001Yes. >> All right. Good evening everyone. Tonight is our um regularly scheduled May schoolboard meeting and the prayer will be given by Lyn Hail followed by the pledge of allegiance. Okay. Dear Jesus, we thank you for those we are honoring this weekend who have sacrificed for our freedoms. Help us this evening to make decisions that will benefit our students and their families, our staff, and our community. And please bless our students and staff with a safe and restful summer. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Approval of the agenda. >> We do have one one change to the agenda, one amendment to
002the agenda, and that's to add um custodial summer staffing and resignations of Hattie Johnson and Andrew Miller to personnel. Okay. >> Make a motion um to approve the amended agenda for today. >> I'll second it. Are there any questions on this? All right. Please vote. Do you have anything? >> Is it Did yours come up? >> We just need yours to prove it or >> It's not If you just verbalize it, she can do it. >> All right. Excellent. Question. >> All right. The agenda has been approved as amended. Approval of minutes. >> I make a motion to approve minutes from the April meeting. >> We'll second. >> Any questions? All in favor? >> Oh. I don't know. What does this button say over here? Show voting. Oh, show voting. >> Okay. >> You're on.
003>> There you go. >> Motion carried. >> All right. Mission moments. >> Yes. So, today we have the high school. So, Mr. Edwards is going to introduce our uh presenters and uh share what's going on at the high school. >> Good evening. Um, I'm just super excited to uh present this because these two people behind me, Tiffany Husband and Coley Bevington, they're our biology teachers. Um, one of the challenges in education right now is trying to figure out what the state's doing. And I say that in the nicest way because you have to pivot all the time as a teacher, as an educator, and sometimes things will pop up like changes in testing. And what happened was about a year and a half ago, a lot of the principles started kind of seeing that some
004of the accountability stuff was going to kind of change how we do things. And being involved in ISP as much as I am, you try to see those trends and flows that are going to happen. And one of them is testing. And I can give you two examples and I'll let them take over. The first one was I learned biology. before we kind of gave the I learned biology made sure we prepared the kids but there's really no end result except for us seeing the scores we could start seeing that the I learn biology is going to become a much more important piece for them to look at for accountability for schools so I immediately got with the biology team and said we've got to really up our game and the best thing about the
005high school staff is when I challenge them with these type of things they're they're ready to go now the other one we'll come and present about later is the I learn government, which also was one that was thrown on us just probably about a month and a half ago after they passed it. But I'm going to let them talk about biology and they'll do a real good job. There we go. All right. >> So, with any testing, um, and we've learned through a lot of our, um, inservices is data is important. So, we have a couple slides here that show some data, some real life numbers that we can kind of crunch, and this is what's going to be evaluated and looked upon us by others. So we looked at last year's scores um which
006were pretty good. Let me give you kind of Indiana. This is a pass rate. So there's four categories. There's like below, approaching, at and above. So everybody that is at or above is considered passing. So the state average last year was 48%. And Western scored 53.9 which last year we thought was a really good score. Um, I kind of looked at the past history. Um, 2024 we were at 58.9 58.7. 2023 41.1 2022 38.5% of Western students passed biology. Um, uh, kind of what Steve said is the data we looked at before was just a number. So, we were kind of shooting as are we better than the state? Yay. And then we kind of went on with our day. And so, u and I'm not that long tooththed in the biology department, but um
007that's kind of how it was. And so, that's kind of how we kind of came into this year, but things changed. >> So, I student taught here last year. Um and it was just kind of the oh, we'll see how we're doing on biology. Um, and then about a month into the year, they're just like, "Hey, just so you know, as a first year teacher, no pressure, but this biology test is gonna matter." So, Coley and I sat through countless PLC's and just kind of in between when we had our lunches and just sat and talked about it and we kind of came up with a plan and honestly, I kind of think it worked. So, as of last week, um the data was Indiana State's passing for this year's biology island was 45%. And
008Western's was 69.1%. >> That's great. >> So, that is a 24% difference from Indiana State to Western. So, >> so we're pretty proud of this. Uh 15.4% change. Um, and then I kind of looked just a little bit ago. I was like, "Miss Husband, what was like if we looked at the five years, like our lowest score to our highest score, which was so what? 38.5. So it's a 30% increase in less than five years." Um, I'm really proud of our students. And so we're going to kind of talk about a little like how we approach this a little bit. Not that we're just just savant teachers. Um but we just we would just approach it a little bit differently. >> It's been a lot of learning. Um we hear a lot especially, you know,
009I just got out of college for teaching and they always talk about higher order thinking questions. And the thing that we've always found with science is kids struggle to understand why it relates to every day. They're like, well, why do I need to know about the mitochondria? Doesn't come up in casual conversation. Um so we started looking at these questions. And the first one is why? And you would think that that is such a simple question, but pushing the kids to just keep answering us as to why helps create that higher order thinking that the island biology test has. Um, we ask how. So, we ask how does it connect to this? How can we relate it to this? How does this connect to this movie? You know, we were watching Finding Nemo today and
010we were talking about how it relates to the oceans and things of that sort. Um, we always ask what if. Well, what would happen if we didn't have this? What would happen if we did have this? More importantly, we say, what do you think the best solution is? And there's not necessarily a right or wrong answer. Um, but that kind of ties into the claim, evidence, reasoning piece. So, one thing that I've really focused on, especially in honors biology this year, is claim, evidence, reasoning. This can be applied to anything in real life. Okay? Anything outside of Western this can go to. You make your claim. So, if I say Snickers are the best chocolate bar, okay, my evidence is, well, I mean, chocolate's really good, and if it wasn't good, they wouldn't have made
011an ice cream bar over it. My reasoning is it's one of the highest selling. So, you kind of tie in all of these things that kind of prove your point, which is something that a lot of kids can benefit from in any standpoint when you give an opinion on anything. Another big thing we did is we we used a program called pair deck assessment. So what paired assessment allowed us to do was create higher order thinking exams. So instead of just your typical multiple choice O ABCD, we could throw charts in there. We can do where they can select from column A, column B. They can do drag and drops on diagrams and vin diagrams and charts. It is all very similar to how the iLearn is actually done in pair. They also have an
