WLCSC Regular Board Meeting March 6, 2023

001much people can have an extra agenda to order the regular meeting of the West Lafayette Community School Corporation Board of school Trustees for Monday March the 6th it is 6 30 and a half pm um we're going to start with approval of the agenda for tonight's meeting that is item one can I get a motion please move by Mr Marley can I get a second second second by Mr shot all right do we have any comments or corrections to the agenda for this evening Mr Wong in the high ability RBD committees for discussion only okay uh so Mr Wong is interested in adding an agenda for discussion on the high ability committee um this is something that Mr Wong and I have had some correspondence about I do have a response it's in my notes

002for information to the board but is there a second for including this as an agenda item in tonight's meeting the second from Dr Yin all those in are there any questions for Mr Wong about this additional agenda item all those in favor of adding a high ability committee discussion to tonight's agenda please indicate I raise a hand if you're interested in adding that to the agenda this evening show of hands okay we have three Dr Yin Mr Wong and Mrs Mumford have voted I all those opposed to adding this to the agenda night please raise your hand okay um that motion does not pass that item is not added to the agenda this evening are there any other amendments or changes to tonight's agenda uh without a discussion how do we know why and people

003support to edit or people who don't support to edit and so then how so what will so when I called for discussion that would have been the time to put discussion out there I'm sorry that I not called for discussion but it is I did call okay so when I called for discussion no one said anything and so then that would have been the opportunity to discuss but now that motion has not passed okay so to do discussion then we need to wait till next meeting and uh propose it again then when you call for discussion we discuss that that would be how we do it no you would have just done it a few minutes or a few seconds yeah I understand but I mean since we missed this opportunity it means if we

004want to do it again we need to wait until next month or or you could ask for it to be added to the agenda during the month you don't necessarily need to wait for a meeting I do have a response to the question or information of the board that I'll give at the end of the meeting so perhaps that might clarify for everyone with additional information tonight we might find it isn't a meeting or a topic that we want to discuss in a meeting so we we can just kind of do it that way ideally uh when it when it comes to adding agenda items that would be um kind of done collaborative collaboratively prior to the meeting uh through the weekly board chair notes so you would put a comment I'd like to see

005this added to the agenda so in my board chair notes when I say next meeting is this agenda is in development that would be where you would comment and say I would really like to see this added to the agenda in the board chair note comments and then we could have that conversation but that did not happen this month does that clarify your question so the conversation I'm on the board will happen during the meeting rather than before the meeting because it sounds like a Mr Wong already contacted you regarding it right he sent me an email and I asked him if he wanted to pursue anything to put it in the chair notes and he did not do that so there was no further information because he had asked it and I was aware

006that he might have a question I did go ahead and research and answer for him so that I could be prepared to address it but it was not added in any way okay yeah I've seen some we heard a lot of concerns about these issues so we wish at some point we can discuss about it thanks okay thank you are there no other changes to the agenda of Mr Wong can I have some questions regarding this issue okay but it's not on our agenda for tonight yeah not at this issue regarding the procedures how item can be added on the agenda is that rare time or something some other other time I can do other time that's fine but uh well so I I wrote that direction down in the chair node and explained the

007process and then also sent you the policy that was connected to that yes that's the question I'm asking about the policy so the procedures we add atom on the agenda can I do that right now or sometime later we you just ask for that to be done and it did not pass yes right my question is this procedure I mean when we have vote motions we have when people propose and then second and then we can vote for that and when we talk about something put something on top on the agenda I think that should we have lower threshold for that requirement you see what I mean we don't need what I'm saying is we don't need to go through the whole power voting for that I'm just simple say for example if you have

008motions here that means when people submit and another people second and there will be motion and then after that everybody can vote but for item on this agenda just for discussion purpose I think it will have a lower threshold one people purpose and another previous second that should be on the agenda and then we can talk about that okay okay that makes sense I understand I understand your question please go ahead Mr shot in interest of our guests who are here we can have this discussion listen to the end of the meeting let's be honors thank you okay thank you for that thank you for that um we do uh follow Robert's Rules of Order there are Parliamentary procedure which is what governs all of our actions here uh at a meeting um if I

009could please uh cycle back to getting a vote on the approval of tonight's agenda all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda for our meeting please indicate with a show of hands okay that is um six Mrs Julian and all of those who uh vote against approval of the agenda this evening please indicate Mr Wong votes nay the motion carries we will move on to item two approval of the minutes of the February 13th 2023 regular board meeting of the board of school trustees can I get a motion please Mrs Austin is there a second second by Mr Marley questions comments changes to the minutes from our last regular meeting Mrs Mumford I make a motion to move the approval of the minutes to after the academic recognition as we still have a discussion of

010errors that we need to discuss okay um so that would be a motion to postpone a motion to postpone the approval of the minutes to the end of this evening's meeting just after the academic recognition just move them up before this was where we discuss it or wherever you want okay we would move it in before new business correct okay uh can I get a second on Mrs mumford's motion please second from Mr Wong all those in favor of moving the approval of our February 13 minutes to after or just before new business please indicate with a show of hands all those in favor okay that uh is six votes I all of those opposed to moving those did you vote on that one I'll say you Brad we're gonna call that 70. Julian Mr

011Marley also votes so we have moved that now underneath unfinished business we have none academic achievement special recognition our West Lafayette Elementary School good citizenship Club life skills of cooperation who is presenting on that this evening hello hello this is Lainey come on up here four of them okay we're gonna do this in age order so Alan let's stand over here with me first this is Alan's son Alan who did you bring with you tonight dad your mom and your dad yes there they are and Alan was recognized in kindergarten as um a good citizen for cooperation and I got to sit down with each of the kids today and just ask you know why do you think you were selected to be the cooperation good citizen and when I asked Alan that question he

012said that he thought he was chosen to represent kindergarten because he likes to help people right and you like to help clean up and that's a super cooperation skill and share and I can't think of any better reasons to be in the club then I asked Mrs Combs who is his teacher why she selected him to be the representative and she said Alan is a leader in our classroom he is eager to jump in and help work with other students if they need help during Center time he is kind and a great friend he loves drawing and creating for his classmates he face when he faces difficult things he does it with a smile and a growth mindset I know that Alan is going to do great things in this world we are so blessed

013to have him in our classroom all right job come on up this is a first grader job sing and he is in Miss Miss Gould's classroom right and when I talked to him today he said he thinks he was chosen to be the cooperation good citizen because he always says please and he asks if he can play with friends and he likes to help others and I think that's do you want to add anything to that who did you bring with you tonight my brother my mom and Dad what's your little brother person oh when I asked Miss Gould why you were selected here's what she wrote job is was selected for the this month's good citizenship Club nomination because he always models what Cooperative conversation should look like in the classroom he participates and

014shares his ideas but is also supportive and of what others have to say he uses respectful language is to express himself and when he disagrees he stays focused and collaborates with his classmates to achieve small group and class-wide goals we are so fortunate to have job in our classroom community [Applause] we have a second grader iron ponchal who is in Mr Warner's class and when we sat down and chatted today and said that he thinks he was chosen to be the cooperation good citizen because he's always he is always quiet in the hallways yep he focuses on his work and one thing I did find out though was sometimes at home um you you did admit that you and your brothers sometimes play pranks on your parents don't you sometimes when it's time to do

015workout he and his brother hide and we I thought that was funny [Laughter] yep so I don't blame you because I don't like to do work at home either so but Mr Warner said that you were chosen because you are such a wonderful person to be around you get along well with every all of your classmates and other students in math club you you are very dependable student in the classroom you work well with others and when others around him need help and the teacher is busy Ayan is the first one of the students to gladly the students will gladly go ask him for help this is because they know he will be patient and explain the concepts to them so that he understands it better I am proud to say that Ayan is part

016of our classroom school and Community way to go nice job we're proud of you good job all right Charlize Charlize Erickson is a third grader in Mrs kriebel's class and Charlize says that she thinks she was chosen because she goes she just goes with whatever and I loved that answer that's such a Cooperative thing to do even if she's not into it she said she goes along with it anyway that's great and when I asked her teacher why she was chosen she said I chose Charlize to be the member of the good citizen Club because she is a wonderful role model to her classmates Charlize will jump in and help a friend or do a task without being asked she never draws attention to herself when when she does this she simply does the right

017thing no matter what Charlize represents the very best of what the good citizenship Club is all about nice job and um parents if you want to take your child to the hallway we can do pictures and yay thank you for sharing your wonderful friends with us foreign thank you very much for joining us tonight families all right so we are going to move ahead with item four here uh communication from the audience we have three people signed up up first uh Mrs Amanda Hart all right can everybody hear me okay I promise I'll use my teacher voice if you can't hear me um hello my name is Amanda Hart I am the family consumer science teacher at West Lafayette Junior Senior High and I have a quick statement I know that you have a lot

