001of business is um to recognize the uh Intermediate School is that Mrs pus back there I don't have my glasses on so if you'd like to come on up that'd be great and while you're doing that I'll grab the list good evening everyone while we get started can all my Willis friends come up you know who you guys are cuz I've talked to you before and gave you a paper to come to tonight's meeting so can I have all of you come forward I was trying to take inventory and it was a little hard with all the red and all the people in here I hope I have up um all our friends here tonight Mrs qualo and I are very happy to recognize these students today we try to focus three times a year
002on our building and we we want to focus on all the aspects of what our students do so we started the year out with some of our Athletic kids that were recognized and today we're recognizing some of our Arts meaning that we are acknowledging students in Orchestra in band in general music and also in in our art class and we'll save the last of the the third recognition for our building to recognize our academics as well so today if I could have all our students line up with me here and then if you guys could step forward when we're talking about you we will only be sharing good things I promise Young Sue Choy if you could please step forward young Su is being recognized for creativity and attention to detail in uh that is
003inspiring he is always enthusiastic to learn about new artists and mediums and puts forth his best effort during every art class yangang Su recognizes details that often go unnoticed by others and uses the sense of humor to and creativity uh to beautify uh excuse me to beautifully craft each assignment and so today he's being honored for a great artist thank [Applause] you next up we have Ella Winchester there she is it's on the other side Ella is a quiet leader amongst her peers always the first to lend a hand Ella has been a terrific friend a role model and a wonderful helper to those around her Ella always puts forth her best effort and has shown incredible growth as an artist I can't wait to see what she will accomplish as her skills and confidence
004continues to grow keep up the great work thank you Ella Simon Hoffman Simon is a true artist in addition to brainstorming creative ideas approaching the finer details and putting forth amazing effort he also shares his love for art with others Simon is always the first to help peers brainstorm Solutions or ideas when they encounter a challenge Simon demonstrates leadership by always following the directions and by Leading a hand to his peers and to miss Speers keep up the wonderful work and I also want to recognize Miss Bears who leads these students in our art class so thank you Miss bears [Applause] the next group of students we have is the orchestra group and we will start with Evelyn chi I don't believe she's here but I'm going to go ahead and tell you about the
005wonderful things she's done Evelyn currently takes private lessons and participates in the advanced fourth grade Orchestra she's always eager to come to Orchestra and play her instrument she is developing into a strong strong leader with her ability to play tricky music assist her classmates and ask difficult questions so congratulations to [Applause] Evelyn Tevin Devin Watson exudes a passion for orchestra class and is such a joy to be around he is always one of the first students to get to class and have his instrument ready to be tuned having taken private lessons for a few years he practices and performs with the sixth grade Orchestra as a fifth grader he participated in Solo and Ensemble with both a solo and an ensemble [Applause] congratulations last we have Melody Fay Melody has a true love for violin
006and that shows through her participation in different auditioned ensembles like the Wabash Valley youth Symphony and the Indiana junior All-Star or Orchestra she's she also took part in Solo and Ensemble contest with an ensemble and group I solo Melody is a leader through her actions and is always ready for a challenge thank you for your hard [Applause] work I'm not sure if Mr Moy is here but he's done an excellent job as a first year teacher in our building and at the Junior Senior High so we thank him for all of his hard work [Applause] our band kiddos are next and we're going to start with Henry Henry Sebert is a burst of positivity and fun he is one of the first to be ready for band rehearsals and has taken initiative in so many
007ways such as learning an entire song Peaches for the talent show which included the need to learn three to four new notes uh we haven't learned yet in in the fifth grade he performed the entire song from memory which was outstanding congratulations and it was [Applause] wonderful and Elizabeth Ricks Eliz oh excuse me oh go ahead okay although I do really enjoy Elizabeth so I was excited I got hers Elizabeth is always happy to play and is truly an outstanding musician she has also taken some leadership on by visiting the fifth grade band to help a young beginning trombone player individually during rehearsal we appreciate all that Elizabeth has done in the band keep up the great work thank you [Applause] Elizabeth and of course a huge thank you to Don pennet and kelil Danning
008for all of your efforts with our students so thank you in our general music class Micah Peta is being recognized as a fourth grader Micah is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable Young musician he is quick to engage in class discussions in a way that inspires his classmates to add their contributions and we're very proud of you and happy to have you next up we have Felicia X Felicia is a strong gifted musician she leads by example with her classmates as we are working on preparing for a musical production she also generously shares performances with the class that motivate us all to spend more time practicing outside of school thank you Felicia for all your hard [Applause] work there's Jace Jace Johnson is next Jace is a brave and unselfish musician he is always the first hand
009up when we need a volunteer to try something new in front of the class during a demonstration his spunk help helps others to venture out of their comfort zones as we try new creative projects in general music class [Applause] congratulations and leading our students in general music is Mr hogerman there and I don't know if Mr lesby is here but thank you Mr hogerman last but not least is our choir group uh first up we have Cindy Kim Cindy is an excellent musici sorry is an excellent music reader and singer she sings out leading her section of the choir she is always on time is a member of the circle the state group and she demonstrates flexibility with new music and asks insightful questions about the music and rehearsals thank you Cindy for all of
010your hard [Applause] work kala goth can you pleas please step forward kala works well in rehearsals and tries hard to do new singing techniques when asked she is always on time and acts as a leader for the alto section in the group we're proud of you last but certainly not least Shane song Shane works hard to learn her Parts in choir staying on on attention during rehearsals she has been a member of Circle of the state group for the past two years and auditioned for the state Honor Choir congratulations and thank you for all of your hard [Applause] work if you'd all like to turn around I'd like to take your picture you want to snuggle up real quick my phone oh we're have to smuggle better here okay got it we got it you're
011just very small there okay I'll send it to you thank thank you very much now boys and girls and moms and dads I know this is a riveting meeting but if you'd like to be excused you are welcome to leave at this time thank you thank you and if those of you standing would like to fight over some chairs I can play some music and while we're waiting for everyone I have something that the recipient's going to hate um but this past week was Mrs Julian's birthday oh look at her she's already mad and uh she does so much to take care of us and make us look like we know what we're doing up here so I just wanted to acknowledge her and say happy [Applause] birthday she said I'm going to get you
012for this all right and with that I think think we're filing in let's go ahead and start with our public comment I am so happy to see everyone here this evening our first speaker is Becky Cree there she [Applause] is and of course you've done this before but each Speaker gets three minutes and uh Tom you got the yeah Tom's on it go ahead uh my name is Becky Cree I'm a teacher parent coach and Community member I'm excited to be here for the vote on our next principal I put my trust in Dr Griner and the board to select the best person for our student staff in school as one of the teacher Representatives on the principal interview team I wanted to share my perspective on the process used to select our next principal
013based on prior board meeting discussions I know many in the community may have questions about the selection process at previous board meetings Dr Yen questioned if we had enough quality candidates I can assure you we did we were lucky to have experienced applicants who are passionate about education at each stage of the selection process the principal interview team was asked if we felt confident in the quality of the candidates and the process should we continue to move forward or should we choose to reopen the search we never felt the need to pause the process previously Mrs Mumford questioned our timeline to hire a principal zville principal is also retiring so I asked my friend who teaches at zville about their timeline and process our process was identical to the one used by zville in addition
014we shared a similar timeline as they are also voting on their new principle tonight Dr Grinder knows the West lafette Community Values collaboration among stakeholders this collaboration began with a community stakeholder survey that was supported by Dr Yen the survey results became the foundation to develop a scoring rubric that was aligned with the Professional Standards for principles throughout the process both quantitative and qualitative data was collected to help Dr Griner make the best selection for our school in forming the principal interview team Dr Griner included teachers administrators parents par and students while we represented different viewpoints we had one common goal find the best person to lead our school next year the principal interview team confidently sent the final high-quality candidates to the last round and trusted Dr Griner and the board to make the
015final decision after interviewing the final candidates board members Wong Austin and shot helped Dr Griner bring their Top Choice to the rest of the board I'm excited for the opportunity the board has tonight to show the West Lafayette Community that you trust the students parents teachers administrators and fellow board members who collaborated to select the best person to lead our school next year I'm excited about the prospect of a 70 vote to hire our new principal and seeing who's sitting here tonight we have a chance to make a home run hire for our student staff and school thank [Applause] you sounds like I might need to limit the Applause to three minutes also the next speaker is Mrs Sandberg there you are good evening I'm Rachel Samberg English teacher a part of w Lea's 80%
016membership at the high school and chairman of the principal search teacher committee our committee included five staff members of various years experience in subject areas who are parents coaches and extracurricular sponsors I want to thank these teachers for their professionalism during the process as we took seriously our directive to not discuss our opinions with each other and to Value the privacy of all candidates so that they can continue their work in their communities additionally on behalf of wlea I thank Dr grer and Mrs Roth for including teachers in the decision making we realized this was not necessary but sent the message that our opinion is valued I applaud you for designing a process that prioritize professional Integrity as well as the confidentiality of the candidates we were instructed that if we felt like the candidates
017were not worthy of our school we could push pause and revisit the selection process we were guided to assess the quality of the candidates based on a rubric constructed from the community survey and Professional Standards for principles after the first round of interviews I felt strongly that we had excellent candidates and after the second round I knew that should any of the three in that round be hired our school would have a strong leader who would value relationships with students teachers and parents as well as other community stakeholders while promoting the values of RDP the motion before the board tonight asks for you to approve a person not a process for our high school principal if the discussion tonight leads to a question of that process then let me be clear this was a collaborative
018process between representatives of all stakeholders Administration teachers parents students and board members none of that had to happen but was designed as such by the two people you hired to lead this Corporation a split vote of any kind will be an embarrassment to our profession and our community any votes against this person as a protest of the process is is insulting the professionalism and personal Integrity of the leadership of our school Community as well as making the new H's job Harder by making it look to our community as if he was not fully supported for this role I asked the board tonight to vote unanimously for our new principal as an introduction to True Red Devil Pride thank [Applause] you thank you our next speaker is Shane fry hello I'm Shane fry I've been teaching
019and coaching for over 20 years in the West Lafayette schools I'm speaking on behalf of the teachers we would like to offer our support for hiring of the new Junior Senior High School principal the West lopette Community School Corporation is a strong academic entity because of the longstanding collaboration between the school board central office administration teachers students parents and community members therefore the process of hiring a principal that includes these stakeholders is the best model for finding the right person for the job the process was led by Dr Griner and Mrs Roth it was started early to ensure quality candidates it involved administrators teachers parents and students the West Lafayette administrators know what it takes to be principal in our schools they know what our students parents and staff value the teachers represented diverse subject
020areas extracurricular involvement years of experience and teaching experiences both inside and outside of West Lafayette school board members were included in the final round of interviews the rubric used throughout this process was created using results from a community stakeholder survey that were then linked to Professional Standards for principles we are supportive of this process in the selection made by DR Griner based on the feedback from involved stakeholders that he is recommending to the board tonight this statement is supported by nearly 90% of the teachers in our building who signed this paper below thank you okay uh thank you the next speaker is Mary Del Forbes good evening I'm Mary D Forbes this is my 13th year teaching English at the high school and and I'm a proud uh mom of three alone I will keep
021this brief I just want to ask each of you to search your heart and if you're even thinking of voting no for this candidate ask yourself what's my motivation am I really doing this in the best interest of our students and our staff to get this new era off on the right foot or do I have a personal agenda do I have a vendetta against others am I always going to vote against what I perceive as the opposing voting block and if that is your motivation I'd ask you to search your heart be the servant leader that we all elected you to be and keep in mind you can always change your mind it shows that you have one thank you thank you and next we have David cusk okay um my name is Dave