012iLearn add-on where you can kind of mimic the iLearn test in pair. So, we set all of our tests to iLearn. Um, and that way the students were getting more exposed to it because we found that by giving them a test on paper, it wasn't preparing them for the anxiety of, oh my goodness, they're giving me this letters A through G and I have to answer all these questions on one passage. So, we were trying to find ways to make them more comfortable to help alleviate the testing anxiety. Um, another thing that we did is we actually gave them the the opt out on their final. We were like, how can we get these students to buy in? A lot of students, they will care about their grades. Others, they're kind of like, if I
013pass, I pass. So, how do we get their buy in? We decided if the state said that they were proficient through a whole year of biology that we would say they were proficient for their second semester. So, that's how we got their buy in there is any students that hit the AT or above were exempt from the final. they had the option to take it if they needed it for their grade for any reason, but they had the option to opt out if they passed. Um, the biggest thing there is all these strategies kind of build their confidence and empower the students, which is one of the biggest things because for statewide tests, we can't sit there and hold their hand at all. So, we need to empower them with the right decisions and just
014giving them the skills that they need to be able to pass these tests. So, a lot of wonderful things that we did. Um, and let me add a couple things. One of them is the PLC process. It worked. Um, there was we we sat together, but it wasn't just the two of us. It was asking our colleagues and we had some meetings um with the middle school. We've had some meetings with, you know, the some Spanish teachers. We're just like, what is working with others? and we tried to mimic um or we just had someone that had a sounding board. Does this make sense? So, that process does work. Um and we're we're really excited. Um Steve bought us ice cream. It was pretty nice, but we have things to do. Um so, there's still
015take pride in this moment, but we have to like look at next year. So, what we're going to do next, you know, is is just the data piece. And the pair assessment was an add-on that Steve was gracious enough to help us with kind of trial out. And another tool was data is data data data. We can we can look at how many missed a certain question. We can tag standards of questions. Um, and we can compare along. We have the same test. We can look at across different classes, different teachers. Um, so we need to again Steve gave us a day off. Well, not a day off. We came to work, but instead of teaching, he g us we had subs and we got to analyze the data. So, we spent half a day
016looking at iLearn data, looking at um how well they did um and you know, is there growth? What are other schools doing? And then the second half is how can we move forward next year and look at like some um curriculum mapping some changing maybe some some of our assessments and just kind of crunching. So we spent a quality it was it went by fast. I don't we could probably use a couple more of those maybe. Um but we have a lot to do and then I haven't sprung this but I was looking at other schools and West Lafayette is kicking our teeth. Well, I the data is not out for 2026. So, I have high hopes, but what about going and doing the PLC process to another corporation is visit them and say, why
017are you always number one for the past five years? What are you doing? And see if they can help us out because we're all here to improve our future, too. So, um we have a lot of work to do. We do like to live in the moment, but two more days and on to next year. Um, but it was it was a team effort. It's not the two of us. It's our science department. It's the backing of that guy back there and you guys as well. So, I appreciate all the support. >> Any questions? >> Those were great. Great job. >> Hey, thank you very much. Okay. Uh, Panther Pride. >> All right. Uh, Mr. Bates is, um, unable to be here at this moment. He's taking care of some transportation things that are going
018on after school. So, um, I'm going to call up, uh, Lynn Gwyn. Is Lynn here? Oh, there she is. And, uh, Eric, you've got Lynn. >> She might be a little worn out today. uh long day of organizing a dodgeball tournament, but uh Lynn Gwyn was nominated by Ally Nash for employee of the month. So, I'm going to read what Ally had written in her nomination. I'm writing to warmly recommend Linwin for staff member of the month. This semester, Mrs. Gwyn began working with a student with hearing loss. The student uses ASL to communicate. Lynn has taken the initiative to learn some basic American Sign Language to best teach and support the students needs. Lynn also has worked incredibly hard to teach and encourage all of her students to learn ASL to encourage communication and
019participation. In addition, earlier this month, I, not me, Ally Nashed, had the pleasure to join Mrs. Gwyn's PE class. During her observation, I saw my student was happy, engaged, and truly experiencing girlhood. She joked, giggled, and played with all of her peers. Lynn's work had created a welcoming, inclusive classroom where students of all abilities feel confident to participate, engage, and connect with one another. Thank you for considering Lynn for this recognition. Her dedication truly merits it. >> Great job. >> Thank you. Great job. >> All right. Next, we have Christy Peterson and nominated by Kristen Hartish. I would love to nominate Christy Peterson for employee of the month. She is truly a phenomenal bus driver and makes a positive impact on students every single day. Christy manages a completely full bus of students with consistency,
020structure, and care. I've truly never seen anything like it on a school bus. Even with every seat filled, she creates an environment where students feel safe and supported and successful. Her behavior management is strong and consistent on the bus, and it's clear that the students know what the expectations are from the moment they walk through the door. Because of this, her bus runs fairly smoothly. The little hiccups can't always control the the little ones. And students are set up for success before they even walk into the building. What sets Christy apart in this is the culture that she built. She is intentional about making the bus a positive place for kids, and she has creative incentives. She has created incentives on Mondays and Fridays that students can work towards each week. These small touches go
021a really long way. The students are motivated and they take pride in their choices because they want to be successful for themselves and for her. It creates a sense of community and belonging on a bus. That's really important. She goes above and beyond in building relationships with her students. I've personally seen her take time to get to know each student, connect with them in meaningful ways, and show that she cares about them as individuals first. In addition, her communication is out of this world. She keeps parents and school staff informed when needed. She approaches situations with professionalism. She's always looking for a solution when there is a problem and I just really appreciate that in working closely with her over the last few years. Um, this just helps us support students get all together. She's
022dependable, positive, and she is committed to doing what's best for kids. She consistently goes above and beyond what is expected of her role and her impact reaches beyond just the transportation. She sets the tone for the kids' days and she helps contribut contribute to a positive school environment. Christy is truly a blessing to Western School Corporation and we are incredibly lucky to have her on our team. Thank you Christie. Thank you. >> Thank you for transporting our kids. >> No problem. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next, if we could have Riker and Mrs. Kroom. I'm nominating Riker Bass for student of the month award. Riker is a very deserving kid. He works hard, loves to learn, and is always doing extra to make gains in his academics, even at his young age. Ryker is