018of business to accomplish tonight and I see on the agenda that there are some policy revisions that are going to be discussed for first reading as I was going through the agenda for tonight um and I was thinking about what those policy revisions might include I was thinking about staff appreciation and how we communicate what appreciation is with the people that we are around to me as reflecting on this appreciation looks like relationship building so this would be things like speaking to and getting to know the wide variety of Staff who work and support our students every day to me relationship building and good communication develops an understanding of and an appreciation for the scope and depth of the tasks that occur to provide our students with the best educational experience possible often our hard

019work and expertise go unnoticed when things go smoothly it's kind of like your car it you don't really pay attention to it when things are going right to me relationship building and ties in with good communication when we listen to concerns and collaborate with staff to determine Solutions I know wlea has worked very hard to do um to develop this collegial and collaborative environment through the discussion process and I know I look forward to our next meeting that's coming up here in March so we can continue to do that to me relationship building and good communication help create an environment that is both positive and uplifting Staff feel valued and comfortable when they're surrounded by a culture of professionalism and collaboration right I know that no person is an island we all work together and

020no one is perfect I hope that you as a board will continue to work together to build us up and unite our West Side Community thank you for the work that you do thank you up next we have Mr Don caller foreign thank you for the opportunity to address aboard at the last meeting there was extended conversation in regards to the board chair notes and it had to do with transparency I believe one of the big items in this past School Board election had to do with transparency I would urge the board to communicate through the the board chair notes and sign your names last week it was a move to make sure that everybody knew how everybody voted by name and that's good on the other hand there seems to be some reticence at

021least as I heard the conversation over signing their names signing your names when you make comments and I think that the comments should be public so everybody knows how everybody on the board is thinking so I would urge you all to respond and make comments to the board chair notes every after every monthly meeting and uh put your names to it so that everybody knows what you're all thinking and I because that's that's a part of transparency and I think that's something that's very important so thank you for your time and I appreciate the work you all do thank you thank you up next is Mrs Lisa Mills thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to speak here I'm going to start out with actually some good news here this past weekend I

022spent the whole entire weekend actually celebrating the written accomplishments of our West Side students two of our ninth grade graders this year were finalists in the Indiana Repertory theaters young playwrights uh competition that was out of 228 scripts they were in the top five in the state so it was very exciting 39 of our 7th through 12th graders their student writers were honored at the Scholastic art and writing Awards two students sophomore Corey David and eighth grader Stella Bates had two of the five top pieces of writing in the state and are going to Nationals so that's very exciting for them they were deemed to be distinguished by the American voices award so I guess where I want to segue is that these people worked very hard all year they discovered the Power of Words

023and ideas because words matter how we communicate our fears our desires our needs our criticisms our understanding of a situation and our hopes this all is wrapped up in words tone connotation and communication as a school Community West Lafayette has always thrived on the beauty power and inspiration of our unity in diversity honoring different opinions listening and reflecting and conversing for deeper understanding this is what my experience has been for the last 20 years as a parent of two West Lafayette grads and I never dreamed I'd be teaching here but here I am 20 years later as a teacher and then about 10 10 12 years ago getting involved in our association and so I have been honored by my Association to be able to be on the discussion team for the last nine years

024there's been a lot of people who've come and gone in that time but the tenor has always been the same that we can talk that we can express our opinions and Views and and hear what the board and administrators have to say as well so when one of you speaks to our community your voice carries the weight and the capacity to inspire Unity or create frustration and discontent because your words matter when any one of you chooses to take the business and concerns of our school the social media or to disseminate your opinions to the Greater Community your words have the capacity to instill confidence and celebrate the great things that are going on in our school community and classrooms or to sow seeds of division discontent and skepticism because your words matter the teachers

025of this Corporation are a unit an extended family a group of individuals who have all come together and committed themselves to the service of the children in this community and I say that with pride and I believe all of my colleagues behind me would would agree we work together we value one another we learn from one another we use our words to inspire to build community to teach students to think be do create our words matter so West Lafayette board I'm simply asking you I know that you're a group of individuals with diverse opinions which is good okay I mean we teach that to our students it's good to have disagreement and learn how to talk and think and listen so I'm simply asking you as myself as a group of individuals your different opinions

026and your expertise matters but together you set the tone for our entire Community whether you exude optimism team building appreciation and a desire to learn and listen to your community of parents students and teachers I ask that you carefully consider the message you send to all of us because words matter thank you we'll move on to approval of the minutes from the February 13 2023 regular meeting we have a motion on the table we have a second on the table and I believe we are to the discussion portion of this item Mrs Mumford um at the February meeting we discussed the errors in the organizational minutes um and those two areas have still remained there was two votes and they weren't strictly yes or no votes and they still have not been included in the

027minutes okay um I believed that those had been corrected and so what specifically what votes are you looking for Mrs Mumford so um the two remaining errors that are not covered is the voting for vice president and secretary we did not vote Yes or No for Brad Marley we either voted for Brad Marley or for uan for vice president the vote counts in the minute should be changed to reflect this next we either voted for Amy Austin or probation Mumford for secretary the vote counts and the minute should change to reflect this currently they just are sharing a yes or no which was what had happened for Rachel white for president there were first and second motions for both of those items uh you know I understand that we discussed those in the last meeting

028and I don't know that it benefits anyone for us to rediscuss those items uh I would just uh like to call this to a vote at this point all of those in favor of approving the minutes from our February 13 2023 regular meeting of the Board of Trustees Board of school trustees with the two changes Mrs Mumford has noted uh would you please indicate a yes by show of hand meaning they're adding the changes yes okay so clarify so what is question are you on the question is if everyone who I have asked for call to vote um affirming the approval of the minutes from the February meeting with the two changes specifically noted by Mrs Smith oh there's two changes yeah okay so all those in favor of approving those minutes with additional two

029changes that Mrs Mumford has noted please indicate with a show of hands that motion carries seven to zero Mrs Julian thank you moving on to item three the diversity equity and inclusion on Mrs Falk thank you for being here tonight and giving us an update on your work Mrs fall you're welcome sorry my my cap key is not working okay effects Brandon what is the PIN number for the device you got it up five six eight all right good evening my name is Laura Falk diversity initiative specialist for West Side was LaFayette School Corporation and I'm here tonight to briefly update you on our most recent professional development session and give a quick overview of our continued efforts related to inclusion Equity act and access as most of you know our last PD occurred on

030February 10th students had the day off while staff members teachers paraprofessionals and our Administration spent the day working on subjects that would help further increase expertise in their field we were honored to have many school board members attend the session traditionally PDS are often less popular because of the format so we decided to mix it up a bit keeping Equity at the center of discussion we wanted to provide opportunities for our staff to choose the topics they found interesting and relevant from this discussion of many conference format became our Focus work started with our teacher Equity teams representing each building first each group brainstormed a list of topics they felt were most relevant to their buildings next staff members used a Google form to share their six top six interests in addition our IM Power

031Group predominantly marginalized representation also came up with some of the topics that were chosen by the building team in the high school since we had three hours as our time limit we determined that six topics would be our Target collaborating with Dr Wessel Powell and her colleagues at Purdue we worked for over two months developing our breakout sessions again the response for participation was overwhelming 12 faculty members volunteered their time to assist in creating content for our PD the morning of the 10th consisted of three 45-minute sessions that staff pre-registered for and communicated to our development team our keynote speakers included our student Equity team who responded to a list of questions posed by our teacher Equity teams across the corporation afterwards staff was asked to complete an exit form asking for their feedback with

032a 45 response rate so far we have the following data about 97 percent felt the session met or exceeded their expectations and we also learned about topics that people were interested in learning more about so our future PD offerings will reflect our staff's interest again honing in on Equitable practices for our staff the importance of equity in our lives was expressed in this survey as 97 percent of the respondents appreciated the ability to choose their sessions this attention to equity even though it was a minor adjustment can show how one's mindset regarding PDS can shift towards being more positive which helps everyone stay engaged and energized during these all staff sessions shifting our Focus now I want to give you a brief up overview of our corporation's continued efforts Under the Umbrella of inclusion diversity

033Equity equity and access many discussions conversations and Reflections are ongoing between staff students and administration that are not my stories to share the work is continuing though and I will highlight a few things that I feel are appropriate to share tonight teachers have the option to request lessons throughout the year some are needs based some come up in discussions and some are created based on belonging inclusion and access topics when working on lessons I emphasize that as I still have the mindset of a general education teacher I always consider the state standards when creating lessons however if someone uses the n-word r word or f word I want to ask those who were wondering what standard are we supposed to use for these in my doctoral program I lean into the extensive resources of my

034professors colleagues information and articles that assist me in determining the proper way to address these remarks while keeping our students always at the Forefront of my mind because I will not ignore those types of words being used against our students and our staff members Doug and I have collaborated creating spaces to talk to our bus drivers they are the first employees to greet our students in the last faces of west side in the evening we started meaning to determine ways to create a community on the bus and ensure that they were seen valued and heard in the corporation Doug the bus drivers and I continued to check in with each other to find ways for continued support the I am power group members talked about formally applying to be a formal Club this year we