022kusik I reside at um 807 Elwood Drive here in West lafette um I'm here to urge the board to have a representative at the uh zoning board board meetings that he special requests for transient guest houses in our neighborhood at the last uh zoning board meeting there was one special request heard no one rose in support of that special exception 8 to nine people uh Rose in opposition and there was also a letter read by the development director pinned by the uh new mayor in opposition the zoning board still voted four to three so welcome we have another trans Guest House the second thing I'll report is um there was one transient um Guest House special accepted heard that was denied uh last fall that guest house uh is not a guest house but it
023was recently sold and there's a single family home that's moving into it with a child so that's a step forward another um Transit guest house that was approved uh was recently sold and there's a single family uh moving into that home with a child uh if we're going to save our school district we need your representation at those only board meetings to stand and speak in opposition so that we have homes to single families so that we can continue to have kids for our school system thank you thank you and finally we we have Natalie Lucas good evening my name is Natalie Lucas I am the President of the West alette Junior Senior High School parent Council also the parent of a seventh grader uh along with another parent and two high school students who
024I believe were student council members I was asked to sit in on round two of the principal interviews um at that point the committee had already narrowed it down from like a whole big bunch to six they interviewed then down to the three that we saw when we were brought in um so from that then they would consider like getting one to the board to vote on which is tonight um just a little bit about my from a parent standpoint um I really can just reiterate what everybody else just said the process was very well organized it was professional it was confidential everybody took their jobs very seriously the students included um and again just the two the two parents um I will say all three candidates were very very qualified and I was very
025pleased that no bad choice was going to be made so I hope that everyone takes that into consideration when they do their vote tonight okay we are going to find the agenda there we are all right the first order of routine business is to approve the agenda for this meeting the February 12th regular board meeting of the board of school trustees I need a motion please moved by Mrs wit seconded by Mr Wong is there any comment great all those in favor of approving the agenda please please raise your hand that uh passes 7 to Z Mrs Julian and we will move on to number two the approval of the minutes for the January 8th executive session of the board of school trustees I need a motion moved by Mr Marley second by Mr shot
026any commentary all those in favor please raise your hand uh that's also 7 to zero Mrs Julian next up we have the the approval of the minutes for the January 8 organizational meeting of the board of school trustees I need a motion moved by Mrs Whit second by Mr Marley any discussion Mr Wan I would like to uh move that uh all uh no vote record uh for three board officer elections uh document on the section two item a elections for officer on the minutes of January 8 2024 SCH board organization meetings be removed thank you um Mr Wong were you able to read the article I sent regarding those no votes uh you mean the SE the section the email that I sent you an article that that talked about you're going to record
027no votes for one item you have to record them for all yes that's uh I think our doc uh meting minut should be document all things happen during last meeting and in last meeting we have nobody will know about any candidate so we shouldn't have that no record on the meeting minutes so it's not uh Faithfully document what happened in the last meeting thank you all right um is there a second um second by Mrs mford any other further discussion this is what well in general you accept parli procedure being Robert rules border and Robert rules are very specific about you either document names and votes for the eyes the Nay and the extensions or you do not V document any names so uh last year there was a substantial conversation about adding a specific
028reporting of who voted yes and no or abstain on every item and uh at that time time as board chair I researched that with Dr riner's help and went through what the options were um we will be out of alignment with our own bylaws should we selectively decide to remove no votes on some votes uh but include them on others uh so it could be presumed however that because there are seven members on the board if it is a seven to zero vote then there would be no need to record names uh that do not exist so uh 7 to zero should be an adequate documentation um so I would U prefer that we would remain in alignment with their own bylaws and Robert F the borders on recording minutes Mrs mon the minutes are
029statements of what happen and so the discussion is not on votes when we voted yes or no and should both be recorded what needs to be changed is there was never a call for a no vote so there's no documentation to put in of that and in reading through the document you sent plus other documents there's nothing that says when there's a no vote when there's no call for a no vote then those have to still be recorded So to include something in our minutes that never happened in our meeting is not accurate so are you saying that because we voted all in favor of Mrs Austin or all in favor of Mr Wong and there was never a no to for Mrs Austin or Mr Wong that it should be recorded as a either
030or vote instead of a yes or no vote correct came up last year um I actually brought up the same concern with the organizational minutes last year that documentation of the minutes need to be with what happens in the meeting not adding things that never happen thank you for that explanation that makes a lot more sense um anyone else Mrs Dr y sure whether it should be added to this one or it's a different revision I emailed you this afternoon is it the same document the same document oration meeting minutes okay go ahead and at the beginning of the meeting and Mr Wong recommended all public comments at the beginning of the organizational meeting and uh he said that's a that's required in the Indiana code and M Mrs wit said that organizational meeting is
031a exception to that rule and said that our agenda follows the sample provided by theba so that should be recorded because this particular meeting doesn't allow the public comments and Mr W said we should Mrs weit said we shouldn't okay let's put a pin in that one and vote on the previous motion for first please and then I'll come back to that is that all right okay all those in favor of changing the wording in the organizational meeting minutes from the Monday January 8th meeting to reflect that it was an either or vote and not a yes or no vote please uh raise your hands okay um that uh this Mrs Mumford Mr y Wong and Dr Yin and all those opposed to changing the minutes please please indicate with a raised hand that is
032Mrs Whit Mr shot Mr Marley and myself that motion um does not pass now um Dr Yin you wanted to include could you explain that to me one more time please the statement made by the two board members Mr W said we should uh allow the public comments at the beginning of the organizational meeting because that's what Indiana code requirs Miss Mrs uh which said that the organizational meeting is an exception so we don't need to have public comments for that meeting at the beginning of the meeting okay any other comment on that item yes Jess is here I good question uh no actually what did you say Yes actually we do need a second on Dr yin's motion to amend sorry um does anyone second Dr yin's motion to amend the minutes have stated
033Mrs mford seconds okay now um uh Mr Wong you need to address me as the chair and not um anyone else in the room so if you could address your question to me that would be great yeah I think this would be a point for information yeah want uh uh seeking our attorney's interpretation of Open Door laws uh which require public comments before any B actions of go okay um because our attorney has not had time to prepare for that question I don't want to put her on the spot um however um this Swit go ahead well I just going to say that what we're talking about right now as our item is what should be recorded in our minutes not reopening that concept up for discussion so for that reason the vote here is
034on what is recorded or not recorded in our minutes not an opportunity to um inquire as to philosophical um process with our legal council okay Mrs mate time I mean we don't have work sessions there's I mean I don't agree with email discussion so when is it appropriate to learn from legal council their perspective on something where a board chair told us that there's an exception and others have told us differently Mrs what would you like to answer well um ironically I am um in possession of email conversations that you had with Luke Brit who's a public access counselor um thanks to a public access request U by laurren Bruce who is an alumni and a a Community member I don't know Mrs Bruce I don't know I haven't spoken with her I don't know
035what inspired her asking for that open door or that uh uh Records request but in the the communication that you had with the public access counselor it would seem only to corroborate that uh that level of detail is not necessary um so I don't um I just I don't believe at this point that reopening a conversation about it would be appropriate in this meeting uh for me an appropriate time I'm not in charge here but an appropriate time would be when the agenda comes out to inquire on that agenda with any questions to the board chair and allow the board chair to work with the superintendent and get any answers to your questions I don't recall you asking a question about that in any way prior to the meeting I'm sorry if I forgot that
036um okay I think uh we should probably go ahead and vote on this all in favor of amending the organizational minutes to include the information described by Dr Yin please indicate with a raise hand that would be Dr Yin Mrs mford and Mr Wong all of those opposed please indicate that would be Mrs Whit Mr Marley and Mr shot and myself the motion does not carry and I need to find where we are okay next item is number oh shoot you're right okay returning to the previous motion does there any other discussion regarding the organizational minutes okay all those in favor of approving the organizational minutes as presented please indicate with a raise hand that would be Mrs Whit Mr shot Mr Marley and myself all those opposed please indicate with a raised hand that
037would be Mrs Mumford Mr Wong and Dr Ian I didn't see your hand is that you as well okay so the the minutes pass the next item is number four the approval of the minutes of the January 8th regular board meeting of the board of school trustees I need a motion moved by Mr Marley second by Mr Wong any discussion on that meeting in particular yes M I have a question the minutes are including a lot more details so I would love to hear from Mr shot kind of his role as secretary in crafting the minutes I've not completely understood I know Mrs Julian does a great job of putting him together so I was trying to understand Mr shot what um like guess secretary how you're involved in this and how this all come
038dep take notes of all the comments work Mr Jillian to determine how much content is enough to get the flavor of what was said without going into specific of who said what and um we collaborate back and forth Mrs Austin wa in with a couple of comments and that's how we arrived at the minutes for that meeting be sharing their comments from the board meetings that they think should be included have any of you ever done that in the past or is it just the secretary's responsibility to decide what wants to be added or what's the best way with those that's never been an issue because no one's ever required that their comments be included we're trying to find a balance that will satisfy several of you and speed up this process and we're going
039to continue to iterate on that until we can get through this in less than 45 minutes okay so no board member has ever emailed anything to Mrs Juliet is what you're saying no that's not what I'm saying I mean about the minute to be included in the minute I'm not sure what you're driving at but I think if something were misrepresented a board member could do that but I would appreciate being copied on that and also having Mr shot copied on that in general it's good practice to copy all of the board if you're communicating with any of the board okay thank you great um okay let's go ahead and vote on the minutes from the January 8th regular board meeting all those in favor of approving them please raise your hand that's everybody Mrs
040Julian next up we were really busy um the approval of the January 8th Finance meeting minutes uh I need a motion so moved by Mr Marley second by Mr shot any comments yes so I guess I'm confused as the secretary of the finance board why were these minutes never something that I was allowed to get input in or this back and forth collaboration that was is was just shared that's with the r the finance board meets once a year right and I would guess that that was probably uh an oversight on the part of those of us who took a look at it ahead of time but it was on box and that's where I saw it so I looked through them they looked fine and I moved on um is there something you'd like
041to yeah so I sent to the board the recommended amendments um to the minutes the and I don't know you want me to split them into the two like we did the other because the first is about the no votes and the other is about information in the minute that would you like it um I think since we've already voted on the no votes and not approved that we could probably skip that and move on to the substantive okay issue um I sent and I won't read it I sent it to the whole school board there was quite a bit of information that was actually never shared in a Schoolboard meeting and so I went through and put and replaced it with what was shared in Schoolboard meeting it's more or less the same length
042same details um just updated it with the information that was actually shared public okay has everyone had an opportunity to review Mrs mumford's email um I'm sorry Mrs go ahead little bit um my um concern is uh first of all I want to thank you you sent out a very detailed explanation to the entire board on the process that anyone could make recommendations and the um minutes uh in advance and you very clearly outlined what that communication uh should be and I appreciate you're doing that it would very helpful for me to understand if I had any concerns um I have uh concern uh accepting um any members um and particularly Mrs summary of the meeting from her perspective and I will be interested if we need additional detail and going back to the transcript
043of the meeting to that be necessary rather than having any individual member summarize those without review by all thank you um it appears to me as though the information that was redacted in your suggestions Mrs mford M was the same as the information that was presented by Mrs crun during that meeting um it was her recommendations and her explanation of the um information that was presented to US during that meeting and your um your changes were more of a narrative in my opinion um which listed the discussions and things that um weren't presented in that formal um meeting and I do agree that uh if we're not including the graphs we should probably remove that language um why don't how about I move that we table this one um and we look at it again