023very helpful, kind, and soft-spoken. He is a friend and a helper to everyone in the class. Riker always comes to class with a positive and upbeat attitude, ready to get his day started. Something that I will always remember about Riker is his love for God. It has been a joy as his teacher watching how bold he is to share his faith with others around him. Riker is an outstanding student with great character. He's very deserving of this award. Congratulations, RIKER. >> Good job. >> Great job, RER. >> Good job, Riker. >> Good job, buddy. All right. Our next student of the month is Ava, nominated by Mrs. Sharp. Good evening. I just said, Ava, you're almost taller than me. How did that happen? I want to thank Ava and her parents for being here for
024this evening. It's a pleasure to um have nominated Ava for May student of the month. Really proud of you, Ava. Um Ava is an all-around outstanding young lady. Um Ava is a wonderful student. She's very quiet, but is willing to participate in class discussions, is always willing to um ask questions when she needs help. She cares for others and is always ready to help anyone in need. Uh she is friendly and accepting of others. Uh Eva has quiet confidence that speaks volumes. She is always on time, always follows follows procedures and rules, always works hard, always is polite, always listening, always trying, yet never asks for recognition, and never complains. Ava is a joy to have in class. She sets the example of what it means to show Panther pride every day. She is a
025shining example of all the panther character traits. I'm very proud of you, Ava, and proud of the progress you've made in fifth grade. You're going to make me cry. I know AA will do great things in middle school. >> Congratulations. Good job. >> Our next student is Liam, nominated by Mrs. Holt. All right. Liam Reading has a quiet demeanor and genuine kindness that brings a positive presence to our classroom every single day. His respectful attitude and warm smile creates an uplifting environment that benefits everyone around him. What truly sets Liam apart is his authentic love for learning. He regularly expresses his enthusiasm for seventh grade. He generally is excited about the projects and activities we undertake. Liam's character and attitude toward learning serve as a positive um example for his peers. I often find myself
026wishing every student possess his enthusiasm for learning. He is a joy to teach and an invaluable asset to our classroom community. Um Liam is very deserving of being WMS student of the month. Great example. >> Congratulations. >> Great job. >> And our last student of the month is Jayla, nominated by Mrs. Critzman. I always love to brag on my students. It's even better when it's a senior. So, I too am going to cry. Um, Western School Corporation partnered with Indiana University Cooko in 2018 as one of the four founding schools, creating the Tomorrow's Teachers Program, which is now an Indiana next level program of study. This includes 12 credits that are transferable to multiple universities ac across Indiana towards an education degree. Jayla has been a part of this program for two years and has
027excelled. As a secondyear student in the Tomorrow's Teachers program, Jayla has grown academically and professionally while exploring her options for her future in education. She has spent time in over a dozen classrooms across grade levels and areas of study. Those teachers too share a common report of her professionalism, her willingness to jump in and more. On April 15th, Jayla signed her intent letter at Indiana University Cooko to continue her education with them studying art education. Her successful completion of the Tomorrow's Teachers program has granted her early admission to the teacher education program at Indiana University, which is separate from the general admission to the university. The TE admission um expectations are high and admission is generally not even available until the end of your sophomore year. The application process for the teacher education program includes
028completion of specific basic courses, education courses, overall GPA, and a recommendation from a professor in the department. It is with great joy that I share that Jayla will continue her education and I hope one day will return to us as A COLLEAGUE. THANK YOU FOR becoming a teacher. >> It's good to see you here. >> You're coming back, right? >> Congratulations. >> Just a few more. uh Panther Pride moments. Uh we did get notification from Isma that we received uh the all music award for the middle school for 2526. And then also um we received uh quite a bit of hardware. Uh Mr. Edwards brought it over here to me uh from the high school academic Super Bowl competition. We have a third place for fine arts, a runner up for math, and a runner
029up for interdisciplinary. So, great job by the high school and their work. There's a couple pictures of them up there. And that is all I have this month for Panther Pride. I know we've got a lot of um things coming to an end uh of seasons. So, I'm sure we'll have some things to talk about next month on accomplishments of our kids and teams and things that they're doing. So, it looks like we had a softball game and most people left while I was doing that. So, that's all I have for Panther Pride. >> All right, great. Um there was uh no signups for uh public comment, so go on to reports. Treasurer, >> as you see my report, the end of the month balance uh for the month of April totaled $18,63,63.95. Uh interest
030paid received from First Farmers totaled $52,97. The payroll claims being submitted for the board's approval, total 1,429,744.95. Vendor claims being submitted for your approval, total 1,817,235.94. Uh, some other things to to note, uh, remind the board that our tag grant did go out this last month. Another reminder with that tag looked a little bit different this year where in past years it went to all or almost all of our teaching staff. Uh this year we had to identify uh select few that got it. Uh we awarded just over 93,000 to 19 teachers. Uh I'll also note that the bond timeline is coming closer to the finish line. Uh we are communicating with our bond council to line up our S&P rating. Uh that will then lead into selling the bonds in June. Uh which mean
031will mean money will be in hand by the end of July. Uh we'll have some back payments because some of the work as you know is already uh ongoing. Uh some of the things we'll be talking about between now and then is the structure of our payment when we'll have the next step fall off to leave opportunity open for uh future slash additional projects. Uh, you've received my supporting documentation. I submit for your approval and answer any questions you have. >> Okay. >> I make a motion to approve the financial report. >> Second. >> There any questions of Kyle? >> No. All right. Please vote. >> All right. um exceptional learners and testing. >> More of the same for me as far as testing updates. The IV summer window started um and tomorrow we're meeting
032with intermediate teachers to kind of look at who are we going to bring in for summer school? We're going to be adding some extended school year services for some of our special ed students are really close to that window of passing. Um, we just didn't know what their scores would be on the second round to know if we're going to open them in summer school. Um, I know for summer school for primary, we have 38 students coming to that. Um, as far as title title, our schoolwide um process has been submitted. So, our schoolwide plan is to the state. We're just waiting for approval on that. I'm assuming that'll come in the next few weeks. More information on what that's going to look like and what services we can provide for more service more students.