035petitioned to establish the black student union which was adopted in January we meet bi-monthly and welcome anyone interested in learning about black and African-American culture history and traditions our ccdd club celebrating cultural differences in diversity was also established in February this club highlights the many cultures religions and ethnicities we are blessed to have in our student population this club is also open to anyone and meets on a bi-monthly basis I also work with teachers and students and offer one-to-one support for those who may need an additional ear to sort things out and learn more about the rich diversity that exists on our Corporation from Purdue's crainerd Business School of Management Darian Thompson was invited to speak at our BSU club meeting during her time she discussed two programs the Dr Cornell Bell business opportunity program

036and the bright future Scholars Program those are for juniors interest in pursuing business at Purdue and it is a free one week offering these are programs designed specifically to increase black and latinx representation in the School of Management Brittany Paramore Equity belonging and inclusive officer at the College of Education and I have started collaborating on creating a summer camp for students sophomores and up who have expressed interest in education and mentoring opportunities between students within Purdue's College of Education and our students at West Side we continue developing and strengthening our relationships with the College of Engineering and produce minority mechanical engineering department and I was invited to be a part of the selection committee for the wall of Pride to provide an equity lens for their selection process finally we offer the following website for

037our staff where people can access various resources foreign needs that came out of the PD was to learn about other cultures so I created this page and included as a short description of various cultural ethnic and religious celebrations each month followed by simple simple activities to get people started we also have input from our students who are part of the CCD club and this week on March 8th we are celebrating the celebration of holy one of our students also talked about perim so I made sure that that was added as well so if anyone is interested in learning a little bit more about holy they can come to our club actually after spring break because this Wednesday the black student unions is meeting and we are going to be looking at the cultural food that

038makes up the black community and will be tasting fried okra catfish and rice we also develop activities and presentations in both clubs and the plan is that when students are comfortable they can offer the presentations to teachers throughout the corporation to share with the students I'll go back to this part oh and here I'll give you these are just for our staff of course these are different things about your story preparing yourself or any discussions classroom Community basic strategies on if something is happening someone is being microaggressed against what we can do we also have discussions about implicit bias microaggressions and then of course our resources from our PD at the West at on February 10th sorry about that finally I'd like to end with this little note oftentimes it is behave is believed that

039it's up to the Dei team or the one person to change the entire culture of an organization but that is neither realistic nor is it sustainable what I appreciate about west side is the number of people who while uncomfortable and often frustrated with the topics and the material continue to show up and try because they are committed to their students thank you and I hope that you are not too late okay uh she's come at her own expense tonight she's got a class let's begin at seven o'clock that she's tardy too okay um we are gonna move or oh The Works he has been doing and actually I I read a website I was very very impressed by all the materials put together and I also actually interested in the clubs and I wonder how

040it works like open to the whole Community or just the students you you said you have the clubs that's usually what the students they feel safer among themselves and among the club sponsors who are part of that I can always I mean you can always come in and we can prepare them to have adults come into because they're in a safe spot they can talk at the time and when other people come in they kind of get a little more nervous but they're willing to share so if you want to come we're going to be listening to Tyler Hawkins Netflix series and there are four episodes already a few of us met at the black Cultural Center in February and we looked at and viewed the the episode three we had tastings and then we

041had discussion so that's going to take place on Wednesday if you'd like to okay it sounds great so it's up for the High School Junior and the senior high school we're inviting ourselves and it sounds very interesting yeah we yeah we have the diverse community and people have a lot to bring in yes yes thank you and people feel like they can share a lot of different parts of them and their stories great thank you so much this is full thank you for coming and Reporting out tonight we appreciate it thank you absolutely please this is right as she's darting out the door so she's not tardy to her class I would like to share with everyone to save the date of April 4th Dr Aziz who worked last year with staff and who has

042worked this year with the equity teams at each school will be presenting for the community on that date and that will be at 6 30 in the evening and information will be going out about that this week sometime so April 4th at 6 30 at the Junior Senior High School Dr Renee Aziz of virtuoso educational Consulting will come and share what she shared with staff and also share resources for anyone in the community who would like to join in thank you that's wonderful okay uh so we'll move on to item four summer school recommendation Mrs Rawl that is me so in the board packet you were given a recommendation for summer school to be specific this is a recommendation for summer schools for social studies the last time we met there was a recommendation for

043Indiana Online Academy And to clarify we do pay Indiana Online Academy they bill us but then we seek reimbursement through the state and we also use Esser learning loss funds so that's how we offset that to make that neutral cost neutral for the education fund the recommendation you have before you today is for summer school for social studies that is taught by our Junior Senior High social studies Department teachers and they have come up with that to look at learning loss but also to create consistency between the courses they offer during the regular school year so that it's not a course from elsewhere with things that may or may not be consistent with what is offered in the department so you have that recommendation and that is again through reimbursement through the state and through

044Esser learning loss funds is how that's offset so it is cost neutral to the education fund I would recommend that you approve that and will of course accept any questions start with a motion please so moved by Mrs Austin second by Mr Marley questions or comments for Mrs Raw Mrs Mumford um has there been so my understanding is this is the second year we've done this program I think it's the it'll be the third year the third yes ma'am have we been collecting feedback about it the past two years what's the future status of this program we've requested that since this is a pilot this has been last year and that feedback be collected so that we could decide if we move forward with the pilot or if the pilot um disintegrates or if it

045morphs into something else that would be useful for students um and then my understanding is both of this approval as well as the Indiana Academy online are happening after students have actually already registered and some decisions have been made can we next year move this up earlier in the year to discuss it so that it's a discussion before decisions have been made I think that would be a simple matter of communication with the high school on timelines and I don't think that would be difficult at all wonderful and then another question on your Indiana Academy online um that we cover the cost are students only taking this during the summer or are they also taking it during the school year do they take classes from them during the school year I believe there are some

046courses that might be offered during the school year yes and then I think my last one with the summer school is um some parents and I have shared this with you and and the board have felt that the summer school courses are becoming more and more restrictive and less and less options for our students what can parents and students do to address this concern that's limiting their options they've reached some of them have reached out to Department chairs and other ones and are wondering what are some good resources I think it's always a good idea to talk to the counselor the particular counselor the counselor will know the student's four-year plan which actually morphs into a five-year plan because they started in eighth grade and the counselor will be the one that can understand what

047a particular scheduling difficulty is counselors work with the administration and with Department chairs on the schedules and they can suggest possible ways to get around things that might create stress and they ultimately they want to work with students to get them forward on their goals and their four-year plans thank you I would add as is the guidance office now also able to kind of address the stress and one of the things we know about our students is they also benefit from not being in school year round so do they kind of address that mental health component certainly and so um for those of you who are not of the age where you would have Junior Senior High School students so your student would be assigned a counselor and that would be for academic Pursuits but

048your student is welcome to speak with any of the counselors for concerns that may be related to mental health stress or any anyone with which they would be comfortable thank you any other questions for Mrs Roth on this before we vote okay all those in favor of approving the recommendation for the summer school offerings from the social studies Department please raise your hand indicate that motion carries seven to zero Mrs Julian moving on to item six School Board policy revisions technology oh I keep trying to skip you Mrs Cronk I don't need one tonight I'm sorry moving on to item five technology purchase approval Mrs Cronk thank you uh the current Chromebooks at West Lafayette Intermediate School they're going to use the supplementary resources in the educational process or nearing their end of useful life

049the technology department recently secured three different votes for the replacement of those 400 Chromebooks from CDW government ready LLC and tropera the last quote was received by Reddy LLC in the amount of 98 764 dollars the purchases we paid for partially through technology Grant funds and the education fund the current Chromebooks will be used spares during the 23-24 school year at the Junior Senior High School during testing as well as in the intermediate school please approve this purchase as submitted okay let's start with the motion please so moved by Mr shot second by Mr Marley questions comments for Mrs Cronk it's a very well organized explanation of the bids that came through thank you okay hearing none all those in favor of approving the technology purchase approval recommended by Mrs Cronk please indicate with the

050show of hands that motion carries Mrs Julian 7-0 right now we'll move on to item six School Board policy revisions uh first reading of two and Dr Greiner I did suggest that this is the first ring of two due to the fact that other some substantial changes to this uh these two policies we're looking at policy zero one four three board member Authority and policy zero one four three point one public expression of board members the point of these is to address the board's interest in releasing parts of the packet before the meeting so I'd like to also point out that the changes you see highlighted have been shared with our attorney and endorsed accordingly we've deleted statements that prohibit the release of information before the meeting and then we've added language that will allow

051the superintendent on behalf of the board to release information in this specific verbiage States deliberative materials not otherwise prohibited from Disclosure by state or federal law provided to the members of the board may be released by the superintendent to the community via Corporation website in advance of the meeting this is I'm sorry for information only sorry I'm really off my game tonight okay just to clarify also the notation so Mrs Austin and I and Dr Greiner met and went through these two policies and uh to my fellow members on the board we also kind of threaded out and looked at other possibly affected so the the policy isn't just dealing with the one it's dealing with any that could be interconnected or referenced the gray shading indicates what we are recommending be deleted the yellow

