Yorktown Community Schools Work Session and Board Meeting August 19, 2025

001And we're going to do the pledge of allegiance. >> Here we go. Ready? >> 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. Okay. Thanks everyone. So, I'm going to call this meeting to order of our public work session on this Tuesday, August 19th at 5:01 p.m. All right. Um, don't think we have anyone here to do public comments. So, no public comments. We'll move on to our business, which is our meeting today with administrative assistance to talk about our strategic plan. So, I will officially turn it over to you all. Well, thank you uh for meeting with us. Uh we're excited uh about the work that's been completed to this point, but more

002excited about getting here and meeting with your folks and spending some time uh getting to understand what's happening in the buildings, getting some time to understand what's happening in your community. Before we step out on that ledge, uh, we wanted to kind of review, uh, Carla, spent a great deal of time meeting with you, going over some survey results. Want to spend some time talking about that this evening. Uh, and then we're going to kind of go over our schedule uh, about how we'll be out in the about out and about in the community. Our goal is for you to be somewhere a month from now and somebody say, "Yeah, we saw Carla and Rob at this place or at this location." Uh we feel that uh it's vitally important for people to be comfortable

003with the work that we're doing because we see it as a very important document that you are creating. Let me tell you how important it is. Just this past week, Carlotta and I um were approached about doing another strategic plan for a school corporation uh just outside of Indianapolis who is facing a $15 million loss. We said no to that um and said we want to stay here where things are positive and good and they are. Um, I'm driving down from Fort Wayne and so I don't understand the highways and byways yet, but I come into your town and I see soccer getting ready to start. I make the turn and children are on bicycles. I come by the little park down here, Meadows. >> Yeah. Cross country practices there. kids are out messing around

004and and sometimes as board members and community members, you don't take time to notice those types of things. Those are the things that will keep your people here and attract new ones as well as what you do in this school corporation. So, I would like to read to you. I apologize for that, but I would like my words to resonate and then I'm going to hand out what I've read to you. We've taken the data from the surveys, we've taken the information from uh the um time you spent with Carla and we've come up with some major themes. In these major themes, if two or more board members mentioned and it became a talking point or we saw it highlighted in the survey, we tried to incorporate it into these themes. Our intent is then

005to take these themes not as written for you, but to take these themes into your community to get feedback on those to understand if there are things that maybe we need to be bringing back to you that are themes in the community, but maybe not. I'm going to say right now, I think you have nailed the themes for a school corporation in 2025 in rural Indiana. So, if you'll just allow me and I've written it in really your voice. Our reputation is built on a foundation of academic excellence and we are committed to ensuring that that legacy thrives. We are committed to fostering a culture of rigorous instruction and guaranteeing a consistent high quality curriculum across all schools, grade levels, and departments. By providing our educators with the best resources and professional development, we will

006ensure every student is engaged, challenged, and prepared for future success. and we've identified that theme as ensuring academic excellence and innovation. The second theme, investing in our children. We believe that academic achievement is linked to student well-being. This theme centers on our commitment to educating for lifelong success by building a comprehensive mental, social, and emotional support system. Our goal is to ensure every student has the resources they need to thrive. Making our schools a safe and supportive environment that enhances learning and reinforces our district's value to the community and we've identified that as investing in our children. Third, empowering our educators. And we're intentional in using the words educators because any adult that stands in front of your children is an educator. That could be the school bus driver, that could be the cafeteria worker,

007that could be um a coach. And so when we use this term educator, we're just not speaking to teachers. And yes, that would even include a superintendent. We recognize that exceptional educators are at the heart of our district's success. This theme is dedicated to making Yorktown the premier district for educators to build a career. Our focus is on providing competitive compensation and creating meaningful opportunities for teacher growth and fulfillment. while building a robust educator pipeline through strategic relationships across the state and the Midwest. And I would love to, as we get into our discussion, come back and address that and trends that we're now seeing across the state of Indiana in terms of teacher recruitment. And we've let we've entitled that empowering our educators. There are 27 of these. So, no, I'm joking. Three more.

008Protecting our position as a district of choice. Our district's history of enrollment growth is a direct result of our commitment to academic excellence. We recognize that statewide demographic shifts and competition require an initiative taking strategy. This theme focuses on protecting and enhancing our reputation to ensure Yorktown remains a premier destination for families, thereby safeguarding our enrollment and community vitality, securing our financial future. If you're a board in 2025 in the state of Indiana and you're not thinking about this particular theme, uh you're going to be in that $15 million reduction uh phase. And so I congratulate you on being proactive, but this is the tough piece. We must create within our significant constraints of Indiana's school funding formula and property tax caps. This theme commits us to developing a proactive long-term financial plan that ensures

009stability and protects our standards of excellence. This includes a thorough explanation exploration of the use of our reserves, all potential revenue generating options, including a voter approved operating referendum for staffing and programming, and a capital referendum for any future facility needs. And we've identified that as securing our financial future. And the last, fostering community connection and public trust. A strong school district is built on a strong partnership with its community. This theme prioritizes strengthening the relationships through a commitment to proactive communication and complete transparency. Our goal is to build deeper, more meaningful engagement with all stakeholders, parents, staff, and community members to ensure our decisions reflect our shared values and earn the public's trust. I'm sure you've heard this statistic, and I don't know if it's been tested recently. probably a little less true in

010rural communities as it uh might be a little skewed, but at any one school district across the state of Indiana, only 20% of your population, your school district encompasses, has a connection to your schools. maybe a little deeper in a rural community, but connecting to your community many times happens if they're coming to the football game, your volleyball game, um, and uh, using those vehicles as a way to inform a community when you have their attention. Uh, we want to talk a little bit about that as well from that. these core values. Again, collecting the data from you. Again, we could have gotten these wrong, but we think success collectively for this group is a core value. Centering decisions on student outcomes and academic excellence. Another core value is leadership, investing in teacher and leader

011development. A third core value is community building trust and inclusive engagement. A fourth, learning, prioritizing rigor and growth, responsibility, strategic financial stewardship and planning and responsiveness, willingness to face challenges headon with datadriven decisions. Again, two or more is how we tried to sift this list down. Top threats, enrollment, and that's a threat for every school district across the state of Indiana. Uh we did this right at the time where your kindergarten numbers were being uh processed. So, we don't know if this was an outlier, but we don't think so because everyone mentioned that fact. Student mental health needs, teacher burnout, and competition for talent we think is a threat to your district. Facility ability and space limitations we think is a threat to your district. and resistance to or fatigue from ongoing change. So, we'd

012like to talk about those themes, but before we do, we'd like to share our next steps and then use the next 30 minutes to really dive into those themes. >> Sounds good. And we're going to you heard this, you'll also be able to see it in a moment. Um, along the same lines then kind of what's next. So, we know in in talking with you all and then also in our summary that a strong um school district needs a strong community, which you have. You have an incredible community. It's one of the biggest successes that came up. So, we want to make sure that these priorities that we identify and that we get feedback on reflect what everyone cares about. And so, our next steps in talking with you and getting your ideas too is

013is extend this conversation. So, I'll share a handout with you in a moment, but the headline is really a join the conversation campaign, right? So we um kind of want to do that and our goal would be to get diverse voices to get to throw a wide net to get voices of of individuals that maybe aren't coming to football games, you know, voices of individuals of of transfer students, of working parents, of of grandparents, of empty nesters, just a a wide variety of voices. Um you know, why that matters is we want everyone to be a part of this plan. So, our next steps in this and what we're going to need to fine-tune some of this. I want to get your feedback tonight. Um, how we're going to do it is the first step

014would be staff voice, right? So, um, uh, everyone that I spoke to, um, talked about the the excellent staff. Almost everyone mentioned some staff member in a building or in the community that's that's really making a huge impact. So, we want to get their voice involved, too. Um, so we want to work with the school leadership to um get into the buildings and but we want it to be chill, right? We we want it to be a join the conversation. We want to be your voice matters. And so we're imagining something um you know on Friday afternoon going into the teachers lounge being there with some dot voting or a list of priorities clipboards you know a handout. Yeah. Right. and um just inviting people to give, you know, their perspective and their input, not

015taking them away, not putting something extra on them. And then also making sure that we have, um a way for those individuals that can't, you know, pop into the teachers to see us, too. >> Um also, um what we like about that is it it's kind of a low pressure opportunity for staff to engage and also feel like their voice is heard. Um in addition to that, the community, right, the community voice. So, um, in in one of the interviews, really good idea of thinking about the community. You know, I I echo Rob's thoughts for those of you who got here a little bit later, I drove in and, you know, I drive all over the state. I was in Greenwood today in Pendleton and I don't remember where I was, but I was all

016over. I'll be in Oxford tomorrow. And there was something about driving in Yorktown that was just really beautiful. It was nostalgic. It was the corn fields. I was I mean, I was like, I could do this drive every day, you know? I was just really, and to Rob's point, you're you're driving into a small town. Maybe it's cuz I I spent a lot of time in Indie driving around, too. I'm not sure. But it had a it had a special feel like you knew you were driving into someplace special. Um, and so with that, we also want to make sure that all the members of this community have a way to engage. And not everyone's going to want to do a survey online, right? Even for a lot of you, I think you preferred to

