001Everybody gets everybody. All right. Good evening. Thanks for your patience and we will call this meeting to order of the Yorktown Community School Board of Trustees. It is 6077 on Tuesday, December 16th. If you would please join me and stand and uh in the pledge of >> allegiance. I aliance 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. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, first on our list as always tonight is an opportunity for public comments. So, if you'd like to address the board, uh, just if you would please step to the podium and just state your name and address and keep your comments to five minutes or less and preferably not of a personal
002interest any Okay. All right. Moving on to item 2B on the agenda tonight and Dr. Henshaw, you have some faculty recognitions. >> It seems like we've had several Decembers in a row where we've been able to recognize several of our certified staff and others who have received awards awards since the last board meeting. And in no particular order, I should have but Stacy Miller Elementary music teacher, you can stand if you want to. Dan Miller, her husband is with her, who is our middle school band director. And Mrs. Miller recently received the state elementary music educator of the year award from the India Music Educator Association. >> Yes. >> And I know I know someone locally the connection nominated you for that, but there's obviously a selection process at the state level. >> Yes. >>
003What would you like to say about your award? Um I am just really honored to receive this award. Um coming from my colleagues we are blessed with lots of elementary music educators especially around central Indiana that could have received this award and I'm just very grateful to receive it and um thank you for this recognition tonight and I hope to just use that as a bouncing board for our next 10 years or so. >> I should know how many years. Um, this is my sixth year. >> So, if you remember, we did not have I don't think we had any music curriculum outside of what would happen with general classrooms or elementary schools. And so, she's been creating this program from scratch and does a lot of extra stuff, volunteers for a lot of things,
004a lot of other duties. And it has been fun to watch that come together. And then I think there's probably vertical alignment that happens between elementary, middle school, and one of the high school. And I changed my schedule around to get to the middle school, high school concert last week. >> Those are gigantic programs. So, that's super exciting to get the state recognition. Congratulations. >> Thank you, She was my >> top. >> Congratulations. >> Has that award? Just curious. has it created any pressure in the household to try to >> I also wanted to say I um I'm very thankful for the additional outside of the classroom opportunities that you've provided for our elementary kids. So I for one have a child that has greatly appreciated all the opportunities and we as a family have
005appreciated it and very nice job on the nutcracker. She was a performer last week. So >> congratulations. >> My daughter has loved it too this year. So thank you. Jackie McKini, who is a Yorktown elementary school teacher, received the excellence in education award from the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce. And so the Yorktown Chamber basically lets the school go through the process of making a selection. They don't always pick our selection, but they normally do. And so our principles work very hard to try to be representative. If you went back and look, you would see some of the the heavy hitters, shining stars, our professional staff that have won this award over the last several years. And so that is awarded by the Yorktown Chamber lunchon got to go husband. We had we didn't even have
006it was but I got to be there. I always get to go to that participate in Yorktown chamber. So then she could share a few words about her Yorktown experience and how she feels about education generally and so that what would you like to >> I'm just thankful for the recognition from Mr. Thornberg. It means a lot and I work with so many talented people. So it's one of those things where it's like if you know it could just feel a little like there's so many living. It is awesome to be recognized. So I thank you and I do love the community of Yorktown. feeling of community. Um I love it that our school can walk over to Mars Meadow to do that. It there's just so much going on and that that real small
007town kind of stuff. Um I really appreciate that. I appreciate Stacy too. I think the music is important and I know that she does so much extra stuff but those are the people that I work with. They're so many talented people. So I just really appreciate what each of them do and I appreciate that you with someone just say, "Hey, I want you to know," which he doesn't, but um Mr. Thornberg is great about, you know, recognizing us and encouraging us and saying, "Hey, another fantastic week." You know, we're almost there. So, he's he's just always a fantastic encourager. And >> priority and the same thing as our family, too. It's not just get here and work. And you know, his life is not always easy because of all us. Because I've said before, he's
008the juggler that has to somehow make everything go smoothly for the rest of us. And he's the one fitting all those pieces together because something changes every day. So, um, that's just the world that we live in. But I really appreciate him and how much he cares for the staff and just your community and how welcoming and supportive you've been. Thank you. >> Thank you. And Michelle Cooper is our one of our counselors at Yorktown High School. And she learned earlier in the semester that she was the high school Indiana school counselor of the year. And they take the elementary school counselor, the middle school counselor, and the high school counselor of the year. And I think they put them all in a ring and they have to fight it out or something. No. then
009they choose one of those three to be the school counselor of the year overall for the state. And uh Mrs. Cooper received the state overall award at their Indiana school counseling association annual conference this fall. Uh Stacy and I got to go and this is such a big deal that was we were at table number two or something like we were right in front of the speaker stand for the whole things front and center and so that is a great recognition really uh awesome group of people Indiana school counselors and for them to same process select one of their own and Michelle won that award that is a big honor so want to say a few words >> sure um thankful for nominating me for the award was unexpected I didn't know it was going
010to happen I was very um excited it's probably not the exact word embarrassed uncomfortable all those things but um grateful community schools for all the years I've been here this year team for me. Um I appreciate the support um from the community for our council program. My name is on the award but it really is a team effort and there's lots of great counselors in our corporation who also help me with my job. So I appreciate them very much >> questions. CONGRATULATIONS. >> Also have Mr. Paul Heiden on the list and he is actually at the conference where he's receiving this award. But the what I once knew as the double ILA, the Indiana intercolastic athletic administrators association every year selects one of their members to receive their national award of merit for that state.