044pending next month's meeting okay I need a second I second In by Mr Marley all in favor of tabling board of Finance that's everybody okay we'll take it another look at that I'm going to make a note um okay the next item is the minutes of the executive session of the board of trusties on January 22nd I need a motion Mr Wong seconded by Mrs wit any commentary on that great all in favor of approving those minutes please raise your hand and that's everybody next I think we're up to the minutes of the January 26th meeting of the board of school trustees I need a motion moved and seconded by Mrs wit and Mr Marley I'm sorry okay okay all those in favor of or no I'm sorry is a discussion great all those in
045favor of approving the minutes of the executive session please raise your hand that's everybody okay lovely we do not have any unfinished business and next will be new business with um our attorney Jesse Billingsley talking to us about our riveting board policies go ahead Jesse riveting riveting thank you so tonight we have uh the first batch of 10 policies for first reading um my plan was to go through each highlight some points um allow any questions or discussion on each of them take feedback and then the plan would be to bring them back for second reading next month uh my partner Amy Matthews will be with you that month because I will be uh otherwise occupied um uh I go in next Wednesday so that's the the countdown is less than double digits now um
046so uh I'll just get right into it um we begin with a00 and I I guess I should preface this grouping is the a grouping which is General commitments so as opposed to most of our other sections we'll be talking about our groupings there's no one specific topic to these policies their policies sort of cover a Gambit but they are General commitments to everyone in the school Community is kind of what unites them versus subsequently you'll see things like student section Personnel section that are more tightly contained by topic so this policy section then starts with a00 non discrimination and anti-harassment it is a policy required by numerous laws and to familiarize yourselves with the format we provide all the legal citations are at the very end of the policy so you questions about what
047laws are implicated by the policy you can look there and it's a very long list in this case because we have both state and federal laws requiring the policy this policy will ultimately replace a significant number of Neola policies in large part because many of the Neola policies were repetitive through each of their different sections Personnel students U administrative those types of things there is a decision for the board to make at the very beginning of the policy or rather just direction to provide on the language of the policy the first sentence reads West lafette Community School Corporation does not discriminate or tolerate harassment on the basis of a protected class including but not limited to race color National Origins sex and it continues the decision point is with regard to that word sex so
048the statement is legally compliant however some boards want to elaborate that sex for discrimination and harassment purposes includes gender identity transgender status and gender non-conformity your prior policy did make reference to each of those categories so that's what you've historically done but know that regardless of language Choice the policy is legally requirement because the law requires and Define sex to include all of those things so it's more about what statement if you want to make it consistent with your previous policy iteration um or if you just want to leave it sort of more simplistic it's an entirely a decision for the board to make um so that's the one point I'm looking for feedback tonight on this policy otherwise I'm open to questions comments any other feedback on this policy okay um that's a big
049question to start us off um riveting you said they actually it got a little more is W go ahead um as engaged with the policy when those policies were put in place the decision to add that additional language was intentional and the reason for doing so was to create an environment in which all of our students and families could feel welcome and I would be a proponent of leading that language uh in this in that level okay does anyone else have um Mr Wong go ahead Mr Wong please yeah just uh a couple questions so basically my understanding this Bard policy U maintenance service kind of new business we have with the DCA do we update our contract with them or maybe we have some separate uh agreement or that's not the issue before us
050at this time we're talking only about this policy but we can discuss that um maybe between the next this meeting and the next next okay well I have a followup when I had met with you and Dr grer I had asked a specific question about the contract and all those details that you have said at this meeting when she's here to bring it up oh so I I'm just curious I had a lot of meetings this month no and that's fine there just questions on I mean there's still not been answers shared about contract details and even this Vision before we actually get into the policies so I don't know what's the best order okay could you be more specific about your question yeah the contract in my understanding this not under current contract with
051CCH it's new service we purchase from them right the went for for policy maintenance there there's two different policies I mean two different contracts okay you approved a contract to make revisions over about a year and a half for two years and then we have a um an agreement with Church Hill and to provide us legal services and that's um that that's a different contract so retainer yeah that's a retainer and and the other one is related to board board Services uh for for policy policy service kind ofice policy service so so we don't have that contract yet no we've already approved it that's what I hope we already approve that we've approved the yes so we've approved it it's bigger it's a larger amount this year and then it'll be a retainer moving forward
052after we get through the um movement of transition from uh the current standards with towards current uh policies with Neola into church and then it'll be simply a retainer like it was with can you share details about the contract that contract actually has not been shared with the whole board so I have questions like are we paying um when Miss Billings comes every time is that part of the whole thing like how do those details work out uh I'll let her speak to it but it's actually that's part of the 16 or the that's part of the overall fee for the transition you're not you've already paid it through the through the contract yeah so two agreements one for General Council services that is separate and what was entered into in 2022 the second engagement
053is for the policy review project it's a flat fee of $166,000 paid in two installments um that includes all my services related to the policy review project and then once we complete the full review of policy it's on an hourly basis for two updates a year following the legislative session in the spring and then in the fall when Federal legislation tends to come out so those are the two times after the $16,000 fee is paid there will be additional payments for upkeep and maintenance of policy policies and it took us two 3 years you just will keep coming there's no additional charge correct it is a flat Fe it's a flat Fe um because I would love to understand the vision I'm not understanding this first and second reading in that a first reading is
054bringing forward kind of what the proposal is and you know is everybody good with this making little tweak it's shed with the public and then the second reading is the Public's had a month to review it they give them comments whatever and then we vot yet this isn't technically a first reading we've never had any discussions we've never you know you're sharing from a legal perspective what you think we should do yet there's been no you know input from a community perspective as Schoolboard members and so um I guess I mean I've asked Deb if this in a work session or a policy committee I think we have 10 policies to go through tonight and it's like the community has to sit here for how long as we go through these policies which are a
055big deal they affect all of us um so the question is for your time if it's a policy committee if it's a work session if it's this meeting after this meeting you just come to whatever you're needed to ask to come and the fee is the same that doesn't have anything to do with it correct okay um I'd also remind you that these are are our policies and that the board is elected to represent the community but it's not um a direct democracy in the same sense that Congress it's you know you you were we do want the communities feedback of course and if there are items that people are concerned about we always are available all of our emails are on the website to be in touch with but I don't think any of
056the policies and please correct me if I'm wrong are going to be substantively different from the policies they're replacing they're simply going to be more concise is that correct generally yes yeah yeah and if there are any substantive differences from previous policy that would be something that you would point out to us in this sort of reading correct great miss s um I want to say that back when we were discussing the pacing of this was the conversation that we did have in public meeting and 10 uh policies in first reading tonight was the hope that we could get through those and make a transition but I think we all knew that that was going to be um contingent upon the board reviewing those and being prepared to come to a meeting to discuss them
057and raise their viewpoints so um it is quite possible we would find tonight that we cannot get through two and I don't believe that a large majority of our teaching staff need to necessarily watch that unless they desire it and so I would be a proponent of working as we can through a period a number of these and then we'll have to table the rest of them and slow our process now I think that's then maybe we have meeting after I want you to say maybe we I do because this if we're going to talk about the policies I want to talk about it before the second reading I do too but we can do I appropriate we can all talk great if you'll schedule a work session I've asked for minut been denied so
058I'm not this is the first reading and I think as a compromise could be a good idea maybe let Jesse do what she's to do and then would that be a good I think that's a wise compromise to let Jesse do her presentation and they're on box and in public for everyone we can schedule a work session not at 7:00 in the morning and um you can be busy next week and and we can come back in a month and you know work with Jesse's colleague and yes Rachel well I agree that a lot of this could be done in work session I know that I have a couple questions and some of these that I'd like to get legal counsel response on okay as we're going through them but um I want to remind
059you you that the 7:00 meeting was voted and agreed upon as part of our official calendar so if you want to change that you'll have to do that as a change in schedule oh that's going to be my first order of business next month yeah change um session just wanted to make sure that you were aware that that is our formal calendar so you'll make a change we'll do legal council can be oh that's true do you want to zoom us from the hospital not what I was saying I was saying that legal council could be available on Zoom even session they okay Mr Wong did you have another question yeah I think that we talk about the the procedures of these kind of policy development maybe we can I think I appreciate you have
060F St uh proposals about how we can handle these kind of things in next one or one a half years maybe we can talk about that before we go any detail policies I think that would be a good way so we everybody agree upon the procedure with a good procedure we can and very likely we end up with you know well well accepted policy things make the same whole thing most so that's my myew so okay how about will to on each one we limit our questions to a reducible number and then we can move on and have a work session this month at a time is that acceptable to everyone yes Dr Yan and from the previous meeting and I learned that we will reduce more than 4,000 uh sorry 400 policies to 100
061a little bit more than 100 I don't know the exact number okay thanks and so I think given this big project and we need a plan before we take any action I move that we discuss and agree on the policy revision plan and procedure before we review any specific policy and I would like to see the big picture before focusing on any details for example I have the following questions what's the overall plan for the revision and what's the structure of the new policies what will be the procedure like the steps to take the meetings and we will have and who will write the new policies how will the community members play a role in this process I think is they are unclear at this time I hope we can schedule time to discuss and
062to agree on a plan before we move forward okay thank you Mrs Whit uh I feel very comfortable that I was present in the meeting where we discussed specifically that plan um Mrs Billingsley was here and presented to the full board and the community that she would start by uh presenting uh a list of uh policies again we tried to maybe start with 10 we thought that number might work we would see um and that staff that the board would have the opportunity to review those draft policies and that they would we would come together in a meeting and review them have ask any questions have the opportunity to fire on their content and then it is open until the next regular meeting for any community members of interest to come forward with feedback and
063then we vote on those in that that meeting or if there's not consensus reach after that 30-day review and we're back in meeting that we could table it and move it to the next meeting for further discussion that's the established process of reviewing policies um who writes them is our legal councel that is what we have hired them to do and the community input happens in the period between when we have the first reading and when we have the second reading so I feel very comfortable with that and I appreciate um Mrs Billingsley giving us clear Direction on what that process might look like thank you um I's move forward with your idea let's have a present I like here to present it's an info only we don't need to vote would you please move
064to the next item for us and we'll hash this out in a work session later absolutely so next up is a1225 the policy's title is nepotism conflicts of interests gifts and use of Corporation resources the nepotism portion is the portion of policy that is explicitly required by law generally prohibits relatives from being direct supervisors of one of the one of the other um and goes on to Define what those relationships are under law it also covers conflicts of interest uh which requires reporting of any potential pecuniary or financial interest that an employee or board member may have prior to entering into in contract the board may enter into and then discusses resources and gifts so that school resources should only be used for Corporation purposes their intended purposes gifts should not be solicited though there's
065a recognition that families and students may give staff gifts you know if there's particular attention paid to a family tutoring whatnot or holidays end of term um recognition of that after that is a175 or I'm sorry I'm going to pause for any questions let's hold off on questions let's yeah let's just go through them and then we'll do questions during the work session and then we'll question later on okay okay in that if if your question is a specific legal issue please feel free to ask it now if it's hashing out language we can do that together later cool great number three number three a175 whistleblower protections um this is a policy not explicitly required by law but best practice and mir's law basically outlines the type of reports we expect employees to make about
