001He's still logging in. Good evening. We're going to start out this evening with a prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Our heavenly father, as we gather here tonight to conduct the business of the school, we ask that you guide our hearts and minds to make wise decisions. We pray for our superintendent as he leads us in the right direction while navigating the everchanging legislation from the state. We pray for our principles and directors as they run our buildings and departments. We pray for our bus drivers, cooks, custodians, and clerical staff as they transport, feed, keep our school clean, and run everyday operations. Lord, we pray for our teachers and aids as they work with our students, guiding and challenging them to be prepared for their future. Most importantly, we pray for our students that their
002minds be open for learning, that they stay safe and healthy, and that they give and receive grace and compassion toward their classmates, teachers, and parents. This we ask in the name of your son and our savior Jesus Christ. Amen. 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. agenda. >> There are no uh changes to the agenda that's presented. >> Okay. I have a motion to approve the agenda. >> I'll make Go ahead. >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. >> I'll second it. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? Do we have to? >> Yeah. So, so we are going to do our online voting today. So, you'll have something that will pop
003up on your screen hopefully and then it will pop up on the screen so everybody will be able to see the boat. I can't Trust me. I see it. So, we will need every time now. There's no not being on their screen because of the book. >> So, where is it? >> It's here. Shows up on them show. >> Shows up for you individually. >> Did your show? >> Oh, I see it here. >> Probably, but you've already done it. Craig, do you know where he'll go from from here? >> First time using the new voting system. >> Yep. >> It went smoothly when we ran through it last month, but >> for practice. >> Yeah, for practice. >> No pressure. >> Yep. And then there >> Greg in a second catch up on me.
004My password >> that goes under discussion. that I use one of the two. >> Who wants to sing and dance with the audience? >> Why do you want them to leave? >> My password. >> I seen them leave. How about a shout out to all the IU gear I see in the audience tonight. >> Somebody watch the game. >> Here we go. >> You're distracting our Purdue fan over here. >> That might have been intentional for Purdue in basketball. Come on. >> Make me nervous. >> Huh? Yeah, >> I couldn't watch it. >> I fell asleep. >> I watched it today. >> Oh, that was a great game. It was a great game. >> See what? >> Maybe somebody would like to sing or dance. >> Steve, you got Jamie doing it back. Singing dance.
005>> Jamie. Okay. >> Fourth and four. >> Can we just scrap doing the online voting? You going to keep me trying to reset my password cuz this a this ain't >> Oh, you're the parents. Go to school. >> Going to lose >> Scott. Scott, we can since you're having some technical issues, if you vote like she'll show that I don't get caught. >> She can click on able to click on >> that. So the motion carried. >> Okay. >> So we can move on to number two if that's all right. >> All right. Minutes. Do I have a motion to approve or amend the minutes? >> Make a motion to approve the minutes. >> I'll second. Is there any discussion or comments about the minutes? >> No. >> All in favor? >> Okay. I just
006lost my >> password. Lyn, you raised your hand. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> But it popped up. It went away before I could touch it. >> Get it for you. >> Okay. Motion carried. It's okay. Okay, mission moments. >> All right, so we are here tonight and we have mission moment with our case program who received a grant for invest and they're here to share um an update on that progress. >> Mark, do you think you could tell them what KEKC is? >> So K-K is our our uh cooperative, our Cookamo area special education cooperative. So that's uh and we're the LEA here at Western for um for >> KC. Um I want to introduce Alex is new to us this year as our invest vocational facilitator. And what we're doing tonight is giving
007you an update from last year. Last year we brought the program to you new um what this program is for 18 to 22 year old students with IEPs um from our functional skills programs. And so we've got to make some quite a lot of advancements this year. And so I've asked Alex and Wendy to share that with you all. >> Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. And thank you for the opportunity opportunity to share about the Invest program. For those who might not might be new to Invest, our mission is to provide students with authentic vocational training and life skills development that prepares them for greater independence beyond school. This past November, our invest program launched its holiday store, and it was an experience filled with purpose, joy, and meaningful work. The holiday store is
008one of the ways we bring that mission to life. Our students have worked diligently to build, organize, and manage the store. They learned customer service, budgeting, marketing, hands-on carpentry skills, and teamwork. They also discovered the pride that comes from hard work. Each student contributing with their own strengths to create something meaningful. With every gift that left the store, it carried not just holiday cheer, but confidence, dignity, and accomplishment. Tonight, we also have the opportunity to look ahead. As many of you may know, this year brought another exciting addition to our program, a fully implemented pay lab. This would not have been possible without the generous support of the community foundation of Howard County and solidarity federal credit union. PASE stands for a practical assessment ex exploration system. In the lab, students rotate through a wide
009range of hands-on tasks that simulate real jobs in areas such as business, processing and production, computer operations, construction skills, and consumer services. Through structured assessment, the lab helps identify students strengths, work behaviors, and interest. It also shows us where skills still need to be developed so we can better prepare them for workplace. Please take a brief moment to view this video from the founder of PACE, Dr. Judith Judith Swisser. You can uh read books about the ocean. You can hear someone's stories about the ocean, but until you put your feet in that salty water, you don't really know the ocean. And that's the same way with kids. Inside of every person there are talents, abilities that we don't know that we have because we haven't had a chance to try those. There has to be
010a better way to measure these kids. And that's how pays began. Pays is a unique transition assessment of employment potential for students from a wide range of ages and abilities. Pays stands for practical assessment exploration system. Using a simulated work environment, the pay lab builds for each student a data-driven analysis of their interest, strengths, and skills for employment. The key strategy for pays springs from a simple but unique idea. Bring the workplace into the classroom. In a Pays lab, teachers become workplace supervisors and students become employees. How better to determine a student's employment potential than to simulate jobs they might actually have in the future? Join thousands of schools transforming outcomes with pays. What makes the lab so powerful is how it complements what we are already doing in invest. While the holiday store provides
011a real world vocational experience, PACE gives us a diagnostic and instructional tool to guide students intentionally towards employment pathways that fit them. Together, these programs help students build identity, agency, and confidence in what they are capable of contributing. As we celebrate tonight, I want to recognize that our programs are not built by one person. They are built by partnerships between families, staff, businesses, donors, and communities that believe every student deserves the chance to work, to belong, and to thrive. Thank you again for believing in our students, for encouraging their success, and for investing in meaningful opportunities for them to grow. We look forward to continuing this work with you and to showing you just how much our students can achieve when given the chance. We would like to invite all of you to join us
012on February 10th for a ribbon cutting ceremony along with our open house for the invest lab. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for our presentation? Well, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Panther Pride. >> Um, Mr. Bates, we have um Do we have our middle school? Is Kathy here? Oh, there she is. I see her in the back. All the way in the back. So, why don't we have our middle school come on up and we'll uh present our first employee of the month. All right. Um, so I'm going to read what I wrote about Kathy. So, I would like to nominate Kathy, one of our middle school custodians for employee of the month. Over Christmas break, Kathy took the initiative to dust and deep clean every seventh grade classroom. When we returned
013after break, our classrooms looked amazing, spotless, refreshed, and welcoming. Her hard work made a visible difference to staff morale in the learning environment. This is just one example of how awesome she is, but I just wanted to share that. Congratulations, Come on down this way. Certificate for you. >> Thank you. Accept me. Next we have the high school Emberly Stewart. I have consistently seen Emberly go above and beyond for students. She cares deeply and puts that care into action, doing what is best for students, even when it takes extra time on her part. She seeks to see each student's need and meet it. I've taught across the hall from Emily for almost nine years now, and I just really admire how she's not going to let any student fall through the cracks if she has