052is what we have recommended be added and the red line was put in by the attorney on legal review so we are these will be posted in the board packet in exactly this way so that everyone understands exactly what changes we're making to these policies um any questions or comments on any of these before we move on Comfort um do we have these for the overhead to share um we do not because this is a first reading information only they'll be up and available for anyone to review so that was in my board share notes uh this weekend that might have been helpful uh information okay no the comment wasn't in it about this yes well neither here nor there now you have the answer okay thank you so my first question is on the

053third paragraph um it states that no member of the board shall be denied access to the documents uh um unless the majority of the board has voted in a public meeting to censor the member my question is from my understanding is that actually we can't censor a member from having access to information um so there's a different policy related to censure um this is standardized text but there is and I'm sorry I don't know the policy number specifically regarded detection it's part of the um word bylaws you want to look it up Mrs Austin I can tell you're already looking so there is a specific policy related to what censure can be in our policy and what it equates to um and as I recall in that policy limiting of documents is one of the

054items listed specifically but if you'll give us the policy number Mrs I looked under the zeros first one was there so it's not so much then come back to that party this would have been an ideal question to ask for example in those weekly chair notes so that we could have researched this information and advance to the meeting so I would like to have this a public discussion not on the channel did you find that it's uh zero one six seven is conduct and then point a is code of conduct and uh 0143 is board member Authority in all of those related I think that's the one we're talking about yes 143 of the one we're talking about related yeah sorry say the numbers again yep 167 and 0167.8 thank you for looking that up

055so the question is from is um sorry I'm gonna pull that one up oh six seven okay so it's those oh one six seven point eight item uh after the board has an opportunity to consider a school board member's response so this is the censure process if the board is determined the member has committed the policy violation it may take any or all of the following courses of action a censure the school board members inappropriate contact B limit the board members access to confidential material and attendance and executive sessions C limit the board members access to schools facilities to times and places approved by the superintendent D restrict the school board members access to deliberative materials which is what would apply here I believe an e recommended the board member resign this is something divorce

056circumstance lead to um it's it's clearly outlined um really within board policy it's it's quite rare um I think that it any school corporation or board would pursue this against a member because it's very divisive in the community and not helpful I will give a nod to Mrs Mills at this moment and talk about the importance of words and so pursuing a censure um would not be at the top of anyone's list least of all mine if something to do barring something egregious uh sometimes you'll hear it happening associated with illegal or illicit activity by a board member um to remove someone or not remove them but limit their potential damage to a school or an entity um there have there are situations where and there's a whole process outlined in one in 167.8 where

057perhaps a member would be notified of inappropriate behavior so where they've perhaps been in violation of confidentiality from executive session or there have been other complaints from the community or staff members where there's a process wherein the leadership of the board would communicate with that member verbally perhaps meet with them that would be in writing all of this is kind of outlined and that process does happen so have I answered your question okay anybody else any other questions about these policies comments Mr shot what was the time frame be I'm going to be released to the public at the moment we get it a day after in fact sometimes we get to the peaceful would that be peace deal or I think that would be and this is really written uh to be at the

058discretion of the superintendent the point is that deliberative materials would be shared really from the school corporation there the school corporation's deliberative materials so those would be posted when they were available as determined you know by the superintendent is that what you also believe Dr Ryan yes expect so yes this month for example I think because we had a short turnaround because of the week earlier meeting we had we know our packet came in a little bit more um one document at a time it's not necessarily all the documents get put like a present out for us Mrs Julian and everyone in central office work hard to give us information as soon as it's available rather than making us wait until the last one is ready so that's helpful to our review time as well

059any other questions Mrs Mumford yes so then in the end of paragraph a um in our uh policy by law it says when the school corporation attorney advises the board they shall view specific Personnel records so this is the only I mean actually both these this are the we're the only School District that I have seen as I've reviewed several school districts that has that part and it doesn't seem like we have to have an attorney tell us if we can see the material or not so the end of a where it starts when the school corporation attorney advises the board and 143 section one item a yeah um you know I have found in my experience in the board that Personnel matters are difficult and require very sensitive handling um I am and 100

060of the time the attorney is already involved in them and at that time that that happens and so my sense is that we would want to abide by our attorney's advice they are experts in this and it is their role to help us for lack of a more technical phrase keep it legal and do the right things for our employees so I don't have a problem with that but I'm happy to take any feedback from anyone else that would like to see that change any other thoughts or comments on the end of item a as it relates to the corporation attorney okay um I still have another question sorry okay at the very end of 143.1 the very last one that's left on number nine currently in our current one says individual board members shall

061not disseminate information about the proceedings of the executive session meetings I'm not this is actually in our bylaw 167.2 this section is talking about when school board members can actually share statements and not explicitly sanctioned so it doesn't seem to match up with this section it doesn't have anything to do with the other five topics you know I I will just tell you historically I believe that's in there as a caution and I agree with you that it might not be necessary to include that in however we have had board members with difficulty with this in the past and so I would be inclined to leave that information in that policy for that reason now why doesn't bylaw 0167.2 cover that where it talks about um this is this item is redundant to that I

062would agree with you I just um this is the one we're actually the attorney that put it back in yeah we initially actually had grayed that out and the attorney recommended okay and then my last question on these ones is just understanding why we're removing them maintained by Neola I don't know exactly how it works with them do they not maintain these or they do they do not directly maintain our policies they provide recommended updates and we can choose to accept them and that was just a wording choice that we looked at and said well they're not really maintaining let's delete it no it's just a language at some point I think we'll also have a conversation and this is going to come up laters and information of the board but I think at some

063point we have a conversation about uh Neola and if they're our best choice but that's a conversation for the full board and then I have another question in regards to the policies not to these exactly the policy committee so in regards to this meeting about these policies so my question is understanding how the policy committee doesn't have to follow the open door law um and not allow the community to attend its meetings so I had reached out to the public access counselor and it is in our bylaw 0155 that says any official action that could be information deliberating making recommendations that it has to be open door with minutes we're not taking official action during the policy committee we're we're just revising like it's very informal it's what do you think of this is how

064is this going to be applied and and then we bring it here for the official action there's nothing obscured is what Mrs Austin I would ask you this question in response how is this different from the meeting that you have with anyone in the corporation office with regarding you know the topics that you have met upon they're really work session um and they're an opportunity to prepare the highest quality information available for the rest of the board to see if we were deleting sections of these and not showing them to the board or we were not being completely transparent and the nature of the edits and the question of the edits I can see how that would could be constituted as decision making but it's simply not decision making okay um so our bylaw and

065the Indiana code says official action includes receiving information deliberating or making recommendations it's not just a voting so that's where the question is I'm not making a recommendation in the policy committee we brought the recommendation here tonight to the public meeting just can I also ask you a question Mrs Mumford does this mean that you've gone to the public access counselor to complain about the operation of a board that you are currently a member of and trying to understand about a policy and when I asked last month and you stated that we it's not allowed to be a public meeting and trying to understand our bylaws so yes I did okay thank you any other questions about the policy but we've looked at tonight this is again the first reading it'll be available to you

066the community to review and our board packet informations it'll be up after the meeting um so how many people Serena in the policy communities uh the people the board members assigned to the policy committee or Mrs Austin and myself and then doctor we meet also with Dr Greiner because obviously he's because educational leader of our so you three people's Renault composed the Committees the policy committees this is that's it we sit down and prepare materials for the board to review okay we're doing the homework okay so who is the chair of the there is no chair oh no there are just people who aren't together it's no different than any if you sit down and meet with Mrs Cronk why isn't that an Open Door meeting or if uh Mrs Mumford and Mr Marley and

067Dr Greiner meet uh with members of the West Lafayette Community about some of the work they've been doing why isn't that open door because realistically we do still have to do some work and prepare materials and information for the rest of the board that's part of I don't know how to say this anymore clearly I'm just going to be direct and say we're just not all that important Mr Wong no no it's individual members we really are not all that important you're only important when we get together and even then yeah I understand that I'm not critical or just I'm just questioning how that works and in my opinion we are not just a barely meet Open Door policies or we have policy communities we collect feedbacks I think we should include more peoples in

068the community uh say community members we have a lot of Italian Peoples and uh so this is not really we just barely meet the open door legal requirement I mean we want a Community peoples we want the parents involved and we can even invite students because our students here in high school they are very quickly there will be a citizen I mean only visited so when we have got involved the people that were beginning when we make policies we can make a better policies because we are not just sitting in this room just think about something and make policies and everybody impact so we got more people involved and we can I think we can make better policies let's do video yes Mr Wong that if anyone has any recommendations okay that they would like

069to change any policies whether it's yourself or someone who's in the audience or someone who's watching the live stream okay so they send an email okay to Dr Greiner and say I would like to make this policy recommendation for this reason and then the next time the policy committee meets we'll take that into consideration and if it's worthy we'll bring it before the whole board I'm not sure that's necessary given the fact that you guys are having this dialogue here in the public is available to talk so it for example the policies here there's going to be a second reading so I'm not sure not about these in particular just annual policy if somebody wants us to stand on our heads during the meeting we could think about it but I don't know if that'd