011And so Mr. Hiden Hiden was uh awarded this by his colleagues in Indiana, the national award of merit for Indiana. And so then once he realized that he was receiving that, then he has to go to the national conference to receive that award and could not be here. So, also a big honor for him. And sometimes I think in the Yorktown uh experience every December it seems like we recognize all these people who have won all kinds of war of awards. I I wouldn't even be able to remember all of them, but in gifted and talented ed, uh principal of the year regionally, just all sorts of things that come up and we think, well, that's it just happens. It doesn't just happen. Um it's very uncommon in my opinion for one district to win
012consistently all these awards in all these different categories. And so that's a reflection on the kind of people that we have working for us and a good opportunity for us just to recognize us and show some appreciation. So congratulations to everybody. >> Absolutely. And I I just have to single out Mrs. Cooper a little bit too. So um you know Michelle noted she's been here 18 years. I think all three of my kids who are now grown adults and have families of their own had you at some point in time and u so uh glad and proud for you to to be recognized. You've been doing it for a minute and uh uh you're still super engaged and and do a great job with our students. So congratulations again. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate
013it. >> And I know some of you need to leave. You're always welcome to go. You're always welcome to stay. So if you want to make your exit, this is probably time to do it. So, thanks for being here. Otherwise, we'll go really fast. Congratulations to all the recipients and and also to to Mr. Hydra too, who's uh as Dr. Henshaw is receiving his award tonight. So, um okay, let's move on to item three on the agenda, which is the consent agenda. Uh so that includes uh our minutes, our claims, our fund report, our personnel report, uh as well as uh several other items. Um or you got a chance to look at that and I'd entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda as submitted. >> Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented.
014>> Thank you, Mr. Brooks. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Motion second. Any any comments, board, on anything within the consent agenda you want to comment on? >> I had a question, Dr. Henshaw. Are all the positions that are listed underneath um the personnel I'm sorry the staff wages and benefits are those single line or are some of those dual? >> Yeah, absolutely. >> So can they do they >> get both hourly wages then or do they just take the highest wage that's listed? I'm just curious like how that works. >> Give me an example. >> Uh let's do like grounds and then like maintenance. Is that a single roll? >> No, those would be those would be two separate positions. Yeah. So, a groundskeeper, we would have and and not every position is
015filled at all times. So, sometimes there's a job description with a title. What this document does is it serves as a record of pay rates and then the number off to the side is attached to a job description. And so then for mostly for not only just documentation for pay but also for the state board of accounts if they would come in and do an audit of a particular employees payroll randomly you can go back and say this is the approved pay for that position. >> Okay. >> And it gets updated periodically. In this case there's a long-term substitute teacher position that has there needs needs to be some modification. you updated it in November, I think, or October to put the KOD position on there to establish that rate of pay. >> And then
016I was curious on our substitute teachers, have we considered giving any additional pay for bachelors or masters like some of our neighboring school districts are doing? >> That used to be our practice. And so there was a differentiation and I think like all those discussions you know you can make good cases for doing it different ways. I think what we discovered here was that when we got in the need for substitutes especially right after co we went to one flat rate. I'm doing this from memory. >> You're correct. >> And so that's why I mean it's not to say we could never look at it again but >> have we been in a sub shortage at all this year? I think we're perpetually in a sub shortage. Um it's it's probably a matter of how
017acute it is and it's >> principles can tell me if I'm right or wrong. It's more it's been more of a sub shortage for pair professionals. That's a little more acute shortage. >> So yeah. >> Is the will sub rate >> is that I was isn't what you're a green killer or is you a sub shortage too or >> Okay. >> Is is the will sub rate flat the same for all corporations and you pay a percentage fee >> to them. >> Thank you. Sorry, that's all the questions I had. >> Good. Might be worth revisiting that pay pay scale after the first year maybe. it. You typically get an across the board increase in the fall um when all non-certified raises are given. >> Okay. I've got a motion, a second. Any other comments,
018board? Uh all those in favor vote by saying I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 5. Um moving on to item four, which are reports. Uh Dr. Henshaw, you're going to give us a 2026 uh 1782 notice um report, which is basically about our preliminary budget. >> So, some people await the late part of December for Christmas and Cara and I await it for the 1782 notice because it's like Christmas for us, right? And we have that and we've gone through that. And if you open up the attachment, you'll recognize that comparison sheet document that I've used for a long time. And if you look that top section um in the lower right corner where it says 2026 anticipated budget, you'll see that we we advertised a budget that in theory was going to have a
019tax rate of $1.70, which we know that there's no way that that's true. Last year's tax rate, 2025 tax rate was $1.742. We're anticipating that our rate is going to be a$1389. And I know some of you are probably thinking, well, do we do we really want our tax rate to be falling? You know, we're in a financial uh crunch in the state trying to manage school finance. And the short version is if you look, you only have control over two rates. You have a debt service rate, you have an operations fund rate. Our operations rate is at its statutory max. You can have a 4% growth factor, you get a max levy. Your rate is determined by your AV. That's as high as we can get that rate to be. The debt rate, um,
