001west lafayette community school corporation regular meeting board of school trustees and today is monday may 3rd 2021 it is 6 30 p.m and i'll start with an approval of the agenda for tonight's meeting moved by mrs austin second second by mr shot all in favor of the motion please say aye aye and opposed hearing none that motion does carry approval the minutes of the april 5th 2021 regular meeting of the board of school trustees need a motion please approval by dr springer second by mrs witt um discussion any corrections or changes okay all in favor of the motion please say aye and deposed hearing none that motion does carry communication from the audience current agenda items so you have none yeah all the ones are for non-agenda items unfinished business i have none and we'll
002start now with academic achievement and student recognition and shelby you are i always love this time so thank you very much i want to celebrate a third grade student in west lafayette elementary school lillian come on up this is miss lillian and cola lily is one of the most this is what our teachers have to say about her and i echo this lily is one of the most hardworking students that we know she is always pleasant and gets along with everyone she has shown resilience that i rarely see in students her age she understands that kindness positivity determination and relationships matter the most she knows how to find the upside of any challenging situation lily is a wonderful role model for her classmates and adults she is a remarkable young lady and is most deserving
003in this recognition we need a lot more people like lily in our world [Applause] we have she deserves every accident yes we have a first grade student from mrs addy's class micah come on up here you look so handsome micah is a friend to all he goes out of his way to show kindness to his peers every single day he intentionally includes others in free play and is a great partner during our learning activities where he encourages others to do their personal best micah also has a great sense of humor and is constantly making us all chuckle with his wit he is a wonderful student and a joy to be around way to go micah [Applause] and our last person in kindergarten for mrs cattell's class we have miss ruby bartlett ruby is an absolute
004joy every single place she goes she is kind considerate helpful and sweet she always shares and takes turn during activities with her classmates ruby has such a brilliant a bright outlook on every situation and she values all of her classmates for the differences in what makes them each special she is a friend to everyone she meets i am going to add that you keep mr bothell in line don't you yes somebody needs to she is such a joy to have in class and she is making the world a better place [Applause] perfect congratulations to our elementary students and i'm here representing our intermediate students and i'd like to start with sofia rickard please come up sophia is an outstanding student with excellent grades she led a fundraiser with several of her friends to raise thousands
005of dollars for food finders this year when the organization experienced a shortage of donations sophia is a great friend to all and has exemplary behavior she's a fantastic role model and it encompasses all of the values of our west lafayette schools congratulations michaela thompson please come forward michaela is a model student and a good citizen she works diligently on all of her assignments always doing her best and asking great questions she is kind and helpful and always makes good choices she reminds her friends when it is time to transition quietly from class to class she also loves to help her teacher and her classmates in any way possible when she finishes her work she asks her teacher is there anything i can do for to help you she helps with projects we have going on
006in the classroom and is great about reminding her teacher to post homework each day mrs she says it's a pure joy to be her teacher congratulations and avery ac please come up avery is one of two student council representatives for the class in addition to attending meetings she has taken it upon herself to create slide presentations to share information with the class she has also sent out polls asking for input on student council issues avery is also part of the willis review and has had two articles published already finally not only has avery not had a missing assignment all year she volunteers to help her teachers with things around the classroom she has helped organize the class library and has made a poster to put on the wall congratulations avery [Applause] good evening at the
007junior senior high school this is always a fun night to do this i wonder how many we're going to keep a roster of who gets these awards in kindergarten and see how many cycle back and get them again in grades 7 through 12. i bet there's more than one we'll start with a junior mr beckett peters please come up and some information i want to share about beck beck peters is a virtual student this year not seeing much and one of his teachers nominated him for his ability to navigate virtual learning successfully she stated that not only did he work diligently on all assignments but more than any of my students he did something that i had asked all to do which is ask me for help when needed beck also thanked me the teacher
008says which doesn't always happen for teachers so we appreciate that he told me how helpful my suggestions were he let me know that my clarifications helped him to understand his positive attitude on my work helped me motivate me to continue and increase my efforts to serve students to the best of my ability therefore i believe bec peters greatly deserves a west side way to go award next i'd like to invite catherine dunford to come up catherine is in 10th grade hard to believe and here she's she might looks like she will you can take your time there she is so catherine i'm going to talk about you a little bit okay all right talk about a girl who shows up each day each and every day and gives her best effort she is loved throughout