033Um special ed we had some interviews to do. We um did hire someone or we're looking at hiring someone in the recommendations um this month. Um and then lots of case conferences. They really ramped up this last month. A lot of transition conferences from building to building trying to get initials in so that services can start first day of next school year. So a lot of lot of conferences. Um, as far as high ability, um, we also have high ability teacher interviews. We had a lot of good candidates. Um, we have a recommendation for that as well. Um, and as we look at the numbers for the act, I know that was a big question from last month. Um, for that first, second, and third grade for next year, we're looking at about 26 students.
034Um, first grade has eight who are eligible. Second grade has four and third grade has 14. you had the opportunity to look at my report. Any questions? >> Anybody have any questions? >> I had a question, Lindsay. Um, is are we still thinking about uh the high ability teacher doing like individual plans for each student? >> Yes, we are. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Technology Mr. Shear. >> Yes. Good evening. I just want to go over a highlighted few items that we've got going on. iPad collection is in full force. We've got the primary intermediate picked up almost and then high school middle school will be the last day, last period of the very last day. So, we wait till they're done with finals and everything to get those picked up. We
035start the reconfiguration for the summer. Um, one other item I wanted to highlight with parent square. I know I've been talking about this probably for a long time from the introduction of the website all the way through with now parent square app and communication tool. Um we've made a lot of progress. Uh we've gotten the middle school high school kids um registering their accounts so they can use the tool plus the parents have all been doing it and the staff. I'd say we're at 99% for staff as well getting the app and starting to use it. Um, we're going to I'm gonna work with Nate and we're going to do some more trainings as the school year as we wind down. Uh, it was trying to find the sweet spot of when to release it.
036So, I think we found a good sweet spot and now we're going to kind of hopefully use it over the summer for some items and then ramp back up um in August with some training and some additional pieces of that tool which there's a lot of there's a lot of cool stuff that staff can do with that. So, it's pretty exciting. Some other summer projects inter intermediate remodel. Um there's a lot going on there. Updating some labs and um we just have some other network and wireless projects we have going on. And I want to give a shout out to the to the teachers and administrators and everything in the buildings for the iPad collection because it's it's quite the task. I know it's one more thing to do, but it makes our lives a
037little bit easier organized. So appreciate that. had a question in regards to earlier we talked about some more protection and safety and security on iPads and sites getting on sites and that stuff. How is that progressing or we we've reached a level? >> We've um we've really clamped down that the biggest thing was was YouTube >> and we've made a a big stride in and reducing the amount of content that students are able to get to on YouTube just the the willy-nilly looking up videos. Um, we've also made, you know, as as I mentioned the I think it was the last board meeting, we we made a lot of changes to our um our web filter and to to the way YouTube is filtered to to try to keep those kids safe, which is our
038number one priority, of course. Um, I think we've made some good progress in that for sure. >> Okay. >> Thanks. >> I will say from a security standpoint because I had to take a picture one day for Preston and science project and I emailed it to his email so he had it on his iPad. I did it from my Gmail to his western one and it blocked it. >> Great. >> So I had to send it from my my schoolboard email. So I I thought that was I actually like that. So >> yeah, we we inbound outbound for um ages actually less than grade. So >> thanks. >> Thank you. >> So Mr. Bass isn't here. So >> yeah, I will just say I know Barrett has been um kneede, neck deep, whatever you want
039to call it in uh bus evaluations. He's been meeting with all the drivers and they actually had a celebration today. So he's he's been a busy person. He was grilling them hamburgers out at the bus barn and then went home and he didn't want to smell like a hamburger at the board meeting, he said. So he uh changed and came back and then was out on a bus uh doing that switch out. So, I know he's been really busy with just end of the year, you know, um every bus driver has like a checklist that they go through and make sure that their bus is kind of put to bed for the season. Uh and then obviously our our maintenance um bus maintenance team kind of takes over and does their oil changes and the
040brakes and the things that they do annually to make sure that the buses are ready to go for next school year. >> So, question ladies first. I I just I know at Panther Perk he gave a nice presentation on school safety >> which was very informative. >> Yeah. Yep. He's been busy. That's for sure. >> So, how are we looking for 27 on new buses? Are we still pursuing another one next year or two or not? >> So, yeah, there's still there's still planned for buses. I know he just uh did he just purchase one or two? I think he just purchased two this year and then >> two fulls size buses and an SBV. >> Oh, really? That's three total then? Okay. Yeah, just one >> next month to start planning out what the
041next couple years look like, but we are optimistic that we'll be able to maintain the current >> schedule of two new full-size buses each year. SCA1 may have a say in that as >> revenues are decreasing. A lot of schools are having conversations about reducing the number of buses they are buying on what schedule as well as moving buses from operations into de maybe a conversation that could eventually have. I'm hoping to avoid it for another year or two. >> You know, a couple things that we have talked about is they are going to prepare the the bus um the bus uh budget and the bus uh replacement plan, but there are different options as well. Like there are some uh schools that uh will sell used buses, not 12, 13 year old buses, but