017talk to me. Um, so we're going to do a postcard mail bailing. So at least that throws a wide net for everybody. You know, we'll do your zip code and figure that out, but anybody that wants to participate can. And also though on that postcard to differentiate too, there'll be a a QR code with my new best friend back here. He's going and where they can scan and go online if they want, right? So again, lots of different options there. So we will do um a postcard with some proposed strategic priorities where people can give input and really invite them you know to join the conversation and that ensures every household really has a tangible way to take part in this and again reducing reliance just on digital outreach or individuals we're all running into

018at the same places. You know I I I probably go to the Starbucks. I mean I'll I'll go to the grocery store. I mean there's a couple little spots. You know, I'm going to go where the people are going, you know. Um, >> Osborne. >> There you go. >> We don't we don't have a grocery store and we >> Twisters coffee shop. >> Yeah. Well, that's true. Okay. It's not called Starbucks. You're right. Yeah, you're right. >> Yeah. What What is your What is your coffee shop called? >> Coffee. It's changed names quite a few times since I've been here. >> The over 60 demo you'll find at Osborne's little every town. It's got a little corner cafe. And >> Osborne's I used to eat it there actually. >> Oh, yeah. It is. It hasn't

019changed names, has it? >> Nope. >> I was gonna really shoot for the Dairy Queen, but that's a sad story. So, no. >> Osborne's. Okay, good. >> Maybe Ray, you know, for Ray will get a different demo in there. So, >> okay. Yeah, that this is very helpful. Thank you. >> Mouse Friday night. >> Yeah. >> What' you say? >> The mouse Friday night. >> The mouse. I >> That might be another demographic. >> Okay. Yeah, that's we want to be very inclusive. Um, there used to be a doughnut shop. Is there doughnut shop closed down? >> Yeah, doughnut shops are a great place. All the farmers are always in there talking like doughnut shops are really good. Okay, we'll figure that out. But again, the community piece is kind of where I went to

020head on that. Um, and then also local partnerships, right? Community partnerships, um, organization outreach, churches, um, kind of that same concept. Um, we've gotten some of the contact information, getting that onepage priority, get in front of those groups, whether it be the Kanas, um, getting some information more from you all on who that should be. Um, and just a way to collect some feedback so we have that wide variety of voices. Um, we want people, it could also sports centers, you know, youth sports folks, um, these coaches, we want best transportation, you know, we really want a wide wide, um, variety there. I know there are some after school clubs and so the piece that I'm still working on that I don't have on here but also want to name we're also going to get

021some student voice but we got to you know make the wording a age appropriate for the audience and I want to work with the school leaders on that. Um and uh also kind of want to make sure that we've thought of all the community members you all have. But that is our thinking right now. That's that that that is our approach to getting community voice and and you know we're going to be calling it join the conversation campaign and it's kind of just keeping it simple and then we can also imagine there's people that are busy that are working and running 18 different places. Um, so also holding an evening at the auditorium or something, holding a a space where where people can just come in quickly and give us some feedback and, you know,

022again, say hello, say goodbye and but they have a a physical place to come in and there'll be a spot for them to add some additional, you know, qualitative comments if they want. But that's our current thinking. I can also imagine I'll show up at a football game or something cuz, you know, >> sounds good. >> We would like free swag. I'm not above asking. Yeah, I still have some, but it's mine's kind of worn. >> We can make that happen. >> Um, how how wide do you think that window will be? That period of time. >> So, we see ourselves entering the school within the next couple weeks. >> I think the phase one is our deliverable to you, Tom, is a reading in November. Okay. >> And so, probably September, October is that

023time frame. >> Okay. And back to the student thing, really engaging with the I don't know the student council groups, you know, working with the school leadership. >> Yeah, I mentioned that Vicki, she's she's she's she's many things, but she's also engaged with the A community. So, you know, we're Oops. We're up. >> We could have caught him last night at the town hall meeting. >> Yeah. And I don't, you know, we've talked about this for a while that, you know, I don't know how unique that makes us, but you know, we're >> there's some blue collar in Yorktown. Um, >> thank you. There's there's there's an a community, there's white collar, there's um and and there's that old Yorktown, new Yorktown vibe, not not only going on within the school district, but also within

024the town as a whole of, you know, there's a lot of folks that would like to see us Yorktown be Mayberry forever and ever. And then there's a lot of folks who would like to see us be something like thinking like maybe like Mount Vernon. We're not Mount Vernon. Um uh um what am I missing? What's the what's the little town in Mount Vernon? Fortville. Thank you. Fortville. You know, that's sort of still has that small town feel but is a little bit more metropolitan too. So anyway, >> so themes if you'll look at that um uh ensuring academic excellence and innovation. Were we off base? Before we hitting thoughts that you had in regards to themes for this district, >> Bob, I wanted to add a word as we were word smithing and investing

025in our children. I also wanted to name that the physical, >> right? These physical resources that we talked about and I don't think that word made that in there, but I will update that. >> Yeah. Um because we did hear a lot about you know the physical opportunities that our students are having through academics. Not only academics but athletics and especially the investments that's been made in the facilities for students to have physical clubs, physical sports. So I just want to make sure that word physical gets put back in here. That's the only thing I change there. >> Any feedback on that first? ensuring academic excellence and innovation. Do you see yourselves as innovators? >> Yeah. >> I think so. Jason, you can kind of >> I mean, I think it start I think York

026kind of starts with that, right? Ensuring academic excellence. I think that's what sort of built the foundation on. I don't >> I don't know if we're innovative. I really don't. I mean, I don't know how to quantify that. I think we should be >> whether we currently are or not in comparison to >> other similarsized schools, I couldn't say. But I think we should be. >> I think when we come back to you uh with a draft, your community will probably let us know if they feel like you're innovative or not. >> Um and I think that could be a lot of things. Uh, it could be on how you stack your curriculum. It could be on how you bring educators into your school district. It could be technology. It could be unique partnerships throughout

027the area. It could be a number of different things. And so, we'll we'll sort through that. >> Could be an aspirational goal, too. if it's not >> not currently >> perceived that way could could be more aspirational >> push >> you know when we get down to securing financial future I think you're going to need to think about innovation >> investing in our children and Carlaua is right and I authored that so uh it was never my intent to leave out uh the physical component um I believe grit and the growth mindset are not only taught in the classroom, but probably more often than not are taught in those co-curricular and extracurricular activities that you have. >> If I'm addressing a community group and they're wanting a workforce, they're going to come up and ask

028me about my A program and FFA. And what I will tell them is we're running out of a kids. And so how do you use those other activities whether it's athletics or uh band those pieces where it takes discipline uh it takes um growth mindset how are you using those and investing in your children and when you do and you do it with vitality you are addressing those future skill sets that they're going to need to be successful in that you live in a world of social media and digital um connection and having our children navigate through that is very difficult. Having adults and parents navigate through that. So there is a social and emotional piece that is woven through that >> that came up also just to kind of stamp that Rob that came

029up in at least three of the interviews just the need for the caregivers and the parents to have access to digital support >> empowering educators. Can I ask your teacher pipeline are most of your teachers come through Ball State? Yeah. >> But not directly to us typically. >> Yeah. >> They go to another school district opening transfer in. Yeah. >> Um I would ask us as we're developing this to think about that pipeline. >> The quality of young people entering the teaching profession is dwindling. >> Yeah. And so how you cast your net to get the best and brightest may be to look beyond where you typically had your teachers come from and be thinking about do we need to invest time in teacher recruitment um as other school districts across the state are. And

030if you're not at that table thinking that your reputation will walk them through the door and they're negotiating with math teachers on the spot, um I think that's something that you may be missing. Um so right now when you started school, did you have every uh academic area filled? >> Yes, we did. Yeah. >> How close? >> What do you mean how close? Like when when you >> had your last teacher to walk in? >> Well, I might have bragged at the July board that we were full >> and then we had two resignations that week. >> Yeah. >> Which were filled the next week. >> So that's >> Well, actually, we only filled one of them. >> We absorbed one of the resignations. >> So that is a great place to be. >> Yeah.