014any power to stop that from happening. Um, she's pulling kids in constantly SRT if they have missing work, especially her freshmen, which she works a lot with because they don't quite yet understand the consequences of credits. Um, she stays on top of their behavior, their social emotional issues. is she's just a very caring teacher and the students all have a lot of respect for her and really enjoy her class. All right, Mrs. Dwise, thank you. Okay. All right. I have Matteline Rex. Miss uh Meline is a first grader in Mrs. Kroom's class. Mrs. Kroom could not be here tonight, so I have the honor of reading her nomination. It is my This is Mrs. C's words. Okay. It is my honor to nominate Maline Rex for Western Student of the Month. Meline is a model
015student who is smart, kind, and very inquisitive. Meline is always wanting to learn more. She is always asking higher level questions and thinking beyond the lesson. There have even been a couple times that she has asked me a question that I have had to research the answer myself and get back with her for the answer. Good job. Meline will always help other students who are struggling or need some extra help. She is also very kind and thoughtful when which makes her deserving of this award. Meline is a leader in the classroom with her academics and her character. I'm proud to nominate Meline. She is a joy to have in class. Congratulations, Maline. >> Great job. All right. Intermediate school, Miss Brown. Come, come, come. Um, I have had the pleasure of having Harper in my
016class a few years in a row now. Um, we both graduated third grade together. So, um, Harper is an all-around exemplary student. She's a member of the kindness crew at the intermediate school. She extends exceptional kindness inside and outside of the classroom. Always. Harper is always looking for fellow students who need a friend and she fills that role. She kind of has like a little radar. She just knows when someone needs a friend and she's always there to be that friend. Um she has on numerous occasions found ways to bring a smile to her classmates faces. This includes bringing snacks to students who she has noticed do not have lunch, bringing in birthday gifts or cards to students who are going through a tough time or do not have many friends, including other kids at
017recess who are playing by themselves, and encouraging students around her who are struggling with academic work. In addition to her kindness, Harper excels at schoolwork. She performs well, but more importantly, she strives to learn more each day. She is not content with being academically average. Harper embodies what it means to be a leader, and I'm so blessed to have her in my class. Great job, Harper. All right, Mr. Bright, I think you're up. >> Not here today, but go ahead. >> Yep, we can go ahead and do that. >> Okay, so in December, I nominated Arian Albanaga, and he could make it. I don't think he could make it again tonight either, but we'll make it official. Um, so Arian excels in math. He turns in every one of his assignments on time and usually
018receives perfect scores on his quizzes and tests. On the off occasion that he only scores a 95%, he retakes the quiz in order to score 100% on it. Um, but earning 104% for first semester in his seventh grade math class is not enough for Arian. Uh, for the past several months, Arian has spent his own free time completing the eighth grade pre-alggebra material. Um, in addition to his normal assignments, he's completed the first four chapters of the pre-alggebra book. And he's completed every assignment with 100% accuracy and taken the chapter tests as well and aced them. Um, his goal is to complete both the math 7 and pre-alggebra books this year so that he can take algebra 1, a high school course next year as an eighth grader. Additionally, he's joined the math pool team
019this year and is excited to spend even more time learning new math that's above his current grade level. And I wish every student had the dedication and determination that Allion shows in his academics. And then do we have somebody from the middle school for >> Braayson? >> Oh, okay. So, we'll just do that next month. And then we have the high school, Mr. Edwards. So, this is Laya Peters. She was nominated by Mr. Harmson, her counselor. Mr. Harmson said, "I'm pleased to nominate Laya Peters as Western High School student of the month. She has set an incredible standard throughout her first three me three semesters so far with a 4.38 GPA and 26 credits already. Laya has consistently challenged herself with honors classes and I'm excited to see her academic career continue to grow. I've
020had multiple teachers speak about her being a model student. She is respectful and kind yet has shown that she is authentic and hardworking. I am very thankful to have her on my case load. That's Mr. Harson. and he actually texted me and said he's sorry that he couldn't be here and I'm very excited to see her continue to make her way through high school. Congratulations. Excellent work. Just one other thing with Panther Pride. Um I don't have full results yet, but um we had two uh girls wrestle in the state finals um last Friday, Ava Row and Khloe Johnson. I believe Mr. Edwards, you can correct me if I'm wrong. I believe Khloe made the the podium in fifth place. Is that correct? So, so great finish for her and it's just a great accomplishment
021to make any state finals. So, um congratulations to those ladies and uh we may have a picture or something next month. I wanted to make that announcement that. So, that's all for Panther Pride today. >> All right. For those of you who um came for employee of the month or student of the month or mission moment and you'd like to leave, you may leave or you may stay and enjoy the rest of the meeting. >> That's right. >> We should all bring free pizza afterwards. Free pizza afterwards. Maybe might do it. I don't know. I don't think it would be worth it. We have no one signed up for public comment. So we'll go on to um the design build public works project method for the 2026 year. >> Yes. So, we had um our
022technical review committee uh review um the proposals that came in. Uh we actually had only one proposal for the design build process. And so there's a resolution for your review and for approval tonight um on the single U proposal resolution. And this would just be authorizing us to continue to use the design build method for our project. Um and that we are uh requesting that proposal uh from performance services um to uh be the design criteria uh developer or work with the design criteria developer to prepare the design package and that the school board will have um uh the opportunity to either accept, reject or negotiate final terms and conditions of that agreement with uh performance services. So that's what the resolution would be for. So asking for your approval tonight. >> I'll make a
023motion to approve the resolution. >> I'll second. >> Is there any discussion? Any questions? >> All right. Then please vote. We're getting faster at this. Okay, next is the um PSI project development schedule. >> Yes. So, today I have Chris Gity and uh Tony Kikondol from performance services. Uh you've I think met at least Tony I don't know if uh I don't know if you've been here Chris to do a presentation or not. >> Okay. So, um, but they're going to go over just kind of our timeline of next steps as, um, they put their, um, proposal together for us. And so, um, I'm going to pass it off to those two gentlemen. Thank you for coming tonight. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Appreciate that. And, uh, we do have hard copies. If anybody would like
024a hard copy, just raise your hand. But I see it's also already shared, so some people like to take notes on that. Uh, Crystal will hand those out. Uh so yeah, thanks for the introductions and once again Chris Gity really is our project development architect. Um as you guys might be familiar the work that our company has done in historically has been more kind of HBAC infrastructure things of that nature. So tonight um first off we we definitely appreciate kind of moving forward with that single proposer solution. Um, but I want to make sure you guys had the opportunity tonight to know where we're at today and then really what's going to be happening over the next four to six weeks and give all the board members an opportunity to ask any questions or clarifications
025that you may have from us. So, I'm going to just run through this schedule. So, tonight you guys already kind of approved that one proposer solution. Um, we're going to kind of walk through the schedule. One of the first things that we're going to be doing is actually going to start on Friday. not first things, but the next thing we're gonna be doing starting on this Friday, we're actually going to have what's called a contractor pre-bid walkthrough. And just to kind of pause there for a moment, we do that with all of our contractors and suppliers that will be competitively bidding the work here at Western Schools. It's their opportunity to kind of go walk through each of the spaces. they can meet with our architect, our engineer, our operations team, get clarification on the
026drawings that they've already received to make sure that they know exactly what they're bidding so that we can get the most, you know, cost competitive quote from that group of contractors. What it does mean is the previous couple months we've been kind of working just kind of at risk um because we're going through this process. So there's no there's been no cost, but we spent time developing those drawings. And I will say uh you know kudos to your to your central office team. They've spent time with us to help us develop what those project opportunities are, what the potential is. Um we're able to kind of meet with uh with Mr. Scott as well, your maintenance director, with uh with Aaron, your athletic director. Uh with Miss with Miss Exin. >> Yep. She's here as