020it's not exactly that, but it is determined by actual obligations of debt payments that you have to make through the year. And so, like our bond sale that we just did for the roof, that's baked in here. Now, so if you go if you went back and looked, you would see that we anticipated a slight increase in our tax rate when we originally advertised our budget. So what's the difference? The difference is that our AB in Yorktown grew by a little over 14%. And so because of that, it is easier to get your levy, your dollar amount that you're going to collect that you need to collect with a lower rate because you have more dollars in your tax base to tax up on. So, I guess I would I would take this away as
021this is actually good news all around at least from the perspective of a unit of local government because you you're getting your maximum levy in the operations fund. You're finishing up a large project over there at the high school that you're already making bond payments on from your debt service fund. you're adding an additional bond and the first payments for that bond are figured into this budget and your tax rate still went down slightly. And so again, I think that's in my opinion all good news. I heard I don't want to quote him, but I guess he said it in public, the town manager say the town's tax rate is also anticipated to go down because of the growth in the AV. And typically then when your AV grows and your tax rate falls a
022little bit, it also takes some pressure off of your circuit breaker which allows you to collect more dollars in your operations fund than you would have if the circuit breaker were higher. So that's kind of a highlevel touch point on some different topics there. But overall, I think good news and uh always good when you can say we've done all these things and our rate is still going to go down. So, >> do we know like our net revenue because I know it's been a topic with the rates or I guess tax. >> I'll show you that in the next report. >> I'll show you I'll show you a guesstimate of that from policy analytics. >> And then second question, it looks like the big difference is the rainy day difference. The one from 1.75
023to one is 1 million the maximum amount. >> No. So, we just did not appropriate the higher amount. We appropriated the higher amount in 2025 because of some of the capital projects that we were undertaking. So, if you remember, I mean, we obviously paid for football. We paid we are paying some, not as much as we anticipated of cash for the high school project. And since that project came in under budget, under what our initial estimates were, and we've been able to not have to expend as much. We don't anticipate having to expend as much on large projects out of rainy day. And you're going to have some leftover bond proceeds from the roof that you can use where you might have used rainy day under normal circumstances. >> Correct. Thank you. >> Order. Any
024other questions for Dr. Henshaw on that? >> Okay. Well, that dubtales nicely then into 4B, which is the update from policy analytics. So, give an update on AV and also the impact of SEA1, which looks like it's going to be minimized. >> Yeah. So, if you want to open that, and I apologize that if Dr. Sturgeon were here, I'd have him project this, but I don't I don't know if I can walk and chew it up and do the report and project it all at the same time. So, if if there are questions, we can sure stop and answer them. But, if you open that up and go to page 18 of this report, so policy analytics waited until they had the abstract of assessed valuation for the district. And if you remember, Delaware County
025was the county to have that available. So that's why we're just now getting this. Um and in there what they've done is then they've run all their calculations and then they've applied all the things from sea1. So in 2020 uh6 the real impact is on this homestead credit, this new homestead credit. And one thing that I did not realize until getting into this process was sometimes credits, deductions are applied to your AV before it is taxed. And so the AV number that the local units of government get is reduced. Well, this new one is applied afterward. And so you may have an assessed valuation of let's say it's 800 million, but it might be reduced by several hundred. Well, that won't be it won't be reduced at all. So then you're going to set your
026tax rate and your tax levy that's going to be approved and then after that tax bills for individuals are reduced by up to 10% or $300 and they just don't pay that part of their assessment. So that's a different way. It's sort of like the circuit breaker, but it's caused by a different mechanism where you assume the old scenario before circuit breaker was a thing that okay we know what our tax levy is we know what rate we have to set to collect we know what our AV is and we know what rate we have to set to collect our certain levy that's gone out the window and it's gotten more complicated by this then there's some phase in and the big phase in comes in 2028 you'll see that in the graphs where all
027this personal property tax mostly business business personal property tax the the minimum amounts that are exempt from tax are raised and I can't remember the numbers but it's it's a few hundred,000 currently so everything over that goes on and is taxed as personal property under the property tax as a part of the AV well it's been raised to like like two million or three million so you're talking about and that's per um I think it's actually per piece of equipment I think so you're talking potentially millions and millions of dollars of personal property that is taken off of the tax roles. It's just zeroed out of the assessed valuation. And so you see that in here. So if you look their prediction um this page 18 operations fund net revenue and so they're taking into