009our building due to her friendliness and bubbly personality everybody knows catherine she has had challenge after challenge this year but she continues to be her personal best which we're really proud of so catherine you're a true example of grit and perseverance and here's your reward and finally tonight we're pleased to have mr robert akuma jr come up for some recognition on his way up robert has displayed in various ways that he will go above and beyond without needing or requesting a reward he does what is right to help those in need there was a student who was using crutches and robert stepped up and helped the student every day when he's able to do so that's without being asked to do that so without a question or a second hesitation robert has demonstrated he goes
010out of his way to help someone in need during the football season robert was the hardest worker on the field and he always always offered to help his coaches he also would be the first one onto the field and would never complain about being tired or worn down robert would always keep a positive attitude when faced with a difficult task that is why this coach and teacher would nominate him for this award so congratulations robert [Applause] thank you um very inspiring presentations we'll move on to um academic achievement staff recognition and dr killian is yours yes i'd like to have mrs fitzsimmons come up we have an award for one of ours our assistant director of food service and she will make that announcement uh this evening all right so every year the ido formally
011recognizes a school food service employee of the year the school food service of the year award was created to recognize the outstanding achievements of school food service employees who excel in the area of customer service attitude professionalism and teamwork so to say that ivan volitsky excels in all these areas is an understatement when i started as food service director three years ago i quickly learned that ivan was a natural leader beloved by everyone he's highly dedicated to the department and the west side students he works hard to make sure everyone's needs are met ivan has seen many changes throughout his time at west lafayette and has eve has met every obstacle with a positive attitude it takes a special person to successfully run a kitchen out of a classroom open a brand new food court
012deliver meals to the doorsteps of west lafayette family fill in as director for four months and feed the junior senior high school students when the rest of the kitchen staff had to warranty there's truly no one more deserving than ivan for this award and i'm honored to work by his side as the 2021 school food service of the year award recipient ivan is receiving a check for 200 from the indiana nutrition council and will be receiving a plaque from the department of education uh so please join me in congratulating militsky for winning this prestigious award [Applause] thank you thank you again you want to introduce your family [Applause] we have one more thing to hit and then we'll release you unless you want to stay for the rest of the meeting which you're welcome to
013do as well but go ahead the indiana department of education has again recognized west lafayette schools as a performance qualified school district which means that we can get certain waivers from indiana code you have to have certain metrics from the department of education with regards to our academics and the success of the school district so that's one of the reasons we're allowed to offer professional development in our school calendar because we have more instructional minutes than what is required so we can take two over 180 days and do professional development we're one of the few school districts that get to do that so the next year we'll be able to do that once again so congratulations to our students to our parents to our teachers to our administrators our school board that west lafayette schools
014continues to get that designation also the u.s news world report just came out with its best high schools information in the nation they rated over 18 000 high schools and i'm proud to report that we had the best ratings by u.s news world report since my arrival here in west lafayette schools uh 2007. we are ranked 103 in stem high schools out of over 18 000 high schools we are ranked number 239 in national rankings and we're ranked number two in indiana high schools behind signature school signature school is a charter school that takes applications and gets to allow to admit students or not to admit students and for us we admit all the students who of course arrive in our school district so this is a very high honor for our school district and
015i want to again congratulate our students congratulate our teachers our staff our administrators our parents our community we're in the top one percent of the nation with regards to what we do and this is a k-12 honor because what happens in kindergarten first grade second grade through intermediate through junior high school has a great impact on these ratings so this is a k-12 honor and i congratulate everyone so those of you that have been honored tonight you are again welcome to stay if you choose to go now is the time thank you you good okay thanks mark appreciate it um i will now move on to item four which is aquatic center summer programs and dr killian yes uh we invited chris to attend and yeah she might had a schedule conflict so we have
016a aquatic center summer program uh that we sent out to the parents and to the the community just as a reminder we remodeled and now remodeled we modeled our aquatic center after the zionsville aquatic center model and because of the pandemic we've not been able to offer all the opportunities that we normally would like to do but chris clingy has been working very hard to put together a summer program and so uh we've sent that out to all of our parents and community and i believe it's on our website is it not april i think it is so we want to congratulate chris for getting this started again because it is the source of revenue and we're asking the board's approval to put that on our risk insurance programming because it is a summer program