027well. Um and actually, I think we met with all of your teachers. We set aside one whole day. I was not there. Chris does all the hard work. Uh, but we met with all your teachers to really understand what sort of renovations we looking to do inside the intermediate school classrooms. So, thank you for all that time. All those drawings have kind kind of been compiled and then lead into this contractor walkthrough. A lot of information, but that's all what's occurring this Friday, the 23rd. The next item on there for February 5th, we will be submitting kind of our response to that RFP. So, we'll be submitting that to your technical review committee on the 5th. Right after that, we'll have bids that will be coming in around February 6. It says February 6th through
028February 11th because we spend about a week, our operations team will spend a week following up to vet those bids. So, just because we receive a quote from a contractor or from a supplier, we want to make sure there's not exclusions or qualifications, we want to make sure it's the exact scope of work that actually needs to get done. Um, as you guys recall, when we have a price, it is a firm price and it has a no change order guarantee. So, we spend the time up front to make sure that all that scope is covered so that when I actually I'm not back here ever presenting to you on a change order or a change because we identified that upfront. February 13th, we will sit down. We have all the pricing back as we've
029done historically. We'll come back and share what's called our openbook pricing spreadsheet. We review that with your central office team. And then I think what's important, the two highlighted items. So I right now you currently have a board member have a board meeting, I'm sorry, in February on the 17th. That would be where you choose we submit our RFP. If you choose to move forward with us as your design builder, you'd authorize us to do what's called a step one report. That is just a summary of your project. So, we're already working on that right now to be quite honest, but you authorize us to do that. It summarizes the scope, the pricing, the recommendations, and that comes back to you all. Um, we would we would provide that then on February 18th. And this
030is something uh for consideration, but because the reason we've been working ahead is a lot of this work is planned to be done this summer. And we all know construction it takes it takes some time. There's a lead time on equipment, securing contractors, etc. So, we're looking and maybe asking if you guys would consider a special board meeting uh if the board is moved to say, "Hey, yeah, let's move forward. Let's get you all started because we will need to order uh especially over at the at the intermediate school casework. That's one of the longest lead items that we do have on this project. Um one of the items we're also considering is the high school chiller. Those things they just don't have on on the shelf over over at Menards right now. So just
031things like that for us to get ahead to make sure that those things can arrive. We'd like everything to be on site uh before really the contractors show up. Um, so just asking if there's a a possibility to consider a special board meeting that that week of February 23rd. And then just looking forward if uh if everything is approved, we would start in the spring with the coordination meeting to kind of review kind of the timelines, the schedules if and when we can get on site. And uh just a quick summary of some of that construction that we're looking to do this summer would be one half of the intermediate classrooms. And we've already kind of reviewed that because there's quite a few of it. The summer windows aren't as long as they used to
032be, but there's just too much work to get done. And these are in your in your classroom. So we don't want to interfere uh with the learning environment. So, we've already kind of allocated half of them to be done this summer and then the other half plus corridors, >> summer 2027, but everything else this summer would also include kind of the track and field and the turf um possibilities, some upgrades to what's called the orchard room, making that a true educational space that can be used in the future. And I mentioned the high school chiller. I'll pause right and actually I should mention we will wrap up those projects you know before the school year begins the following year. So that's always very important. So we always kind of communicate upfront and make sure that
033you know like when your teachers can actually get back into their spaces. Uh we'll have all those conversations so you guys can start your school year off without any delays. So I I'll pause there for a minute or I'll just kind of wrap up here actually just say we want to share with you this is over the next four to six weeks. The way I always kind of look at this is just planning ahead and just making sure that you all as a board are are fully aware. And if you had any questions, I've got the smart guy with me to to answer those. >> You have a few questions. So, on the quotes on the contractors, are they pre-qualled? They doing pre-qualifications? >> Yes. Yeah. I'm actually glad you brought I should have I
034should have mentioned that as well. So, it's actually really it's a really one of the benefits of going through this design build process is they are they're pre-qualified. So, we share that list kind of with your central office team. They've been providing us some names and other folks to add to that list. And it kind of goes both ways. If if Western schools has really good relationships with certain groups, right, they're invited they're invited to provide a bid. >> Conversely, if there's a group or two that has just not performed well or has not done a good job, they're not invited to bid on that project. So, I like to think of it when we get all the pricing back. Normally, it's the lowest responsive of that qualified list, >> but the district does have
035the ability to review that and say, you know what, if so and so's 5% high and there's a reason to utilize that contractor or that supplier, you have the ability to make that selection. >> Great question. >> So, also, how long are the bids good for? 120 days or 60 days or >> uh 60. Yeah, I I would 120. We I haven't I haven't seen that in a while, but usually probably I I probably say >> 30 30 days to be quite honest. >> 30 days. Okay. Yeah. >> And then also if it's going to be over two summers, are there escalation in there or are we out of that? >> No, they they will this will still be a firm price. So, we won't be coming back to you. That's already kind of included
036uh in their labor forecast. So that will not be a cost change or something that I need to come back to and say this this is altered. >> Of course. >> Yes. >> So how far along are we in design at this point? If you're putting it out for bid, I'm assuming there has to be already a design. >> Absolutely. Yeah. So, as it is right now, the the projects are they're pretty far along design-wise, but there's a number of projects and considerations. So, the way we do that is they're broken out. So, each of these different improvements will have a like a separate column and it'll have a price associated with with that like the orchard room or for the the high school chiller. There's a separate cost for each one of those. It's
037not all or none. So, those are those costs are just brought back to to your district and you all are able to make the selection. Certainly contingent upon whatever the the school budget is and what your priority list is, you're able to pick and choose. >> Does this include a cafeteria and intermediate? >> Are there a couple things that are considered in in the cafeteria? We have a microphone to be official. Uh yes, so we do we are have a little bit of work in the cafeteria. Uh it's really finishes in there. So painting the wall, some acoustical panels and just some some brightening it up. Um we're not getting into the kitchen to do major work in the kitchen as part of this project unfortunately or the dishwashing or any of that section. So,
038are we looking at the cafeteria next bond or >> that that's something that we would have to discuss if we want to change like the kitchen setup. Um, right now, just like what Chris said, an option that we could possibly have, again, depending on pricing, depending on finishes that we would want in certain spaces or if we don't want to do a certain space will depend on what we have, if we want to do acoustics in the in the cafeteria or if we want to do new flooring in the cafeteria, different things like that. will have kind of a menu to choose from and some of that will be based off of pricing and and different things like that. So I guess the cafeteria is part of the industry change. the the cafeteria from a
039aesthetic standpoint can change, but like knocking out walls and changing the the kitchen part, the serving part, >> that's that'd be a a whole large project that we wouldn't be able to do with this bond. Could it be something that we would want to potentially look at? We could definitely consider that in the future if we want. >> So, we really haven't seen any design plans or anything. Correct. >> That's what that's what we're waiting for to actually see what those prices come back on those plans. Like what cabinets do we want? What flooring do we want? We have proposals or we have like >> projections and we have like desires, but it may come back where if luxury vinyl tile is way too expensive and that takes us over budget, we may have to
040look at another option for for that. So those are the things that we have to still navigate through. >> Okay. But we haven't seen any preliminary like what exactly we're looking >> there's been some sketches but from a like a large standpoint of like this is the countertop that we're going to use. I don't have >> right but >> yeah and I I'll add just a little bit a little bit to that as well. So a lot of the kind of like the the colors the finishes and things of that nature are still kind of TBD at this point. we we have shared some like just highlevel renderings and just to make sure we have the right product because ultimately that's what needs to be included in in the cost and that's then what we're
