or two students. But if the board wanted us to entertain that and go through training and so forth and making sure

155that we had the staff available to do that, we we would consider that obviously if the board's requesting that. UA uh uh thank you for the uh discussion and so regarding the paperwork I yeah I was an international student myself I know that the the process is really complicated and I wonder just a brainstorm I don't know whether it's possible at all I wonder whether we can talk to Purdue to see whether we can partner with them we that way we don't need to have a full-time um a staff member who have that expertise to take care of one or two several under 10 international students. If they have some expert who can you know help us take care of those international students we pay them a bit and something and it's parody actually many

156of the potential international students are maybe related to Purdue and for example one one common phenomena I observe is the student the kids of the visiting scholars and so if they can partner with them And maybe that can solve that problem. I don't know. But I think it worth trying and uh to see whether they they are open to this and but I know I understand right now under the current political environment is there are a lot of uncertainties but my observation is it will change over time and and so sooner or later I I think I believe the US will be still open to immigration and immigrants and because this is a country of immigrants. I I I I won't anyway it will be stay afing regarding the international student. So basically we only

157keep them for one year because we are public schools and then you can they can get visa come into the country but they can stay in the public school for only one year and then next year after that they have to find some private school or some other schools because that's the the regulations. So basically it's not really we don't want I mean we want the student keep here longer time not just one year. So probably that may not be the uh I think priorities for us but back to uh to Deja's uh suggestion probably if we want to move that direction either administration team or our school or maybe we need a kind of townhouse we want to explain to them the co- communities we don't want to make people I mean surprised because

158seem to me we want to move that quickly because the next year from my understanding we can only collect ADM fun. So that's kind of something like a half million I mean shortfalls so compared with this year. So I mean we I think we want the whole community understand the sooner I mean better and also maybe they have some other questions we didn't think about our solutions or whatever we just want everybody on the same page so we don't want to get surprised and then we just kind of end up with very difficult situation. So that's that's that's I'm thinking about that. That's all. Thank you. Uh great discussion. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and we will um discuss the option of a town hall and see what we can do. I hesitate to do that

159during the summer because a lot of people would not be available um including myself. So, no, I'm always available. All right, Dr. Grryer, how about a superintendent report? I know. So, I want I want to first of all commend our recent graduates. another great graduation celebrating our 2025 graduates. Um, I want to thank the board members that were able to attend. And I also want to thank our counseling team, our administrators, our staff, parents, and uh their for their organization and their part in getting our seniors to graduation. When you think about that trek from beginning of life to walking across that stage, all that goes into it and all the support, it's a pretty special thing. And so I don't think we can take for granted all the love, support, organization that has gone

160into that by various stakeholders. Don't make me cry. Oh, don't cry. We are very proud of our seniors and we're also grateful for the community support and educating our students leading to this great celebration. I'd also like to talk a little about a couple of projects that are going on, capital improvements over the summer. We know the tennis courts that renovation you can see that's off to a great start. Contractors believe that we we are on schedule. Uh we're having bi-weekly meetings uh with the construction manager to receive updates and the plan is to be done August 31st still. Since we're on schedule, uh the track project is scheduled to begin June 12th at uh at the complex. Uh the plan is to be done by July 31st and we're going to be having bi-weekly

161meetings uh with regard to that as well. Retirements, congratulations. I just wanted to extend congratulations to Kathy Wolf, Beth Sharer, and Jana Leisure. We heard about them from board members reading about them. I just wanted to say we truly appreciate their service to our students, our families, schools, and entire community over the years. and we most certainly wish them each one of them many happy and healthy retirement years ahead. Uh our SRO officer uh Marcus Slifer, congratulations to him. Marcus has been selected to receive the exceptional service award for region 4 of the Indiana School Resource Officer Association. He's going to be recognized at the 2025 Indiana School Safety Conference on June 19th. And we're proud of him and appreciative of Marcus for his passionate contributions to our district. Mrs. Kron, would you please report

162on accounts payable and uh fund reports? Remember to turn on my microphone. Claims for the period of May 3rd through June 4th total $4,525,915 including regular corporation expenses and the W Bash Valley Education Center expenses. Of this amount, 2,663,268 are paid towards wages, salaries, and benefits. I provided the final fund report for April 25 2025 in your board packets. Total cash on hand in all funds was $29,129,746. The education fund had a cash balance of $7,298,786. Preliminary fund report for May has also been included in your board packets, but we've not yet finished entering receipts and reconciling that month. The cash flow, including the month of April, showing the flow of revenue and expenses during that month for the education referendum operations fund is also included. Great. Thank you. Um, as far as my uh

163committee report goes, the um case and park opened on May 22nd and um I have not made it over there yet, but I'm looking forward to it. It sounds amazing. And uh the one thing that is most pursuant to us is that Purdue Research Foundation is donating the land across the street from the wellness center for the early childhood education center, which will be 10,000 square feet and have the potential to expand to up to 300 kids. So, uh, that was all part of the SKH Heinix situation. So, um, that's all I have for the good of the order. How about George? I feel like my last few reports have been, uh, brutal and sad, so I'll keep this one short. Um, the legislation uh, legislative session is mercifully over. Um, the federal legislators are

164still debating the big beautiful bill. Uh, debatable on whether it's beautiful, but I'll leave that up to you all. Uh, the city council, as Amy mentioned, voted on the SKH Heinix resoning. Uh, they voted to accept the proposal. And so, uh, as a result of that, not only will SKH Heinix be coming, but likely several other suppliers will be coming to fill in the other space on that land as well. So, that early childhood center that PRF is donating will also be next to uh potentially several dozen businesses. Um, and I'll also leave that to the community to decide whether or not that's a good thing or a bad thing. Thank you, Lawrence. Nothing. Okay, Dea Rachel. Uh, notes from WLCF's WLEF class reunion season has begun. The class of 1956 met over the weekend