031And that's been true I think for I think four years in a row but maybe five and all fully licensed too. >> That's rare. >> Yeah, that is rare. >> Are we still the highest in East Central Indiana? So for that probably drives some of that as well. >> Yeah. >> For first >> starting. [Music] >> So going back to your question on innovation, I think how do you ask those questions because I think I have an idea what innovation mean. I just looked at the definition to make sure I'm clear exactly, but like people interpret that differently. It's >> you could probably get more granular. Are we innovative on hiring practices or are we innovative? I just relate that to technology to some extent. So maybe >> depending on how you ask that question,

032get different answers. I think there's some things to Jason's point that we're innovative in. I think there's other things we're not >> as a whole are you? That's really hard to answer. Uh obviously that's a goal in different areas, but are we you know using new tactics to get things done? Maybe, maybe not. So I think that's that'd be interesting how you ask that question different people and how they respond. But >> how granular you get. So >> yeah, it's easy to say, "Yeah, we are, but I'm like some things we are." >> Yeah. So when you um um some people will see it with that device and it's much more than that device. >> Yeah. >> I was looking at it more like oh just like our graduation like our different pathways that we

033offer or >> curriculum that Yeah. classes that are offered. >> Yeah. I think of it and it it is much broader than that. I think more from a curriculum standpoint like you know literal things are like robotics or you know how broad is your curriculum and the sciences and some of the other areas you are foreign language you know things like that you know >> or extracurricular too >> yeah there's innovation in every one of your themes >> you know and when we get to protecting your position as a district of choice I think that ability to differentiate yourself from your neighbor s in 2017 you had a bump in growth. I don't know if you know that uh but in 20 Yeah. 2017 you had you had a 13% bump in growth. Uh and

034your controlled position on enrollment. Your other neighbors that bordered Muny also had the same bump >> and their bump was greater than your 13%. Now then we're at a different field at a different time. All of those Muny people have made their decisions about where to go. Um how are you going to continue to differentiate yourself so that people will move here, stay here? >> Isn't there I mean I get the move here and stay here but at some point you know I know Dr. Dr. Henchel has elaborated on this a few times like you've received as many kids from my as you were going to probably receive >> and the way that we have our school now designed or set up is nine classes and our K through five building. >> It has to

035stop at some like there's people like I I have my best friends that moved here from Caramel. They it was too big for them. They wanted to come here. And so I think that sometimes, you know, we see this dollar sign that's attached to per child and how that affects our school district, but there's also the value in staying a certain size. Like I I I don't know. I'm just tired of it's like the only way for success is for you just to continue to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And that there's at some point it's like invest in what you have >> and just stay where you're at. like as a populationwise I don't we're we're experiencing this with the town even. I mean >> we're not not everybody wants to live in

036Westfield or Carmel or Noblesville and so in order to how do you become a innovative town or a a new town that's growing and prospering but not expanding to the point that >> we have tons of people here that we don't know what to do with them. It's a little like franchising in a way of how do you keep the secret sauce, you know, the the magic of your mom and pop restaurant, you know, when Scotty's blew up from being a a Muny campus based franchise, you know, eventually they outgrew >> a great example >> that and they got to the point where they were >> their franchise model didn't work anymore. You couldn't walk into a Scotty's and >> one community and have it be the same experience. And so I hear what you're

037saying. I think the goal is how do you find that sweet spot of you still have all of the things that make you special >> without but but you still have potential for growth and to get I mean the truth is you're right I mean there is a there is a a dollar on every backpack that walks through through the door every every new one especially um and with every new one hopefully comes more innovation and more ability to offer greater curriculum and Again, it's finding finding the right balance, right? >> Yeah. I I believe it is the the question for the entire state of Indiana. Uh those that aren't growing, and I think there's only eight communities in the state of Indiana that are actually growing now. Uh and you've seen your growth kind

038of tailor off to, you know, um and so >> and how many of those are in Hamilton County? >> Uh I think six, excuse me, five of the eight. >> Yeah. Yeah. And but that you're exactly right and I think that's the heart of why you're creating this strategic plan because the state has said uh dollars are going to follow those children and your percentage increases as you know are connected into your state formula. And so there are other ways uh but those carry a different price tag. Uh, but I think that's why you've brought Carla and I into the community to help help you see what the community is saying and make those decisions based upon the best information that we can bring you. >> Create that long-term vision of where you want to

039go. Um, and address exactly what you've done. How do you how do you keep this location to be a a destination? But at the same time, if this is everyone's destination, how are you able to keep that culture? So, >> and I I think honestly the board did that not as formally as what you're talking about here >> eight years ago. And Tom's the only one. He's the last man standing from that forward. But the philosophy was exactly what Vicki articulated our our peak is 30,000 >> and so all the buildout, all the programming, all the staffing has been targeted to that. Well, now we're we're at the point of where we're constrained by that decision. And so it it probably does behoove us to go back and evaluate what does that philosophy look like

040going forward and how do you manage that knowing and there's a geographic constraint, a demographic constraint and the state is constantly giving you new fiscal constraints. I mean it'd be great to say well let's take the number up to 3500. Well then you have a fiscal challenge to try to build out for that. You might be able to fill it with transfer students, but then the people who live in the district have to pay for it. And with some of the constraints that the legislature adjusts frequently, you wouldn't be able to pay for it. So, >> yeah, it uh again, it is the puzzle for the state of Indiana to figure that out. Well, when when you when your school is in the the most um it's weird to call a red state a progressive

041state, but progressive in terms of of school choice. Uh Indiana >> is is the leader of the pack >> in terms of school choice now. And there are zero barriers now, right? >> You can make >> half a million dollars as a family of four and and get your voucher and go wherever you want to go. And you know, I hear other board members around the state that you know, bristle every time. And I'm like, you have to focus on being the school of choice within your community, whatever that means. And if whatever means that you need to so that if people have a choice, they choose you. >> That I mean that at at the end of the day and all of these things in my mind all tie into it of how you

042become that school choice. >> I'm going to keep this moving >> please. I would like to give you more than three minutes before this in your next board meeting. Um, and so it comes to u securing that financial future and having that discussion with your community and what that means. Uh I would be remiss if I did not say the word referenda uh as an opportunity for a community to evaluate and see if that's the right fit for the community. And it's not by coincidence that the last one was community engagement because if you're going to go down that path, the transparency that's needed, the communication that's needed, not to win a referenda, but decide if that's the right process for our community at this at this time. I put in capital referenda as well

043because if you want to walk down that path of expanding that number to 35 your facilities would need to be addressed and would you want that long-term investment with a capital referenda I think it's also thinking about the reserves that you do have and how you are going to manage those um and so we'll be bringing back information that I think will help you make some informed decisions in regards to the exploration of any and all of those ideas. I think also thinking about the innovative relationships that you have within your community uh in regards to your facilities use. Um the things that you offer a community of this size that for private investment may not be an opportunity but you could use your facility partner with private investors with the idea of generating income.

044If you do that, I don't know who your district attorney is, but I think, you know, starting to lay the groundwork on some of that. Um, because Are you the largest employer >> in in the district? Yes. In the county? No. I mean, we would I think we're in the top 10. >> Yeah. One state hospital. >> Yeah. Hospitals. And that's also troublesome. uh you have broad state, but if your hospital and your school corporation are the largest employer, which also gets us to tax cap discussions and your bonding capacity and where all that's going and we're not Yeah, we're not going to try to cover that tonight, but when those are your largest employers, it makes that referenda discussion tough as well. So the core values we think are echoed in those themes. Anything

045that you don't see there that you think should appear No. >> And you can email us if there's something that catches your thought idea while you're in buildings or, you know, talking to someone that boy, we probably need to include that because we'll be speaking to those core values and seeing if we hear those echoed back to us when we're out in the district. Are there other threats that we didn't capture? You all were the most aligned on the threats of anything. >> I can't No, I can't think of anything else. >> But again, if something pops into your >> Yeah, the core values here. I know we've got enough there. >> The word excellence always jumps out that one. You know, I don't know. Are we changing? Are we going to update our core

046values based on this? We going off of that? But >> either way, I like the word excellence. >> Good feedback. Thank you. >> One of the reasons we put the tagline in there because that was a word that came up in a lot of the interviews, too. So, that's how that came about. And it also makes me think back to your original question, even excellence, what does that mean? What does innovation mean? You know, that's a I'm going to keep that thought with me as you kind of name that. I want to I want to explore that a little bit more. >> Yeah, I think community could be maybe teamwork as well. One of the reasons we're going to this process is I think we've recognized that we've had some disconnect on working as a

047team which is a challenge at different levels but I think that's one of the goals >> that probably aligns with community. I think some you know we've heard from community make community members that they feel like the school's not approachable >> which I think happens probably a lot anyways but I think the goal is to improve that piece. So probably community teamwork maybe go hand in hand at this you know board level staff level superintendent community all together probably like we function as one unit >> that came up a lot n >> I I don't know if this falls under threats or not but um to Jason's point talking about you know excellence >> um I I think a potential threat for any organization that has had sustained success and has at least a perception

048of being above its peers um is complacency and I I don't think we're complacent but I I think the danger is when you've had sustained success uh it can you can begin to take that for granted and um you can fall into a mode of gez we're we're the best in our county or our conference or you know east central Indiana were better than everybody else. And some of it probably goes back to when I think about, you know, when I still look at iLearn scores as compared to to to what Iep scores used to be. And used to be able to look at IEP scores and go, "Wow, man, we're in the 98th percentile. Our kids are just all geniuses." And then iLearn came around and we're like, "Oh my gosh, what is wrong

049with our teachers? What happened to all of our teachers since uh, you know, from fall to to to spring?" you know, and obviously that what that's not the case. It's a different measuring stick. But anyway, I just think it's a threat, you know, the the greatest enemy of biggest enemy of great is good. You know, when you're really good, it's like, hey, we're really good, you know, so pushing the envelope to make sure that we don't become complacent and all. I know that's what all these things probably add up to, but I I still think it's a threat to it can be easy to rest on your laurels. I think that was why I hesitated on the innovation like complacency innovation right like I don't know sometimes I wonder about that so I agree with

050what you said >> and I think I think sometimes you become more innovative as a district because you have challenges >> you know so if you've got a lot of >> you know >> issues >> yeah English language learners and and you know you have a high much higher you know uh poverty rate and and and other things. It forces you to become more innovative with your financing and more creative with, you know, how do we deal with these and and you have to innovate because if you don't, you're you're going to sink. And so anyway, and and on the flip side, if you look at the beltway districts in in India, especially in Hamilton County, they have all the resources to be innovative. They don't have any the financial challenges and they're all excellent,