042maybe just a couple year old bus that they may realize that they didn't need and they're trying to, you know, get rid of that or trade it in and then they'll resell it. So there's some options with things if we feel like we have to go that route. I would say that that's kind of a last step route. But I will tell you one of the things that people don't see behind the scenes. So, seven years ago, we started the Indiana Bond Bank for our fuel purchasing. And so, we started doing that. Barrett continued that uh in in his role. And uh last was it last week, I think, or maybe two weeks ago, um because basically you you can put a a cap on how much you spend on fuel. Uh they sent us
043a check for $23,000. What's that? >> Yeah. >> So, there's there's >> there's there's a there's a there's a big check coming from the bomb bank. Yeah. So, get ready. >> Yeah. Get ready. But I mean, like, it it paid off. I mean, as as as high as gas prices came, we're not paying what people see at the pump because we joined that >> that group purchasing power and that lowered our floor, but then when things go above the floor, they pay you that difference back. And so that was a huge um huge savings for us. >> So, but that yeah, I don't know what actually is on his report, but those are just some things I just wanted to share share about him. Mark, one thing he had on there was end of year
044curriculum requests. >> You'll have to ask him. >> Okay. All right. All right. Well, >> you all ready for my report? Okay. >> We are already. >> Hey, a lot of end of the year stuff. Um, just so you are aware, we do have our end of the year celebration on Friday, May 22nd. starts at 8:00 a.m. If you want to eat Chick-fil-A with us, um, come at 8. If you want to just see the awards and, uh, the celebration part of years of service and retirees and teacher of the year, support staff member of the year. Uh, that's going to be probably 8:45, 9:00 in the auditorium. Um, we do have graduation 700 p.m. on May 29th. Is that right, Steve? >> Okay, fact check me on that one. Um, and then there's just
045a number of different things uh that we're able to do to celebrate the end of the year. I' I'd tell you one of the highlights is is going to the mayor's turnaround breakfast. I mean, if you want to see amazing stories, um, amazing stories. And so, um, to to hear the difference that an adult makes in a student's life, whether it's a teacher or a coach or a a support staff member, and how they help that child find a different direction and flip the script for their their destination someday. They're it's part of their journey. Uh, but their past doesn't um definitely does not uh determine their destination. And so it's just really cool to be a part of that as well. Um, one thing it's not on my list, but um, I want to
046give a shout out to Natalie Nulan. Um, I asked her, I gave her a challenge to create something for me, and she did. And this is, and you may start hearing of people talking about this if they are a recipient of this, but we have a western challenge coin. And on one side of the coin, and I'll pass this around for you to see, is our uh original crest. She was able to digitize that crest. And so the 1949 crest is on the side of one coin. And then on the other side is our uh county with our uh W, our current W. And then also the three uh schools that have consolidated to uh form Western schools. So you have the Casc, the Broncos, and the Quakers. and that has their school color in
047uh that coin. And so the Western challenge coin is going to be given to someone who represents Western at its best. This person leads with character, serves others with care, responds to challenges, with determination, and makes a positive difference in the lives of students, staff, family, and the community. Uh their actions build trust, strengthen relationships, and make Western a better place. And so I'll let you take a look at that. And uh that's my report. And so if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them for you. >> Anyone have any questions? >> I You said that we're going to get IUK residential teachers. >> I just How do you know how many we're getting? >> We were approved for three >> and I think J I think we have two right now
048>> in the intermediate. >> Uh one's in the intermediate, one's in the primary. That's one of the things that we I mean we love the program. It's been very helpful and we've hired individuals in that. Very very very few secondary candidates are residents resident teachers. So we've we've had a lot of success. It's been a couple years I think since we've actually had one in the secondary but we were approved by the um um higher education uh commission for three and right now IUK has provided us with two. Right. >> Thank you. All right, budget calendar. >> The calendar you're going to see before you uh look very similar to what it has in the past. Uh on September 5th, we will post the form three which is going to be our notice to taxpayers
049of the proposed 2027 budget as well as the public hearing to gateway. Uh it post by September 5th. The goal is always to do it well before then. And then at September 15th board meeting, we'll have the public hearing and the adoption of the capital projects and bus replacement plans. And then on the October 13th meeting, uh we will have the adoption of the 2027 budget. I will note that the September and October board meeting is already prescheduled. This won't be uh an extra meeting. Uh we will have to look at the following year the potential of an extra meeting due to some legislative changes they made. And if you increase your budget by X amount, you've got to sneak an extra meeting in there. But I think we cross that bridge when we get
050there. Um, obviously there's some things that happen in between these as far as planning the budget go and that some of that's already started. Uh, we're building the budget now. We spoke to the transportation budget being incorporated in that. Something else we'll have to uh to navigate is the state has adopted a 2.0 platform to adopt the uh or build the budget. So, we'll uh work with them on using the new platform as well. >> Thank you. Any >> make a motion to approve the budget calendar? >> Second. >> Any questions? >> I do have one on. It says October 13, 2025. >> I was hoping you wouldn't catch that. >> I just thought that myself. Uh 2025 needs to be updated to 26. >> Okay, that's all. Sorry, Kyle. All right, please vote. question.