028account what they estimate the circuit breaker to be. They're taking into account what they estimate this new homestead credit to be and then moving forward the reduction in business personal property tax revenue. And so what you can see is that our operations fund collected about 3.2 million in 25. And then they've got these different scenarios of what what you would choose to do with your debt service levy. And so whether or not you add new debt or what happens that's going to impact where the line is. doesn't impact the trend. You know, they basically all run parallel. So, their projection is that actually our net revenue in our operations fund will increase in 26 and in 27. So if you remember back when we got our circuit breaker projection from the department of global government
029finance, I don't know if anybody remembers the number but their projection was that our circuit breaker was going to increase by a million in 2026. And actually there's a different uh page in here that shows that our circuit breaker is going to increase, but the growth in our assessed valuation was enough to offset that and actually leave us with slightly more revenue in the operations fund in 26, slightly more in 27. I mean, you can see it over there to the side that it's um maybe 80,000 more in 27 and then or it's a quarter of a million more in 26, 80,000 more in 27 and then in 28 there's this quarter of a million drop and that's attributable to what's happening with the business personal property tax changes and then according to their projections
030it bottoms out and starts to grow again and that's again a function of growing AB trend lines in our district. So I'll stop there. >> If AV though crashes or >> comes back down to a reasonable >> more accurate assess valuation or all these dipping. >> Yeah. I mean this is totally dependent upon A. So this is their their calculation where they're they're trending and they're also putting into the sauce all the things from SEA1. >> And then is the projection then from 28 on is that because of like the local income tax changes. >> Uh I would say that that is almost entirely because of growth in AB. So you're you're taking all that all that business personal property tax value out all at once and then the trend line starts back up as
031there's just natural growth in AB based based largely on growth in property values. >> Okay. >> So I say all that we could also go down and look at page 28 which is another good one to look at for one purpose. >> No graphs here. What paid you? >> 28. >> So where it says in the table unfunded credits and you see where it says debt service and operations and you notice in 25 it's um about 17,000 of credits in debt service. That's because debt service is a protected tax levy. Even though it causes circuit breaker, you cannot attribute circuit breaker losses to it. There's a statute that prevents you from doing that. So, you have to take all of your circuit breaker loss from the operations fund. And then if you notice in 26,
032all of a sudden there's almost $200,000 of debt service unfunded credit. Well, that is because the new SEA1 homestead credit does not protect the debt service levy. And so they're saying that they they will try to fix this in this legislative session, but the estimate, and this is an easy estimate for policy analytics because they've taken it by parcel and done the 10% with the 300 max, and said you're going to lose about $200,000 of your debt service levy to this homestead credit, and you can't you can't take it out of the operations fund. The operations fund is also going to lose some of it, too. proportionately. So, one of the things Cara and I have done, you can levy an operating balance in your debt service fund, and we'll have enough operating balance in
033our debt service fund to cover that. But you can see that there's still roughly 1.8 million of circuit breaker loss. So, you see that circuit breaker loss continues to get larger um up to a certain period of time and then levels off. So we'll still have circuit breaker loss, but the idea is if you go down there to net levy, you can see actually their estimate is that our net levy is going to continue to grow up to a certain point. Um 28 being the dip. So what does that mean? What what should we do in response to this? And mostly I would take this as good news and the bad news. And you've heard legislators say that what they're trying to do by SEA1 is slow down the increase in AB because ABS have
034grown so rapidly that property taxpayers have complained about it. And so again, taking them at their word, the legislative argument is that we're trying to slow the growth, not to harm units of local government, but to protect property taxpayers and slow the growth down. Policy analytics for us basically says that that's true. It also means though that we have to plan for what's coming in 28 and the pace of growth in our operations fund is not what it would have been without SEA1. And so I think we need some just some strategy to evaluate expenses in our operations fund and how we can control that and plan. And so I've got some things in mind that we'll talk about going forward just making sure that we're ready for 2028. We'll have a potentially quarter of
035a million dollar reduction in our operations revenue. >> Vicki, to your question, I do you feel like we're more so 83% of our AV is residential, which is a little unique. >> Mhm. >> Do you feel like that insulates us more from that potential drop in AV? Because if you look at the chart on 23 trended up maybe 0809 was different than that, but I don't foresee a significant dip in AV in residential in a one or two years like that's not significant, right? >> I I would agree with that and you can go in and study some of the details. We do have some industrial tax base. I It's you can find districts all over the place that would have almost none, but you are right. It's going to be largely a and industrial
036that's going to attribute to the the decrease in AV and 28 because of the business personal property tax. And the other unknown factor is legislators. What do legislators do when they go into session? They make laws and they have the potential to change this. This is a fiveyear phase in this. There's the potential to change this multiple times before it's all fully enacted. So, another another factor to consider. >> And on the farmland, they did just do another reassessment and the rates did go up again. So, what they were typically paying on a percentage of assessed valuation on farmland is increased. >> Yeah. And I can't I don't remember what was in there about that, but They've adjusted the farm assessment formula multiple times in the last 10 or 15 years too. >> Doc Dr.