066wrongdoing and that those employees who report in good faith shall not be disciplined I.E protected for their whistleblowing great A200 is Firearms weapons and destructive devices required by several state and federal laws to prohibit essentially defines what those things that are prohibited on school property and generally prohibits them on school property with the few exceptions that are allowed under Indiana Law those two primarily being SRO or law enforcement officers and the exception for visitors and employees to have fire Ms locked in their trunk or glove box out of sight we did have a brief yeah would you like to go ahead we have a fencing team we specifically added that to our policy previously because those are considered to be weapons so that type of adjustment how would that impact this policy so we just
067make that adjustment okay but it is considered you as an adjustment we need to make the personalizer yeah okay great anything else super oh yes Dr what the policy numbers mean and how they are connecting with the current existing policy like the the case um Mr just mentioned is a good example for what we have now and what we are going to have in the future I think the pounding relationship will be helpful for um so the the format of we operate under is we have count them real fast one two three four five six seven eight categories um versus your policies now have several more um our policies are categorized into basic commitments Schoolboard governance students Administration and Personnel instruction fiscal management operations and facilities and community relations so there's large overlap between those
068categories and the categories you have now we' just um really condensed them you know you have a section for administrative classified Personnel non-classified Personnel um we just have one section for administration and Personnel um so they don't necessarily correspond exactly but there are similar topics categories yeah I really appreciate that information I wonder whether you have a written document to show the structure of the current the proposed one and the old one how they will be kind of condensed into the new one one because that's a big picture I was asking earlier yeah I have that document and I I believe it's already been shared with the board I saw I'm looking for it and I can't find it it's a policy project introduction document is the title I do believe we receiv that I
069I saw it yeah I just it's not to sh make sure it's shared okay so for for the individual pieces do we still have the information from the current one to the the new one through the corresponding relationship for example we will know which ones are removed which ones will be added where yes so each policy that I propose has a corresponding policy that it will ultimately replace in your current policy book okay yeah we'll we'll find that document I remember seeing it I can picture it in my head I can't find it I can reshare it we can reshare it we we and the Friday notes where we put the eight categories we took it from that document so we our office will make sure we reshare that with the board you want in
070Friday notes or you want it be before then just email email it be yeah okay moving on moving on a225 reporting of suspected child abuse or neglect ironically the law does not require this policy but obviously very best practice to have it um it mirrors the law and just States if there's any reason to suspect child abuse human elect staff must immediately report that okay a250 no tobacco somewhat self-explanatory y sorry 225 right so let's talk about uh reporting of uh suspect the child abuse or neglect right yes yeah I look at this I just casually compare with uh you have and what we have right now uh there's a requirement uh uh basically they asking every year the corporation should provide age appropriate and research and evidence based uh instruction child abuse and uh
071child sex abuse to students uh in kindergarten through grade uh two great 12 so I find this one in our original uh policy but not in the new policy so you think this is not necessary we can remove that uh from the new policy system so I do not believe that including every training obligation under statute is required to be in the policy that certainly if something you would like to see maintained in your policy the board can say so you say we don't need this policy in the new I'm saying you don't need a board policy stating that by law you have to give training Oh you mean the training materials yeah does that make sense well that's uh that's my question basically my understanding CCI is philosopher as we already talk about that
072anything required but by the law should be kind of somehow coded into the policy so I think uh that should be included in the uh new policy the next step after we get the policies straight is Administrative guidelines correct and so we will be codifying more of those items into those guidelines as we go forward is this an example of where administrative guidelines would state that yeah sure okay and then that would be my uh next question basically followup question so when you repeal those for example right now we have 10 new policies and pretty much we repeal 30 40 policies and each of those 30 policies have some U Base legal base so some of them in this case used to be in our current system but you are remov that from new system
073can you make a list of these kind of things which is in our current system but to remove from uh new pares new polies or maybe that will be moved to the administration guidance or something like that can we have a list of that kind of things so we can compare that and make sure all key information is coded into our policy you know we don't want we don't want to miss anything basically I mean policy making development is a major Duty of our uh School Board we don't want uh I mean miss anything so something Beyond just a statement that this policy would replace or allow the school to remove the exist these existing policies uh something for example something like this case so this piece of information as you said we don't include
074that into new policy right it will be included in the administration guidance so can we have the whole list of these things in that 30 40 current policies which is not transfer migrated to the new policy system that would may be migrated to the administration guidance you see what I mean myself clear what the November board meeting it's number 14 Legal Services review and that's the one that lists all the policies that are new and which policies they supersede that's what I'm saying yeah we have that it's in there yeah that's why I'm saying there's not each policies in our policy partially have been migrated to the new system but some of the it like the example I said is not migrated to the new Poli system and as Dr gr said that may be
075migrated to the administ guidance right so I'm just wondering can we have a list of these kind of situations some of them migrated to the new system and whatever left we will migrate to the administration guidance because I have to I have a vote I have need information so I can know all key information have been migrated correctly into the new system so everything everybody cover you see what I mean did I make myself clear so you want me to highlight in each policy that's being rescinded or potentially rescinded the portions that are not being continued in the in the proposed policy yes you see in the existing policy but it won't be migrated to the new poliy Mrs what is for is a method to crosscheck the work of our superintendent in developing administrative
076guidelines so I believe what Dr or Mr Wong is saying is in this particular instance we're taking one thing out about uh training and that would be something that would belong in administrative guidelines and so he would like a documentation of the work that our superintendent would be doing in this sitation does that correctly represent what you I think yeah except for trainings or other things that are legally required I mean even those may not necessarily make it into administrative guidelines because the law requires it we comply with law whether or not the board policy dictates it or administrative guidelines dictated so it's a little difficult to say yes to that because it may not necessarily in every case make it into an administrative guideline it's un necessary to readit guideline that says we just
077comply with law I didn't say that agreed with Mr Wong I was just trying to explain this question more thoroughly Mr Wong I guess maybe as you come across things like that if you could keep a list that might be very helpful going forward there's a lot of things I'm not I'm just L I just look at that and I see so if uh I mean you guys can you guys the expertise you can give us the least of those things and basically this requirement uh for the class education uh for student is kind of required so yeah so that's why I'm seeing thinking that should be migrated to the new polic system but you say they will be mov to the administration guidance that's fine with me but I just want that document for
078this migration purpose we have item a b c move to new policy but DFG that's we won't move that we will move to the administration guidance so I just want to make sure our currency is already time proed I us many years and then we want this migration include everything we don't want to miss anything basically okay thank you we will take that under advisement let's keep going because we're losing our audience here does everybody need to stretch Str school night yeah it is a school night seventh inning come on keep going all right okay um no tobacco self-explanatory uh our language also concludes a prohibit prohibition on Easters and vaping um Wellness a275 is required by state and federal laws with very specific requirements um we work directly through fuit service director to refine
079this proposal that's in front of you um and then the additional piece there are several goals the district is required to have those goals have been migrated from your formal policy to your current policy so those goals remain the same um a300 one of the more lengthy policies because it's the responsible use of technology and internet use policy various aspects are required by federal and state law it outlines a very broad level acceptable use of Technology including academic honesty or honesty not dishonesty uh protecting confidential information School use of filters other highlights include um users using technology at their own risk in the school not having liability um and not allowing incurring fees so if people don't read clickbait 100% without authorization uh a325 is communicable diseases this is not a legally mandated policy um
080but one that we got lots of requests for at the height of the covid-19 pandemic it emphasizes the authority that already exists in law with the Department of Health the superintendent or principles to exclude students due to illness that the district will follow the Department of Health statutes and regulations regarding immunizations and controlling communicable diseases and that employees will use universal precautions to deal with any fluid or bloodborne pathogens um and then finally of the 10 is a350 Civility and decorum policy again not a required policy but something we started receiving requests for it sets out Behavior expectations for the school Community altogether and potential steps to address uncivil Behavior thank you excellent yes Rachel um this R I have a question I was uh considering a situation that I have experienced and uh several
081of these policies could um apply to that so um and specifically like responsibili use of Technology Civility and decorum the harassment policy um in a situation where any of those policies could apply to the action that is happened the event that's happened um and if the means of resolution were different so if it was report here on this one and Report there on that one how would we navigate which policy applied to the specific situation well some of it depends on um how the concern or complaint is brought to you like a constituent may bring it pursuant to the stability and decorum policy and so that would sort of guide your response to it um alternatively I think you would need to rely upon Administration just inconsistency and practice and that you know this one
082was filed underneath disability and deor policy but it's really more appropriate for us to deal with it under this policy of procedure okay so there's a level I think that's where the confusion sometimes members of the community will say oh we're not really sure where this belongs but we know that something wrong has happened right um and so that's just essentially it's a discretion yes is there any exposure on uh inconsistent application of that policy if there's inconsistent application yes so here's what I mean by that uh if uh somebody wrote something mean about me on the internet okay um I would could come forward and say well this is against the school's Civility and decorum and um say Dr grer looked at that and said well actually that's going to fall under responsible use
083of technology and then a year later somebody comes forward and says somebody said something mean about me on the internet um is this Civility and decorum and they were accepted in the Civility and decorum so that's what I mean by I don't think anybody would um do that to be you know it was just a question of that consistency because these strike me as being more philosophical in nature than our policies have been in the past and so I just I would kind of like to understand what the application looks like yeah um so some of that is the precedent that is set these types of these types of concerns are dealt with in this way um and some of it is uh less determined by which process it's processed through not to use that
084word twice but more about the treatment and the outcome and whether that's different if you get to the same end result it's not going to matter for liability what the processes that's used to get there okay that makes a lot of sense to me thank you okay any other general questions a quick question if I understand correctly the process is now that we're kind of you've turned it over to us we're going to work on it till it goes to Second reading and now you'll start with a next group getting policies ready for a first reading yes so I was wondering if we could prioritize a few of them so the library curriculum materials when we passed that we were told that that would be one of the very first policies that would be brought
085forward so we're wondering if we could prioritize that one the bullying policy we have it um if we could prioritize that the student suspension and expulsion and the one on staff not allowed to talk to Schoolboard to me are ones that are not following things we should be doing or are doing and I think should be one of the highest priorities that we have so I don't know how that works to share I don't know the proper way to share priorities I'm happy to email the board the numbers that'd be great and then be we can pass that but I think instead of just going in direct order if there's policies that are priorities I'd like to see those brought forward yeah basically my understanding is uh you policy will condense some our current policiy
086for example har we have a harassment policy intersection programs programs we have that for uh supportive stuff we have that for professionals we have that for administrators we have that for students so basically if you compare those current uh uh policy they have but 90% they are pretty much safe but there are some key uh informations there's different for example because each person in this uh School her iCal systems for example if will file a complaint to administrator or to a teacher or support supportive stuff you go different rout so uh there there are some difference but when you for example students students is different so if something happen with student and also I find that there's a our current current current policy uh in the student section there are big big chunk of the