070be a good idea I I think we all need to also be mindful of the fact that Dr Greiner has a day job which is to manage the schools uh and and to do so as efficiently as possible not that he does not care about us I'm sure that you care very much about us Dr Greiner but we do need to allow him to run the schools and again I just I cannot say this clearly enough there's really nothing hidden here in the process everything including who said what is really more people involved I still believe with Collective intelligency and also this is a very good opportunities we can build up the trust with community members once we get them involved but as you said if they're too much troubles not necessary that's fine I

071am new person if you guys think that's the best way I have no problem but I'm just I have some some thinkings about that before the public would not be interested it's not okay okay then that's fine that's fine I just just think about something you're really talking about commas an awful lot um doctor again did you also wish to say something uh yes thank you um I just want to express my gratitude to many people I actually who contributed to where we are now and just uh so for many years since I started to pay attention to the school board and the District administration issues and people are asking for transparency for years and many people have contributed to this including many school board candidates and such as data method and anti and antigens

072and many others and and also those alumni for example Ila Daniel for privacy you know last name but and any any many parents community members and I really appreciate everybody's contribution to to this issue and I also appreciate the current Administration and who take this very seriously and you did research and talked to the lawyers and figure out a way to remove the barrier for transparency I really really appreciate this and appreciate all the people who have contributed to to this and finally just to think before well we don't even release the package then and with the data's effort and Daniel I think too and we are able to release the packet after the meeting now we are moving to the direction that we can finally release the package before the meeting so we can

073I'm Sorry Miss ma'am we are well past the point of where the meeting minutes and the agenda are leading us and I think we should get back on track for the good of the order please I I'm talking about this issue on the agenda I I don't know why it's irrelevant and uh so I just have lots of word you're not the issue on the agenda is policy 143 and 143.1 and I think for the good of our staff who got to work at 7 30 this morning we can move it along don't you okay so um this is information only thank you for your comments Dr Yin uh it's true uh this has been a process for the past two years we've been working um all of us um have been working towards increasing

074transparency of documents here in our school corporation and uh as Dr Greiner would probably attest we discussed it with him Link at length through the interview process so from day one he has known this is something that we have been intending to do uh so I am I agree um there's some gratitude there as well and happy to move on uh I'm gonna move on to the release of the redacted board chair notes um I consulted after our last meeting I consulted with Dr Greiner again and I consulted with also a corporation attorney and spoke with them about the board chair note process my questions were really a is this process that I have asked the school board to undertake in terms of adding comments to weekly notes is that legal and is it an

075unreasonable request yes it is legal no it is not an unreasonable request so for that reason I removed it as a voting item uh going forward I will as Mr Wong pointed out in our last meeting it is within my reasonable direction as the board chair to release the notes of our work as the board I intend to do that on a weekly basis I will go back and redact the notes that have happened since our last meeting I will also redact comments as I include redact comments that are put on by other board members um I did also go through and uh ask the board at Dr Greiner assisted me with this we asked the the legal counsel to also review my redaction quality if that makes sense so my not enough you know

076professional at this so we asked for that to be reviewed and with one exception related to legal advice so when I quote legal advice I will be redacting that going forward I outline that in my board chair notes from this week um so you as board members are not required to read the board chair notes uh that is up to you to decide to read them and it's up to you to decide to comment upon them but going forward for the benefit of the transparency to our community I will receive questions and answer them there and that is how I will do it if you email me not going to answer the questions we need to move our Communications the board out of emails that require public records requests to be viewed and into a

077document that we are voluntarily releasing to the community any questions or comments on that before we move along uh thank you may I ask so in the future if we ask you a question about something that question will be on that note right the question and the question and answer will be um yes so for example in the notes from this weekend Mrs Austin asked a question related to my note I responded to her uh in that in that comment as well now in the case of that one I probably would have to reject a great amount of it because of the nature of the question that she asked I haven't read it for two days so I could be mistaken so so the question has to be about your notes if people have a

078question for example High ability issues and uh so that's not on your nose can people still ask you a question all right ask that question on your nose I just thought people are not football members are not allowed to email questions anymore the board notes are informal document they're the it's just my communicating with you what I have done or thought right right so at the start of it it says if you have any other questions or you have any other information that would be helpful to the board you could feel free to add it so you you can feel free to add it so even if it's irrelevant to what you wrote on the notes this is not a formal agenda or document right I understand to clarify that so any questions we have

079can be right on land notes and you will address it if you would like that will be released as long as it doesn't isn't something has to be redacted so if it requires the you know legal counsel or if it is purely deliberative if it is a matter of assessment of so if if you are assessing and this is an example we had a comment added that was um a report from a member that contained a personal assessment of the performance of the board or the school corporation I have to redact that because that person is not necessarily qualified or authorized to assess something's performance so that that information I would need to redact because it's not sorry that's okay it's not does that explain a little bit more I do still have to go

080through and and redact things that are not inappropriate to share yeah yeah I understand thanks we just we we need to do away with the the 500 thread emails that's not a good transparent way for us to conduct a business and school corporation of the board that's just it oh by the way sorry last real question uh so I think one of the speakers and talk about um and on the notes do we will you besides you you know everybody knows as your note and then for those who ask those questions so will we also answer those questions and the comments so in the past I've redacted all proper nouns and pronouns so I've written them to be gender neutral and removed names from them and I've done that intentionally so that um I wasn't

081misquoting you wouldn't ever read something that I had written that you said right I didn't want you to have to correct it if I got it wrong now if it is your comment and you write your comment with your name on it then that's your writing that I have not edited and I don't have a need to reject that but if it's something I'm going to say about someone or so for example if I receive Community feedback Mrs Austin uh let me know that she had heard from a parent about XY concern I will redact Mrs Austin's name from that in case I somehow misrepresent what Mrs Austin said to me but if you are speaking then I can list that down there again understand there may be times I have to redact the content

082of the question based on what it is I'm not I I want to make clear and say this these minutes are not written for the purpose of talking to the community they're not written to for the community to read they are written for the school board members to function with all the same information that's why I write them I'm not writing a commentary or a newsletter or uh whatever it's writing so that we people around this table are able to work better together as a group so that's why you have a choice to read it or not read it contribute to it or not contribute we're all individual adult human beings and we can make those choices in life but I'm not writing it for the purpose of our community necessarily knowing I'm just being

083transparent about the work that we are doing so things that are deliberative and most of the document is deliberative content I may have to redact depending on what it is does that explain does that yeah can't offer but I see how it works then I will know better because right now sounds like uh you know there are a lot of authors or that notes right now and uh I would just recommend that you you read them and I did right apply some comments to them and give it a try see how it works um see how it works it's just it's a mechanism and if it doesn't work okay we'll consider changing it but it is they've worked well for the past year so I'd like us to to keep writing that particular training yeah

084I I understand that yeah I just said right now that changes besides you other people will be the author of that too so I'm just trying to figure out how that will work but anyway I'll see okay thanks thank you Mrs Mumford so I've appreciated that you started sharing these notes last year I think the community like you said these notes are for the board but I think the community has appreciated you sharing them I agree that we shouldn't be having conversations on email and I actually don't think that we should be having conversations over box either so I support the idea of you sharing these but don't feel like that that we should be having alternate meetings over box and so um my understanding is that as a board member we can ask questions

085via email or whatever we should not be having discussions with that we can do it at the meeting I mean this is the ideal time to have a discussion not alternative meetings so Mrs Mumford have you read my notes yeah I have okay um so they are really intended to convey information to everyone they are not at all really discussion um and uh I wouldn't encourage anyone making a comment to discuss to create discussion on them they're really intended for you to share a Viewpoint if you have a viewpoint but um they're not intended to be a method for making decisions via electronic means they're not a bypass they're making sure everyone on the board has the same information I appreciate that so I appreciate you sharing it with us I just don't agree with

086the view that we should be making comments and asking questions and a back and forth conversation on there my other question is if you would share the legal advice of why you're not sure if you would share why you're not sharing any legal advice with the community as you share your board share notes the board is protected by attorney client and our attorney has suggested that you should not give that right up a support that you can't share legal advice that you've received to the community right that is her advice that because of the attorney-client privilege the board should not give that up and so that is what uh Ray so in my notes from from this week that I understood and had said like she had talked about um when you talked about the

087policies that that was like to share with the board but at other times there's other things you may choose not to no so what she did is went and reviewed previous notes to see and only one other time had I indicated and said the legal counsel said XYZ and it wasn't anything particularly exciting it was policy it was a policy related comment that I was sharing with the board I did go back to our attorney and say to them um what does it work if I share the information with the board because I do think the Board needs to hear directly from legal and not legal interpreted by Rachel and she said yes that's fine as long as you're redacting that when it goes out to public view the logic specifically she gave that was