051but the expectations so high and money is no object. So, you know, anything that comes around that's really neat, unique, innovative, cutting edge, let's do it. You know, they've got resources to do it. They've got parental resources. They've got >> many staff members as they need to. We'll just add more staff. Let's build a new building. And uh so >> we should we should bring Mr. Roush and Mr. Brown up to talk to you. >> I know. And see what it's like on the other side. >> Well, that's not their perspective. >> That's not what they got there. It's there's some uh there's some change. >> Yeah, that's happened. >> We want to stay good to our promise. >> We got 10 minutes, I think, before your board meeting begins. >> I wanted to go

052back to that because I agree with Ryan like we don't work well as a team. >> And I was hoping that through this process that >> because and it's not that like any one person is right or wrong. It's just maybe some other person's values or mission is completely different than another board member's values or mission or goals. And so I was hoping that through this process that you would identify what this corporation, this town, >> what their goals, mission, values are. And then we as a group then have to collectively >> pursue that or push it through. Like it's not an individualized >> basis like >> I'm not here because I want to do this or I'm here because I'm serving this community and we as a group are going to fulfill Dr. Henshaw's

053wishes based off of whatever the community is saying is needed or wanted. >> Yeah. I think a successful strategic plan will do just that and one that it feels forced >> uh will cause more heartache for the district than it will good. >> Um so yeah, it's our hope to come back and and bring you truth. Mhm. >> Um and that truth is how we d what do we do with that once once we know and once we're informed. >> Yeah. So so step one I mean is is what we're kind of doing now, right? So this is our internal view >> of who we are, what's important to us as a district, what we think the priorities are, who we believe we are. Step two now is we got to go ask the community,

054are these are we on the right track? Are these the same priorities and and >> and values? What what does the community care about to your point? >> Yeah. >> Okay. I wanted to stop us at 10 minutes. We need a couple more. That's Thank you so much for your time tonight. >> Thank you. >> If you need something, >> email uh I don't know if you have our phone numbers, but mine 2604130013. [Music] And I think everyone has cars. >> Yeah. Just in case. 317 319 0994. >> One thing I do need to get before I leave. Oh, did I say it too fast? >> Yeah, sorry. >> 317 319 0994. >> Thank you. >> Do you say yours one more time? >> It's Rob Hayworth 260 4130013. >> Did everybody get hit the

055one time? >> One more time for >> I will. I will. 317 094. >> Yeah, you got it. >> Yeah, I know. I know. Everybody's like, "Yes, >> our mailing addresses are >> Yeah, exactly. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you both." >> One question I have as we head out, um, as a next step, who is the right person to send the school leadership an email introducing us so I can start to reach out to them to start on this? You don't have to answer it now. if you think about it, but that would be a good >> I think it's that guy down there. >> The guy on the end here. Well, I'll be following up with you guy on the end. >> On the to-do list. >> Safe travels north and

056south. Good evening and we'll call this meeting to order the Yorktown Community School Board of Trustees. And we will start if you'll join me with the pledge of allegiance. >> I alian 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. >> All right. Thank you. You may be seated and welcome and happy Tuesday to you on a back to school August meeting. Uh we'll start off with public comments. If anyone would like to address the board, if you would just step to the podium, state your name and address, and keep your comments less than five minutes if you would. Anyone in the back row? Okay. and we're in the front row. All right, we'll move on

057to the consent agenda. Board, you have the consent agenda uh from board ducks, uh which includes our minutes from the last meeting, our claims report, fund report, personnel, donations. We have a couple of uh items in there, including uh a change order to our turf installation at the football field that Dr. Hinchaw also explained previously in an email couple of student handbook updates. Any questions on anything in the consent agenda? >> May I add one thing, >> please? >> And that is subsequent to the agenda going out, I did put time and materials change order in there for the football field that I want to be sure that I point out since it wasn't in there originally. And that was an earlier TNM uh change order for some underground electrical stuff that we did to

058try to make sure that we we had what was in there that we wanted. So, >> okay. >> Larger than than what you would have seen if you looked at it earlier in the day. >> And I will maybe during your your uh your superintendent's closing comments, you can just talk in general about what's left, what's going on, and your >> keep gladly >> keep it keep it quick though. Okay. by that time if you don't mind. Okay, board. Um, I'd entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda, please. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Jason. >> Second. Thank you, Ashley. All those in favor, vote by saying, I >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries 5. Okay, moving on to item four, which is the report section on your agenda. Uh, first one

059is the tag grant uh information, which is uh quite a bit different this year based on new uh new legislature. So, Dr. Henshaw, you want to talk plan? >> I really just want to be sure that we put this on the record and we have already done so with the teachers association through discussion and one of the the outcomes of that that the association has done is to basically say um if you're accustomed to getting a teacher appreciation grant, just assume that you're not going to get anything. So, there still is a teacher appreciation grant. Even the one that we just left was not the original iteration and it had changed some in terms of how the distribution worked. But this is a significantly different process. The state, the DOE owes us guidance by September

060the 1st on what that will look like. as I read the summary and I included three different summaries for you and the statute in there um that basically local districts will have to put together a plan and apply. So to me that implies that that there's no guarantee that your plan will be funded. um you are limited to giving teacher appreciation grants to no more than 20% of your teachers and the statute specifies those amounts 3500 $5,000 and $7500 and I think it's been typical that our teachers have gotten it's been less than a,600 to $1,000 typically from TAG and generally almost everyone has gotten it every year. So this represents a significant change. Um the chatter in superintendent world is do you want to apply for that money um or would it be better

061to not apply for it just because of some of the unknowns of how you distribute it and trying to find an equitable system. There are some requirements in there for having measurable student outcomes that you have to use to determine how you're going to distribute that money. Well, those objectively don't exist for every teaching position. We go back to the old days of this the student learning objectives that the teachers in the room will be familiar with. So basically at this point we don't have a plan for what our response is going to be to this and have tried to put our staff on alert that you know don't count on getting your $600 to $1,000 of tag that you've gotten every year over time because it it's it's not going to be distributed in

062the same way if at all. So once we see the guidance from the state, can't remember the distribution is scheduled for spring and then you typically have 20 days to distri to pay it out to those who qualify. So we have time to decide um after we get guidance from the state, >> but only 20% of your staff are even eligible for it, right? So coming up with some kind of a >> So for us that would be roughly 30 teachers >> would would get the money. if we did the mentor route like do we we don't have like a quote menty mentor program as of right now like would teachers >> we do have some identified as such through through the um salaries the ECA schedule >> teacher leaison who work teachers >> is

063that that K through 12 right now >> every every building would have somebody designated I think am I right >> okay >> and and they're paid a stipen through the extracurricular schedule that's been true for seven or eight years probably. >> Yeah. So, two of the three are mentor or mentor based. >> So, we'll take a look at it once we get the guidance. Um, but again, it it represents the philosophy probably at the House Education Committee more than anything that they they want this to really >> be a meaningful incentive for for certain things to occur rather than just kind of a general payment to everybody. Okay. board. Any questions or thoughts on it? >> I have lots of thoughts on >> Well, and let me just make this philosophical statement. So, I think

064there's one side of the ledger that says maybe it's better to not take the money um to avoid >> I would agree >> um conflict, hostility among your teaching staff. The other side of the ledger says the the legislators are going to say you left money on the table that you could have given to your teaching faculty. So, we'll have to weigh that out. >> It's going to be really hard to differentiate, you know, especially when you only have that many teachers that can get it. >> I just hate to leave money on the table, but I understand what you're saying. >> Yeah. I mean, it could cause a lot of issues among staff >> and in teacher world, you know, $3500 to $7,500 is real money. >> That's a lot of money. We've never

065seen that kind of money. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Look forward to seeing the plan. >> Sure. >> Uh item 4B, Dr. Henshaw, is the report on our student enrollment. >> I try to give you this report every August and uh it was alluded to in our work session. So these numbers are preliminary. Count day got moved a few years ago to October 1st and uh so they're these are not final numbers. Overall we're we're down about 14 from our count day um in 2024. And depending on how you want to slice that, all of it net is attributable to the fact that our kindergarten numbers last year were uh 199 and we're sitting at at about 180 right now overall. And you can we can go through and look at the individual grade numbers. Um

066we did not take transfer applications in 7th and 8th 10th 11th and 12th and so we had some falling off 8th to 9th that's that's I think a little more than normal for us. One of the things that we also did not take transfer applications in second grade and I'll own that. I think that was a miss. our first grade numbers were above 225 at the end of last year and so we didn't anticipate that we would have any space but just kind of the natural flow there by not taking the transfer applications we lost some students and we didn't have the opportunity to replace them so that's something that I will do differently going forward is we'll maintain a waiting list one of the things that we wrestle with in this office is how

067much hope to give people who come in and want to fill out a transfer application. And if you're looking at say our 10th grade numbers where they're at 240, we reached a point where we said it's probably better to just not take those applications and encourage people to to go elsewhere simply because the likelihood of us having any space is small. And so where we're on the margin or we're close, we'll probably maintain a waiting list uh in the future more so than we did in in other grades. We did take transfers and we still didn't get to the cap. But we're at that point where when you're maintaining caps for grades, again, some people come in and maybe they have three kids. Well, they're not going to get their sophomore in because it's full.