087med regarding sex harassment but I didn't see that in the new policy so that another example we we did M something here but basically U each there must some there must be some reasons why we have current layout in different uh different sections so I just wondering U maybe there will be some question to naola ask them why they have these kind of things there must be some reasons I understand you combine combine them together condense them together there are some benefit you just change one ch but maybe there's some other uh benefit to build them separate so that that's just again I'm l so I think we need some advice or information regarding the benefit and pro and con different different we talk about that different philosophers and which one is better how to
088handle different situations thank you thank you okay I think if seeing okay Dr yen and so yeah regarding the structure and I do have that document and for the eight sections and so just a clarification question so the a right now re means that the O belong to the section A yes and then what does the numbers mean just sequential and then we have starting from 100 or starting from yeah each section starts at 100 and goes up by 25 or 50 just depending on what made sense when we were putting together the policies 2550 means we we have the skiped numbers rather than in a sequential way they go sequential so a100 a125 a 175 a 200 okay so we skape like a 25 we intentionally skipe those numbers between yes because because it
089in case we want to add something yeah if he wanted to add something then there would be add there's there's also that so sometimes they jump um you know buy a full 50 so that there's space in between the legislature constantly gives us new things to write policies on so you want to have some room in your numbering system to put them in between Neola does it by adding decimals um so it's just another way to organize the policies and put them in an order that makes some semblance of sense okay then things and then so kind of follow up to Mr Juan's question and uh you know we used to have the same similar policies that belongs to different sessions so with the current structure does that mean for example we will not have
090the anti-harassment policy for the teacher students section correct we only have this as a like a fundamental one for yes everybody to look at to start with yes okay and the rationale behind that is that you have one policy to look for you don't have to identify am I you know classified as this administrative and so the reporting is all um it's the word I'm looking for consistent so that you know a student reports a staff member reports it goes up the same chain to the ultimate coordinator of that area of discrimination or harassment which is ultimately what the Neola policies would have done anyways it's just all located in one spot so you don't have to question a staff member knows reviewing that policy they need to report to the title 9 coordinator who
091handles the complaint or whoever it may be for that type of discrimination okay so with the revision we will not have similar policies in different sections correct okay thanks fortification do you have something okay moving on we're thank you very much Jesse for coming oh sorry I yes I would like to make a motion that we move item 10 the Personnel report up and the next agenda item so that we could let the teachers go to bed great idea that great minds thinking alike uh so move do I hear a second second by Mrs Mumford all those in favor of flipping nine and 10 and doing the Personnel report next I think that's everybody okay thank you uh and Jesse thank you for coming and if you'd like to escape now it would be thank
092an excellent opportunity talks about contracts and there's some questions on contracts if you don't mind staying for just a couple minutes and with the contracts so I serve with the pleasure of the board okay thank you Dr Griner would you like to give us the personal report I would be happy to give personel report in the Personnel report we have on the agenda a request to uh to approve our recommended principal for the Junior Senior High School Mr Chad Rogers he's in the audience thank you for attending this evening I know the staff has been excited Mr Rogers comes to us with 12 years of principal experience at the Junior Senior High School level Mr Rogers serves as a mentor to the Indiana principal Leadership Institute through Indiana State University with support of the Indiana
093Department of Education he was named the district 8 principal of the Year by the Indiana Association of School principles in 2021 he has 15 years of experience te teaching chemistry at the high school level and during that span of time he also coached Mr Rogers Rose to the top as the preferred candidate through multiple interviews in the input of various stakeholders interview committee members throughout the process appreciated and saw the value and Mr Rogers ability to communicate in a general uh genuine and open manner as well as uh demonstrated interest in developing Rel relationships with all stakeholders uh within our community and our school Community his qualities and experiences align to the feedback that we gained from our districtwide survey Mr Rogers processed through three different interview sessions made up of the Junior Senior High
094School staff central office administrators principls parents and students those on the interview committee represented our special population such as special education English language learner and pability representative board members were also brought into the process later on and we collected feedback and interview question topics from families staff and students through a survey that was administered early on in the process we thank the many families staff and students who have engaged in this process which is ultimately is what led to this preferred candidate based on the process coupled with the outstanding feedback gathered from the reference tracks I can confidently recommend Mr Rogers to the board for hire it's also my recommendation that Personnel report be approved as presented thank you very much my pleasure thank you um I need a motion so moved by Mrs Whitten
095and seconded by Mr shot any discussion Mrs mord this um had been some questions recently the contracts of the teachers were posted online but my understanding that hasn't been done before so I'm trying to understand the legality what's required what's not required parts of contracts are being shared with some of the board members addendums so I'd like to understand the contracts better because I feel like when we're approving the Personnel we're also approving contracts okay so my first so sorry let me make it out share why was it decided to put all the contracts on the School Board website recently um nothing was shared with the board I just noticed it on the website yet it's not never been done before I was not aware of that change I think it has been done yes
096yeah we we do that we did that in my previous District too and if it started it started when I got here but I suspect it was done it I don't know if it happened before I know that you and I had a conversation about it when you came and this is at least the third year that that would have been put up so okay so is it legally required to share the contracts on the school's website legally required to so we're trying to be extra transparent just so you know it's legally required to share the U the U teachers contract okay okay and then it's legally required to post administrative contracts we are transparent and we post all it what about addendum to contract example from yeah so the base contract all certified staff
097has a base teacher contract that only talks about the salary and the required um required work days but then there's the agendum that's going to talk about a retirement plan in some cases it's devices do they pay did school distri pay for their devices mileage it's all that other got it so yes to the superintendent's contract that is a requirement you can find that on mine that 8year and it doesn't change and then I've got a teacher contract is issue yes so yes to the superintendent's contract that is required is there a dum to our principles or any other Administration it is a yeah it it's handbook in the same way that things are listed out for teachers and the teacher contract handbook meeting sorry this everybody has the same if you're not the superintendent
098everybody meets those same requirements okay that's helpful this any that's helpful that answers my contract question great we didn't need I didn't need you this time thank you for being with for extra minute anything else all right I um have a motion and a second all those in favor of approving the Personnel report please indicate with rais hand I I'm sorry we already I made one comment okay does anyone else have comments I thought I said anyone else go ahead Mr long yeah I would have a a motion to separate the uh a principal contract with the Personnel report you can uh votee two times okay so Mr Wong has moved to separate the principal's employment from all of the rest of the Personnel report do I hear a second second by Dr Yin any
099discussion Mr Wong any rationale behind that or uh I have no problem the Personnel uh report but I want have some comments regarding this principal house separate thank you anyone else okay all those in favor of removing uh or separating the principal's contract from the rest of the Personnel report please indicate with a raised hand that would be Mrs mord Mr Wong and Dr Yun all those opposed Mrs Whit Mr shot Mr Marley and myself so that motion does not pass we will be taking the Personnel report as a complete document any other comments Mr Wong yes I regarding this Personnel report I have no problem with other uh uh with other uh Personnel report on the on the whole report uh the only comments I want to make is regarding our high school principal
100hires so basically for this uh recruiting effort I really appreciate uh that our school AD mean uh solate uh community Community input and uh School other pretty much all people's expectations about this uh new principle I really appreciate that and I also appreciate the hiring committee members uh we have co- committee members which include several teachers uh they already come here comments I really appreciate uh your effort uh you take a lot of times and efforts and also we have students join the uh committee we have administrators and also board members including myself and I appreciate their uh dedications throughout this something like uh two months hiring process and I also appreciate the all candidates uh some of them Trav long way to come here join our um uh interviews include Mr Chad Roger and
101who also uh who show their U uh their P patience in education and their interest in our uh school and also participate uh in the our recruiting effort so however I I must confess uh this is a difficult call for me now giving all the information I collected and uh also carefully uh considerations I have so far now I believe uh there our caring process may need some uh Improvement we have very good uh caring process but we I think I believe we can make that better even better uh specifically uh speaking Reger initial applications screening could uh limit many difficult situations at a later stage uh of recruiting uh process a welld designed and implemented the pairing process more likely uh ends up with a well supported maybe unanimous supported and the desired outcome
102the while we uh wrap up the recruiting effort and embrace uh the new high school leadership so it's a mix of the Delights concerns and also cultures OPM so I extend my uh warm welcome and also support uh to the incoming uh High School principal and it's my hope uh that new principle will serve as Catal Catalyst for unified and stable leadership team and the continue improves continuous Improvement within our school so that together uh we can build an even better school for our students and our community thank you thank you anyone else Mrs rord um I was not involved in the search process um for the principal at all um but my overall impression is it's not been a well done search this has been shared and concerns have been expressed but I have
103to say I was happy to meet Mr Rogers on Thursday I was very impressed with his competency with his openness and willingness to come here and embrace what makes West Lafayette fabulous and address some um serious concerns we have so that for this reason I will be voting to support um and hire Mr Rogers even though I did have conf thank you anyone else Mrs wh I would like to thank um Dr and Mrs Roth and the teachers uh and administrators and students and parents who were engaged in the search I think it's important for everybody present to understand that this is not the board's hire this is our superintendent's hire and our superintendent has made a very strong recommendation and it's reinforced by this with names of all these teachers who are the Educators
104in our schools who work with our students and my children every day and I want want you to hear loud and clear how much I honor and appreciate your endorsement that is the reason among my observation of qualifications uh and interactions with Mr Rogers that I would intend to vote Yes this evening as well thank you and Dr Yen would you like to share and to save a time and I will not repeat a lot of things that have been said but I do really appre appreciate all those who are involved in the process and also appreciate that we have the process to incorporate the teachers students and parents and administrators input and I appreciate the teachers passion tonight and I always do appreciate your commitment to our students uh however I still will say
105that I do have concerns first the number of applications is not transparent and the pool is extremely tiny the candidate pool had extremely small complete applications and those with principal experience were even smaller and the general information about the application pool should have been shared with the public but when I shared the numbers at a December board meeting this is wa the board president at that time stopped me and claimed that is confidential it should not be confidential because the number of application was shared with the public when Dr Griner was HED keeping it confidential suggest that you are unembarrassed about the small number you know that the tiny number is not convincing for the public to know that we have a great starting point and I asked several other districts TSC LC and C
106about their numbers for their recent high high school principal search they they all received a much bigger complete applications some of them are like five times than ours more than that even second our central office seem to be seem to intentionally discourage more applications to keep the PO small at December meeting I proposed to extend the application dieline and postpone the initial interview to increase the candidate pool but my proposal was rejected after the December meeting the central office left the search open but they explicitly list the interview timeline on the website start stating that the first round interview should be conducted in the week of December 18th Additionally the the ads removed a lot of attractive information about our district and about this position including the annual salary of 100 130k to or above
107it seems that this approach have successfully discouraged any other potential candidates because the central office later said that they didn't receive any additional applications afterwards December 18 is a week when all the high school principls teachers and students were extremely busy with their final exams it's completely unnecessary to conduct an interview in such a rust time time especially when we had a very few candidates if everyone keeps our students best interest in mind a reasonable approach will be to extend the application dieline and conduct the interview in January to give potential candidates the winter break to prepare and submit their applications I served on search committee multiple times at my University I never seen such action when this the pool is small just went ahead and the did did the search and did the interview