088in my notes um the only potential issue that jumps out is including legal advice in the chair notes my concern is that my communications and likely those from ISB attorneys are confidential thanks to the attorney quiet privilege now wlcsc holds that privilege meaning that you get to decide when my communications are shared or not conversely I cannot disclose any of our Communications except with your permission my concern is that when attorney client communication is made publicly available wlcsc can waive that attorney-client privilege as to that matter now in the instance I saw in the 210 share notes regarding the number of readings per policy that's not much of a concern however if there were something that were adversarial or that could become adversarial I'd be hesitant to share attorney advice though essentially once you open

089the door the door is open on when any particular item is uh and so we would um try and avoid doing that if it could put us in a vulnerable situation or School in a vulnerable situation later any further questions did that meet your request Mrs Mumford yes thank you okay Mr Wong yes I'm wondering the purpose of this meeting uh these chairs notes is just for internal information sharing and maybe why we don't have another document or whatever other matters for the transparency purpose so basically this these notes already served function but our internal share informations and we have something else for the transparency that may be better it's this meeting huh it's this meeting well our public meetings are when the community can see what we're discussing and doing in support yeah my

090point is that knows already served the purpose and it's not really a server for the publication so we may think about whether or not we should publish that you see what I mean again I appreciate you put a lot of time and effort on that and increased transparency I have no problem with that I'm just wondering uh maybe there are some better ways to share the informations with communities and also increase the transparencies it's so it's the meeting is the public opportunity to be transparent with the information that I mean I cannot release the chair notes and wait for somebody to file an app or request every month to see the chair notes I mean right I would just assume release them having been through that I I okay Mr Marley do you have any

091thoughts on this you've been around longer than I have yeah School Corporation was actually founded in 1908 and it's been perfectly fine for quite a long time I will say that we have offered more transparency than ever before and I think it's the right thing to do addressing doc again's comments I've been a proponent of transparency for quite a few years actually but we work together as a group okay that's the only action that we can accomplish is to gather so what this is what's trying to do is share additional information that she's not required to share but she's preparing notes that are germane to the subject and material that we might be talking about in this public work meeting so that we're aware of maybe some of the measures that have been taken collectively

092before this meeting I think it's a good idea I think it's nice that she's doing that it's not way above and beyond the Call of Duty but I think this is a good suggestion let's roll with it this is the second but we're third board meeting we've had this year let's roll with it and let's see how we can work together that makes sense yeah that makes sense that is the that's my point let's say this meeting is very important and then the meeting minutes that's pretty much the official document we board collectively communicate with admins teachers communities and I think maybe we can pay more attention put more effort on the meeting minutes and if you look at the meeting minutes download account say in 2018 there's over 2000 and 2019 20 something like

0931000 and then 21 700 now it's something like 100 200. so I think maybe we should pay more attention to the meeting minutes have more key information on that and then more people will see that that's official document I mean my understanding is our board communicate with the community with everybody we start meeting minutes and I think that's maybe more important than but again I'm not I think you you really spend a lot of time working on the transparency I really appreciate that and I think that's good work but I'm just thinking and also this year's board uh these years ago one of the goal is to improved Communications maybe we can have a bigger pictures and see how uh chair knows and the meeting means and other Communications ways maybe you can consolidate together

094or think about something I mean that's uh because we want to improve the transparency and when you talk about transparency it's not free I mean no matter you have our attorney through reductions or you do that this costs costs money because the time you time you as president I know you spend a lot of time you have full-time job and I appreciate that so transparency have cost and also when we put something uh on our home page and uh my understand when I see you do the reduction if we don't have the legal attorneys to redact those information there will be some possible liability to the school so when we take those things cost benefit right now to to meet the knows how something like 100 200 300 downloads so when we compare the costs

095and the benefit maybe you'll think about what's the best way to do it just let's just my opinions so I'm not again I really appreciate your help you volunteer your time and effort for so many so long times working on that increase the transparency I'm going to go out on a limb here not to interrupt you but I don't think we're going to have public records requests with the frequency with which we used to have them because of the transparency that we're now off okay so I appreciate what you're preparing for but I don't know that we're going to have the volume we've had in the past I mean after we have released these notes we have pretty much down the public I think we're pretty much covering everything okay and that's just some of

096my idea because we we are teams we work together so I just share some of my my thoughts we we we see what's the best way we just see you make that matters and plan the best way to work now that's all sorry about that that's pretty much time go ahead I'm done thank you thank you Mr one and let's move on to item seven the Personnel report Dr Greiner I want to point out on your personal the Personnel report that we have received the um resignation from Connie laws and Mrs laws is going to be moving into retirement with her husband and so she's submitted her retirement effective June 30th we appreciate that Connie was working serving the district from 2004 to 2010 and then she came came back again in 2017 and has

097been working with us since the present and she'll be missed I've been warned that this woman right here could cry so we truly appreciate the expertise and the knowledge and the history that Connie brings to our district she's well respected by all I can tell you we love her and at this time with that recognition and appreciation to Connie I would just say that I recommend the board except the Personnel report as presented thank you can I get a motion please move by Mr Marley second by Mrs Austin any questions or comments Mr Wong yeah well a question regarding these months the Personnel report and there's some I see there are some resigned lighters and there are some of their personal informations medical information do you think we should include those information in our that

098is not included in the public report that information is ready okay okay but but I see I see that in the PDF file so it shouldn't that's will be removed okay that's okay I'm just uh yes okay that's okay that's all I I need to clarify thank you you're welcome so I wonder by any chance can have a startup tradition to celebrate some adversaries for example five year anniversary 10-year anniversary 15 year anniversary for teachers staff members to sell to appreciate their contribution to the district because you know for example this year Mrs Brooks and Mr caster and now Connie who have worked here for a long long time and yeah we will have a retirement party as I as far as I know but you know besides this I wonder whether we can do

099like a routine celebration maybe as simple as invite them to the board meeting and ask students or colleagues to talk about their contribution things like that I think it'll be really really nice thank you for that suggestion Dr again and we are actually uh talking about uh doing more and we uh as you've seen in Friday notes have started some recognition where staff are recommending staff and that is our next phase um to kind of explore exactly what you're talking about um so we started small under the direction supportive uh Anna or suggestions of Mrs Roth and actually Kelly Slaughter have done a nice job of working on that and expanding that as per what you've just suggested is something that we absolutely absolutely would like to do yeah thank you so much and it's

100very you know besides the classroom teachers we also have a lot of uh the heroes behind the scene right like a you know the yeah staff members and many times people don't know they are working behind the scene for them for the school bus running every day smoothly but people don't know actually somebody is working on for that and somebody has to get up early in the morning to check the weather things like that you know we if we don't say people won't realize it and I just really hope we have opportunity to tell those stories and thanks really appreciate who are yeah I already noticed that you have a lot of celebrations on our school Facebook and Twitter and that's awesome I really appreciate that thanks thank you uh Mr Wong so those are

101the personal reporter resign letters do you think we board members should see that or you just keep that confidential I mean that's just for a lot of questions we keep that confidential from the public use the board see that as you see that you see okay I'm kind of a little bit uncomfortable because I don't want I don't want to see their medical informations and their personal relation personal reasons I think maybe you can just keep that as confidential so that's why we sign those ndas first thing before you got anything oh okay okay then they're obliged to keep confidential things confidential at all times I just know on the backstage and then there's some information okay that's okay thank you appreciate it okay uh so all those in favor approving a Personnel report please

102indicate with a show of pants that motion carries seven to zero Mrs Julian uh so we're going to move on to item eight the accounts payable Finance update and Mrs Crump um it's February 28th so 2 574 930.61 including regular Corporation expenses and the Wabash Valley education center expenses of this amount one million 587 713.26 were paid towards wages salaries benefits I do want to clarify that the February 28 claims are the ones that were held for this meeting for approval we have to cut it off a certain point because we have a lot of payroll stuff that falls in between simply moving on to our preliminary fund report for the month ending February 28th the education bonus balance of three million eighty seven thousand nine hundred twenty four dollars thirty eight cents and total

103funds on hand for the corporation are 18 million 689 414.33 please note that the report is preliminaries we've not yet close this month um ACA forms were distributed to employees before the end of February is required by law these forms are purely informational only and are not required for tax preparation a lot of people get confused about those forms um I'd also like to put a plug in for the business office Mrs Chanel Wade or Deputy Treasurer recently completed her assistant business manager certification through the Indiana Association School of Business officials so we're very proud of her I'm also proud to say that our all of our members of the business office take part in workshops and certification courses offered by iaspo Dr Granary even recently took part in the approval accounting certification course that

104I teach and he was paying attention every time that I called on him to answer questions and he actually did the exercise by himself because his group they're his group members worth no show so I was very proud to compliment Saturday plus I haven't created what he did but he did um we also recently held a retirement information meeting for teachers wanting to retire this year or in the near future we had about 20 attendees representing all years of services and ages and some are actually here this evening so we're planning to offer this meeting annually sharing general information with regards to retirement the master teacher contract the Indiana teacher retirement funded Social Security it's never too early to start planning for retirement and so that is open to anybody that wants to come to