041going to ask the contractors to quote to do the installation. So that much we do know but some of those final decisions um and actually part of it is when we come back in February whether it's once or twice we'd be happy to we'll be further along be happy to share some more information on those too. Um, but it's not uncommon to kind of have the have the selection made, have the kind of cost all locked in, and then ultimately some of those colors and kind of that look and feel. Chris does a lot more with that. That will happen just as long as it happens before um the installation occurs and that we can order the right color, you know, whether it's carpet or LVT or the countertops. And and part of this process
042too as well, like for instance, um the casework, there's options of casework. We could tear out the casework and do metal replacement or we could paint the wood a different color, you know. So, those are the options that we're going to have to choose from. And that's the part where we can accept bids, we can reject bids, we can negotiate bids in that process. So, that's kind of what we'll be waiting for here in the next couple weeks to see how some of this hard pricing comes back to determine whether we can do everything or might have to do some value um engineering or maybe we're able to do everything and say you know what we want better product for this cabinet than what we were anticipating because the pricing came back better than what
043we anticipated. So, those are just some of the things I know even like as we've talked um about the athletic field and um track resurfacing. There's options that we can do with the track. We can do all black, we can do colored exchange zones, we can do different things, and that's something we'll have to choose knowing that all black is cheaper than black and colored exchange zones. But if there's money that's available to do that and that's something that we desire to have, then we get to make those choices in that. >> Okay. >> So, we need a motion to accept the schedule. >> Yeah. This is just for information only. Yeah. Since since we passed the resolution and said that we're going to keep working with them, it was ideal. So, good thing that
044we passed the resolution >> or they might have just had a quick trip to Rooville and backation. So, >> thank you all for your time. Thank you for your questions and look forward to informing you more in February. >> Thank you. >> Reports, >> treasures report. for in a month balance for December was 19,72,997.117. Uh investments in CDs has not changed since last time we talked. Total being $680,845. As a reminder, those investments and CD finances will come back into our accounts in March and they'll be there to stay at least through our current agreement with First Farmers. Uh the interest paid in December totaled $72,422.76. Uh same numbers you see here are the numbers that we went over at the January 4th. >> Sixth uh thank you. January 6th uh finance meeting. Uh fund
045totals with the CDs uh total 19,753,842.17. Payroll claims that are being submitted for your approval total 1,667,92757. The vendor claims being submitted for your approval, I'm going to break into two parts. Uh the first area you see at the top is the end of the year docket. Uh these were four vouchers that we wanted to pay by the end of the year. So they go towards the 2025 budget. They total $3 million454,343.15. You may think that is seems like it is a large one. You would be correct. Uh primary reason for the size is going to be our bond payments were included within that. Also the payments for the solar for December were in there as well. The board docket totals 1,116,9529. Other things to report out, I think you know this, but I'll report
046it out. We're in the process of going through some staffing changes in the finance office. Uh Vicky Hill will be retiring one month from today. Uh Alicia Bachmann, who was our high school ECA, is transitioning into Vickiy's role. And then Kendra Thomas is transitioning into the high school ECA role. uh we stole her from first farmers branch. Uh we feel really good about the the hires and the transition and the people that are learning the the new things. Uh along with the topic of ECAs, I'll mention that we are going through an ECA audit right now. It has been some years since our last ECA audit. We're well overdue. Uh Laura is the only person that's still around that can remember the last time we had one. So we're kind of feeling our way through
047what this is. It's not near as intensive as the, you know, the finance office audit that we did last year. We do every two years. Uh, but we got some requests today. It's mainly, not mainly, but it's a lot of the, uh, athletic ticket boxes that they are auditing as well as processes and procedures. But when we have those results, we'll obviously report those out to the board. I submit, you got my supporting docation. I submit it for your approval. If you have any questions, more than happy to go into more detail. Do we have a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve the treasures report. >> I'll second it. >> Any questions? >> All in favor? >> Your screen will pop up here. >> Okay. All right, exceptional learners and testing. >> Uh,
048you've had the opportunity to Thanks, Greg. Um, you've had the opportunity to read my report. Um, we are ramping up into that testing season right now. Um, WEDA has been going on, which is our EL, our English language learners. We're doing that testing right now. We're in that window. Um, we are also, um, iLearn checkpoint two and three will be coming up very quickly. Um, and then I learn biology. Um, as far as special education updates, we had a lot of case conferences that first semester in my conference room, um, 181 total. Um, we do push some of those out to our building administrators, too. So, I would have to go back and do a little bit more digging to see exactly how many were done corporationwide, but it was a lot. Um, we started
049out January with 49 in my office. 14 15 of those were movein case conferences. So, we have a 10day window um once they enroll to complete those case conferences for those movein students. Um and then we had uh seven that were just initial case conferences. So, the first time students had been tested through the school. Um we've also done some training. We received the Robocind um grant um back in October I think or November. Um we did a little bit of training on that. It's a social skills platform and a phonics platform um for our special ed teachers. So, we'll see how I know it's an odd combination, but we're going to give it a whirl and and see how it goes. I think it'll be an interesting experience for our for our students for
050sure. Um and then the last thing there, we have our high ability um Kogat testing for kindergarten, second, and fifth grade. I just put those dates in there so you kind of know when those are coming up as well. Any questions about anything on my report for this month? No. Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Technology. >> Yes. Uh good evening. Just want to highlight a couple items. Um as you're aware, the new website's up and running. Um it's looking uh pretty good. We um we had a meeting this this week, last week with the principles and we we talked a little bit, gave some information on um how to update some of that stuff to send that to to Natalie. She's going to get it on the site. Um and it's looking pretty
051good. We did have our first two-hour delay today with a with a notice on there. I know that was um something that was a little different for people, but um I think it went pretty well. It pops right up on the screen saying that there's a two-hour delay. So, it's a little different than a little Some people were concerned there was no stop light or little green light. So, um that was a little change, but we're moving right along on that. Um, in addition to the website, we are also over the next few months going to be moving from um, what used to be school messenger or sky alert to parent square. Um, it's the mass notifications where the phone calls go out and the text message, that kind of stuff. We're going to move
052to parent square in place of school messenger and it's going to all encompass the website is is also parent square. So, it's going to fall under that umbrella to um hopefully ease communication across the district for um many different activities and and just general communication from buildings and from from the district as well. So, that's coming up um soon as we as we start moving forward towards summer. Um the testing season as uh as Lindsay mentioned is going and um also want to mention um one thing we've had um um just to put on your we've had some high level of um spam messages lately that have been pretty out of control. Um we're we're working to mitigate that on a daily basis. Um Stephen and I are going through we're making sure that um
053if there's anything in there that's that's an issue. We're able to um we have some controls in our with with Gmail to be able to help reduce some of that um um some of those messages and hopefully reduce some of the exposure. So any other questions? >> Yeah, I just wanted to say the website that's tremendous to see the scrolling pictures of lots of events that's a lot better. you know, which is great that you have that feature on it. And then on the issue of the spam and all that stuff. So, are you guys going to draft a quick little comment to all of our staff and teachers and everything to don't do certain things? If you see anything, call us, contact us immediately. >> Actually, just to help with that. >> Okay, good.