068Well, then they're not going to enroll their eighth grader or their sixth grader or whatever because they want all of them be to be in the same district. So, we're we're in that pinch point that we discussed in the work session. And of course, again, these kindergarten numbers are as low as they have been in several years. And that just happens sometimes. I don't I'm not willing to say it's a trend for one year. I mean, it may just be something that happened in this particular year and you'll see some recovery. The other thing I would point out is if you look at our first grade numbers, that cohort went up by 11. And that's pretty typical for us that generally we see some growth in those K to five grades every year. If we

069have space, you'll see some growth in those grades. So, >> any data from any of your peers um in Delaware County? You talk to anybody else, any other superintendent of is is this kind of a Yorktown thing, >> the kindergarten thing or overall? Yeah, just kindergarten numbers. >> I have heard I have heard from several other >> anybody else up >> that that their kindergarten numbers are down, but that's anecdotal. I mean, I haven't done a hard study on that. And I've heard some of the other rural districts are up in single digits or, you know, maybe up 10 >> and some of the others are down. So, it's mixed. >> Okay. >> I think I share with Dr. potential. The HHS report was showing the trend data coming in like we're placement rate is

070not keeping up with population and we're seeing some health issues that are following through from COVID times now into probably economic also. I'm sure that that wasn't a >> great time if you were trying to pre-plan to have a family to be bringing a child in that we're seeing those children now enroll in kindergarten. So, >> so we'll continue to watch it. And again, you know, we have the second count day in February. So, we'll continue to look at that and as we have space, we'll probably take some transfer applications for the second semester in the grades where we have some space. I know you sent the email like is there anything we can do to project that earlier or instead of have a weight list can we have like an interest list because I'm

071trying to again I think we talked about before going >> kindergarten specifically probably or just identifying any of those shortfalls maybe not short >> I would make the argument and could jump in on this >> that we've I'm not going to say perfected it but I think we have I mean these numbers are not that far off from where we were in the spring. When I first came, >> um it was a little haram scarum in trying to figure that out. We used to have the same kindergarten deadline as we did for the other grades for transfers. We back that up to April to try to get a better handle on it. I think we've done a better job of communicating to people that it's out there and >> close it at that point or

072it's still open. we continue to accept those transfers up until the start of school. So I I would say there's also a trend out there, again this is anecdotal, that a lot of times, not a lot of times, but more frequently than in the past, people won't send their kids to kindergarten. >> Yeah. >> So they may just, >> we've seen that >> elect to educate them at home for kindergarten, enroll them in first grade, or try something different and use the opportunity to enroll them later. What what tactics do we use for like um I guess attracting new students? I know there's some place that billboard. I mean they're taking a marketing appeal to getting people in. I don't think we've done that as far as like I know my taken billboards and signs

073everywhere. >> I put sign we put signs up round up and then I post things on our web page and Twitter. social media communication to parents because a lot of times they have an older kid or a cousin or whatever that's enrolled and and again typically if you look we've we've been very close to our target. So this is I would just say this is an anomaly of a year. We get we get another year in and we'll say okay we've got a trend that we need to >> this thing you can ignore. It's a missed opportunity on revenue. Obviously there's offsetting expenses to that but you know we've got the building capacity there. Um it just it's unfortunate we couldn't collect on because you're right it's like there there's numbers attached to each student

074and we we still got the building cost and hopefully obviously makes it better on teachers but we also couldn't hire a couple people because of that or maybe at least one. So we we chose not to. I mean that that was a decision that I made in consultation with Kelly and looking at enrollment numbers and what class sizes would be. But again, in response to that, if we're 45 below our cap, the roughly $8,000 per pupil, you can do the math on that. So, >> it's a big number. >> Seven. Seven classes in 10. >> Eight. Okay. >> Nine. Nine in all other grades through the elementary. >> Okay. >> Schools. >> Okay. All right. Thanks, Dr. Henshaw. Moving on to item 4 C, which is our 26 circuit breaker projection. I mean, it just

075it's just good news after good news, right? >> I don't I think we're just getting better and better. And I I don't know that I normally share this number with you because this is something that we get every year. We evaluate every year, but this this one is uh a little more frightening maybe is the right word. And so the projection is from the Department of Local Government Finance that our circuit breaker loss is going to increase by a million dollars in 2026. So up to roughly 2 and a.5 million. And again, not to get way down in the weeds, but basically a 100% of that loss has to be taken from the operations fund just because of the way that the debt service fund is protected. And so for us, we typically, Cara and

076I were talking about this earlier, we're typically going to have six and a half 7 million dollars worth of revenue in the operations fund. And so in in calendar year 2025, we're going to try to absorb a million and a half of circuit breaker loss money that in in theory, if we did not have property tax caps, we would raise in that fund and would be able to expend. Well, that number according to DLGF is going to go up to 2.5 million. So, the first question is, is it really going to go up to 2.5 million? We don't know. One of the things that uh Cara does a good job of is keeping track of what the the summer projection is and then what the final number is that we get in the spring. And

077I went through and looked at those and the number is about 88% accurate for us over the last um seven or eight years. So it's close. Uh they typically overestimate the circuit breaker, but not always. And there were a couple years ago that their projection for us was uh 890,000 high. So once we got our final numbers, they actually had overestimated our circuit breaker by almost a million. The part of the reason I want to talk about it this year though is the fact that we do have this added factor of the property tax reform which has an impact on assessed valuation. And so it's kind of an unknown. If you look at the report that that I gave you, if you go almost to the last second to the last line where it says

078projected supplemental homestead credit loss, well, that 340,000 I'm guessing um and we talked to Baker Tilly Car and I had a call with them after we got this and a lot of it's conjecture on their part too. They have to ask DGF, okay, what what sort of formula did you use to calculate this? But the 340,000, the assumption here is that that is some formula that they've used to multiply by all um homesteads in Mount Pleasant Township in in the school district to calculate that. That number, my guess is, is probably a real number. And that's, you know, roughly a third of the additional loss that we have. The rest of it is has to make some assumptions about what other units of government are doing, what their tax rates are doing and some guesses

079about overall trends in property values. And so that's why it's it's only a projection. And uh again, if it's a million, some of it we would be able to backfill with increases in funding in education fund, which can then be transferred to the operations fund up to 15%. Um some of it in the fact that you're allowed to raise the levy in your operations fund by 4%. But again, when you're in a circuit breaker situation, that levy increase is then raising your circuit breaker losses. So you're not collecting 100% of the increase because you're reducing the collection through the circuit breaker. So percentage- wise, I mean, we could probably backfill a quarter of it with other new revenue that's coming through both state and local means, but again, that's still big money. So >> is

080there a report because I think that's one piece of the puzzle, right? Is the credit loss, but if I like if I run on my house in in general, assessments went up. Is there a report that shows the net impact? Because like if you think if you look at the math with the new reform, assessments went up drastically. So theoretically, your credit loss goes up. So if you look at that number, it looks bad. But if you look at the net, it's like, well, it's the same. So, I think the question you're asking is, okay, what does net taxable AV look like for Mount Pleasant Township, for Yorktown Community Schools? And yes, there is a number and it it's certified net AV. It is not available yet for Delaware County. It is available for some

081counties. Car and I were looking today just at some other comparable places to say did did their net AV go up and in I think in most cases you looked at it did go up. So, that's kind of the I I'm not going to say it's a fail safe, but there may be some good news in there somewhere. However, that's only answering one part of the question because even if your AV goes up, your circuit breaker can still go up based on what you're doing with your tax rate and all those other units are doing with their tax rate. So, it's it's a little bit of a I mean, I don't know if it's a crystal ball or what it is that you're somebody is trying to guess what are all the overlapping units doing.