105that regardless of their age so um it's great seeing a number of our veteran teachers and actually getting to know them a little bit because sometimes I don't make it out that often so um so please approve the accounts payable Finance update as submitted let me get a motion moved by Mr Wong second by Mr shot um I I just need to ask this question um is your willingness to discuss retirement with our veteran teachers in any way indicative of a desire to get people to retired teacher at one point an economics teacher I like to share information and that information is very important in 10 years that you know I've been in this type of position I've seen way too many people wait until the last minute and not have that information when they

106get to that point so it is purely indicative of me being the teacher that I am okay you know that correct thank you sir just I just wanted to make sure that was crystal clear we are not trying to push any of our teachers to retire from West Lafayette schools just any other questions or comments about the payables or financial report from Mrs Cronk just a pair of information yes foreign none all those in favor of approving the accounts accounts payable Finance update please indicate with a show of hands that motion carries seven to zero Mrs Julian okay we are going to move on to information from the board and I I think Dr Greiner you should go first tonight what do you think I'm happy to go first okay okay so we you know

107the um we're in legislative session right now and so I just wanted to point out to keep an eye on we're certainly keeping an eye on talking closely with our professional organizations and or legislators House Bill 1499 relates to operations fund property taxes and referendum fund and we're concerned right now about the current proposed three percent cap on new referendum Revenue also it decreases property tax cap for residential taxpayers from one percent to 0.95 with a gradual increase over time it will severely limit our operations revenue and likely increase circuit breaker loss so while we we expect changes going from house to Senate we certainly want to keep an eye on this and we're communicating with our professional organizations so that we can get the word out to our legislators how this impacts our district

108and districts we'll certainly keep an eye on that house bill 1001 is the budget Bill and this bill drastically increases vouchers funding while also increasing the number of people eligible for that so when you look at those increases that our legislators are talking about that percentage of increase those dollars are coming out um they're a part of that increase so if you ask yourself is that um the true increase to public education I think you've got the answer to that question on top of that it rolls in a textbook in its current form textbook reimbursement into the state tuition um and but that it does not fully fund that and so that means then dollars in our education fund are being used in new ways that could be used in ways that are supporting a

109classroom and our teachers and then the bill also changes the way that the operations fund would be funded through property taxes this too would decrease our Revenue proposing a per student Levy and our student or our district currently receives more money in in its current sense than going to this new Direction and we can see that in the current model so we want to stress again that both of these bills 1001 and 14.99 ultimately do decrease funding for West Lafayette Community School Corporation and we hope to see changes in this bill as it moves through the Senate um you saw some comments on a Senate Bill 12 that I made through Twitter I've gotten some questions on that truly Our concern is there are mechanisms in place right now to question books and or to

110discuss whether or not a book should should is appropriate and there are ways for parents to appeal so Senate Bill 12 talks about taking away protections for our teachers there's already Protections in place for the types of things that it's talking about taking protections away from teachers there's already ways to address if inappropriate material were purposely presented to children and so my comments and Twitter were simply and I would I still stand behind this we believe in local local decisions local control I do believe that our teachers should if they're making good faith effort to present materials for educational reasons they should be protected period and that's where I stand and I hope that you as a board stand behind our great teachers foreign ER Mrs Roth did you also how I feel like we

111skipped over the good news and you've probably seen these 17 National Merit finalists in uh that's about 10 of our Junior Senior High School population that is absolutely amazing and um I will say I I would credit that to all of the family and this is just me again my own opinion but I credit that to families I credit that to teachers I credit that to a community that supports education and I'm going to give one more number 115. that is the number of teacher proposals for PD for the stem Grant so Mrs Falk talked about choice and voice when we received These funds that's exactly what we wanted to do and we um Cali and I are working through them we've not yet found someone to come join our team but we are still

112working through them and our goal is to get through them as quickly as possible but 115 proposals and that is more than 115 teachers because some of the proposals are multiple groups of teachers and we will still be doing more so I want to thank each and every teacher who got creative came up with the idea said I want to take this opportunity to do something that our Hope was that it would be something that would be beneficial to you and that it would give you the chance to collaborate and work together in ways that you see fit on goals that you would like to accomplish so that is in the works and we've got a few other things that will be coming out hopefully that will spark some excitement as well so thank you

113115. it's pretty impressive Mrs crook did you also have good news for us tonight that we missed well I just wanted to share that our Willis students intermediate students um had a lot of success here recently math counts Battle of the books Victory success in the Indiana chess Regional and then sharanyakar on her spelling be success as she moves on to National level competition which is awesome that's awesome thank you very much you cannot forget our elementary since we've been given permission to come back to our celebrations because that's what's so important yeah congratulations to our elementary students on a great week of read Across America and the overall favorite book was Harry Potter the Harry Potter series so that's pretty exciting and then Kindergarten Roundup is just around the corner so we encourage all

114to save the date and to get signed up for kindergarten registration and K Roundup open house is Tuesday March 28th from 4 30 to 6 30. back to Good News um my notes to the board are less exciting um I did um receive an inquiry about the language in our policies related to the roles and responsibility of the board member and the role of Secretary of the board I sent that to legal for review and while there's not a conflict per se there may be an opportunity to eliminate some Superfluous language that would constitute a single reading for a vote because there's not a change in the actual function so I would expect that you will see that in the April board packet with regard to the the proposed language there a reminder to all

115on the board that we do plan to have board training and executive session on Thursday April the 20th from 6 to 8 p.m at the wevec training center with Dr Judy Hendricks um I don't have an update on board teacher discussion it was not held in February so we had some great collaboration between wlea and administration and the next meeting of that group will be in March and then finally I received a question uh regarding policy po2462 um and saying that they're questioning if it was in conflict with Indiana code 20362-2 um and the short answer is that the policy and the law do align they are not in Conflict we as a board are charged with the responsibility of ensuring a myriad of Indiana code requirements are met I would estimate thousands um too

116many for the board itself to implement and implementing those requirements would go beyond our policy making role so that is a reason for board policy um I just lost the number two four six four right that is the reason that policy exists because to meet those statutory requirements the board delegates through that policy these duties to the superintendent and or his designee that is the relationship between that Indiana code and the policy our superintendent is an education professional congratulations um we hold Dr Greiner accountable for the day-to-day operation of our schools that is his right role and for the management of personnel we as a board do not do the tasks ourselves we are not education professionals so we fulfill the legal obligation through the delegation established in that policy um I hope that that

117clarifies with regard and specifically to the question of high ability that is exactly what is happening that we have delegated through that policy 2464 to our superintendent and his team as education professionals to manage High ability and to fulfill that Indiana code and there are thousands more where that came from that we don't handle as a board we are accountable for making sure that Dr Greiner does fulfill that the goals of the school corporation are met and we do that through his evaluation process and goal setting for the school corporation is the year so if we as board members receive feedback from our community concerned with high ability or any other academic function any other day-to-day function of the schools it is our role to correctly refer and escalate that matter to the appropriate people

118who are charged with the task we cannot cherry pick the things we care about and try and micromanage our superintendent's work in those areas that's not the right and appropriate role of a board or any member or a board as a whole I hope that that clarifies I'm happy to share with you the attorney's response and review of this same matter but just to be perfectly clear I did submit it in that Indiana code and our policy are very much aligned and appropriate together uh that is all that I have in my notes Mrs Austin what do you have in your engagement report everybody always talks about my stuff um as far as the legislative uh attended State House State uh isba and my notes from that were included in your weekly notes um I've

119attended a couple third house luncheons and learned a lot about what's happening although I'm beginning to feel like we'd all be better off if the assembly would just stop uh there's a little good news though the bill to make School Board elections partisan died again but we'll probably see it again next year um and I have another update tomorrow and a lunch on Friday to talk about legislative updates and that is everything that wasn't covered thank you did you have anything else on your engagement my engagement on the legislative about anything else that you did this month no she says no okay Mrs Mumford what reports do you have um I actually have been attending the diversity Round Table each month and they've covered a whole variety of topics actually this last time they talked

120about speaking and lobbying with our local officials a few months ago the three superintendents were there but the thing I wanted to share is they are sponsoring with the League of Women Voters this Thursday um at 5 30 um state representative Earl P Harris who's the chair of the Indiana black legislative caucus they're going to speak about the introduction legislative in the current session to close the minority student achievement Gap so really exciting all that they're doing it's a great group and then my only questions that I had was in regards to the school board training that you brought up my first question is why does it have to be an executive session what's confidential about a school board training that would have to be done in an executive session I think it's clear enough

121to our community and to us as individual board members that we are perhaps not um highly skilled in our interpersonal relationships right now and this would be an opportunity to have candid conversations about that with the trained facilitator so that is the purpose of requesting Dr Hendricks do that it is not uncommon for boards to receive training and in particular this one will be focused on appropriate board role and responsibility board member role and responsibility and also communication and interpersonal Dynamics in the group so we can beat about hopefully a better place working together as a sport so why would that need to be an executive session why couldn't that I think I would allow other members to comment upon this but I would suggest to you that it'd be important that we could all