054>> Yep. I already sent that out this morning to the uh to the entire staff. So, >> cool. >> Yep. >> Great. >> I just had a quick question on the website. Can you see how many clicks or interactions there have been with the website? >> Yes, there's some analytics we can do. I um enabled it. Actually, we're able to use the Google Analytics um because we we're Google school. So, I can take that and I think I can report back on some of that maybe next month if you would like. That way we have a full because we went in what January 1. That way we'll have a full maybe 30 days or so of data to see. But I do know the clicks are up and the the visiting the site is up.
055However, we also said, "Hey, look, we got a new website." So, it's hard to >> to know um you know, for sure. >> Maybe we should send that email out each month and >> Right. Look at Right. >> Yeah. We could see what's new. >> Great. >> Any other questions? >> Thanks, Greg. >> Assistant Superintendent Mr. Barrett. Thank you, Madam President. Appreciate that. And um good evening to everyone. Um I've shared my report with you guys. I don't want to monopolize too much time here, but I I did uh want to review some data points which I had promised um last board meeting. Um I know this was I sent this out to you all. I think you guys are able to see it. I know I had to share some of the settings. Um
056I'm not sure if you guys can see it or if it needs to be zoomed in or not. Um but this would be the data from the first semester of this school year um compared to the first semester uh going back to 2021. Um I would say looking at this data um you know doing a lot of the expulsions I I see a lot of the discipline come through and and I was very happy to see these numbers. Um, I do know that you're going to find in the primary and intermediate, you're going to have a lot more discipline issue for kids that are maybe a little bit more handson. Um, and they usually will have to classify that as battery. But please don't see a first grader getting in trouble for battery and think,
057you know, we've got a future criminal on our hands. That's not the case. Um, again, elementary kids sometimes can be a little handsy. And what you'll see is a lot of times those will start start to go down as kids mature. Um and and in the high school, we hope that they've they've learned from some of that. Um as you can see here, I kind of split that out by the four buildings based on out of school suspension, which is OSS. Um then you will look at the number of students um with all discipline with ACS, which ACS stands for alternative classroom setting, which would be a lot like your inschool suspension. Um students there. And if if you scroll down about halfway um to the the bottom, you'll just see a little bit of
058a graph that shows the different um discipline uh incidents that happened and then the number of students and that is broken out by all four buildings. And then if you look at the very very bottom um you will see the expulsion numbers. The one thing that I want to point out is um there is next to the expulsions pending it or the expulsions pending expulsions is expulsions with virtual services. So what that means is we might have a student who gets in trouble. They're a senior could all be all the way down to a freshman. Um but then credits are starting to count. And the one thing that I try to look at whenever a student is going to be kicked out of school is are they able to have some sort of education? And
059I feel like that is important because when they start their freshman year and even if a student is held back, the data will prove that these students have a lot more incident of dropping out. So, if we have a student who is expelled for a semester, I would rather them have a virtual option to work on at home to get credits for classes versus them not having anything to do and then come back to us whenever that expulsion is over. And now, as a school, we have to make up credits. So, I'm trying to work that both ways so we do not get dinged on our graduation rate as well as trying to give these students some opportunities when they're at home. So, that's why you see those numbers a little bit higher with the
060expulsion with virtual services versus just an expulsion. Um, those uh are the discipline data that we have. Um, and then pending your questions, then I'll move down and go over some of the winter data before I move on. Do you have guys have any questions on the student discipline data for the first semester? >> Um, if a student gets expelled, they can they cannot go to the alternate >> that that is what they would be enrolled in locally through us. Now what they could do, >> not the one that we hold here at the school, then that one they can go to that one. >> What they do is that teacher will still supervise them at home. They are not here on campus. >> I see. >> Um I have a hard time if a
061student gets in trouble for something serious enough to be expelled and then I bring them back and kids see them every day. I I have a hard time with that. I know some schools, not us, um they have specific alternate schools at another location where the schools can go, where the kids can go, drive, parents, drop them off, out of sight, out of mind. Um but here we don't have that. So we want to try to give them an opportunity. >> Mr. Bates, I appreciate your efforts to try and keep these kids moving and focused and get them re-engaged because that makes a huge difference. In the last six months, we've seen several things where you've done over and above, I think, to do that, and we appreciate that. >> Well, thank you. I know
062we we try to partner with some of our local community members for when these kids are out so that way, you know, I will send in their paperwork, some opportunities where parents can take them to some of the substance abuse places around here. Again, not making them, that's not part of it. It's just giving their parents another resource to help their kids. So, um, p pending this, uh, I will move on to the the winner data that I wanted to share with you guys. Um, I don't know, Craig, if you're able to switch me over here. Oh, looks like you've already got me there. Thank you. Um, I know I usually show you guys this. Uh, it's our NWA. I will show you both NWA real quick and then I'll also show you the checkpoints
063which are going on um over in some of the other buildings because we haven't had a chance to do that. Um, Steve, I'm going to pick on the high school today with math. Um, and and the one thing I'll show you because I know I've showed you guys this before. Um, we're looking at a total of about 491 students who took the NWA NWA math for the winter. Um, as you move down here, what I like to do is, and I've showed you guys this quadrant, so I'm not going to go over it a whole lot, but you will see kind of the sweet spot is right here in this quadrant right here where you have high achievement and high growth. Now, this is from the fall. The one thing I will explain is the
064high school, they have students that are over in the middle school that are taking high school classes. So, that's why you see like each of these dots represents a grade level. So, if I hover on this, you'll see grade seven. What the heck, Barrett? Why is grade seven shouldn't be in high school? Well, they are because they're taking high school classes. Now, there's not very many of those students taking it. I think when I scroll down and I look at seventh grade, we've got one student who was probably the student who was the student of the month. Um so as you look here, that number grows up exponentially when we get get into the higher grades. But what I just wanted to share with you bottom line is um you know whenever you get growth
065over in here, you're seeing low achievement, high growth. Uh the the thing I always like to share is then when we move it over to the winter, they're all over in this quadrant. So, um, just just hats off to the teachers who work with these kids. It's it sometimes can be hard to do this and this is outstanding data. So, Steve, great job. Um, if you're not here, >> perfect. Okay. Um, and and so that's that's a little bit looking at that. The the last thing I wanted to share with you is the uh the checkpoints, which you hear a lot about. Um, I'm going to pick on my daughter just so there's no privacy issues here. But the beautiful thing is after every time the students take this checkpoint, um it it will tell
066the student and the parent um where the kiddo is at. Okay? So if you're at these two levels right here, this is where you want to be. So hey, great job. Um if we have kids over here, that kind of uh we we need to work on that. And the beautiful thing about this, and again I I know you guys can zoom in, but it actually will tell you, okay, right here, hey, this is where your student is doing great here. This is where your student could improve, and this is great for the teachers and the parents. So that way you can talk with them. Hey, this is where we need to work on to try to get them as they move into these levels right here. Again, you'll hear a lot about the state
067accountability model. It is take it. We're not focusing as much on the school now as we are focusing in on the student. So, if you can get a student in these two ranges right here, come test time, you get big points along with attendance and some other things. But I just wanted you guys to kind of be aware um of this documentation and this data. Another nice thing that you can see here is this is all the standards. And if it's green, hey, guess what? She's she's mastered that. That's a great job. Some of these are in red are ones that either they haven't got to yet or they need to work on. So just a great explanation um as to where your kiddo might need help. So um that is my report pending your
068questions. I appreciate your time today and just a hats off to all the the the administrators, teachers. Uh this isn't easy work especially when you're talking about discipline. Um so just hats off to them. I know it it takes a lot of work to get where we're at and we're in a good place. So, thank you guys for your time. >> Thank you. >> Barrett, what's the turnaround between um finishing the checkpoints and getting the data for teachers or for parents? >> It's instantaneous, would you guys say? I mean, I I don't I mean, it's pretty dagone quick. >> I get this straight. When the window opens, there's a period of time. There's like a 72 hour window, maybe a little bit longer, but of the window because they want to make sure that it's