051>> Okay, thank you. L key waiver. >> Uh I'm just asking for your approval. Um we sent out a survey to see if there was any need for um after school care. We received 20 responses back. I believe there were looking through that there about 42 students. you break down the dollar amount and what it would cost. We want it to be not an undue hardship for us for parents paying into that. Um and the state doesn't really give a good definition of what the undue hardship is. Um but what when I did some investigation, it was $10 or less per week for a student to come to that and ours was $15 is what it came out with looking at administrator pay, staff pay, for K to five students. So, I'm just asking for
052your approval to submit that waiver to the state. >> Would someone like to make a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve the waiver. >> I'll second it. There any questions? >> I I had a question. >> So, is this the most we've had? I mean, >> yes, I believe. I mean, >> that showed interest. It seems to me it is. >> Yes. Yeah. And I just wondering I mean so there's about 40 kids showing a need. >> Yes. >> And we're showing that we would need three teachers and two aids. >> An administrator >> and and a program administrator and a site administrator. >> Well, I mean they may not it may not always be the same administrator. So, we have to figure out how are we going to juggle that between administrators
053because it would be like a 3:30 to 5:30 position. >> Yeah. Just three teachers and two just seems like a lot for 40 kids to me and and program administrator or site administrator. I don't know. I just I wondered too if like maybe our work um that pathway we could get students to help with that after school like high school students. >> I I think it would be great to have the high school students do that but again it's the consistency. I know even just with our morning daycare where there's days where we scramble to staff it because somebody's sick or multiple people are sick. And so that's >> that's the biggest >> the key is the consistency of having those people in those places. Um >> Frankfurt does a partnership like big brothers big
054sisters to help with that after school type or something like that. Again I don't know >> if we see the numbers continue to grow then I think it's definitely something we need to continue to look at. I think those numbers are the highest that I've seen since I've been here. Um but but again, it's um there's some things budgetarily that we have to make sure that we're taking into consideration. >> And I don't think we would meet I mean that that staff would be rotated, I would assume, but you have to be available. >> Yes. and having to students together during that whole time have some primary intermediate. >> Sure, >> it would just be a lot. >> Y I can see that. It just seems like a lot of kids that need after school
055care, but I I understand. Okay, please vote. Okay. Curricular review 30-day Yes. Would you resend please? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um so the curricular review uh it's to for two books uh which are behind you right now. Uh one is into the wild. This would be for 11th grade English. And the other one is for L202, which is a college level dual credit ELA course uh called the passing asking for um well actually it's just uh this is a 30-day review. So we'll ask for your approval probably in July because we don't have 30 days between now and our next board meeting. >> Okay. All right. >> All right. Summer school and jump start. >> Yes. So, asking for your approval for the um summer school and jump start staff um presented in front
056of you. There's a couple highlighted areas because we're still trying to fill a couple of those spots. And I think actually since um Friday, we've been able to kind of go through some of the data and um get um our uh coverage for second, third, fourth, and fifth grade because the numbers of students that are required to go to summer school has gone down drastically. So, um we're in a pretty good place there. So, just asking for your approval. >> So, moved. Any questions? >> All right, please vote. >> Motion carry. >> Okay, good. Handbooks asking for your approval for the handbooks uh high school through primary that are presented to you this evening. Um, if you had the chance to look through a number of those things, uh, we still provide the reader digest
057version uh, of just the changes. Obviously, the handbooks are in there, but then the changes are highlighted for you. >> Make a motion. >> Second. >> Any questions? >> I've got a question. >> Okay. >> The the first one is between high school and middle school, the disciplinary actions, they're different from each other. Do we need alignment with it or I didn't know what your guys' thoughts were because I know for like high school >> I think I think they're in line. >> Are they so I don't know if maybe one of them didn't put in there because we're still waiting for the bell to bell decision. >> Okay, that was the other part was that that was my next question was that part. >> So I think that I'm pretty sure Mike put it
058in there because I know Heather and Mike worked on it. >> Okay. >> And took it through. So they're aligned. So I just don't know if one didn't put it in there. Okay. >> Cuz I think they're waiting for the bell to go pass. >> Yeah. Cuz I know like first offense for high school is one day ACS or Saturday school and first offense for middle school is conf you know basically taking it away. >> It would be the harder. >> Okay. That's what I figured. So we'll we'll we'll when we put or when we we can make that amendment now so that Eric you got that for a note there. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, we can make that change because yeah, we do want the consistent and then the we've had some conversation about time.
059You know, I I wasn't a fan of putting 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. because, you know, let's say somebody has a morning practice and it gets out early and then you're in the building before that first bell. Belltobell just kind of gives us a consistent, hey, this is the first bell, whether it's a 30-minute delay start, a 2-hour delay start, >> you know, whatever. So bell to bell is kind of the the slogan that you're hearing across the state now of bellto bell no cell. So um I think it just makes it easier that way to um to monitor and and work with >> I can't remember what the intermediate said for theirs. >> They didn't have one. >> Yeah, that that was the other thing was because I know there's intermediate students. Heck, we
060could even have primary students. I don't know. >> You said they're waiting on the bill, >> was it? Okay. >> Yeah, there's some there's some guidance. We're going to have Neiola policy coming. I meet with Ryan on the 21st. And so you'll have that in front of you. And really the the the big choice that it's really going to come down to is and and we're going to have this uh it's on on the agenda just to talk through it actually coming up here in just about two more slides. Um but there's going to be the choice of is it off and inaccessible or is it banned from the campus? And and I think I think that I think that one is >> too extreme personally but um just from a standpoint of how those
061devices are utilized. So um anyways so I think that's probably why you know the um the intermediate and the primary school they don't have lockers and so the state is allowing book bags as that inaccessible and that's what they do now. um students are supposed to have them off and in their book bags at the intermediate school and I don't know if primary has a lot of students with cell phones but it's becoming more and more common. >> Thanks guys. >> Will the handbooks then be updated again after the some decisions are made with the the cell phones? >> Yeah, we can we can bring those back. >> Okay. >> Middle school and high school Joey has the one ECS or detention for >> okay >> what the um middle school said that 10 combined