037Hench on page 24 the top personal property taxpayers by partial are all those Mount Pleasant entities. >> Yes, okay. Right. Yeah. So that those would be inside the boundaries of our school district. >> Okay. >> And if you notice you're talking industrial and a couple egg So take it, look at it. We can talk about it later if you want to. My takeaway again is it's it's far better news than what I fear that it might be. But it also, I think, says to us that we need to be prudent about planning for things that are in the future. And if we know we're two and a half years away from some reduction in revenue, then we want to start planning for that now. Okay, very good board. Anything else? All right, let's move on
038to number five, business reports on the agenda, starting with a the adoption of the proposed 2627 calendar. So, there were two drafts. Uh they were shared with um the president of the teachers association. She put out a survey. I can't remember. I thought it had the number of responses, but I think it was like 120 responses. And overwhelmingly, our teachers favored draft one. I think primarily because it's a little later start in August. And our principles, I think, are fine with that. And so, if there's no objection, I would recommend that you adopt draft one as our 2627 calendar. >> So, teachers were okay with the slight imbalance between first and second semester. I think secondary folks care about that the most, but the second semester has a whole lot of AP testing and so
039that offset probably still works under the circumstances. >> Do we not that it's necessarily a huge factor, but do we know how it aligns with with our peers? >> Um uh I have seen several calendars and I would say I'm trying to remember my start I think is closer to this one. And the rest of the Delaware County schools that have adopted calendars, they're about 5050. Some of them are doing the earlier start, some of them are doing the later start, but the spring, fall, winter breaks, all line. So, >> and they're likely to modify theirs once we see what they do. It's only happened once, I think. Is Muny still on a like a three-year adoption or are they back to a >> uh I don't think they adopt that far out, but they're
040always adopting their calendar maybe two years in advance. >> So, do you need a motion for us to officially adopt that calendar? >> Motion to adopt the draft one of the 2627 academic year calendar. >> Thank you, Mrs. Castway. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Brooks. Any other comments? Thanks to our staff and our teachers for their input. All those in favor vote by saying I >> I. >> Any opposed? Carries. 5-0. Item five. >> A question about that really quick. >> Sure. >> Did we bring up the planned e-learning day? >> I know there was a little bit of chatter at the last meeting about that. Is that something that we have to keep it on there as that date or >> we we have had discussion at principal level. I can't remember if
041Crystal was in on that discussion. I think she was >> and and I think the preference would be to leave it um just because there is a sense that there is value in it understanding that not everybody loves it but just feeling like there's some value in going through the practice exercise. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. 5B is U transfers to finalize 2025 budget. So we ask for this every year and basically Cara has to have all her appropriations in the black at the close of business for 2025. And so this gives her the authority to it's basically within funds uh from appropriation to appropriation >> board. Do you need a motion to motion to transfer to finalize the 2025 budget? >> Right. Thank you Vicki. Second. >> Thank you Ashley. Any other
042comments? Those in favor vote by saying I. I. Any opposed? Carries. 5-0. Thank you. Item 5C, the YHS roof project. >> Okay. So, we discussed this last month. We tabled it. Um, brought in the heavy hitters, Mr. Landfair, Mr. Gansy from Skilman. Um, so we've got two or three steps here that I want to be sure that we um undertake. And the first is that I would like for you to reject the apparent low bid of Titan roofing for this work based on the following reasons. Titan did not hold a certificate to perform Indiana public roof work at the time that the bids were opened. Um their representative did claim that they held such a certificate later provided a certificate that was dated after that conversation. Um, we've also determined that they are very new
043to doing business in Indiana. They've done no previous public roof work in Indiana and were unable to provide any references for public roof work that had been done in Indiana. And so based on that, the the board does have the right I've talked to three attorneys about this to reject the apparent low bidder as n responsive um and move on to the second lowest bidder. >> Motion to reject the titan roofing bid due to nonresponsiveness. >> Second. >> Third and a motion from Mr. Kelly and a second from Mr. Brooks. And by the way, board in your packet, you should also see a Murphy opinion on Titan Roofing, which is a uh an opinion from Steve Murphy at Defer Veran um validating um the um his opinion validating our our recommendation, Dr. Henshaw's recommendation. Okay,
044I have a motion, a second. Any other comments? All those in favor by saying I >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries 5. that bid is rejected. >> Then I would recommend that you accept the bid of SPG roofing. That's for 1,569,330 plus an alternate for area 10 of $135,575 as the lowest responsible and responsive bid. >> Do I have a motion to that effect? >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Brooks. Do I have a second? >> Second. Thank you, Ashley. Um, any further questions on that? >> On the I have one question on the skillman oversight. Is that correct? What all does that entail? Is it reviewing inspections as they go? Once a month, every couple weeks. What does that look like? I know we have a proposal from last month, but