108I I found it's really hard to understand in fact many districts started their principal search in the spring semester until now I cannot understand why the russal for such a rush interval process with a tiny pool third information is insufficient for me to make this hering decision the interval committee recommended two candidates who had very close scores and had their prons and cons respectively but the central office only presented one candidate to the board members to vote on all the information available to the board is insufficient at least for me to know whether this candidate FS the expectations of our community collected by the survey and so on also when issues were raed there was no way for me to find a triangulation information due to the confidentiality this is the CRI IAL hair as
109we all know which matters to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers for many years I don't take our respon our communities trust lightly or taking any risk so I will go to know for the reasons about my vote is not a personal attack or distrust of Mr Mr Rogers I hope that Mr Rogers understands as an elected official I serve the community members not the superintendent or any candidate I needed to stand behind every vote I cast and be responsible for the voters who trusted me and rely on me to make the right decisions for their children and their teachers I welcome the new principal Mr Rogers in particular I really appreciate that you asked me for my suggestion after you know my my vot I do appreciate your openness to this and I
110app I appreciate your understanding I hope you can actively seek Community feedback and then continuously improve education for all the students thank you great anyone else and all do again I also represent the community for the last 16 years um we have a duty to select the best person that we possibly can for our superintendent and we went about that mission a few years ago we took it very seriously I can assure you all that we Pi the right person for the job at the right time and we trust him to make these decisions on a go forward basis and I told him personally this is his call this is H this will be a person that he will be working with in the coming years and he knows that but he also knows that
111we have a wide and diverse community and that he is open to a collaborative inclusive effort with the endgame to reach the best possible decision for all constituents and he included 20 members of our community in that process and he let them speak freely and independently and form their own decisions and the decision that they reach is the culmination of what we have here today we have rer from and I don't know Chad but I know people that know and I'll tell you what we've done it again we hired the right person at the right time pass off to Ron shrin we owe you a debt of gratitude and so now Ron passes the Baton he leaves our Corporation and our school in great hands uh we welcome you we welcome your family we'll do
112everything humanly possible find your house there's four listing there's four listings right now we but welcome to West L yet always St to follow Brad but Chad came up last week and met with all the board members and I thought that uh said a lot about uh his passion for this job and I think he left there thinking it maybe a 4-3 vote a 5-2 vote certainly not the type of vote you would want as we heard from some of our teacher earlier tonight but the fact that uh even with that knowledge um he was willing to come here because of what he believed what sopia to be makes me even more impressed than I was from when I first met him as Brad said this is Dr rers hired to make and he went
113above and beyond to include as many different subset members of our community as he could and when that many people reach the same consensus he's obviously doing something right and I I feared for months when we knew that Ron was retiring that we'd get anybody to apply for this job because of this board and I think the fact that we got Mrs Creed said a home run higher speaks to the community the fact that it isn't about us shouldn't be about us and our egos it's about you all Sean I congratulate you for pulling this together so splendidly and uh this is a great day for West Side thanks um I can't follow that I have no words let's go ahead and vote all in favor of approving the Personnel report in its entirety please
114show your hands that is five Mrs Mumford Mr Marley Mr shot Mrs wit and myself Mrs Julian and all opposed please indicate with a raised hand that is Dr Yin and Mr Wong welcome to West [Applause] Lafayette [Applause] we have unlocked the library in this building if anyone would like to visit um for any reason um and we're going to take a f minute recess so that everyone can uh let's just unless Mr would you like to say anything or you yeah let's yeah there we go that's good we're recessed on number nine we're back in some sort of order um we're going to return to strategic planning and Dr Griner at this time thank you uh Mrs Austin we've been focusing on District priorities which provide direction for one year even referend Mar is
115behind us we need to start thinking about longer range goals three to five years out focusing on strategies time specific action plans for continuous growth and development among our district we want to involve community and representative stakeholders in the process we've collected a list of vendors or firms that might be considered for taking us through the strategic planning process the memo that I provided with this agenda uh provide includes possible vendors that we' collected so far we understand the board will want to further discuss the process review and discuss vendor options and collaboratively develop a plan for moving forward Mrs Austin I recommend the board consider a work session at some point to continue developing a plan for strategic planning thank you I uh agree with you and it's sounds like we'll be doing at
116least a couple of those so thanks for the update um next will be number 11 and I'm going to go ahead and move that we take all five of the field trips as one item um does anyone uh like to second that Mrs Whit thank you um I just think it would be expedient any other discussion super all those in favor of taking all five of the field trips as one item please raise your hand that's everybody so I need a motion to approve all five field trips Mrs Mumford thank you I need a second Mr Wong thank you any discussion cool all those in favor of approving all five field trips please raise your hand that would be everyone thank you very much moving on to Summer School Mrs Roth and approve is to
117move forward with a contract with Indian online basically moving forward with Contracting with them we would not know the specifics of the contract until we had more information from students about what they were taking um and but we can we would provide that contract when we had it we're bringing this to you now so that the counseling department can move forward with that okay thank you um I'd like to share with my uh fell board members that I uh received um feedback from a couple of uh community members by phone asking for lots of options so I wanted to share that that came to me this afternoon um I need a motion to move forward with summer school please no move moved by Mr Marley second by Mr shot any discussion yes Mrs Whit in
118the past we've offered students a lot of options it seems to me as though it is first one of those options are you anticipating other studies I know achieve virtual is anticipated to be offered as well we've talked with social studies teachers and couldn't come to consensus this year at the end of the pilot but we've agreed already that we would talk for future since there is a concern for offering students the opportunity to take something local for the rigor and the continuity so just to be clear this I previous years all come to us at one time they kind of come to us as the opportunity correct and there's no contract required for achieve thank any other questions M I have a question about the implication of this schedule on students um course selection
119because as far as I know students are required to submit their course selection by 14th this month and but you know students choice for the four course May depends on their the options they have in summer and so I wonder in this case should we allow the students to submit their course Choice a bit later after they have more information about in summer school counselors are meeting with students and going through that process now I think they could tell us if they needed to extend the deadline the we were waiting to understand if we could contract with Indiana online so that they can release that information and I anticipate that they would then be able to release that information okay do that answer your question so that means the students still need to submit to
120their for of election by 14s even though they don't know yet what are they in summer they wouldn't know they can request summer school and then the counselors would go through to see what they could fulfill in that so they the requests can go forward I I think the counseling if the counseling department sees where there would be an additional need for time that they would want to work with students to do that okay I'm still my my C haven't I don't plan to take a summer school buff for those School deed I I wonder I think what happens is a student would sign up for PE during the summer if they didn't want to take it during the year and if there were only a handful of students who had signed up for PE
121that would be cancelled they would have to adjust the rest of their plan in order to fit what was actually offered but I think our counselors are Adept at making those choices and decisions and helping the guide our students so that they fulfill all of their requirements counselors counselors do go ahead and schedule as if the student hadn't completed summer school so that they can run the schedule and then if students do complete summer school then they readjust the schedule so the two can operate somewhat independently of each other if I'm not sure if that addresses your question but for anybody listening out there get the misunderstanding PE is not eligible for summer school so I don't want anybody any parent 100 years ago I took PE during summer school we don't offer that I
122just I don't want anybody to be disappointed about PE in the summer that's not a thing thank you uh the example that I would give is that my children have taken summer school in the past stuck in and they have been scheduled as though they did not complete the class and then when they came back to school that spot was filled because they were able to present correct completion of it so if just because they're scheduled for summer school also does not mean that they will take it and complete it and earn a satisfactory grade so uh we wouldn't my understanding is they would not want to interfere with students ability to graduate uh should they not successfully completed in the summer school format um but I guess my comment to this whole conversation is
123that our guidance office um are really experts in untangling a very difficult uh complex situation and um uh they I would imagine that the best solution to any concerns about that would come as close to the student as possible thank you Mrs buer you had a question I have a couple questions my first one is understanding what the Board needs to approve in regards to this and what is just a superintendent kind of recommendation I mean sorry I don't mean to not mean you yeah um so my two question is that the memo seems in general to be covering two topics one is what online contract with Indiana Online Academy and the second is the social studies summer program are both of those things the Schoolboard votes on is one of those what is it
124that the needs the memo was written to clarify some topics that had gone through the air the memo itself is a request for a motion to approve to enter into a contract with Indiana online Indiana online requires a contract okay the clarification in the memo was that the a is actually the first choice provider with the guidance counsel with the school counselors working with students and that the social studies would be offered there this year because we have not yet reached consensus with social studies on how to sort through the end of that pilot okay that's helpful so the social studies program you're just sharing as an Administration what decision you need we are not voting on that correct okay can I ask if if it were to come up next year that would be
125brought to you because there would be funds involved would vote on that because the funds are being removed technically I mean we've done it in the past that's why we voted on it but today because you not using F so in the past what it was was we sought reimbursement as we will for anything that we can seek reimbursement for we sought reimbursement through the state of Indiana and then the additional funds not reimbursed through Indiana were um local funds which in this case were the sr3 funds the sr3 funds are no longer available for that purpose those have been expended so I think my big question is why we're doing this in February and why we didn't do this in August or September I know if I was a teacher and you told me
126today I mean I it honestly makes me sit to my stomach for our teachers and students who have already registered so actually we've put on the agenda to bring it um to bring the plan just the general plan on December for next year and then January for any contract approvals it was simply a matter of us being newer to understanding the end of the pilot and that kind of thing and the um High School kind of remaining status quo that was the reason for that okay so um but so as of now any Stu I mean because I know most of our students have actually already submitted their schedules just having a high school student this is a very complicated decision to have been made two days before the deadline so my question is how
127is this going to be rolled out how are you know the students who have registered yeah are they now needing to go back you know and it said I want to take us history through our school like are they now doing that and even the Indiana Online Academy that act information actually was never shared with even the parents about a summer school option achieve was the only one that's been shared okay um so it's just a lot of questions that I think our students like how will this move forward because this is a lot of change of information if that makes sense I think what your concerns are valid in ensuring students have the information my own student has taken some school and found it helpful um I think in this case we would want
128to communicate with the high school that you know how will we do this to ensure it goes out there one of the things that we' um I know the guidance counselors put do an entire Google folder with information so I'm sure it will be placed in that folder and then I know that um the guidance office also sends out emails to update parents I think I think it's reasonable that that would be part of their plan as well okay because the summer school is the one thing the kids got a QR code that you could only see if you logged into the kids account right like as a parent and there was nothing in the folder so that I know is limited information out there they've done a great job sharing the course catalog and