082And my assumption was before we talked to Baker Tilly that they're they're doing some kind of trending. That's what they a lot of times LSA will do that with some of their projections that they'll just go back and look at what your trend has been for the last two or three years and assume that that's predicted for the future. Sometimes it is. Yeah, I think the issue this year, I mean, you would know this better. It's like a lot of those went up 20 or 30% on the single family. So, like that number in a vacuum doesn't scare me because I think there's a huge increase in assess. The trending is almost irrelevant at this point. I don't know about the a side of things, but I know single families went up drastically. >> Even

083though like our homes went up though, our tax bill though is much cheaper with the differentiation. What is it in the homestead credit or something? And I'm like, our assess valuation has >> continually metriculated and gone up, but this will be the first year that our actual tax bill is lower than what it was last year or the year before. >> Ours went down just a little. I mean, our bill went >> AB land went I'm sorry, a land excess value of I think it was like $200 more on the Yeah. So this this all rolls in in 2016. >> Yeah. And so that the the assessment is occurring currently and we'll get those numbers at some point that's done county by county and you said last year for us it was like October >>

084after we approved the budget. >> So I ju I just say that to say >> you know again trying to trying to forecast into the future and you say okay so what does this mean in practical terms? Well, it's all going to be operations fund specific. And so you're you're back to thinking about the efficiency of transportation operating, you know, facility maintenance and improvement are paid from their capital projects, custodial utilities, and then central office operations. So those are the the dollars that are expended out of the operations fund. And so then you you figure out, okay, let's say this is the worst case scenario and it really is a million dollars more. We have roughly enough cash in our operations fund. if you kind of did status quo and assumed everything else was equal,

085but you had a million dollars more of circuit break or loss that we we could make it through almost all of calendar year 2026 with the cash and the revenue that we would project. Um, so that means you by my numbers, I don't think you could make it all the way through 2026. So you have to do some adjustments somewhere in 2026 to figure out how to cash flow in the operations fund through. So >> and that AB comes out in October. >> NetAB comes out when it's done. So some counties already have it and >> Delaware County is typically like >> not available for Delaware County currently. So, and even then that that gives you one more piece of the information, but it doesn't give you your finer final circuit breaker numbers until they

086certify all the budgets for all the units, which will happen in the spring. So, >> what's our total operations budget? >> Well, the the revenue is roughly I just looked at this. It was like 6.4 million. The appropriation is almost 8 million, but there's a million and a half circuit breaker that has to be has to reduce the budget to that. And again, we're I I think we're going to be in the position of where we are going to have new money in the education fund because our per pupil count, our our enrollment is basically flat and the state has raised the per pupil funding by about 2%. So, we'll have some new money. And on that side of the ledger, you're going to go, "Oh, well, there's new money in the education fund. Why

087why are you starving over here in the operations fund? because it has a different funding source. It has different constraints. So be it'll be interesting to try to work through that. So >> I'll keep you posted as we learn more. >> Thank you Dr. Henshaw for the for the insight on that. Definitely definitely important to keep our eye on that. Item D um on our reports is our learn results. So, I give this report also every year and I use some of the same format just so we've got some comparison. And one of the things I like to do is if you open the file that says uh graph, you'll see a scatter plot with a trend line in it. And I do have to give myself a cheat sheet every year to remember how

088to do this. >> Yeah, I didn't like that. I didn't like that particular attachment. But what this shows, these are all the districts sort of in what I would call greater east central Indiana. And I could tell you what all counties it is, but it's it's all the counties uh in the eastern part of the state kind of from Madison County and Grant County on east of the Ohio line. And I plot this with poverty rate and I learn passing rate. And whether we like it or not, poverty rate is a is a well doumented predictor of uh performance here. And so then the trend line just shows you statistically um the average school what it predicts where you should land in your achievement based on your poverty rate. And so if you're on the

089line, you you're kind of having an average performance. If you're below the line, you're having an above average performance. And so you can see Yorktown and has I would argue if I went back and showed you from previous years, we are moving higher above the line. And uh in relative terms, our scores overall, so the the number I took for shortorthhand is those passing both language arts and math aggregate in grades three through eight. So that's what that 37.9% is. And you can see Um, if you went back and looked at our 24 scores, we had almost a full percentage point of gain overall. Um, there's one district in Delaware County that is above us and they had they actually had a rather large drop year-over-year from 24 to 25. So that's a nice way

090to just say, okay, in terms of the efficacy of what's going on inside of our classrooms, what does the predictive model say that we should do? And then how are we doing relative to that? So you've got that, you got it in tabular form there if you like to see it that way. And then I every year I update this little chart that says um by grade and it's got all those years in it. And then the other thing I do every year is I give you a red or a green and red means scores went down. Green means scores went up. And so in the the top part of that where it's colorcoded, that is comparing this year's or the 25 third grade scores to the 24 third grade scores. Down at the bottom,

091it's by cohort. So as that group of students moves through the grade bands, is their percentage passing, increasing or falling? And what I would say is again overall scores uh Yorktown scores were up and uh if you look pretty consistently at our math scores, they were also up year-over-year. language arts scores um typically >> were down except in sixth grade and um >> candidly our our third through fifth ELA scores were down and in fact were below state average which is really not typical for Yorktown to be honest. So Mr. Thornberg and I have had some conversations about why that is. So we're in the transition between standards. We're in a transition between um old old iLearn and new iLearn. And we also adopted uh a new language arts curriculum that was implemented for the

092first time last year. So all those things factors. But I'll stop there and just ask if there are any questions. Do we have a plan on on three, four, five uh language arts? Well, and I think I would say I can defer to Mr. Thornberg. What I would say is part of it is that we have partially departmentalized and so the idea is that the same teacher is teaching language arts in our upper grades there. So the idea that they are they are very much focused on that curriculum and those standards. I I think over time as we're using Amplify, we're going to find that we get better at it. We know what's included and the the scope and sequence to use in teaching it. And so I would anticipate that we would see those

093scores improve. But >> yeah, so I think a couple things to consider. Um definitely not making any excuses. we much higher scores. Um we were told to do amplify of integrity. So we did basically started at unit one lesson one went through it. Uh the issue we found with that was there were some standards that were going to be covered later like April May that really needed to be covered much sooner. Uh we also found out a lot of the standards were not covered well at all. Um so we spent all last spring um basically meeting and coming up with the standards, finding out where our gaps were, finding out where the um gaps were with the curriculum, also aligning it with the checkpoints um because that was the other issue we were having. So

094we were under checkpoints which were the new standards which were this year. the summit of assessment was the old I learn um and of course amplified was kind of a mix of it's a national curriculum so it's not necessarily aligned to us at all so we have done a lot of work to where we're teaching units they are kind of out of order but they're going to align with checkpoints which is going to give us better data uh when we go and we got rid of some units that we taught that really they were not Indiana standards at all so teachers that have ton of work last year to try to prepare and be ready for that. Um because earlier there were some times they were taking checkpoints uh for ELA and they didn't even

095cover those standards yet because the curriculum wasn't at that point yet. So we did move things around so we'll be able to do that. >> Been actually in conversation with Batesville. Batesville been uh year five amplify and this past year they did move units around to align with checkpoints um and it didn't mess with the curriculum at all. So be the view and talking with them. >> Is baseball the closest school that Susan Amplify? >> Uh that models after us when it comes to K2. >> Okay. >> And building. >> Yeah. So Batesville has a K2 building >> and the 35 building and are very similar in size to us. So they each have eight sections >> per grade level. Um >> they would probably be demographically similar to 30%. Yeah. >> And and Mr.

096Thornberg did a good job of somewhat explaining the fact that all these moving parts of an old iLearn summitive that was still in place but new iLearn with checkpoints different standards. We sort of made the decision to go allin. That was a teacherled decision I would argue to go all in on amplify and go toward the new system. And so there definitely was some adjustment along the way. So one I think it's great to like just own and go back and say what will we change? So we selected amplify this because obviously the states or other schools are experiencing the same thing. Did they just not implement amplify or do they have a different program we should consider? I guess generally. >> Yeah. So science and reading they basically gave us five different programs we

097could choose from. Right off the bat, two of the five you weren't even allowed to order the whole entire curriculum. Basically said, you can order this piece of the curriculum, >> but you can't order this piece of the curriculum. Um, another one of the curriculums with basically what we were already doing, just a different name. >> Um, and then the other was just a straight basil, um, which is very open it up, read from a manuscript, and go on. So, um, the data we saw, I know we work well close with Martinsville, >> um, a couple other schools that were seeing some growth from Amplify, um, that weren't really using any other curriculums up until then. >> This is probably an ignorant question, but like the state folks, people are at the higher average. Are

098they using that same program? Are they excuse like if we're comparing ourselves with them, like why do they excel more? Were they not dealing with this? This is maybe a dumb question. Were they not dealing with the same hurdles or no? Um, I mean, some of them aren't even aligning themselves with the state. They're kind of gambling. >> They may not have they may not have adopted new curriculum aligned with the science of reading yet because you have the freedom if you did not want to. >> You you had to adopt a new curriculum. When you adopt a new curriculum, it has to be aligned with the science of reading, but you were not mandated to do it right away >> unless you unless you had certain Yeah, >> correct. But we chose to move

099forward with going ahead and adopting Amplify because it was science of reading basically. >> And I want I'm going to tell just a fun anecdotal story just because I think it it kind of exemplifies some of what was going on. Um so we we implemented science of reading. Um we're or or amplify is the curriculum we adopted. We're in the process of doing that. I think everybody knows I I know Dr. Jenner pretty well. And one night I get a text from Dr. Jenner and it's a picture of a worksheet and it says, you know, do you know this worksheet was being used in your school at Yorktown and someone in your district complain and it got to a legislator and it wasn't Elizabeth Rory and and the legislator sends it to Dr. Jenner and

100Dr. Jenner sends it to me. I think I sent it to Kelly and Kelly goes, "That's straight out of Amplify. It's straight out of the It was straight out of the curriculum that was one of the five that was on IDO's list. >> Yep. >> But yet it's it circles back around of like, oh, what where did this come from? And so with a little humor, I was able to say, well, actually, that's right out of your curriculum, >> one of your five approved. There's a lot of people that like to create things that don't look and see the differences and what I mean what it's going to do and what's what it's not going to do unfortunately that aren't teachers and know what'll work and what won't work. >> And I think a lot