017and we want to make sure that we have coverage for this programming we do believe after the pandemic has subsided that hopefully we can be generating the revenues from the rental of the pool and the programming that we're doing like zionsville gets on average over a hundred thousand dollars a year back into its general fund just because of the pool and aquatic activities and the programs that they offer so our hope is we'll be able to start generating those those resources to help us so we're the administration's asking your approval of putting that on our risk insurance okay need a motion please move by mrs austin second by mr shot discussion and she's been quite aggressive also in the desire to get groups in there and utilize that pool so that's hopefully it will be
018a money maker yep questions comments thoughts okay all in favor of the motion please say aye aye and opposed hearing none that motion does carry student code of conduct and staff handbook revisions and dr killian our uh administration have updated their handbooks that need to go to publication so we're asking your approval of the revisions so that we can get them printed and back in time for the 21-22 school year okay need a motion please leave by mr marley second by mrs witt discussion questions comments aha question yeah go ahead um so the i i noticed that the dress code and you know dress code the one was removed about the hood hoodies so before seems to me yeah i don't know the historical thing but looks like that that one was removed so i
019wonder about the rationale because intuitively it sounds like if the if students put the hoodies on their head for example during the class it would be hard for the teachers to see their face to make sure you know they are listening they are paying attention you know kind of how that may block the interaction between the students and the teachers yeah the teachers will make sure that the students are adhering to classroom rules we don't want to get into a situation where we're policing everything that students are wearing or not wearing but in the classroom the teachers do make the rules to make the decisions on what the students can do with those hoodies and i think i leave that decision to the professionals that they will do the right things in the classroom to
020ensure the students are paying attention the the goal in some of this is to not having over administratively um types of burdens that you have to just continue to chase and so there's a lot of students that i think were interested in what i understand that that was commented through student council so we're trying to give opportunities for students to have some freedoms and at the same time have responsibility in the classroom fair statement run eric i don't know so every year and one of the things we heard from kids is that the hats and the hoods was something they preferred to have back in the building it helped them feel like fitting in a little bit with all the cultural religious headwear that is in the building certain students might be standing out so
021our students wanted to let everyone feel a little bit more included or not stand out quite as much but certainly the teachers will have the autonomy in a glass room that is asked it's not where it had a particular day or two as well thank you any other questions thank you for the explanation so the teachers are okay with it i'm sorry i mean so the teachers are aware of this so they are they're fine with it so the teachers are aware of this and they are fine because okay okay that's good thanks thank you um any other questions or comments okay all in favor of the motion please say aye aye and opposed hearing none that motion does carry uh check removal uh item six and to you mr sloat okay we have a
022state board of accounts requires if we have out checks outstanding over two years old that we the board approves cancellation of that so we have a total on our regular checking account 326.25 and then the eca accounts is 227.10 these are a listing you can see of outstanding checks uncashed that are over two years old so we ask permission to cancel these checks out need a motion please mrs austin second by mr marley discussion sorry so i just uh uh want to double check and before the check was kind of cancelled and those people are contacted were contacted and sort of noticed by notified about the chat some are contacted some have moved away sometimes they're like officials that maybe did a basketball game and they did one game or so and you send it
023out you never hear back and so sometimes it's hard to follow up okay okay thanks other questions all in favor of the motion please say aye aye aye opposed hearing none that motion carries um 2022 budget calendar and mr sloat okay it's time to think about our planning for the 22 buck calendar year budget and as in the past typically in june the department of education has a budget workshop last year was virtual where they'll go through different your funding support amounts and how do you calculate that that's in june usually then in july the department of local government finance we have budget workshops where we meet with them and they'll give us new guidelines tell us what the new forms might be that are required in the past in our august work session then
024we will review the proposed budget with the school board go over the budgets and the revenue estimates and tax rates if we may know the baby by then august 25th is usually a date that we have to publish this our proposed budget levy rates on gateway then september we'd have a public hearing on the september board meeting public hearing on the 22 budgets october board meeting required school board meeting for adoption of the budgets and november 8th is our last date to submit our final proposed and approved budget in gateway then we go through the process and probably be late in the year maybe sometime this january before we get approval by the department of local government finance on the final tax rate so this process we really don't have a lot of control we