062Oh this is tardies that's different from the cell phone but they would serve one day of ACS for each tardy >> where you see that Joe under classies or >> yes I think so page item 32 >> that's to match up with the high school as well so Heather and Heather and Mike got match up because in the past there have been differing >> I see >> consequences you know what I mean that way it's more of a seamless transition >> okay >> thank you >> and the other thing that I was wondering about was in the primary school tardies um it said that perhaps a child will have recess detention or after school detention and I thought and Harry you would probably remember this I thought that the board at one time had passed
063a policy that said we couldn't take away recess from students >> in elementary. >> And this is for primary. >> That's how I remember. >> Was it the was it just partial? I don't know if that's a partial recess or all recess or >> it was partial, wasn't it? >> I don't know. >> When I I can talk to Melissa. >> I can tell you everything we passed didn't always get into the handbooks. >> Yeah. So we can I can talk to most >> a big deal back then. >> Well, I mean, especially with primary because it's really not the kids' fault. I wouldn't think it wouldn't be the student's fault if they were >> tardy. >> Yeah. >> Seemed harsh to punish them. >> Yeah, we can we can follow up on that. >>
064Okay. Western portrait of a graduate. >> We we need to vote on the >> Sorry. Okay. >> Well, someone make a >> Did we make a motion? Yeah, we went >> Yeah, we did. We went to commentary. >> We made a motion and seconded it, but we had some questions. So, >> where's the vote then? >> You got to vote. Yes or no? >> Well, and and like I said, we'll bring back >> we'll bring back the um elementary ones because they don't have the um policy for cell phones. >> Okay. But this was that was for tardies, the take away the recess. >> Yeah. And and we can we can make an amendment or adjustment on that one as well. So, we'll look for two updates, >> the cell phone and the recess >>
065in the primary. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Western portrait of a graduate. >> Yeah. So, um, back at our last, um, e-learning day where we had some professional development, we were able to work with our staff and they had opportunity to collaborate. And, um, I talked to him about how, you know, we have a a mission to educate and inspire today's students for tomorrow's opportunities. And our vision is to be the school of choice for excellence in education. But what does that look like? Like, how do you put meat on the bones? And let's go ahead and just go to the the one um the other slide there. It's a little easier to see there. So after getting feedback from them, uh we put together a portrait of a graduate. And that
066the other the first document is just more of everything on words. This kind of gives you a better kind of visual of you know we want our students to learn, grow, explore and go and to be prepared for what's next. And so that's building the foundational knowledge. That's gaining transferable skills. It's connecting to learning to the world. Um, and then that's leading with character. When they leave, when they cross that diploma, we're going to have kids crossing that diploma next week on the 29th. They have their 3 seconds of walking across the stage, handing Steve a pingpong ball. He hands them a diploma and a little acrylic award. And then they step on that other side of the gym floor, and it's like, what's next? You know, we have we have a number of students
067know what's next. They're going to college. They're going to the military. Uh they're going into the workforce. But are they prepared for what's next? And so we want this to be that meat on the bones of to educate and inspire today's to students for tomorrow's opportunities. This is what it's starting to look like. And this is what we want um our students and our our families and our communities to know that the these are the the pillars that are important to us uh when we're teaching students every day. So, there's nothing really to vote on. I just want you to be aware that, you know, we're going to put this on our website. We're going to really start talking about this more and um as we are are driving our strategic plan, our mission, our
068vision. This kind of gives us uh some things to be able to physically grab a hold of and say this is this is what a student from Western's going to look like when they step foot onto the other side of the podium. So, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer those or >> I know the teachers were very excited to get together and discuss this. >> Yeah, there was a there's a really positive vibe from that and that was a a good experience for them to, you know, they were in different different groups. They weren't their departments. They weren't maybe in their grade level. And it was it was neat to see them collaborate and just have different uh viewpoints. And it was it was good information that they were able to
069give us. Very nice. I like it. >> Okay. Uh, Senate Bill 78. >> Yes. So, this kind of goes uh back to our conversation just a little bit ago, but obviously Senate Bill 78 uh was signed into public law 107 that restricts uh the personal wireless communication devices uh in schools. And so, Neiola is going to be coming out with some policies. Um obviously uh we have some decisions to make what we as a school corporation would like to do. Um also um there's there's communication that I would like to be able to start getting out to parents from a standpoint of this is the direction that we are headed. Uh prepare your child for X Y Z whatever it may be. Um, you know, and then also the assistant principles and principles in the
070buildings have been doing a lot of work to, okay, how do we police this? I I do truly believe that the Indiana General Assembly is is doing something to make a difference for our students. They made this into a law. Um, you know, when we have a cell phone confisation now, hey, it's against the law. you know, that that's something that um our state leaders have decided. Now, we have to put these actions and and things in place to make sure that we're upholding that law. And also, um you know, working with the parents and just making them aware, but also with parent square, something that we've been exploring is student square to be able to give students that ability to communicate to their emergency contacts. So there is like you know in an emergency
071situation or a schedule change there is that communication option in parent square that we're still exploring. Uh so that would give them an opportunity to communicate with their parent. And so those are just some things that we're trying to work through and we'll be ready to go come August 3rd with our or fourth with our kids and um you know we'll be we'll be ready but there's a lot of work to do. So the word Thordred says to me they cannot be on their person, >> but they could be in their lockers. That's okay. >> Yeah. So there was a lot of conversation when it was first coming out like, "Oh, are these going to have to be put in locked bags?" And then is there going to be a check-in checkout system? And the
072Indiana General Assembly realized that that's basically an unmandated cost to schools if we had to buy security bags for every student. And then the process of hey, you get off the bus, put your phone in a bag, check it in, and then, you know, before you leave, check it out, and then get on the bus. And so they realized that that was not a a feasible process for schools. And so that's why they they I would say loosened the law a little bit from the standpoint of a locker is considered inaccessible, a book bag is considered inaccessible. it is supposed to be powered off. Um, I know some school corporations right now don't have lockers in their high schools and so they are trying to figure out because they don't allow book bags and they