101of it is just the the period of transition. So we're is this year three and reveal math? >> Yes, year three and reveal math. >> And look at the math scores. I think there's there's been professional development. There's been buy into that and I think you can see that and so part of it is just a process. >> So we're still sold and amplify just the wiring of what we do. That makes sense. Okay. >> Last year was fidelity. This year is let's work out the kinks from last year. I like that. Yeah. >> Um and I'll say too everything built a ton. So like my fifth grade teachers maybe referencing things that they did clear down in second grade and up. Well, this was the first year for fifth graders. So there was all

102those building blocks that they never heard, never thought. So there was a whole new vocabulary that they were learning at the same time, too. So um again, >> not great excuses, but not winning. >> Well, and it's a ton of extra work for you guys to do that. I mean, you don't shouldn't have to do that with a curriculum, but >> I feel like a lot of schools did go with Amplify, a majority that I know. >> I think that was a majority that changed >> and that's a huge one in Florida, too, and some of the other states that are moving to science reading that had a lot more um data or years ahead in signs of breeding. I just went through the Acadians training and we had adopted that as something to use

103to test for a dyslexia screener and the trainer said this is absolutely not a dyslexia screener and you should not be using it but it's approved it was one of the ones that was approved by the IDOE. So, you know, we're not sure how we're going to utilize that now, but they said that is not at all what it should ever be used for. >> That's the recommendate recommended screener bit from the state, but we're using MCL class. >> Yeah. >> So, >> and that's the other thing. So, we they did MClass last year and we jumped on MClass this year. Um, so we actually got rid of some programs so we could afford to go because it does align with amplify and signs of reading better. Plus, they're doing this, so it'll be a

104smooth transition from second to third. >> When you're trying to progress monitor students and looking at their data from year to year. >> Cool. >> All right, let's transition from I learn to I read. >> Yeah. So, to me, this in some ways is the other side of the coin. And we've talked about I read results before and you can see so the state I read results were just released last week publicly and our overall I read results so second grade and third grade for that cohort the passing rate is 93% the state average is 87 and you know one of the things I would say in defense of y and ilearn scores there is if we're looking at multiple measures okay how do We have I read scores that are six points above state

105average, but then we're looking at ELA scores in Yee that are maybe a little below average. So, we we want to take a holistic view of where we are. I also thought it was interesting as I gave you the historical scores uh for Yorktown Community Schools on Irene 3 going back to 2016. You can definitely see the effect of COVID in there that our scores were high and basically increasing and then they've dropped and we're back now. These are the highest I read scores that we've had in about six years. So, we'll just continue to do what we're doing. I think again take it's required to to administer it in second grade. Now, we've had a lot of success with that. I think that allows our third grade teachers to focus on the kids who

106need the remediation. We've got a pretty robust system in place to remediate those students and so we'll continue to work on that. This remember this the state's goal is 95%. So continue to trudge toward that goal. Well done. Really good progress. Um okay. Uh let's move on to to the business section item 5A. Dr. Hitchcock, >> this is really sort of proforma. Ask you to approve these administrative contracts every year by statute their contracts role um unless you cancel them. But this is just to get it in the record for state board of accounts as well as their agenda. And of course, this doesn't reflect any change in their contract from last year. We typically don't adjust administrator contracts until after we've settled with the teachers. So I would ask for approval. >> So this

107is renewing the entire contract or just amending part of it. >> It is actually just you approving from a legal sense. You are not required to put these on for approval. Um because they have a right to continuing employment under the statute unless you give them notice of non-renewal. One of the things to go back in history, um, Yorktown did not use contract addenda for administrators before I got here. And so part of this is just to to verify that the extra benefits that are given to administrators are reduced to writing and that the board has approved it. They have not changed any. In fact, even the amounts have not changed since last school year. Did I say that correctly? >> But this approval is to ex essentially accept your entire contract. >> The the

108the essentially what you're doing is approving the addendum. >> Yeah. Exhibit A is just the addendum of of benefits. >> They all administrators also sign a regular form teachers contract and that is their contract for employment. And the addendum then specifies um if they get extra vacation days, if they work extended days, um they're not covered by the collected bargaining agreement with teachers. So there are things that are in the collective bargaining agreement with teachers that in order for us to guarantee them to administrators, they are reduced to writing in this addendum. So it almost serves as like their their form of their collective bargaining agreement, but they're they don't bargain collectively. >> So do we approve the employment agreement separately or is this all together? >> You >> sorry for the confusion. I just

109I read this as your employment agreement. >> Okay. the employment agreement legally you approve upon initial hire and if you take no action it will roll over by statute for the succeeding school year. Um, so sometimes boards and uh this used to be this way in Yorktown >> that the board used to give administrators an additional year and so they always kind of had two years on their contract. I they're in the room so I'm going to own it. I have not done that. Um it would just let the statutory role happen every year. So, you have the ability to extend it beyond the statutory rights that are extended to them. And if you're choosing to nonrenew their administrative contract, you have to give them notice. I think it's December one. I have to go

110back and read the statute if you're not going to renew them for the succeeding school year. And some of them, one of them at least would also have uh tenure rights under Indiana law. Actually, there we would have we would have two or three administrators who would have tenure rights under Indiana law. So, they have a property right to continue teacher employment because I want to say like the first year or two on the board, I feel like I got a a summary or maybe we approved it individually, but it would be nice just honestly all these I don't know what they get paid. So be curious or what their structure is. A summary summary annually of all of our administers outside of the bargaining contract would be would be helpful. Just >> um we

111could probably do that pretty easily. >> Yeah. >> In 10 year old things would be helpful. I think >> this um this really so this again this is not a legal requirement but sometimes when the state board of accounts does the bianial audit they will audit a payroll and they will ask for proof that the board has approved the compensation and benefits of whatever I mean they may just randomly pick a single employee and they will audit that payroll and so this is an easy way for the business office to point back and say, "Well, here's my Cuber's contract for employment. Here's when it was approved." Otherwise, before I got here, I don't think this ever happened, but you would have to reconstruct all the benefits. When I I think it was Cara who asked

112me um No, it was Brooke who asked me something about do you do you agree that administrators have to sign a regular form teachers contract? And I said, "Yes, they do by law." And then I said, "And an addendum." And she said, "We don't use an addendum. We don't use anything like that." I said, "How do you know what benefits administrators are entitled to?" And so this is actually an addendum that I used at Randolph Central that I modified here just for audit purposes. >> Okay. Thanks. >> How about a motion from someone? Motion to approve the business. Can I do the whole thing? >> Um, all >> of them or just the addendums? >> Yeah. All we're doing is >> presented. Yeah. >> There you go. Motion to approve the addendum as presented. >>

113All right. Thanks, Vicki. How about a second? >> Thank you, Ashley. >> Any further comments or questions? >> All those in favor by saying I. I. >> I. Any opposed? Carries. 5. Thank you. Item 5B is the annual approval of of our enrollment requirements. Dr. Henshaw. >> So, you'll see the memo from IDOE that basically instructs local districts that they have to adopt a set of residency requirements annually and I've included those that have been previously approved for your approval if you are willing. Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Ryan. How about a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Vicki. >> Okay. All those in favor of that move by saying I. >> I. Any opposed? Carries. 5-0. Last item on the agenda is 5C, which is the second reading and adoption of our Neola

114policy updates, which are primarily most of those are because of legislative changes. >> This is actually the batch before legislative changes. The legislative changes are still on my desk, but yes, the things that have happened in the last year. >> Ashley, do you want to read >> Ashley all of those for us if you would please? >> No. >> Okay, you don't have to. >> Uh board, I need a motion to approve those. >> Approve the policy adoption. >> Second. >> All right. Thank you. Jason with a motion. Ryan with a second. All those in favor by saying I >> I. Any opposed? carries 5-0. Okay, Dr. Henshaw, rolling to your closing comments. >> Well, I want to say by and large what I've heard is that we've had a really smooth start to school

115and I've heard principles and directors say that you want me to knock on wood. Um, we're far enough in now that it's it's all good. Um, and was referenced in the work session that we started fully staffed and fully licensed and that is huge. And uh Tom heard me say this at the opening day meeting that the appreciation that we have for our staff. I I think I said this, I can't remember, but virtually any person who's employed at York in Yorktown in a certified position could easily go somewhere else and work in the same position. Now, they might not make the same money, they might make more, but people who are here are actively choosing to be here. And uh that is a that's just a testament to the kind of people that we

116have to the administrators that we have to the environment that's here and uh it's quite common when I ask the new teachers like so you know why I always say why did you become a teacher and I talk that through for a bit and then I say why why Yorktown what interests you about Yorktown and it's very common for people to say I've been trying to get in here for five years or I've you know I've wanted to come to Yorktown for a long time And so I really appreciate the fact that we're able to do that over and over and over again. And that that is to the credit of everybody that's involved. You want to talk about construction or >> Yeah, why not? >> I went to the Yorktown Chamber meeting this morning,

117as I do every month, and somebody asked me about it before the meeting even started. Um, so I have not been over past the high school since about 11:00 a.m., but the shock pad was supposed to be installed as of today or being installed today. And um, we had a a football progress meeting. We're having one every Thursday and uh, Jeff Fowler is assuring us that by two weeks from Saturday, it'll all be done. So, um, and he he has said repeatedly once that shock pad goes down and once the the turf starts to go down, it'll all happen pretty fast. I did add Stacy was in that meeting. I said, "Well, as soon as you get the the turf down, we'll send Shawn out there to stripe it." And, uh, that was a joke.