045I don't remember seeing that. It's It's in your >> Sorry. They would love to tell the first. >> So, um I think what we see is that we're a resource to the school district to make sure things are staying on track and make sure things are according to the contract. Um I explained to Dr. Pinshaw that we don't profess ourselves to be experts in roofing installation and I think that Durlas is included in their proposal a manufacturer's rep which would be there to ensure that the product the product was installed according their standards. So I want to clear on that. However, the thing that we do well is to make sure to hold contractors accountable be a resource to the school district in regular meetings. Make sure the submittals are prepared. So the way we've
046described that is essentially at least once a visit at least once a week while they're working that would be here to monitor that progress to be that first phone call if there's any questions or issues. We have a relationship with a high school so that they can contact us if they have any concerns and also um to kind of have a plan before we start. Um we want to help the contractor have a good sound plan in terms of how plans to do the work, how he's going to access the work, where he's going to stage materials, all those things, so the school district can have that kind of plan ahead of time rather than kind of finding out the morning to show up what's going to happen. I think that's summary. Happy to answer
047any more questions. That's kind of the big picture. >> Yeah, I mean, I don't know if there's a way to beat that up. My biggest concern is, you know, we got a number from you guys as far as an estimate based upon historical data. The total cost is substantially less than that. And the big difference is labor. And so my concern is if the materials are sound and warrantied, is it being installed properly? Is there a mechanism to make sure they're not cutting corners doing those things? Because there's got to be a reason the labor is cheaper. And so I want an accountability piece to make sure the the labor isn't, you know, going too fast, installing it properly. Is do you guys feel like with this scope, we get the assurance that that happens?
048>> Yeah. I mean, I think at at the end of the day, Duralast is on the hook uh as the they're holding the contract. They're the ones providing the warranty. They're the ones providing that all-incclusive um contract. Um I mean, I think that this scenario is about as good as you could regarding just hiring a third party inspector to be there every day that they install, which I think is probably excessive. Um Again, I there's specific details in terms of how to install the work and then it becomes very repetitive, right? And so my goal would be is that when Durlas comes out, establishes those expectations that we can be one to spot check that. >> Okay. Uh but again, I think we're going to hold their last representative to to his expectation to be
049up there regularly also and be your communicator for that. So, okay. >> I don't know if that makes you feel more assured, but uh short of being literally standing there watching them, you know, which would be I I think maybe more than you need. Um that's what we can offer. >> Okay, perfect. and their warranty because I think the membrane does how far does that go? Is it just the materials or is it below because the membrane scenario we had >> debate what that cover >> I mean it's a system warranty and so my expectation would be that it covers the attachment of the insulation the coverboard and the and the roof and all the flashes to that be a weather type I haven't seen the warranty language document but that would be an industry
050standard >> okay I I think what Victor's telling you is and I I think it's a good idea, but it's no pun intended an extra layer of protection here where roofing, at least in in my understanding in this kind of a scenario, often they're going to come in and do it, you wouldn't need a full-time construction manager because it's not that complicated. But I also hear you saying, "This is our first goound with them. Let's be sure that we have an independent party that that has some expertise that can come in and say, "We don't like how that's working." >> I appreciate you guys doing that. So, >> yeah, >> that's all for >> So, I would like a motion to approve the contract with Skillman also. >> Motion to approve the contract with Skillman.
051>> All right. Thank you, Ashley. Can I get a second, please? >> Second. >> Thank you, Vicki. Sorry, Ryan, you were late. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor vote by saying I. >> Any opposed? >> Five zero. >> See, I didn't even ask you to leave. >> I didn't even ask you to leave for that. >> Oh, >> we appreciate the additional work. >> Um, okay. Item D is the second reading adoption of our policy. We have the first reading last month and the second reading um and the adoption is for this month board. Have you had a chance to Have you read any that you have a question about? >> I do. >> Oh boy. Okay. >> Sorry. >> I read them all. Actually, I mean, no, because when
052Ashley and I were at the um ISBA dinner um a month or two ago, whenever they discussed it, they were talking about on the schoolboard compensation, there was going to be changes to how they could be compensated. Um and I'm just being brutally honest. I didn't even know that there was a compensation when I ran for this position. So, I'm not asking because of wanting to know what my compensation is going to be, but just at what point will we verify? Like, it's still in draft. It just says we can decide that yearly. I don't necessarily like that language like just >> that's typically at your reorganization meeting in January if you want to make a change. >> So it could still just keep it the way that it is. It just can't exceed the
05310% of a lowest paid teacher. Okay. >> Correct. >> You can switch to the PDMs and so forth. But every year, I don't remember ever talking about compensation prior to this year at the ISBA dinner. >> We have it's not typically been an agenda item and I want to say was there a statutory change this time. Yeah. So that's why and if you saw the guidance from ISBA legal >> on the reorganization, they had that in there as something you could consider at your January meeting. And given the fact that your board makeup can change >> obviously every couple of years depending on how large your board is and some boards meet twice a month um as regular and some of put PDMs in to increase compensation but you know the board uh compensation model