069accurately and then from that point >> it's a lot better than getting it the summer after you know which used to be as well. Okay, >> thank you. >> All right, >> superintendent report. >> Thank you. You've had a opportunity to see my report. Um what I wanted to focus on tonight and I'll answer other questions regarding uh the report but um I was able to attend a couple different u meetings on the accountability model and I did give you a hard copy at your desk with the accountability model. Um the first thing I would like to say well well first of all um it was supposed to go to the state board of education January 14th for approval. it did not um get presented. It's actually now going, we believe, to the March meeting
070because our state board does not meet monthly now. They meet uh every other month. It should go in March. Um with that being said, we've had some opportunities to review this with some different agencies. Most recently, um, I was in a meeting with the Department of Education and an individual that is on the committee that is putting putting this together. So, we're able to ask questions and and work through some of these pieces. But, I will say this model is much better than what our original model was. Seven I think seven years ago was the last time we received a letter of grade in the state of Indiana. And that was basically here's your test score, here's your letter grade. Um, this model, um, if I could describe it best is it's it's a student
071focus rather than a school focus. But ultimately with every student being in that focus, it then accumulates to become a school grade and a district grade. So, um, like I said, seven years ago is the last time we received a letter grade. Um, the plan is, as far as I know, is that we will receive a letter grade in October for 2526, even though they have not approved this accountability model yet. I don't anticipate a lot of changes, but here recently I did hear that there is some concern coming from the attorney general's office on some of the the pieces especially later in um the knowledge skills development and career engagement for 9 through 12. So it'll be interesting to see if any of that will will change. Um but basically what this is telling
072you is on the left hand side of your column is the academic mastery pieces that um the state is is monitoring. And so for instance if you get um a student in fourth grade or fifth grade it's through I learn proficiency. Okay. And so if a student gets uh proficient in either English or math, they will receive a certain amount of points. For example, 75 points. I'm just going to give you a number like that. Then what they do is they move over to the right hand column on additional knowledge, skills, experiences. And those are different things that a student can achieve to receive more points to a total of 100 points. And then basically what will happen is every student will be added up. They will then divide by the number of students and
073your number is what your letter grade will be 190 and A 89 to 80 B 79 to 70 C and so on. And so that's how that will work. One thing to keep in mind that is in every category um on on the right hand column is student attendance. 94% is the the the benchmark that they are looking for uh for students to not be considered chronically absent. If a student is chronically absent then they don't get points for that. One thing that the Department of Education clarified for us on Friday is let's say you have a student in um I don't know in 7th through 8th grade they were proficient in English or or or math so they earn those points. Let's say they didn't have 94% attendance or higher. Is that is there
074a prior is there a priority over any of those check boxes on the right hand column? No, there is not. So, a student could get full points. Let's say if they were showing accelerated academic progress, they had uh high school level coursework and um they were meeting maybe the an e student or something like that. So they could check three of those boxes on the righth hand column and it not be attendance, but attendance could be a really easy one if we can get them here to school. So So even though attendance is in every one of those categories, it's not a priority where that is an automatic. It it can be any of those check boxes that can uh be counted. Now, as we were going through this, we also were poking holes in
075it, you know, and there are going to be holes in it. I'll give you an example. Um, in the K3 range, students can take I read in second grade. Okay. Student can be at at risk. They can pass whichever it is. Now, if you're at risk and then pass whether in second grade in the summer or in third grade, you not only get points for accelerated literacy, you get points for passing I read. It's it's extra points to show that growth. Where the problem is, and this is one of the holes that we poked in it. Let's say that student was a second grade student and just passed IE. Okay, that doesn't count. They bank that until they go into third grade and then that counts in third grade that they passed I read. Okay,
076so that's the following year. But we could have a student who passes I read in second grade and then moves away and attends third grade in a completely other school district. and that's banked for that school district because it doesn't count until that student's in third grade. So there are some holes in that where you know we did the work you know the student passed I read in second grade why doesn't that count for us in some way shape or form but it doesn't because the 162 days the following year would be what counts for that student at that other school district. So, there are some challenges here that we're still seeing as you know and and I've said this before with multiple things. We're flying the plane and building it at the same time.
077And so, those are some things that we still have to take into consideration. But overall, this is a a much more fair process because a student in the past, if you didn't achieve a certain benchmark, it was just counted against you. Now a student might not reach that benchmark but if they show growth if they are here you know and not chronically absent they can count points towards us uh in a positive way towards that letter grade. So, I am pleased that it is taking all different scenarios and when you get into high school, it's being on target um in 9th grade, 10th grade, it's uh diploma seals, it's all of that stuff in the high school um realm rather than um proficiency in I learn or anything like that. >> Who determines if a
078child takes the IE test in second grade? Is that >> We all have to now. Oh, everyone. >> It's required now. Okay. >> Yeah, that was last year. It became a requirement. And then if a student's considered at risk and and my principles can correct me if I'm wrong, if they're considered at risk, then they can take it a second time in second grade in summer school or we have that window, that summer window, which is actually in May. Um, from that standpoint, is that correct? >> Yeah, we had everyone who did not pass whether they were at on it again. >> And that was went really well, didn't it? >> It did. A lot of kids. >> Yeah. So, so some of the conversations that we've had even here since we've gone uh to
079see some of this training is, you know, attendance making sure that we're coding it correctly because some of the things that we've seen is that when you look on the GPS dashboard right now, we have a pretty low um 94 attendance percentage rate, but we also have noticed that virtual learning has negatively impacted A question that I asked the state on Friday was does virtual learning count towards attendance and they said yes. So those are some things that we're trying to navigate through to make sure that we're not getting we're not self-inflicting wounds to our letter grade making sure that we're coding things correctly, reporting things correctly. um you know the testing piece, you know, in in theory, you score more points if everybody scores at risk the first time and then passes it the
080second time. I there's just different things that I think I think we can poke holes through it all day and that's not the point, but it is a much more fair process. I I am struggling with the fact that we're going to get a letter grade in October and we still don't know exactly what we're going to be held accountable to and by March we have a month and a half left of school. It's challenging. It's challenging but I know people are working the best they can with the circumstances that are in front of them. It's a baseline. >> And also, I think us as a school district also have to realize that this letter grade, regardless of everything that happens, doesn't define us. I mean, it is a letter grade and we want to
081take that seriously, but they don't talk about, you know, the students that we're presenting here on, you know, student of the month or the students that might have to go see our guidance counselor and and need some extra supports. None of that's measured in an accountability grade. So, that there's there's a Paul Harvey rest of the story uh to the letter grades that we have. So Mark, let it the grade we get in October. You don't think it'll be based on this because the data is not there. >> It it will be, but there's still adjustments that are going to be made on this. So we don't know fully what that's going to look like. And the high school is a little more complex because we have so many different diploma tracks that we're following