025have some input but we don't have control on the output and because determined by so many different factors so this is kind of a guideline once we know the dates of some of the board meetings you know we set that but these will be the september board and october board meeting would be important dates for the hearing and the adoption okay okay need a motion please move by dr springer second second by mr marley it's just for the calendar uh discussion questions pretty much the same process we used or the dates are important yeah any questions all in favor of the motion please say aye aye aye and opposed hearing none that hearing none that motion does carry um textbook rental fees and mr ulhout thank you very much so you're receiving your packet the
026changes in textbook rental fees for the 21-22 school year really there's not a lot of changes across the school either any of the schools some changes do are related to the adoption of the new social studies textbooks k to 12 and you'll find those outlined in those materials so we've asked for consideration for the adoption of the textbook rental schedule uh discussion questions and they are pretty pretty homogenous they're pretty the same similar i should say and so yeah given um yeah i i remember and dr robbie i mean rocky uh mentioned that our discrete district has a higher percent of students who were right now eligible for free lunch or reduced price lunch and also right now given the koi situation people lose jobs and stuff like that and i wonder for this kind
027of like a rental uh textbook rental whether there's any policy to help the families who may have financial needs and it's very the other day we talked about the the cares money and for learning laws and i wonder whether that sort of money can be used to cover the families who may need the financial help with this rental fee we have to follow federal guidelines in indiana code with regards to the care's money and when we get the next application that will be looked at directly we don't have the resources financially to help those that might come forward for free and reduce i'm sorry for textbook assistance but there are programs that we can send them to that might have that kind of assistance and of course the free reduced lunch applications those individuals will
028qualify for reductions in textbook adoption and ross or steve might have additional information no i was going to mention that that students who have free and reduced lunch also qualify for reductions in their textbook fees as well right that's an ongoing program okay great thanks other questions okay all in favor of the motion uh please say aye and opposed hearing none that motion does carry uh we'll move up to uh next is cancellation of july 5th july 5th board meeting and dr killian i recommend as we normally do that we cancel the july 5th board meeting and give authorization to the administration to do the normal business duties with formal authorization coming in august okay motion by dr springer second second by mr shot um discussion and we think that done this just about every
029year that i've been around any other though last year again we did end up having a board meeting in july due to a circumstance obviously but okay any other questions or discussion all in favor of the motion please say aye aye and opposed hearing none that motion does carry personnel report um and dr killian yes i like to re recommend approval of all the items listed on the personnel report i also want to declare that we reached out to jennifer mccormack former state superintendent of instruction who is willing to assist our school district in the innovation grant application and she knows how to do that application and if there's uh money available she knows how to go after it like i said the last meeting over about 22 million was available last time so might
030be a great opportunity to be able to tap into some good resources if we get the right application in the right process okay you need a motion to accept the personnel report moved by mrs witt second by mrs austin okay uh discussion questions okay all in favor of the motion please say aye aye and opposed hearing none that motion does carry accounts payable and mr oldham thank you very much um we ask for your approval of the uh claims for this month in the total amount of three million nine hundred sixty-two thousand nine hundred eighty-five dollars and eleven cents of which eighty nine thousand eight hundred twenty two dollars and fifty three cents is payroll four hundred forty one thousand six oh seven eighty three payroll deductions other claims of one million ninety two thousand
031seven dollars and twenty two cents we vet claims of two hundred eighteen thousand three seventeen ninety seven and construction claims of one million three hundred nineteen thousand two twenty nine fifty six a few items that you might be interested in seeing we did have a renewal of our microsoft software licensure that's that's voucher number 3132 in the amount of twelve thousand six hundred forty dollars our seventh of ten payments to citibus for the services they provide in transportation fifteen thousand three hundred three dollars and thirty six cents we purchased a midwest transit bus fifteen passenger bus in the amount of fifty four thousand three we also paid the installment to the greater lafayette career academy for our students who attend there in the amount of 19 295 and 93 cents those are really the claims
032of note this month we'd ask your approval for the claims okay by mrs austin second second by mr marley questions or discussion okay all in favor of the motion please say aye aye and opposed none that motion does carry information to the board i don't have anything additional um we'll go around to our committee reports and uh start i don't know whether board board policy committee i don't know if you have anything new there community council has it met since in the last month i think so communications amy your floor is yours yes um we met for the first time and we talked about the goal of the committee and various platforms for distributing information including print email blogs websites facebook and so on and what platforms are currently being used we discussed how frequently