054has been in place for decades and it was strangely tied to a percentage of what Indianapolis it had an Indianapolis like council or a really strange metric it was tied to that your board compensation could not exceed that. So that provision was actually put in as sort of a uh >> a concession item in the bill that um required school board uh elections to be partisan in the future. And so that was a that was a give back um that really ISBA didn't ask for, but it was like well if you'll accept the you know because ISBA was adamantly opposed to making >> partisan declarations mandatory and as part of the concession to at least allow what was passed in the bill they said okay you increase your compensation to 10% of whatever your minimum
055teacher salary is. So it was like we're going to pay you more but I don't know how many boards will take advantage of it. Okay. >> Did you have any other questions? >> No. >> Okay. Um board, any other questions on those? If not, we need a motion to adopt them as proposed here in the second reading. >> Motion to adopt the second reading of the NEA policy. >> Okay. All right. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Jason, for the second. Uh all those in favor vote by saying I. >> I. Any opposed? Okay. Carries 5. And lastly, item 5E, resolution to authorize superintendent to issue preliminary notices. So, this is a resolution that's recommended by Lewis and Capus. That is our law firm that would basically just clarify that you were authorizing me to issue
056notices to employees that the statute says come from you. >> So, would ask for approval of that. >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Ryan. Second. >> Thank you, Vicki. All those in favor vote by saying I. >> I. Say I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Carrie Spicer. Sorry, Jason. I didn't hear your baritone in there, my friend. >> Have to go to a roll call. >> Um, before we move off of business, maybe you were going to mention this in your closing comments. So, sorry, but do you want to give us just a quick ETA update on when are we going to be we all stuck a shovel in the ground probably for the high school project. When are we going to cut a ribbon for it? >> Absolutely. Um, our goal is to be
057substantially completed by December 31st. >> Um, we'll be done with the fieldhouse edition. Um, we have one minor item for the science classrooms, but we're working through that. Uh, and same for the administration. So, um, our contractors are working pretty diligently to hit that December 31st date. Um, our we're finalizing punch list for the exist the new weight room and the existing weight room is under construction right now. So, um, outside of some miscellaneous items, uh, outside of December 31st, uh, majority of the project will be done by the end of the year. >> Okay, that's great. And so, some sort of a ribbon cutting and open house coming in. You would like to do that, we can arrange for that. I think we should >> we will the exterior signage is one thing that
058will come a little after the gates uh at the new football entrance will come until January and then there are some other punch list items but everything else should be basically completed by >> so signage and gates would be potentially installed maybe in February >> January I think January >> you think be January so so I don't know maybe end of January I mean it' be nice to kind of have everything at least visually um ready to roll. So we discuss a date but end of January 1st, February sometime. >> Wait till pretty green. >> I guess we could. >> Is the equipment in the wait room already? >> How's it look? Amazing. >> Great. >> When do you anticipate it can be used? Is that right after they come back? second right away. >>
059We have to as soon as they get the platforms in, if they get the platform, >> start installation platforms. >> There you go. >> And >> it's a 10day process. >> There there is a scheduled or there was a scheduled training session when >> January 8th. >> Okay. So, >> running all that overhead equipment and >> so forth in there. And isn't one of the hallways, I'm going to call it the hall of fame. It's like literally, but isn't one of the hallways going to be designated for, >> you know, plaques, you know, hardware? Will that all be >> It's there. >> Is it there now? >> We just don't have >> the trophies and things have not been moved in there, but the glass is all installed. >> I think it just be nice
060if all of that was >> Yeah. >> Everything was >> by the time we have >> Yeah. By the time we have the the open house. >> Yeah. Let us all go in and work on >> let us have some conversation at Episcopal >> pull your calendar out Stacy. Come on, get that on there. >> I'd rather do it. I'd rather wait a little bit. There's no rush. I'd rather wait till it's >> till the welcome m's ready. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> That's just my opinion. >> Okay. Uh Dr. Henshaw, bring us in for a landing closing. I just want to say I think everybody left but congratulations to our award winners and it's always fun to see people recognized for excellent work and the things that they've done especially at that
061level and uh this is the time of the year where uh I think everybody says is it Christmas yet? We're almost there. And so a good opportunity for me to just express my appreciation to our administrators. I think I know the board knows this. There are a whole bunch of crazy moving parts. I have told a couple of our attorneys that we're trying to make sure that they have very merry Christmases by all the hours that we're giving them. Appreciate the work our administrators do. And anytime I'm in buildings, I see teachers that are knocking it out of the park and still really working hard right up until the end. And I appreciate that. I know that gets more and more challenging the closer you get. Somebody tried to schedule a meeting outside person Friday