082right now. So there's kind of an adjustment that takes place down at the high school level uh that are maybe uh academic honors diploma right now which will disappear and then it'll be an honor seal and so on. >> You probably can't tell yet then because of the issues with the attendance if our attendance was better first semester because of the new law. you know, I don't have that data and I I would have to punt to assistant principles and I don't know if they've spent a whole bunch of time consumed in in where our our data is tracked on that, but um you know, we hope that that would help us and um there isn't a lot of teeth in the accountability with attendance and so you know that there's different everybody has a
083different circumstance and that's what makes it challenging and so us reviewing and reflecting on how we code things is going to be really important and making sure that when we send it to the state that it's accurate and it it speaks what actually has taken place that that student was here in an educational setting whether that be a virtual setting for a e-learning day or that be a homebound situation all of those things count. Do they do anything um to accommodate a child with a severe illness that misses school? >> They miss they miss. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Any questions? >> Okay. All right. Transfer of funds. >> Yes, Mr. Zan. We are seeking your approval for the appropri appropriation transfer report for the 5 calendar year. I will note that this is
084a approval that we get every year. Uh this year I took a different approach to it. So I do want to provide some context around that. In the years past, on December 31st, our accounting software kind of has a button you press. And that button then takes any negatives you have in individual lines appropriation wise and it steals from the positives so that there's no negatives. Uh there's not a real good reason for why you do this. In fact, it causes me more problems because I want to see those negatives because I take that into account when I make the next year's budget. Or if I look back on that previous budget to see all where we're where were we at the end of the year, it's not true data because that appropriation was moved
085to balance out the negatives. So I end up reports for December 30th rather than December 31st. I always question why you did this. I assumed it was a requirement from the state, but do the end of the year process. I found out it's not required from the state that you do this. So, it didn't make sense doing it. So, I didn't. Uh, but what I am including for the appropriation transfer fund report and asking your approval is all the transfers and appropriations that I did during the entire calendar year. So, you can review these. If you have questions, I I would happy to answer them. The majority are going to be one the career center transfers because we pay the career center bill out of one line in December, but then at the end of
086the fiscal year, so at the end of June, the career center gives us how much we get credit for for teachers salaries and benefits that goes towards our 65% requirement. I have to move that appropriation around uh to balance that out. Uh there's also a lot of requests for the principles. uh if the principal in their supply lines has a a line they want to spend more than they were appropriated, they can transfer from one they're not going to spend as much. And then there's just some others of, you know, things happen during the year and we want that to reflect in our appropriations. So I make a trans uh in looking over that. that you already view that you have questions I can go into more details talk about any individually but I do
087ask that you approve the appropriation transfer I'll make a motion that we approve the appropriation transfer report >> I'll second it >> is there any questions or discussion >> okay please vote approved. All right, motion carried. I guess I should say that. Okay, resolutions. So, I've got uh three here. Uh I'll go through them uh individually and ask you to approve each one. The first is the amended resolution to carry over a portion of the appropriate operations appropriation to 2026. So this is things that we have encumbered expenses we have encumbered that are on the 2025 budget that we you know haven't spent yet but we want to carry over that encumbrance from the 2025 budget to the 2026 budget. So within operations there is a total of $127,3953 that we want to move from
088the 2025 budget to the 26 budget. Uh the majority of this is a mini bus purchase of $18,989. There's also some kind of general repairs and maintenance as well as between 16 $17,000 in supplies. >> Is there a motion for the first resolution? >> I'll make a motion to approve the resolution for trans operations. Yes. I'll make a motion to approve the resolution for carryover of operations. >> I'll second it. >> Any questions? >> Right. Please vote. >> All right. Motion carried. >> Okay. Next one. >> Next one is the same thing but for the education fund. A smaller number this time. $5,7821, $817.20 of which is for training and development, $4,931 is for instructional supplies. Again, this will move appropriations from the 25 budget to the 26 budget that were in covered before the
089end of the calendar year. >> Okay. Is there a motion to carry over the education? >> Seconded. >> Okay. Greg right vote motion carried. Third one in the resolution. >> This one is requesting your approval of the 2526 uh support staff hourly rates and documentation for that was provided. Uh this is something that is required will be required in future audits that once a year we bring this to you and get the hourly rates approved. >> So moved. >> I'll second. Any questions? I I just when we do the contract >> and we usually set the rate then for the hourly. Correct. But we don't we don't vote on it then. Is that it? I thought >> that is that is correct. The way we've done it times it out the calendar year. We've already
090done it for that year and that approves it actually for the really the fiscal year. daughters say we have to do it by the calendar year to do it. >> Okay, I understand. All right. >> So, there's a lot of things in education finance wise that are little mixed up because you got half the things that go by fiscal year, half things go in the calendar year. Those things that go by the calendar year have to take into account fiscal year and those things that go by the fiscal year have the calendar year. >> Thank you for understanding that. >> All right. Motion carried. All right. Legislative update. >> All right. So, I'm going to share a reader digest version of uh legislative updates. Uh knowing that um we have a lot of resources when
091it comes to uh schools. So some of um these updates are from ISBA, IAPSS which is the assoc uh superintendent association, IASBO which is the business managers um association and then ISRSA which is the Indiana small rural school association. I was going to say that acronym just so you aware of that. So um there currently are 755 bills. Uh 83 are being tracked by ISBA, 73 are being tracked by IAPSS. Um I would tell you some of the hardest ones to track are the education matters when they're, you know, everything's just kind of dumped in and you have 25 pages of, you know, stuff that can range all across the board. But I do want to give you some just quick updates on some of the legislative bills that they've mentioned in either any of
092those organizations. Uh the first one is Senate Bill 78, which is student wireless communication device policy. So basically that's basically requiring either a no device or a secured storage uh approach to that. So that's uh one that's a very hot topic right now. I think that's like number one on many of those uh groups lists from that standpoint. Uh Senate Bill 159, that's tech uh technology plans and parental controls. I know Craig and I have talked about this one. Basically what this would do is um starting January 1st of 2027. Um basically parents would have the ability to strengthen filters, block sites, and limit device use. Um, and that, um, I know here at our school district, we have very, um, tight filters. And so, um, I think we do a really nice job of
093that. I know that that is a concern for our technology department because if you give everybody those controls individually, it then then could create messes on the other side of, well, now they're back to school. How does it filter or does it allow this academic content and so on and so forth? So it does make it a little bit more complicated when it comes to um this side of operating our devices so that kids can have access to the academic um materials that they need here at school. So that one is a is a challenge. um Senate Bill 199 um that is restrictions on social media accounts and that's a various education matters um uh Senate bill. uh Senate Bill 204. Um what becomes challenging with Senate Bill 204 is that it changes academic needsbased
094salary increases by prohibiting the factor from being applied uniformally amongst all teachers. So what we do now is we have an academic needs part 10% academic needs. I know you're going to love this one, Kyle, but basically what that means is that we cannot uniformally put that amongst all teachers. And so that one is is a little bit newer to me, but that uh has come up here recently that it's going to change some of the collective bargaining uh work that we do. Um, House Bill 104 is deregulation, uh, which, um, ISBA especially, uh, is supporting this because it is increasing the flexibility of local control. Um, so I don't know exactly all the finer details of what gets deregulated, but that is something that we we do want to support. House Bill one, I'm
095sorry, House Bill 11:02, uh, that's applied behavior analysis services. So that's basically um uh requiring schools to um have or use ABA credentialed ABA providers upon request. And so that would put us on on the hook for those services. Uh there's a couple others on food and beverages uh and those requirements to follow federal guidelines which is House Bill 1137. Um it it's already challenging at times to meet those standards and we do have some partnerships that allow us to make sure our menus meet all those guidelines. Uh but that's an additional cost to the school to make sure that we're able to meet those guidelines and have appropriate menus uh for our students. Um, House Bill 1195 um is another one on extended pilot programs for students um with uh high school equivalency programs.