033communication should occur nothing was firmly decided but we're looking into our capabilities as a district in terms of i.t as well as what other districts are doing okay thank you uh discussion this will be rocky's report right so uh divert diversity equity and inclusion mrs whit and the group matt has met twice uh in april and will meet twice more in may before ending for the school year um one kind of accomplishment i want to make you aware of is that the group collaborated on definitions for four key vocabulary words that are unique to west lafayette school corporation they are now available on the website if you go and look under the board and the dei uh link you can see those under resources but i would like to share them with all with you
034tonight diversity a broad range of value differences and experiences acro across a spectrum of qualities traits and characteristics of life equity providing students with resources and opportunities that meet their individual needs inclusion an environment where differences are embraced to ensure opportunities are not limited and all feel a sense of belonging and respect and finally culture the intersectionality of individual and group experiences and identities as they contribute to the tapestry of our community those were again collaborated upon they are available on the website there are other resources available the other news to report to you is that a group of students the students on the committee have been really wonderful contributors they met recently with one of our high school faculty members to work through textbooks or other resources for a new class at the high
035school next year in ethnic studies class that will be offered so um some more obviously work to get through before the they break for this session but the committee's doing good work great conversations are being hacked okay thank you um foundation i don't think is new um they are planning for the scarlet and gray fundraiser and possibly a smaller more casual event in the fall they are actively seeking volunteers and um the second grant cycle was completed with four grants awarded um i didn't write it down but i believe it was one at the high school two at willis and one at the elementary school but the total was thirty six hundred dollars okay okay thank you um i don't know anything on glass or health and wellness well glass has april meetings we received
036a lot of information on a lot of data information on a number of students teachers throughout the school year number of personnel that they hope to hire a lot of positions some of the positions are difficult to fill so they will they're trying to just have a wide net and gather candidates for those positions okay um insurance committee anything right on your end recently legislative liaison also getting new there negotiations will be upcoming it's at some point here before long park board karen back to you yeah reservations for shelters that opened up on april 1st the outdoor municipal pool is opening memorial day weekend and opening schedule and class options are available on the park's website wednesday may 12th at 10 o'clock i am is going to be the ribbon cutting and opening ceremony for
037the happy hollow dog park thank you um first personally you anything on the public schools foundation i don't know if you've met since the last meeting yes um so for the spring uh for the spring circle and they awarded six awards and we our school district got one me mrs kitty price in intermediate school got award and their next grand circle star is open from august the 2nd and the ends at deadline is september 27th and they encourage collaborations between teachers administrators even of course school districts and they are also open welcome you know collaborations between teachers and the community members and for example if they're purdue faculty member who can help out with anything let's welcome if only the author of the grand proposal is our teacher and that would be great and they
038offered the grant up to 2 000 okay thank you redevelopment anything brad on that end yeah i just want to add the karen's statement the dog park is going to have a ribbon cutting on may 12th and the dogs are invited all right it's good to be there i bet your dog's away bo and bentley pulling me and then uh we are up to 950 members in our new wellness center uh which just opened around the first of the year and it's well ahead of schedule we projected to have 2 000 uh by a year two so we're running ahead so that's good thank you um anything else yes i just want to take a moment to acknowledge all the work put in by the student council and the prom committee becky swanson katie hembrow
039just a phenomenal job to pull that off a great venue so thanks to the city for working with us as well but students loved it they were well behaved and i think everyone involved in that deserves a definite tip of the gap thank you tom appreciate that okay anything else i attended virtually the national school school board association conference and i learned a great deal there was a huge emphasis on diversity and equity um the conversations being had in other districts around the country are similar to the ones we're having here um i leaned more toward the school board 101 kinds of topics because that's where i'm at and my favorite of all the discussions was called the happiness advantage i enjoyed that talk so much i went and got the book and i'm currently
040reading it so i think i got 14 and a half ceus but i don't know if those matter they do matter oh good absolutely and if you would just for the record too at some point if you haven't already give that to april it's a write-up of your of that thank you amy appreciate that okay communication from the audience and they ask you to when you come in uh to speak uh three minutes is your limitation but also just to leave your name or give your name and your address and eli i believe you're up first yeah go ahead by all means [Music] uh hi my name is first i'd like to say it's so nice to see all of them in person you've had quite the journey um so before i begin my my