165and they're looking forward to seven more classes between June and mid October. Uh the next issue of the Devil's Advocate alumni newsletter will be will mailed in July. So you can look for that one. Um they will once again assist with the school supply drive for students. Donations will be collected during the month of July. Boxes will be placed at the entrance of the junior senior high school and the West Lafayette public library if you would like to donate to that. The backpack program to assist families who are food insecure is continuing over the summer. Um, great thanks to our offduty school resource officers for delivering boxes uh of food throughout the summer. The backpack program is providing food to 14 families, which is twice as many as last year. Um, from the ISBA just

166attended the quarterly meeting on Friday of the board. Um, region 4 awards committee. Lawrence applied and was uh accepted as the representative for region 4. So congratulations Lawrence on that. Prepare yourself for a long Zoom call, sir. Um and um the other thing that was an interesting comment made is that participating in ISBA training functions would really hope that people would see this as the same as asking our teachers to participate in professional development. The ISBA providing us professional development and we would hopefully as board members model an openness and learning. Um, and along those lines, I will point out your registration for the fall conference that will open on June 23rd with the twoe early bird pricing schedule. So, Robera will be getting that out to everyone. Also, just some updates from Indiana. The

167new public assets counselor, Jennifer Ruby, um, has not been responsive to any inquiries for all of 2025 yet. So, um, we're really not really happening there. The governor says she's working on backlog. So, if anybody had any public access uh questions, I would suggest that we take those to our own regional council um for advice at this time. Um there are 44 new laws, education related laws, and the ISBA legislative action report is out and gives you a recap of all 44 of those and their impact. Indiana public schools were recently ranked sixth in the nation. There's a nice article that came out, our public schools at work, and that should be in everybody's email. Um there is an opportunity on June 23rd at 10 a.m. and I will forward along the link in registration

168for that and the PowerPoint. But um that virtual live chat with the ISBA is going to be all about the new A tof rework. So if there's an interest in understanding the grading system, as I understand it, there are some positive changes to that, but I haven't in particular the positive changes that I've been told is that um it's going to be evaluating students or using information about students and their progression not to their attainment of certain thresholds. So that is helpful information helpful for our students particularly our um English language learners. Also I sent you just before the meeting an article about the difference between public, private and charter schools. It's one of the best concise summaries of what is the difference between those three varieties of educational entities that I've seen and so

169I thought you might enjoy something. Also did provide that to everybody on the WLF board. Um the foundation meeting is on June 12th this Thursday. That is Thank you. And UA, do you have a a report? Um yes. Um I don't have a report but I have two uh followup um comments related to the policy. One is um I noticed that because we kind of keep going keep revising the policy one by one. I noticed the some inconsistency between different documents. For example, some of the documents have the title all capitalized, some of them are not and different font size, everything. So, so just a reminder before we upload the final version, make sure all of them are consistent and then they will look nicer. And the second thing is uh uh I didn't get

170chance to talk about one concern I have when we discuss the fire arm policy and I remember one of the board meetings um Cassie Parker came to talk about the gun safety. So in one important point I think we we need to be very careful is you know the parents and so how parents deal with their guns. I don't know where we should include that information and but you know if you read the news all the almost like most of the tragedies actually related to the parents they didn't keep their guns safe. So and not they they should make the put the gun somewhere that not accessible to children and to teenagers all that and for their own children's safety and others safety but I don't know where we can put that information or remind

171parents about that and I feel yeah that that's something I I feel not only okay don't bring that to school but if they do we don't have a way to detect Right. So I think fundamentally we need to make sure the parents guardians keep their guns in a safe place so that they are not accessible to the children. So I don't know where to put it but that's something I think of when I that policy. So unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective we cannot dictate to families what they do in their home. Yeah I understand. That's why I don't know where to put it. I just feel okay right what if they did it I mean we don't have a way to detect it yeah we can't we can't require parents to do anything

172in our policies we can just control what happens in our own facility but I do think that Kathy's that what she gave a presentation on I also you know really listened with interest to that and I think it becomes a matter of educating and so if it if it if it applies anywhere in policy it might be to require that there be u annual firearm training to to families or community or there might be participation in such. So that that would be the only way we we can't tell families how to store their guns or not to have them regrettably. Okay. Another um possibility is I I wonder whether it's possible at all and we can add one item in the registration uh system. So and force parents, guardians to read that reminder even though

173you know I don't know how how much it matters but it would be good to say oh I I understand that I need to keep gone or whatever in a safe place so it's not accessible to my children and sign your name and something like that just a a reminder and for people this is very important you need to just like all the other you know emergency contacts all those add just taps that parents needed to go one by one. We just add one more like a gun safety issue or something like that. I I I I wonder whether that can be a um way to remind them like a pledge I will keep my gun in a safe place. I I kind of like the idea of that you think through ideas I I

174feel that you know otherwise you know I decided okay no gone free zone or something but tragedy happens in those places and so just that's only for people who don't violate the law. What so I I like the idea of of incorporating some variety of acade or educational component to this and I' I've written that down on the note when we get into policy committee we'll we'll kind of find out what the legal parameters are that we could pursue that. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Um, at this time we do not expect to have a July meeting. So, we will see everyone again on August 4th, um, at 5:00 PM if we need a work session and at 6 otherwise. And I would like to entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion. Lawrence moved. Any second? Shortage.

175Thank you. I'll uh Okay, we have to do roll call. UI, do you think we should adjourn? Yes, Rachel. Yes, Dea. [Music]