073don't have lockers. And so I don't know if you hear that in your associations, Steve, but there's some places that are really working through some challenges trying to figure out how how they're going to have these devices inaccessible. >> I mean, we we don't want our teachers having to figure out if they're turned on or not. >> Well, they they'll be in the they'll be in the locker. So they shouldn't they shouldn't have them. They shouldn't see them. If you see them, I think that's kind of the approach that the assistant principles are taking is if you see them, you're in violation of the code. Whether it was on or off, it's in your hand. We don't have to make that a guessing game of whether it was on or off. If if it's in
074your possession, you're you're breaking the law. >> Isn't it our policy now that it's supposed to be in their lockers? >> Yes, but that hasn't been the easiest to manage. And this is also going to be difficult to manage because we're not going to pat down kids. So ultimately, we're going to have a challenge on our hands. But that's why we made the policy a lot more strict because as soon as that warning bell hits 5 minutes before class starts, that's the bell that's going to be communicated to the parents and kids prior to the school year starting with all of our meetings that we do. There's an expectation and that's why we're coming out of the gate hard with punishments because the worst thing to do is to start off with a Saturday school
075and then all of a sudden, you know, there's other things we can take away from because part of the attractiveness of going to school is being with your friends. And so I think the social piece is a major punishment. I mean, lunch detention by itself can be a major punishment if you can't eat lunch with your kids or with your friends. I mean, so it's going to be a challenge. We're not we're not acting like it's not going to be a tough situation, but we're going to do the best we can. We're also going to look into a policy for staff, but we're just not ready for that yet. >> And and also, I think one of the things that is is the struggle that we're all anticipating is let's let's just be real. People
076are addicted to these things. It's an addiction. And so, there's going to be a lot of challenges. So, if you think it's just going to go smoothly, you're fooling yourself. like you're dealing with adults and children that are addicted to the devices and so that's what we're truly going to be working through is withdrawal from an addiction >> even the more to the point that we need it. >> Yeah. >> So as a board are we going to have some special meetings here quickly to talk about this and then secondly are we going to ask the principles what their recommendations are? So, we've talked as administrators and we we believe that often inaccessible is the best route to go >> um rather than ban them from the facilities. Um we do have the Neola policies
077that will be presented to you guys so you'll have a chance to review. We'll have first read in June on the on that policy. So, um, you know, I'll make some recommendations through that and then obviously you'll see other options that Niola provides us. Um, but I think that's I think right now from a standpoint of of where we are um from a digital age, having them on campus or allowing them on campus is probably in at least in my opinion, it's the right step to take. having them off and inaccessible. It's it's a lot of work, but I think that's the direction we have to go. >> If inaccessible means in your locker in middle school, high school, and in your bag in intermediate, well, then we should say that. >> Yeah. And that's
078>> say inaccessible. >> Yeah. No. And that's it'll be defined that way. Yeah. >> So, do because of the timing of this situation, do we need to advance the first reads and the approvals to make sure it's in? There are there are things that we can do to approve certain things on first reads and we could do that. I can talk to Ryan about the potential of doing that with that. I mean, we we'd be probably around July 14th or somewhere around there would be our board meeting. So, we could we could do it in June, we could do it in July. I think there's definitely options there. So, I I meet with him on the 21st. So, we'll be able to >> that happening in the handbook more important than the policy in reality.
079>> Yeah. people will see it >> easier than in the handbook and the policy. >> So, that was just information. I just wanted to get it out there. Um, it's going to be a interesting fall, but we we'll make it through it. >> All right. Okay. Personnel. Oh, I'm sorry. Donations. >> Yeah. I'd like for you to consider approving the donations generously given to the school corporation. >> So, move. >> Second. Any questions? Right. Please vote. >> Yes or no? >> Twice. >> He said yes. say on your out. >> Okay. >> Personnel. >> All right. We'd like to recommend the personnel presented um through uh recommendations, resignations, terminations, retirements, and the leave of absence. And then also we had our amendment earlier uh in that agenda that had the um custodial staff summer staff
080and then the two resignations as well. >> So asking for your approval that >> second discussion or questions. >> Okay, please vote. >> Just a couple quick notes. Um, congratulations to Rick Michawn, uh, longtime bus driver who just retired. And then also we have the Watkins family right back here. Um, we have, uh, Jacob and Abby who are two new teachers, uh, here at Western School Corporation. So, thanks for joining us today. And you can come up and meet them afterwards if you would like to. >> We're a little excited. All right. Uh, professional development >> ask asking for your approval of the professional development that's presented to you. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions? >> Okay. Please vote. All right. Um, round table. Um, did you start you Harry last time? >>
081No, I didn't. I don't think so. >> No. Okay, go ahead. >> So, great presentation on biology. You know, biology should be fun and exciting. So, I was really glad to to hear all that. And Kristen, I'm going to miss you over there. The best wishes in your new position. I say it's uh sound like a lot of great things are going on right now. The awards and all the things are going on with the students and the staff and teachers and that stuff. And then also I got to make the choir celebration last week which is tremendous from 8th grade to the through the high school and a really great program as well as uh some of the celebration of what they did out when they went to the competitions that kind of stuff.
082So it's pretty neat. Thanks to all for a very strong finish to the school year and welcome new staff to Western. >> Welcome to you guys. >> I'll continue that trend. Welcome to Western. Uh Austin also uh Mrs. Harish, congratulations. Wish you the best of luck. Um and I'm also super excited about the high ability teacher. So congratulations to uh Mrs. Krauss on that. >> Thanks for a wonderful year. Steve, thanks for the comment there about getting the teachers day off to work on their data. That's that's important for what they're doing and hope everybody has a great summer. >> Y >> thank you Barrett for the cookout. >> Barrett, we >> Yeah. Hey Barrett, we need you to add your report. We think there's a line missing on the report. >> He's got another
083half hour. >> Who's going to say to Mark? motion to >> All right. >> Second. >> Happy birthday. >> That's right. >> Your birthday. >> It's a little >> tomorrow. >> 27th. >> I've got some time. Yeah. >> I'm I'm voting by Laura. I vote yes to >> Okay. >> All right. >> We don't have anything to sign. So, all right.