041more horrible comment i'd like to start with a quote by james baldwin that i love which is that i love america more than any other country in this world and for that reason i insist on the right to criticize him perpetually so i'd like to acknowledge that we all love this city and these schools and for that reason we have to always strive to be better and so my comment will compose of two things first i'd like to speak about what i believe to be a pretty serious shortcoming i've seen on the part of the school board of the administration and two a culture that's been created because of that shortcoming and again we all make mistakes and we all have things to improve upon and that's something that i think we should all be
042working on so what i've seen in my my nine or so months of activist attempted activist work is that the school board sort of has an issue where parent feedback is ignored and when mistakes are made those mistakes are kind of swept under the rug as opposed to actively you know leaning into it and acknowledging it so i have a few examples that i'd like to point to about a year ago or so we saw we zakovid and because of that we had to work on a reopening plan and the distance learning and all of that very little parent feedback was taken and dr yin not she wasn't a board member at the time she did her own survey and a pretty disparaging remark was made about that survey and a lot of people in
043the board election ran in part because of the response to copenhagen similarly more recently with the school schedule change again very little parent feedback was taken a parent had to take it upon herself to commit to do a survey and in that survey a majority of parents were not a fan of the schedule change but way more importantly didn't even know about the school schedule change until the survey happened back in june we saw the black lives matter protests i think that it's the responsibility of the school district to make a statement when things like that happen to show their commitment to the safety of minority students and to not just verbally say that but also write out the actions that they'll take to make sure students are protected that statement didn't happen until a
044group of 800 students parents and alumni came together to ask for it similarly more recently with the rise in asian hate crimes against asians i had to write an email to the school board and dr killian similarly a couple other parents did as well and it was only two weeks after the atlanta attack so we saw a statement come out with the diversity committee the application wasn't going to be public initially until daniel offilabi made a facebook post saying that it was a little bit strange that a public committee wouldn't have a public application and only then was the application made public and similarly there was no asian representation initially on the diversity committee adult asian representation it was the responsibility of the public to come forward and say this is an issue and only
045then was an adult asian parent added to the committee but there was no acknowledgement of that mistake no apology no thanks to the people who came forward to talk about it that person was secretly added to the committee and it's like it never happened right and what we've seen is that when criticism happens and when feedback occurs that feedback is often ignored but more importantly people are insulted right we've seen disparaging remarks about parents started surveys i personally have had a couple router emails right there's this culture that's created now where people are afraid to speak up i've talked to dozens if not hundreds of students parents and alumni at this point and a continued message that i get is let me tell you about my experience but please don't use my name i don't
046want anybody to know that i spoke to you that happened with a teacher i talked to multiple parents that i talked to and dozens of students i think we really have to sit down and think about the kind of city that we're creating we are so lucky to live in such a diverse city and it's something that we talk about all the time but really what is the purpose of that diversity if we're not listening to everybody's opinions and if we're not taking that feedback constructively and really incorporating it i mean i was kind of nervous to come here tonight and i really don't think that's the culture we should be creating so i'll go ahead and end there i do have a few questions for the school board that i'll also email in so
047my first question is what steps will the board take to actively remediate this culture of fear that's been created two what will the school board do to more proactively seek out parent feedback not just on the big you know school schedule change and covert reopening plan but every single policy that's happening since as publicly elected officials it really is your responsibility to make sure your decisions reflect that of the community and three i have a specific question on the ethnic studies class recently started by the diversity committee so it looks like from my research in 2018 the indiana department of education already mandated an ethnic studies class across the state so my question is what is is there a difference with the new ethnic studies class being created and two currently classes that don't have
048enough enrollment when they're optional they're just not offered at all so will the ethnic studies class be mandated regardless of how many students enroll or is there a student enrollment like minimum before it's actually offered thank you for letting me speak and again very great to see all of you in person thank you next is angie james and you're up my name is angie james and i live at 1515 rabinia road i'd like to thank the board for allowing me time to speak tonight and especially for the opportunity to ask questions i support this adjustment to the meeting format and i'm grateful for the additional opportunity for discussion that this provides i have also noticed other changes that have improved community interaction at board meetings and i'm grateful for those changes in fact i love