096Um so alternative pathways and partnerships uh that's increasing uh the pilot program there. A couple other bills um Senate Bill 239 is the dollar uh dollar law. Um, Senate Bill 248, which is now dead in the session, but it it could come back, is the South Bend governance model. Um, I actually had a conversation with Senator Donado about that. She co-authored that bill. Um because although I'm not really in in the ball game of South Bend and knowing what's going on there, it does open up a window or a door of well, if if they're going to pass this bill and people are going to be able to basically select the schoolboard members of South Bend, how do we know that that's not going to happen someplace else in the future? Um, House Bill 1059
097is um requesting the advertising on school buses, giving schools the ability to advertise on school buses and increased um Indiana um in inse uh contribution increases to 8.1%. That's House Bill 1059. And then a couple others. Uh the last two, House Bill 1098 is um addressing work-based learning insurance and that's going to be putting that on us um because they believe that um businesses will be more um willing to participate in that if we are providing the insurance for that. And then House Bill 1210 is uh the protected taxes um and school funding impact through the DLGF. Um, and Kyle has talked about this uh before in our budget reports, but basically what that does is um it would have a significant negative impact on our operations fund if if the u basically the language
098would protect our debt service fund from the um revenue losses with our 10% property tax credit enacted by SEA1. And so if they um allow that protection to happen in 2026, we would see about a $200,000 loss this year in our operations fund where we would like for them to do that protection in 2027 so that we can budget appropriately for that. So that's something that is uh on our watch list as well. So those those are the um the the hot bills. I'm not going to bring 83 bills to you tonight, but that's about 12 bills that are kind of on our radar and we're watching pretty closely. So, that's the legislative update that I have. Any questions, >> Mark? They are funding the entrance bill, right? >> No. And and the cell phone
099bill and any others that we're unsure of right now? No. All right. Overnight field trips. >> Yes. Asking for your approval for the overnight field trips as um presented. And also we would like to get some more detail on um drivers and some other things for the robotics field trip if we would have uh to utilize that. So I'll work with Mr. Edwards to get some of those finer details in the robotics one. Okay. So moved. >> Second. Okay. Is there any discussion or questions? All right. Please vote. >> Okay. Motion carried. >> Athletic camps. >> Asking for your approval for the athletic camps baseball and softball 2026 that are presented. >> I'll make a motion we approve the athletic camp plan. >> Second. So, second it. Okay. Right. Any questions on those? All right.
100All in favor, please vote. >> Okay. Motion is carried. >> Donations. >> Yes. Asking for your approval of the donations presented. And we'd like to thank those individuals for their generous donations. Make a motion to approve the donations. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Any questions? >> All right. Please vote. >> Right. Motion carried. Personnel >> asking for your approval of the personnel um recommended tonight. >> Motion. I'll make a motion to approve the personnel report. >> I'll second it. >> Are there any questions? >> All right. Please vote. >> Motion is carried. Professional development requests >> and asking for your approval for the professional development requests as presented. >> Okay. Move to approve the PD requests. >> I'll second it. >> Right. Any questions? >> All right, please vote. Motion is carried. Okay, round table.
101Scott, you want to start? >> Um, yeah. Swim team, the boys were in the fourth straight conference, which is pretty remarkable considering where swim team was against West years ago. And the girls 6 to 3 seconds. >> Thank you for being here this evening. >> I just wanted to put out uh probably to our high school friends, none of which are here right now. Uh but Turnabout Community Resource Center uh which partners with Western or Western partners with Turnabout uh for the circus carnival uh they're doing a video competition. It's called Is Vaping Cool? the you can go online to learn more. It is a competition. It's going to be open to youth organizations, sad clubs, church youth groups, high school clubs, and organizations like Navy Western SAD Club. Uh there are cash prizes for
102first, second, and third place. And I Ned the Baptist told me it was like a tick tock thing >> like you do like a >> never done one of those myself but >> so please explain how does it work. >> Is that a good thing >> later? Anyone would like to demonstrate? >> Anyway, okay. >> I just want to say congratulations to our students and staff and all the different things that they're a part of. Once again, you know, our K-sack program is working great and you guys are doing a great job there. Um, the robotics team going away to competition. Um, the business leaders and going out to that. That's tremendous thing to see that stuff. And I know we've got art projects right now at the library in Richmondville. And then coming up
103will be art on the square and you know all the different things that our kids are part of the baseball camps, softball camps, the way we make an impact in this community and the different impacts that they get to learn from and do including sports and music and all that as well. So I think we're pretty well around tremendous. >> Uh so I want to thank um Susie and Wendy for your innovations and Kasich. I mean, that's really great. Um, I saw a swim team won the conference again, the boys swim team. >> That's awesome. >> So, I I had a chance to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I went to a bowling um se sectional uh and so the uniforms are really wild. It takes a while to
104figure out which ones are western and uh but I finally figured it out and ar it was a individual sectional so that they were scattered out all over 32 lanes. You know 20 years ago I thought bowling might be a dying sport but it was not Saturday. I mean there were just a lot of people there a lot of excitement. And I just want to thank um Gerard Kelly. He's been our sponsor, our coach. Uh he was running the whole event. So, he's running around with a microphone and getting scores, but it was pretty cool. And um I want to congratulate Jill on being president. And fittingly, on the first the biggest technology day improvement in decades, you were the president first time. So, I think that was very fitting. There's something wrong with that
105picture. >> May I May I interrupt for one second as well? I'm sorry, but I thought this was a pretty significant thing as well. We had a former student, Mitchell Nepolley, >> who is a manager for the Indiana football team, >> and there was an article in the paper about his experience. So, he has been a manager all of his time here as he's attended IU and he's a he'll graduate next December. Uh, but he was on the sidelines and many times you'd actually see him when Fernando Mandoza would sit down, you would see Mitchell like right there next to him because one of his roles was to work with the quarterbacks. And so I thought that was a pretty cool experience to have a Western student uh go to the Rose Bowl, the Peach
106Bowl, the National Championship uh and he was a part of that. So just wanted to throw that out there. I should have done that during Panther Pride, but it slipped my mind. So I apologize. >> Good point. I read that article really nice. Yeah, that's awesome. All right. Well, I think off to a nice cold start of the second semester, of course, but thank you principles and directors for being here. >> Always here. I know it makes for a long day, so stay warm going home, everyone. >> So, is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Make a motion to adjourn. >> Okay. So, second. >> Second. >> We need to vote on that. >> Oh, shoot. You're kidding. >> Did you turn everything off? You know, if you just raise your hand, I got it.
107>> Never thought about that. >> Can you ask show me something on here?