062at 3:30 of this week and I said no one's coming to that meeting. There's not one person that's coming. Um, but I appreciate all the work that goes on and all the and we have almost 400 employees and that's a lot of moving parts. And so I appreciate all that work and I appreciate our board and your commitment to just kind of keep the the main things in focus and work together as a unit. And so there's a lot of fun stuff happening and you can take some credit for that. Beyond that, merry Christmas and hope everybody gets some time away and some time to think about something other than school next year. >> Well said. Thank you. >> Uh everything he just said about all the faculty that was just here, it was I
063know I spotted you at the band and choir concert on at the high school last year. >> I saw the Grinch pajamas, too. >> Yes. My my big son was in a Grinch costume, which was kind of hard to miss, but and I I know Vicki and I have been able to go to the elementary and middle school ones and it's they do such a good job with the band and choir. Very impressive. But thank you all for everything. I know this last week is crazy. I have my elf earrings on tonight from today. And so just enjoy your last week and your breaks. >> Are you guys done Friday, too? >> Yes. >> Good. Good. >> Mr. Kelly. >> Yeah, obviously a lot of good awards. Um, a lot of moving pieces. Good to
064hear the building's going to get done. I don't know who has better socks, you Stacy. I was trying to like Are they Santa Claus? >> Those are good. >> What? No, thanks for the update on the building. It's great to hear we're going to be able to use that and get complete. So, I know a lot of hard work went into that. We had an executive session before that. A lot of input went into that from from you guys, the community. And so, I think that's going to be positive to kind of give us some direction going forward for years to come. So, appreciate you guys and appreciate the board. >> Okay. >> And Dr. Haw. >> Thank you. >> Vic, >> same. Um it's just amazing the amount of awards that we receive here
065uh for our school corporation. And so that's not um just happening just by chance. So I appreciate all the behind the scenes. Um I was able to last night participate in the transitioning from 8th grade to freshman meeting. Um I remember probably five or six years ago seeing what the IDOE had um proposed to roll out and I thought this will never happen. And yeah, here I am. I'm living it now as the parent of one of these children making that transition. And so to see um all the possibilities and pathways that are available for our kids is um again doesn't happen by chance. So thank you um to those that are putting that on behind the scenes and preparing our kids for that next step. The same Stacy Miller. I I mentioned it when
066she was here, but those are all things that our teachers are doing on their own. Um taking it upon themselves to do outside of the classroom. And so I'm very appreciative for all those things that they're doing um outside of the classroom. So I also hope that all of you staff, all staff have an amazing Christmas vacation um and holiday break and get some rest and relaxation and come back fully charged for the crazy January, February before spring break kicks in. So and thank you Dr. Henel. I know we have so many uh yeah what is called moving pieces behind the scenes right now that you are um just lots of fires it seems like we're putting out here and there that the public doesn't really know what's happening and so we are very thankful
067for all that you are doing. Thank you. >> Thanks be Jason. >> Yeah, thank you Dr. Henshaw. It's been a good year. Good year for the board. Um I think we've got a lot of good things accomplished. you know, we come here and work on maybe problems or opportunities that we talk about a lot, but we got a lot to be thankful for in the in the district. So, it's been a good year. Uh, thank you to the administrators and staff. I always appreciate you guys coming and just merry Christmas and enjoy the break. >> Okay, I'll I'll bring bring it home. Um, I want to congratulate our our our folks who were here tonight that were recognized along with uh with Mr. Heiden. Um, I agree with Dr. Hinch. I think it's easy to
068granted when individuals in our our school corporation, be they teachers or administrators, um get recognized for regional and state awards. Um because it just seems like it happens all the time, but um uh it it's not by accident. We have an incredible staff. Uh the recognition that our school corporation gets is strictly due to our teachers, our administrators, all of our support staff, uh everybody involved. We've got a great community and a great school corporation. Um I I also want to recognize Dr. Henshaw because um I think sometimes even I take him for granted that we're trying to work through a lot of different things as a growing school district, which is rare for our county and this area. Um, I I laughed when Victor mentioned a staging area for It feels like we have
069a perpetual staging area at one of our buildings all the time. We just need to designate one of the high schools, I guess. But, um, so juggling everything that's going on and we've had a construction program or a project of some kind going on on our campus somewhere for pretty much every year that you've been here. >> From transportation facility to the tennis complex to PBE renovation to YES YMS project to the high school to the football and we're not done. >> Um, you know, softball's next on the horizon hopefully next year. And uh and and you do it with while doing all the other stuff that you have to to do too in a in a district like ours. And we we have some financial challenges that a lot of our peers don't have.
070Uh, but we still have the best staff and the best school corporation in in our county by far and and in this area. So, I don't take it for granted. And so, thank you. Thanks administrators and teachers who are here and all your peers. We really appreciate it. And and uh I wish everyone a merry Christmas, a safe holiday season, and uh come back next year and do it again. >> I think you always are here every single meeting. Thank you >> for all that you do. I'm sure Dr. all of you have to have quite a few meetings but thank you. So, >> all right. With that, uh, it's 7:06.