049the west side way to go awards tonight i want to discuss two topics the first is committees and the second is parent feedback and without knowing it my comments are somewhat similar to ela's first of all committees dr killian has asserted at times that parent representation in the school district is sought in the form of committees such committees as reimagining strategic planning and the junior senior high schedule committees have been cited as avenues for gathering parent input as an involved parent in this district for nine years i have never been invited to serve on a committee i am interested to know how these committees are formed and what is done to assure they represent a broad range of parent experience and perspectives i would appreciate receiving answers to the following questions how were the members
050of these committees selected were there call outs or publicized invitations as in the case of the dei committee or were parents chosen by the administration or board how often are the same parents asked to serve on multiple committees what is the ratio of parents to administrators and teachers on each committee and when committee feedback differs from the administration's agenda our committee recommendations followed the second topic i wish to address is feedback in the last month i have sensed heightened frustration from the board leadership with questions and concerns raised by parents i lament the adversarial relationship that has emerged between two groups that have a shared end goal the best education possible for your students are children wlea co-presidents hipster and forbes once wrote to me regardless of the election outcome we urge you to remain
051involved so that together we can ensure that west lafayette offers a world-class education to each and every student i wish these sentiments had been in earnest together is a word filled with connection inclusion and respect but there has sadly been no together i respectfully request the board consider why parents ask difficult questions and raise concerns is it really because we are destructive haters or might it be that we believe our words can initiate positive change and that change might be needed i read a meme that said never assume that every critic is a hater some people are telling you the truth parents will continue to offer feedback it is your choice to become bitter or better thank you my name is erin moonwalker i live at 1147 hillcrest road west lafayette indiana i want to
052turn your attention to the individuals with disabilities education act known as idea within this federal law is what is called the child fine mandate quoting rights law child fine requires all school districts to identify locate and evaluate all children with disabilities regardless of the severity of their disabilities in quote and this includes every disability the child may have too often in our school district i'm seeing that parents have to request evaluation and worse i am finding families whose children should be eligible for special education but are being denied ieps by the district like my family these parents are having to look outside the district for specialized instruction to which their children are entitled at least three of my own personal friends have moved out of this district because they were unable to secure needed services
053for their child needs other districts are now serving i went to west side schools though child find was in place before i reached the second grade none of my disabilities were identified in this district even when i failed to turn in homework nearly all year long my teacher told my mother that she knew i was smart and not to worry about it i would later find out i was in fact gifted but i was also disabled despite my giftedness i graduated high school with i think a gpa of 2.6 and halfway through my bachelor's at purdue i dropped out and withdraw failed some of my classes when my social anxiety overwhelmed me at the age of 32 when my child's doctor diagnosed her with adhd i finally got evaluated my disabilities were found this gave
054me the knowledge and the courage to get through my master's degree and i graduated with a 4.0 and this 4.0 was achieved even as i struggled with this district to get not one but both of my children identified and served which then resulted in another potential diagnosis for me of post-traumatic stress disorder finding and properly evaluating disabled children is part of a job you choose but when we as disabled people don't get identified and served it not only impacts our jobs or our abilities to achieve in higher education it can actually ruin our lives and the lives of our families i would like to humbly request that the district begin tracking and publicly reporting the number of children who undergo evaluation in this district each year by all demographics to account for intersectionality and also
055track and release the number of student evaluations that result in identification and eligibility of ieps is jenny i may not be reading the right jenny not here okay all right um we'll turn over to we have the answers to some of the questions that were asked in the last meeting and we said we would answer in the meeting we'll start bob we start with ross with i'm sorry with you go ahead yeah there's a question last time about uh i've mentioned a free and reduced lunch went to all free and we do make a profit and i guess some to looking at more rat this year we're averaging around 7 500 that profit a month that's with all the free breakfast free lunch program of course last year during the pandemic is a little different
056story we lost around 11 average 11 000 loss a month but that was as you got into the spring you didn't have you know we were all virtual we had virtual lunches but not on site the numbers as far as what we have free lunch overall with these meals in february 21 1069 average in february 20 was 1200 that's prior to the pandemic so the numbers are not back up to what they should be because you have a lot of students are still virtual and i think courtney and unless you have some dad you know had announced that the lunches are going to be free and breakfast all next year is that correct sound courtney have anything to add to that amount then i think there's another question on transfer tuition steve's going to comment