122speak candidly and we might not be inclined to do that on the stage and then my second question is I wasn't clear how this relates to the stem Grant and if there's a better appropriate funding source for this training uh it's a thousand dollar training and and discussion about things that we could do as a board to better support our school corporation particularly in light of the amount of time we spent just last month discussing whether or not we should hire a position that certainly our ability to work productively as a board impacts the stem Grant I don't know Dr Brenner do you have an opinion about that um precisely what you said it was actually Dr Hendricks who suggested because she's worked closely with Mrs Roth um to put together that plan along with

123the teachers and if we spend the 250 thousand dollars for professional development then that's 250 000 that we've maximized to be able to use for the materials and so given the fact that you can you can build that relate that um bridge to show how each level is working to support our teachers and their work that's why Dr Hendricks had suggested why don't you go that route if the board prefers if you guys prefer as a board that we take the funds from somewhere else we can certainly visit that and do that that was just her recommendation given that money is there and the board is working to support Administration and teachers and their efforts to focus on and and learn together and grow together and then have materials to further develop our stem offerings

124or or approach to meeting the needs of our students thank you you're welcome I I think the training is important um and so I and I think it makes sense to take it from the professional development funds um I'm not that's not the hill I'll die on so you feel strongly otherwise we can have more conversation about it this is not however a voting matter this is just information at the board right now so uh it's not on our on our agenda for a vote tonight so question uh let's follow up the question so dad found this Federal fund oh just the state Federal Credit which is the sca to us as the Lea so we are as an Lea a recipient of their Esser Grant so we we received Esther funds that then we

125do something with and that came directly from the federal government administered through the state of Indiana the state of Indiana also received Esser funds that they then decided what they would do with them and we received this award as a part of their decision on how to distribute those funds so we we if we use that money for the PDS we didn't that's the purpose of that fund yes 250 000 has to be used for perfect and then if we use the 250 000 for professional development we are able to access another 250 000 for supplies and resources and materials and we have to do it all by September 30th so we didn't uh that's the purpose of that funnel right we just use that it is absolutely okay thank you okay anything else Mrs

126Mumford okay Mr shot gun schools Foundation uh teacher Grant applications are due this Friday March 10th as of last Friday they had received six applications interesting high for the brain cycle since uh for the pandemic you know I've mentioned multiple times uh wall of Pride April 13 to 14 but hopefully I'll ever mentioned the unreads of this year so we'll do that now there are six of them five alumni Sonya Angel John Dennis David Kelso Gary Layman Chris ho as well as Joe Krauss a long time social studies teacher 1961 to 1999 also Katie Bellman as an Alum was selected but is not able to attend this year so she'll be recognized next year's class startling great dinner and auction tickets went on sale last week information on the foundation website wlsdf.org 60 tickets had

127been sold as of last Friday I believe they went over 100 today just about us the largest fundrae that have been hosted by the foundation and the money raised supports teacher grants backpack program the general fund as well as other initiatives of the foundation do allowed to Heidi Myers Tammy speaker who are the uh volunteers parents of current students that are putting on thank you Mr Wong no I don't I don't too much uh update I think okay Dr Ian okay first for the park and the ice rink is has been closed and in April there will be a activity to detach the Wabash River and they call for volunteers so whoever is interested and yeah they can sign up on the website and so yeah that's for the park and something to kind of

128follow-up comments and earlier first of all I really appreciate that you took a big effort to the the administration uh listen to office and all the school and leaders it took a big effort to celebrate students excellence and I yeah I feel more and more these days we see the good news from everywhere it's very encouraging actually just the last weekend and I heard the the high school had a phenomenal a musical going on and I too bad I missed it and because of other obligations and um our students and just you know teachers staff members at just a meeting and the family parents and so that's for that and then another another thing follow-up for uh Dr griner's comments regarding uh the news regarding the Kindergarten Roundup and I wonder uh you don't have

129to answer this question not by just a Wandering and so I I wonder whether we have anything like a heads up for for kids who never been to preschool because I heard you know parade in our community most of kids have been to preschool before they enter the kindergarten but some cases those kids from local low-income families I mean not had the opportunity to do so and to help them prepare also probably make the kindergarten teachers job a little bit easier if we have any funding to support those kids to have had to start for several weeks or something like that I I wonder whether that's possible you don't again you don't have to answer that question just a kind of a general suggestion because I heard some of the districts who have more low-income

130students have that and so being our School District we have a fewer let's say 12 percentile reduce lunch something like that and but still you know we we have families who may need help and so just so something to consider another thing um I like to follow up with comments regarding macro management or cherry picking those things I I don't agree and I actually for that I really appreciate Dr Greiner and Mrs Ross the attitude towards our ideas me my first experience my suggestions and my sure sauce you always welcome me to share sauce I really really appreciate that actually I feel you know I I came from a different country and I really cherish this opportunity for people to what to voice to share perspectives to have and this kind of school board Arrangement

131and you know we have seven people and the reason we have that is we you know different people have different perspectives we bring diverse ideas and so we have Collective wisdom and we are paid to do that and uh I really appreciate the opportunity to you know bring the community concerns to you and for you to consider and actually Anna set up a meeting for those cons the parents who have concerns about high ability all those things I really really appreciate that I hope and I know you already did that you don't treat that as a macro management you always appreciate our feedback and the input and things we heard from the community sometimes people yes there's a team of command for them to follow but sometimes we have to understand some people don't feel

132comfortable to tell you know a particular person about their concern and it's very that's probably also a culture each difference and Alice I know many Asian parents feel uncomfortable to share um some feedback they feel that's a critique and they feel they might hurt somebody and so they would rather like to share their concerns with the school board members and I hope it's okay and for us to kind of convey some of those we know sometimes we just tell them okay you can tell teachers and about your concerns but sometimes they still like to share and so I hope it's okay another thing is about the cherry pick and even though today Syria virus is supported to put the high ability issue an agenda that doesn't mean we only care about that and as far

133as I know and you know many and like Mr Wong and I remember Miss Medford and to care about many things and like after school care program and the bully issues and the students with special needs and the students from low-income families and transparency many many issues it's just a yeah we support to have a committee for the high ability issue doesn't mean we only care about that and I I hope yeah that maybe you didn't mean that but I hope people don't are not misled about that so that's that's in no way but I imply that you only care about one issue so my concern is more that we as board members recognize that we do not run the day-to-day operation of our school um also was there a glass meeting last month I

134thought I saw it on the calendar was there any news from the glass meeting oh yes yes yes and uh Dr Greiner and I went to that meeting and we heard a presentation and by the grass I the the organization I I learned a lot from that actually I I was a very um Amazed by the scope of work that they have been doing and uh so that's an excellent contribution and to the whole community and they have more than four thousand these are more than four thousand students in our greater Lafayette area and uh in our school we have like more than 200 students with yeah a student with special needs and there are more detail there the the the presentation is very informative and also they talk about the lack of special needs

135special Educators and so they have to have contract some of the work outside which is actually more costly and so for that you know I also really appreciate all those teachers who work for those kids with special needs um that's very important to recognize the needs of all of our students so thank you for reporting on the special services uh anybody else any engagement reports I'm sorry did I miss you Brad last but not least anybody tired yet anyone want to go to the restroom raise your hand bid opening tree nursery happened to uh Redevelopment commission we're going to get a new tree near so we're going to grow our own trees here in West Lafayette uh Wellness Center sign entrance sign uh is going to be installed uh We've contracted for Design Services for

136the new case and park out on Cumberland Avenue and that is going to be a very nice park everybody's going to enjoy it uh change order on the caretakers College Cottage to allow I think for some better movement of traffic in and out of the caretakers Cottage uh this is a good one notarized consent for Zoning for .027 Acres corner of state and Brown Street uh this is a relative to the northeast corner of that intersection of State Street and River Road I should say plan development 1200 beds 525 units 25 000 square feet of retail plus parking approximate value of the project here and 10 million dollars part of the levy Village tip District if you're counting we've got a general Sun referendum that collects from those Tif districts so that would be a

137nice addition to the community it's early in the program early in the game uh but we're talking about that good stuff thank you Mr Marley sorry about the oversight okay uh all right so I will um that we've made it to the end uh pardon me we're not quite today right okay so yeah we do not have any communication from the audience on non-agenda items uh we do have our next meeting we have a bit of a gap because of spring break so our next meeting is Monday April the 10th at 6 30 p.m here upcoming dates of interest you can see those on your agenda um we'll pray for no more snow so we can enjoy those snow makeup days board documents and audio from this meeting will be posted on the wlcsc website

138within seven to ten days following the board meeting we understand that there have been some issues with the live stream audio this is the reason why we provide supplemental audio recording we're working within the limitations of the technology in the room and doing our best we're open to suggestions on how to improve that any further but we've pretty much looked under all the rocks have we not Dr Greiner we have okay can I get a motion pleased to adjourn tonight's meeting moved by Mr Wong second by Mr Marley all those in favor of adjourning please indicate with a show of hands that motion carries 7-0 Mrs Julian we are adjourned thank you all for being here tonight