129all of those things um so that's definitely a concern I agree um actually we did meet briefly with the head of counseling Mrs Sheffield and she said if you your questions please let us know because she shared explicitly she refines the process year after year about how communication goes out that way everyone has equal access to information so if you could send those to me or to her that way we can get that I I don't want to paraphrase your you know I don't want to paraphrase what your thoughts are but that way we can make sure that the high school is aware of the concern it's a legitimate concern and then Logistics wise I actually think it'd be more helpful if we talked about it like in November the concern is if we talk
130about it in December and there's more information like I feel like January's the end all dead all of making this decision because the counselors start talking to students teachers start planning their Summers correct so I would love as much information I just feel like there's a lot of data out there we'd love to see you know um so I just feel like I would not like to see this Rush the difficulty with de is as a former High School teacher you're still kind of sorting through the course catalog in November so in December when you're thinking of you can sort through kind of like what new courses you might offer um and you guys correct me if I'm wrong but you're sorting through the process of what new courses you might offer you're taking into
131account counselors are also looking at that end of kind of first semester data to see who might not be passing to know where to shift them or how they're going to schedule November might be possible we've asked the counseling department but I think December from what I've been told from the high school would be a reasonable but it doesn't mean that December November would be un that answer my questions thank you thanks okay all in favor of approving um the motion regarding summer school please indicate with a raiseed hand that is everybody Mrs Julian um moving on still to Mrs Roth and U Mr Hamilton the website up date so information we shared with you earlier today and we'll um just briefly I'm going to start this to explain the process where things started and
132then Mr Hamilton has put the expertise into it so he'll take over from there uh one of the board priorities for this year was updating the website that has been um kind of a work in progress to update it and one of the first things we did was ask for Community feedback on specifically what parts of the website why do you most frequently use the website the other thing that we did was to ask about the frequency and you can see in what I shared previously um lunch food service is a frequent hitter on the website as well as the calendar and schedules and we gave all of that information to Mr Hamilton and his crew and to kind of refine and work through that website experience so we're kind of I believe at a
133point where he could share good evening I'll be brief I I wasn't going to display anything tonight because I know it's been shared with you the website link and everything so uh just thank you Mrs Roth um it's been help been nice working with you and getting feedback uh from the community to help guide our our layout and design with the new website um we we knew we wanted to have something built that was going to be a little bit easier easier to generate content that's one thing we were lacking on the on the old site is having having content generation and so we we built this new site with the layout that's going to be easy for our Communications higher to assist with adding news um new images new pictures relevant to each school
134um even as you scroll down to the website you'll see shortcut icons that were created um with the feedback in mind to navigate to those items those events the menus uh counseling Athletics uh as you scroll down there's the news articles we've got we've got a sidebar uh with uh items on the right that are going to be popular and then even as you scroll down we've added some social media integration as well so even if you're not following westl yet um on socials you can see that um for example if I go to the high school web page I can see there's a West Lafayette Alum that was in the Super uh kind of neat if you didn't know that so there you go um another emphasis was to cut down some of the
135menu items to make this a little bit more um seamless easier to find what what we're after um for example the board member area the board area uh we we cut down that menu structure and created a separate page so we have more like a board Hub so if you were to go there tonight and look at it you would see that we've got an embedding of the actual live stream there so you don't have to actually go out to YouTube and find that it's going to be all right there you can scroll down a little bit find the agendas minutes all that stuff is going to be right on the page a little bit easier for everyone to to access that stuff um with with an emphasis on trying to keep people on our
136website so and that's common theme throughout this new build is U trying to keep people on the site and not going out linking out to other things as much as as much as we can I have a question yes when will it go live um we we're hoping this week great so that that'll be the plan to do the cut over this week sure um second um I got a question about how content comes off here so in reviewing particular board section I know this do that probably aren't outdated in our for arival um I think as a board we probably have what that like but do you have any thoughts yeah that that's always been just a board decision so I would get direction from central office um to to remove that stuff that
137is something that you might want to consider a conversation among the officers in previous you know very my time in a board chair I was have those conversations uh about adding things but there wasn't really much conversation about area okay I will add that to my list yes well sorry I'll answer from my viewpoint why that would be important uh there is for example there are a couple of ations from uh that I wrote as the chair of the board and if someone were to click on those they might not understand that I'm no longer the board chair and so that's really the nature of my inquiry about archiving I'm not talking about adding Dynamite to them I'm saying they would archive perhaps this historical document or something not reader not perhaps familiar yeah and
138generally not asked to do that very often there's been times where i' I've brought it up in the past like are we okay to just not display these anymore because you know we got a full page of years and folders and things and so forth so yes it's cleaner to remove those things if it's not really relevant anymore okay um it's nice to hear your voice at a meing usually you're so quiet so appreciate that and it's an info only so there's no vote on this item I do want to thank Mr Hamilton he's really there have been a lot lots of kind of chefs in the kitchen on this one where um obviously each school is represented different programs are represented and he's done a fabulous job of accepting feedback and there are some
139parts of it that we will continue to update so yeah thank you was a huge undertaking yeah go ahead Mr yeah absolutely yeah yeah and a lot of that will a lot of that looking looking fresh relevant will help with with new images and and content as we yeah we just have a better layout now to be able to quickly add those things thank you thank you Mr um okay the next item on the agenda was actually from me it's regarding board compensation last month we voted to change the compensation for board members um and only compensate the prium for regular meetings and no longer to compensate special meetings this item was not on the agenda and no one had the opportunity to review it or think about the ramifications of that in advance of
140the vote um my fear is that we were put on the spot and for forced to vote against our own Financial interests and this action will have effects in the future and could limit our ability to attract board members who perhaps are unable to volunteer that time rather than to be compensated for it so in the interest of attracting excellent candidates to run for school board in the future um and in the interest of attracting candidates from all socioeconomic backgrounds some of which may not be able to afford it as I said I propose that we revisit this issue um my first motion is to um increase our board compensation to be commensurate with the rate that Indianapolis pays which is legal under Indiana state law and Indianapolis really sets the um threshold for where
141we're paid um I included The Memo from isba that we all should have received uh this month so if I could move to increase our pay for uh going forward to $150 for the monthly meetings and $75 per special meeting retroactive to January 1st and I'm looking for a second seconded by Mr shot is there any discussion okay a motion to the motion motion to the motion okay a motion I'd like to make a motion be added that there would be any meetings till on the same night would be paid at One Rate not multiple rates yes yes so concurrent meetings concurrent meetings are all paid are all at one rate yeah same as before yeah yes uh Dr I would also like to make a motion okay second my motion before you go Motion
142I probably do uh I will second your motion there we go and now you're making a motion to the motion to the motion Dr Ian uh yes I I I move to table this vote and because I would suggest that we compare the compensation information of other districts and make ours comparable that is what indianapolis's rate is for that Indianapolis maximum sets the maximum rate yeah that's a maximum but I don't think all the all I don't know I don't have the information about other districts whether people all pay their board members maximum so I that's why I feel it a if we have information about other District and it can help us make a more informed decision okay so Dr Yin has moved that we table this vote uh do I have a second
143uh Mr Wong seconds the motion to table any discussion about tabling specifically sure short comment regarding this uh we right now we use the Indian indis School Corporation as kind of a benchmark right that's a yeah I think that's that's the pretty big uh biggest probably the biggest operations and their compensation maybe not compared with our so I think probably we just hope that we did more research and see some other uh SCH cooporation comparable with what uh we have in term size and workload and then probably have better decision thank you anyone else m this um there is no one here serving on the board who is earning a living uh as a school board member um I would hope that we would all be in it for the STS um my opinion is
144however that based on your comments and ensuring that there's an equitable welcoming invitation for people to apply from our community um but I I I think you make a very good point about that about needing the compensation to somehow reflect the job so that everyone who is qualified and feel interested in serving the board that's so thank you Dr Yan um if we make the compensation high as high as possible to the the maximum then I will move to reduce the number of board members from 7 to five to see the district mine okay let's let's slow down the Motions let's we've got a motion and a motion and a motion so Mr shot did you want to speak to tbling sure what motion I'm speaking to but I thank you for reminding us that
145can I think about ourselves that was selfish of us as we tend to be on this board and I'll as I alluded to last month if anyone's uncomfortable receiving compensation I encourage you to make a donation to Education Foundation thank you okay so right now we are voting on Dr yin's motion to table the issue until next month all those in favor of tbling the issue please indicate with a raised hand so that is Dr Yan Mr Wong and Mrs Mumford all those opposed to tbling the issue Mrs Whit Mr shot and Mr Marley and myself so we will not be tbling the issue now we're returning to Mrs wit's motion which was pay more than one for correct okay and I second that any discussion on not paying more than one meeting per evening
146which has been our convention up to this point good okay all those in favor of paying in the same structure as before with one per evening please indicate with a race and that is everyone all oppos would be no one because it was everyone okay back to the original motion which is to increase the compensation to reflect the same rate that Indianapolis pays allthough or discussion sorry go ahead um I would like to make a motion oh crap um to separate so you kind of did this but I'd like to talk about how much will be paid monthly meetings separate from the payment of first special meetings um and so I make a motion to separate those two okay and only vote on the per monthly meeting because these are two separate topics that we've
147been discussing okay um okay I need a second okay Mr Wong seconds is there discussion on the motion to separate the two compensation rates for the purposes of this discussion I thought I did okay no discussion all those in favor of can I ask sorry clarification because I'm not understanding so um if this motion doesn't pass what we're saying is we're going to be paid for a monthly meeting plus a special meeting and that's the decision I'm sorry yes if if this motion doesn't pass we're going to take both we're going to assign the compensation rate for both kinds of meeting in one vote and then in the second vote we will reinstate the special meeting pay I guess it well that's what I'm not understanding what's the second one that you emailed about but
148I'm just want to make sure I'm clear on what I'm voting on well I guess I don't know because we get all stirred up in 9,000 motions let's vote to whether or not we're going to separate them all those in favor of separating the two issues and voting on the 150 and then on the 75 please indicate with a raceing okay uh that was Mr Wong and Mrs mum so we're going to take this in two parts the first one is we're going to discuss increasing the board conver compensation to the rate Indianapolis pays that's the motion and then understanding that we still have not reinstated the special meeting pay the second one will be to reinstate the second meeting pay okay so is there any discussion on raising our rate to the Indianapolis rate
149regular yes okay okay all those in favor of raising our rate for regular meetings to $150 censorate with Indianapolis please show your hands that is um we're voting to increase the regular meeting rate to $150 which is what Indianapolis has set as the rate for this year so all those in favor one more time please raise your hand that's Mrs mford Mr Marley Mr shot Mrs Whit and myself all opposed U Mr Wong and Dr Yin and so the motion carries now let's return to the issue of reinstating the special meeting pay I need a second because I'm moving that Mr shot thank you any discussion on reinstating the meeting pay for the second type of meeting Mrs Muer um as I shared last month the payments per meeting has caused difficulties for staff and
150Schoolboard members in determining when we should have meetings and how many we should have and I agree I have no issues with increasing the pay um for our monthly meetings and then we also get an additional 2,000 um per meeting so I don't feel like this is wait we don't get 2000 meeting thank you for that everybody would want to run um so I think the argument that we won't attract good candidates or we're not being aware of different socioeconomic backgrounds actually doesn't relate to the special meeting that it's being addressed up there being paid what we're paid is not demonstrating we're volunteers and so I would like to continue with what we passed last month of not being paid for every special meeting okay once per night for every special meeting so if we
151have 11 special meetings it's just $75 for that we already passed that one right but I'm saying if it's a special meeting we don't get paid don't get paid at all I just wanted to clarify okay any other discussion Dr I continue propose that we collect the information from other districts to make ours comparable with to others okay thank you anyone else great all in favor of re right now we discussion right we don't have any motion still disc no I moved it I moved and Mr shot seconded to reinstate the meeting pay so we discussion right now that's discussion right now I want to share something yeah I think Amy brought very well point I think some reasonable uh compensations uh for public service I think it's good to encourage more people get involved