057on that yeah there was a question raised about transfer tuition and this topic can be a little bit confusing the two cash transfer students that we mentioned in the last meeting are the only two that are remaining who have been grandfathered in prior to the adoption of a de facto practice of not accepting cash transfer students outside the provisions of the inter-local transfer agreement that we have with the tippecanoe school corporation in addition we do have the children of west lafayette community school employees who can attend here as well the two students that we referenced actually are 12th graders this year so they'll be graduating out of our schools further the question asked about how many students well with tsc we actually have 61 transfer students nine elementary nine intermediate and 43 junior senior high
058students who come through that agreement so the way that works is that west lafayette is reimbursed for all allowable costs for these students we actually bill tsc in arrears one year for the cost of educating there are transfer students based on a state determined formula and then tsc in turn bills the parents of the transferring students for the difference between west lafayette's cost and tsc's cost there are 77 staff children enrolled who are part of our average daily membership and don't pay tuition and the conditions for applying for transfer students are on the corporation website i think shelby there's a special question you're going to respond to yeah uh the question was regarding our special numbers and why they were there's a sharp decline so i guess i've had this position since 2016 which seems
059crazy when i look back but i can tell you from 2016 to 2020 there's only 18 less special ed students in the district and the biggest decline was between last year and this year there was 10 less students obviously that's because of the pandemic a lot of pk kids were brought in for testing or finished their evaluation because their parents weren't interested in them receiving services just due to their age i can tell you that tsc this year had 33 less from last year lse had 31 less from last year and as i said we had 10 less so it seems to be district or community-wide that students most of those numbers declined at the preschool level you know there's a requirement that you're supposed to advertise your cash transfer openings positions but as he
060mentioned we don't take cash transfers that's why we don't advertise anything else next well my first comment is going to address miss moonwalker's comment as miss moonwalker knows she filed a lawsuit against west lafayette school corporation in federal court as a part of the settlement in that lawsuit she signed a confidentiality agreement indicating that she would not discuss any activity prior to december 2019 it's obvious from the question that she directed to our school board and her comments tonight about the iep that she is disregarding that confidentiality agreement and i would urge her to comply and abide by the terms of that confidentiality agreement okay second the question was asked as the district attorney meet with citizens when discussing concerns and during those instances did you invite citizens to bring their own attorney i have
061participated in meetings with citizens or patrons about two or three occasions in 20 years most recently i was at a meeting and invited a meeting where a patron had made a defamatory comment regarding a school board member at that meeting that patron acknowledged it and retracted his statement as school board attorney i recognize the right of first amendment i recognize your right to make comments but when you as patrons and there's a small handful of you continue to make derogatory attack comments on our school board members and our staff that are many times unfounded and actually with misleading facts i'm going to watch those to determine if you have crossed the line and have defamed those individuals and that's my job as the attorney so it's easy to sit get up here tonight and make
062comments but the simple fact the matter is it isn't all uh the comments that many of you have made privately and then on social media uh and your ability to interpret things have crossed a line so i just want to make that point clear could attorneys presence to discuss citizens concerns have a chilling effect on citizens expressing the concern yeah i guess so but when we have a we have a patron get up and make comments that violates a court agreement that she agreed to if that's chilling on her i'm sorry but that's the law and she agreed to that all right no further comment i will read also reading a statement here from dr regarding dr killian dr killian has elected to not to extend his contract with the west lafayette community school corporation
063dr killian is eligible for retirement in addition he desires to spend more time with his family dr killian has expressed interest in assisting the corporation in any transition that will that will ensue the school corporation will consider appropriate actions to take to take during transition to include retaining an interim superintendent at the august board meeting and if you have another comment or anything else you'd like to see i just want to thank everyone for great work over the 14 years yes we have lots to do yes there are improvements to make and i've been approved it's been a privilege of mine to serve all of you to the best of my ability it is time to spend time with my two grandchildren justice was born two weeks ago and my grandson micah was born a
064little over a year and a half ago and theresa and i desire to move closer to them and spend time with their grandchildren so thank you all very much for everything you provided to my family and me and i wish nothing but the best for the school district thank you rocky on behalf of the board thank you for your service um we'll move on to um regular our future meeting is this will be scheduled for wednesday june 2nd at 6 30 pm at uh at willis it's the plan at this point i need a motion for adjournment move by mr marley second by mr shot okay all in favor of the motion please say aye and opposed hearing none that motion does carry we have some things to sign but thank you all for attending
065and uh we'll get i have some things to sign for the board members you