152and and uh also increase the accountability of for members because we got paid to work things so that I think that makes sense but um I mean personally I I I'm hesitated to to do that because I mean but I might speak for myself yeah I'm just not really quite comfortable to use my uh my public service voting uh as public service to increase my own uh compensations for my uh public service this is kind of uh I mean per perceived as kind of uh uh self- serving or interest conflict so I don't want the community get the perceptions uh like a you know I I want for myself you know that that kind of that kind of that's the my uh my concern of these things so thank you thank you anyone else M
153complaint to legisl the state of Indiana determines how we do this what say that again he said you could take your concern to our legislators because we that's how the state of Indiana tells us that we must do it is review and consider our own compensation in public I agree it's a yeah that's uh yeah that's uh but that's my but I think also mwe I think you have a very good point but I think maybe I can we can uh amend this motion a little bit because I'm inan this situation we have a very good example which is the uh 27's amendment of our constitution so basically uh the congressman cannot change laws to increase or decrease the comp compensations they they can do that but they have to wait to after next elections
154so maybe we can do that basically in that case we should have waited until after the next election next election basically yeah we we can increase this for some other people not not for our so we increase the compensation but it won't we take a effect until after next election that's our uh 27's amendment of con I think that that makes sense I think that applies specifically to Congress but do I hear a second to um make the change but not an effect until after the next election Dr Yan seconds all in favor of making the change but waiting until after the next election to put it into practice please indicate with a raised hand that is Dr Yin and Mr Wong all opposed please raise your hand that's Mrs M Mr Marley Mr shot
155Mrs wit and myself so we're going to go ahead and talk about now and the motion is still pending to increase or to reinstate I'm sorry the special meeting pay is there any other discussion on that okay all those in favor of reinstating the special meeting P please indicate with raised hand Mr Marley Mr shot Mrs wit and myself all opposed Mrs mford Mr Wong and Dr y that motion passes thank you very much for your consideration and discussion and I have to get back to where we were okay Mrs CR where do you that means we're getting there so yeah okay yes Dr sorry I also made a motion earlier regarding the toay kind of yeah because didn't pass I already voted on my motion I made a two motions one is the table
156it the second is I move I move to reduce the board members from 7 to5 to reduce the cost for the community even that we got the highest pay and because uh we have okay that would be a separate issue that you would need to move to amend the agenda to at the beginning of the meeting because it's too different from what we're discussing so you like I mean next mon sorry thanks s um I would ask to take that to legal council because my understanding that would require uh that's a lengthy process that would require State the review by the State Board of Education that's not something entirely within our control and so uh I I would not I would enjoy some um understanding of that process should we wish to discuss okay Dr
157Yan if you continue to want to do that if you could email me and um let me know then we will um discuss it with Council before we bring it to a meeting so that would go in the process of adding something to the agenda which I described earlier this month okay thank you thank you uh Mrs crunk please tell us about the band okay um West Lafia Schools transportation department has provided transportation for Indiana band Association spring camp at Purdue for several years now your camps takes this year Camp takes place the evening of March 8th through the morning of March 10th the proposed contract is included in your board packet similar to last year's the recommended change this year or the recommended charge this year Remains the Same as last year at $600
158and Indiana band Association has provided certificate of liability insurance to cover the use of our buses and drivers for the weekend please approve that contract as submitted thank you I need a motion please moved and seconded by Mrs Whit and Mr Wong is there any discussion great all those in favor of approving that motion please raise your hands that's everybody next up M as you are aware the W bash Valley education center has had a lease agreement with West Lafayette schools for the land its building resides on for quite some time since the late 70s Lebec director Judy Hendricks recently informed us they wish to terminate the lease early and turn the building over to the school district as set forth in the original lease agreement Miss Billings Lee drafted the resolution included in your
159board packets to make the termination of release agreement official please approve approve that resolution as submitted thank you I need a motion please move by Mr shot seconded by Mr Wong any discussion Mrs mon I have a question do will this relate to the accounts payable now that I mean will we still do their accounts payable or because are these connected um we we do have an agreement with them that their books run through our accounting system and it still will do that yes and why is that I do not know the his history of all of that I'm sorry that's fine no I mainly wanted to know I mean the main question is if it will change I'm kind of in the process of finding out the history of all that stuff right now
160no rush it ISE it's something she certainly and that's fine I was a connection with if we'll continue with my main question so thank you okay anyone else Mr one yeah so basically do we have any clients we not using uh these buildings I think uh there may be I think there the term of size maybe a good uh place for our preschool uh I thought we would make a spot I could use a massage maybe a facial I was thinking of spa no no I'm teasing Dr Grinder would you like I'm getting Punchy the question of the uh the we yes what are we going to use we asking the question of um the the the uh the wec lease termination and that building pretty much a yeah the the discussion that we've had
161through Friday notes with the board is that that would be a great site potentially for for our yes our um central office and then based on the uh plan uh the priority board priorities of getting Transportation over to this area um that would free up that office central office Uh current central office for possible offices for yeah okay any other questions Dr to whether that plan and Dr grer just and discussed is a finalize plan or whether there be some alternative plans that we can still discuss because one possibility can be having a preschool there because the community has been you know expressing the needs for preschool and that size is is a good size for preschool and right now you know we always say it's too expensive to renovate the hit Hollow and to
162make it uh to meet the needs of for preschool and also this whole building is too big a prob for a preschool and even if we have the money to to convert it and probably it will be a multi functional uh functional building then there might be some security issues in theze location of the Wabash Wy building seems to feed the preschool well well and it has playground nearby and parents can drop off their kids to that building and the nearby wellas and so yeah it's just a wonder whether we can still discuss the possible use of that bua or it's finalized already it's not finalized I think if the board chose to go a different direction and take us a different direction they could certainly schedule work sessions and work through you Mrs Austin
163and if you guys if the board has a different vision and that they want us to explore um our offices here Ser I will say that having been in that building it's the offices are along a central hallway and they're I believe they're this kind of the wall and they're not large enough for a preschool classroom that would be a design challenge M I would also have concerns about necessary Renovations for bathroom facilities appropriate for preschoolers there's also not um really Green Space immediately accessible to that that would be um safe for for young children to so I think that um there's pros and cons to every uh um every area every every Building Concept but I appreciate Dr rer making a clear recommendation on this I will add one other thing but again I
164don't want to be presumptuous so um to to to the board discussing this um when you have a preschool in a school building you are much more able to more quickly and Mrs Ru you'll need to correct me if I say anything incorrect here move through the pathways to Quality um that get the additional funding and then if you go out and put it in a house type building would that be accurate yes in an educational institution there are some for locking the better term check boxes that are already checked if you are a separate facility even affiliated with still an educational institution if the building itself is separate you're operating under a different license and typically yes there are more check boxes to check before you can me that okay so um I think
165we should return to the issue which is terminating the lease um which is separate from how we're going to use the building going forward all those in favor of terminating the lease please indicate with a raised hand that's everyone Mrs Julian thank you uh now we're going to talk about some checks Mrs Frank as done every year we're requesting permission to dispose of outstanding checks that were written in calendar year 2021 that remain outstanding as of December 31st 2023 these checks are void for Indiana statute as explained in Indiana code 5-11 d1.5mm or no longer exists we're in the process of contacting vendors that are on the list currently um to see if they want replacement checks even if they are disposed we have the ability to reissue checks if they present invoices as such
166in the future please approve so that we can dispose of our outstanding FS great thank you I need a motion please so moved by Mr Wong second by Mr shot any discussion how much total dollar amount of this kind of check as part of your you already have that in yeah you have that part of your details it's there oh okay I didn't see that sorry about that I didn't saw that sorry I'm having I'm hearing this on one ear and I'm having a hard time hearing you guys on that end that's okay I didn't saw that that's okay you already have that that's fine um it's uh for the corporation it's 2557 for the ECA it's 657 any other questions actually it's a very small amount from what I'm used to so okay all
167in favor of disposing of the checks please raise your hand that is everyone Mrs Julian and one more time to Mrs PR for Council pay okay claims for the period of January 9th to February 7th 2024 total $3,385 including regular Corporation expenses and the Wabash Valley education center expenses of this amount 1,755 528 were paid towards wages salaries and benefits moving on to our preliminary fund report for the month ending January 31st education fund is a balance of 3,736 N3 and total funds on hand for the corporation are1 19 m74747 please note that the report is preliminary as we have not yet closed the month and are still in the process of entering Revenue at this point I would also like to remind everyone that several funds typically state and federal grants run in the
168negative during the month as they are reimbursable we have to expend money before we can claim that reimbursement business office is wrapped up year end this past month by sending out employee W2s filing for9 financial report for the creade of July 1st through December 31st 2023 and completing other year- end processes in our accounting software ACA forms also went out to employees last week over the past month we offered informational meetings for employees on Medicare and the Indiana Public retirement system both meetings were well attended and we were joined by some of our colleagues from TSC and LSC as well we will be holding the annual retirement meeting for any interested teacher on March 26 and Brian Hoffman from B will be presenting on retirement planning for anyone interested on April 16th um you can
169come to that as well choose to do so uh please approve the accounts payable Finance update as motion move by Mr Wong second second by Mr Marley any discussion super all the yes Dr y um I want to get some information about uh you know their L uh literacy early intervention and a high ability I'm not questioning I'm just trying to learn how the works and how the money is spent on the are you asking lery early intervention and high abity expense so what about it yeah how yeah I I just wonder how the money Su spent she wants to know how the money was spent for literacy and uh High ability are you asking about a particular claim or yeah so not there some you ask on the fund report yeah okay um our
170high ability Grant is basically used for professional development and teachers yes yes professional development for teachers we don't get a whole lot from the state for that so that kind of covers professional development and early literacy we did not get early literacy again this year did we that is an old that is actually an old gr new ly early ly Grant remember that you're seeing funds that we' have been on our books for a very long time so some that you're seeing on there have been Clos for several years the early literacy last year was used to par um the elementary recommended that we move away that we get in more specific um for lack of a better reading screener more focused on early literacy and phonetics and dibles does exactly that it's Dynamic indicators
171of basic early literacy to not use an acronym but it was used to purchase those materials that way um interventionists and classroom teachers could have that data and use that data and the funding was also used to purchase training for Dibbles that way they would know how to use those things thank you for helping me better understand it thanks anything else okay all those in favor of uh approving the accounts payable please indicate with a raise hand that's everybody Mrs Julian um yes Mrs Whit um I would like to move given the late hour and the amount of time that we have been meeting together that we bypass our board superintendent reports this evening and move on to adjournment I think that's an interesting idea seconded by Mr Marley uh any discussion about adjourning and
172skipping the reports I do want to mention that I have paired down the um committee assignments to what you see before you on the agenda um based on the previous experience in the interest of all the board members and in the interest of focusing board members on what they should be working on um does anyone have any objections to address interested to hear from our superintendent and president what reports they have but so okay so yes I would like to subot to her motion okay anyone else okay all those in favor of adjourning please indicate with a raise hand all opposed okay that uh Mr Wong are you abstaining or okay so it was um Mr Marley Mrs wit uh Mr shot and myself in favor the journey opposed was um Mrs Mumford and Dr
173Yin and Mr Wong abstain um I think what we could do in terms of the reports is to uh make those available in some other format Maybe by email to the board and then we could revisit it next month and recap because it is very late and everyone's been here for a long time and with that uh we are adjourned