118>> Yeah. Comes pre-striped. >> Two weeks from last Saturday or next Saturday? >> This past Saturday. >> Um, there are a lot of other moving parts out there. I think the press box is near done. Um, was the Lee Company there today or was that crew? >> So, the Lee company is waiting on Frederick's to pour some concrete pads for the ADA ramp on the visitor's side. and their sales guy has assured us that when that's done, it will only take them one day to finish on the bleachers. So, the 25second clocks were installed on Saturday. >> Um, >> goalpost came today. >> The goalpost came yesterday. I I saw that truck. So, >> again, it's it's coming together. You know, I I would love to say I wish it could have been done in

119time for the scrimmage. Um, I've been around enough construction projects, especially uh public construction projects, that it seems like schedule delays and cost overruns are the the name of the game, unfortunately. But again, progress. The >> large shock cut in about halfway. >> Yeah, they were installing it today. >> Good. >> Yeah. And what I was told by Jeff and I think verified by Brennan and uh Brian once once they did soil stabilization and they got the stone down with the drainage at that point you know it can rain on it as much as >> yes >> it can be thrown at it and it'll be fine. So, um, the larger project, I I've heard tons of compliments on the front office and there are a few little things that'll have to be done over

120fall break. Well, one big thing like the Turzo has to be ground down, but uh, they're moved back into their space and utilizing it and have both of their restrooms online now in the front office. Um, I think there maybe are a few punch list things in science, but for the most part, science is underway as it's supposed to be. I was through the sports performance center yesterday. We walked through there and so progress day by day. I did ask Brennan yesterday said, "So, what is our our occupancy target for weight room?" And he said, "Probably the equipment will be installed over fall break." So again, continuing to make progress there. >> Is there is there a day >> is there a time where where any of us could I don't want to just show

121up, but could we potentially schedule a Yeah, anybody who was interested just to walk through. >> Absolutely. Again, I could probably secure a hard hat on Amazon someplace, but I'd rather >> I'd rather >> I think if you if anybody wants to go through, I'm sure you could number one stop and see Brennan and he would probably take you through or let me know and I would be happy to take you or Stacy can take you and if you want to go as a group, we can absolutely arrange for that too. >> I personally rather schedule it rather than just >> Okay. So I can I can send out an email and >> okay >> it's it is going to be very nice and very functional when it is done. I think that is >>

122without a doubt. Um I mentioned this in my memo, but uh I continue to have some concerns around progress on our roof planning and so I have reached out to some other people for some info and I'll keep you informed on that. I mean the financing side of it is going very well. Um but just making sure that we have a plan in place that we can execute once we have the financing arranged is something that I am going to continue to focus on. Um I mentioned earlier in the whole discussion of the uh the tax base and and the impact of SEA1. I don't want to overstate that case, but it is something that we want to just continue to watch and be vigilant about. We're not alone. It's fun to be maybe it's

123demoralizing to be with other superintendents and have them all talk about what their circuit breaker numbers look like and the impact of that. And then lastly, news as of today. Uh we got the public announcement of the US News and World Report um best high schools and Yorktown High School is again on that list in the top 10% in the state. I think the rank was number 37 and that's of all schools public and private all high schools in the state. So in the top 10% and that's been a consistent uh ranking for Yorktown High School. So just one more piece of evidence of the kind of work that goes on there. So congratulations to Stacy and her staff. >> What was the There was another ranking maybe you'd sent out a month or so

124ago. We did very well in that as well. Do you remember that one? Seems like you >> Well, that was probably AP ranking >> SAT. >> There is niche. >> That's it's more like what you're Yeah, it was like we didn't know how they >> Oh, okay. That was that was an online magazine >> that ranked us >> best schools >> something. That was one. There was even another one. >> I think that's the one you're talking about. >> Was cuz you like carved out the private schools when you took >> SAT. Yeah, >> SAT results. Yeah, >> that's what it was cuz I was talking to you about Liberty Perry and >> Yeah. Okay. >> We're not naming any names here. >> Yeah. Again, multiple measures. And you've heard me say this before that

125I think one test that the public uses to to measure the value of Yorktown Community Schools is where is my student going to go after high school and as Yorktown High School. And then all the stuff that's vertically aligned underneath that, giving them the opportunity to get admitted wherever they want or to get into the the vocational program they want to get into. It was uh top 10% nationally, too. >> Yeah, that's right. >> We got a good bond rating. >> Thank you. >> We did. We had a stable bond rating and uh I'm I was a little surprised it wasn't downgraded some just because of our cash position, but it was a it was a good bond rating, so we'll take it. >> Mr. Wagner's spreading out soil probably has. He's probably a backhoe

126right now. That'll make Ryan happy, right? I know if you guys heard complaints about dirt piles, but I feel like I've heard from like 10 people about dirt piles. So, >> okay. Now, I feel more questions about >> really and and the short version is it was our soil and it was clean fill that we needed and he has a plan B that if we get to the point where we say, "Okay, we're not going to need that for a long time that it can be removed." Um and and the storm water coordinator for Delaware County has been on site and met with him and according to Mr. Wagner blessed his plan. So >> Okay. >> Anyway, >> and then you've got a plan to to meet with again with Fred um next week. >>

127Next week. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Are you going to meet with him or are we gonna are we going to need to schedule a work session with him? >> Um it will be Mr. Kelly and Stacy and Paul and me and Brian and anybody we can get from softball. >> Very good. >> During that time just for kind of a high level preliminary discussion. >> Okay. >> All right. And anything else? >> I think that's enough >> unless you disagree. >> I agree. All right. Thanks, Dr. Henshaw. Appreciate you. Uh closing comments from board members. I'll start with Mrs. school last week. >> I don't have a lot to say. Thank you guys for everything that you're doing to start the school year off so well. I know my three kids have all been

128very happy and had a great start to the year. And congratulations on your test scores. They all look great. I know it's not easy with all the changes that you guys, especially in elementary, have gone through with your curriculums and things that you've had to work to accommodate those. So congratulations. >> All right. Thanks Ashley and Mrs. Gasaway. >> Well I look at that too. But thank you also just for a great back to school year. So the Gway household has been very happy and I did not receive any calls this year back to school from angry parents about bus routing or anything like that. So it was um yes very nice start back to school. Um congratulations to our marching band. They did well down at the state fair. It was a hot day

129>> if you're able to see that. Um as well as it seems like our girls golf team just had a nice victory. So congratulations there. And then um just a a little heads up, we are still working on creating possibly an a academy. Uh Mr. Brand uh has been kind of instrumental behind the scenes also in helping get that started for Delaware County. So, you know, we have a few students that we've been losing um to different agg online programs or other schools that they can pursue that pathway. So, this will be a another possibility for our Yorktown students to to possibly uh participate in. So, >> that sounds innovative. >> Yeah, >> very innovative. Prophetic quotations. >> Great job. All right. Thank you. Uh Jason, >> uh as always, thank you guys for taking

130the time to attend. Appreciate you being here. Um echo what they say. It's been a great start to the school year. At least from my perspective, it seems like the smoothest since I've been part of the board. So, you know, it's a lot of hard work. So, thank you. >> Did you have one miss? >> I just see I forgot the Lily Endowment Teacher Fellowship Grant. Um a community member sent me a link. That due date is coming up in I think the first week of September, maybe somewhere around in there. So if anybody that's looking at doing that teacher fellowship, so get their applications in, I think it's 15,000 I believe is the payout or grant awardy this year. So >> Oh, that's great. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks for that, Brian. >> Yeah,

131obviously construction's a headache, so thanks for kind of working through that and we're getting there. So they're filled a lot of questions to get to the end, but thank you guys for having good staff, good teachers. You know, I don't think our kids have had a bad teacher along the way. So, actually, one of them might might have had one. I think she quit next year. So, I think that's that's good attrition. But, uh, Mr. Bran, thanks for being here. I don't I don't know that we saw any other county commissioner in the seven years I've been here, and you've been to several. So, thanks for spending your time, >> sitting in a meeting, and figuring what's going on in Delaware County. So, thanks for being here. So, thank you guys. >> Okay. Thank you.

132Well, not a whole lot to add uh as we wrap it up. I I just want to thank our our administrative leaders who are here and thank you to all of you guys for all you do. My granddaughter is a first grader this year and so far so good. Haven't heard anything, but um good things from her thus far. She's missing one of her buddies from last year's class, but she's trying to make some new friends. And my daughter-in-law came over today and so they told her, I said, "Well, you need to, you know, make some some new friends in your new class." And and so she ran into Lily, her little buddy from from last year, the playratic. And she goes, "Well, my mom said I have to make Lily was devastated and her

133mom called my daughter-in-law and she said, "No, that's not exactly the message we were trying to deliver." But uh um anyway, I it it doesn't happen by accident that you have a good start to to the school year. And we take it for granted as parents and I'm sure it's not flawless. And you know there's you know when you restart something that you know has been dormant or semi- dormant for six weeks and then you start it back up again and you've got thousands of kids and parents and all your staff coming back and trying to make it all work and um and again I don't get a whole lot of calls anyway. I'm too old to to hear from too many people in our district. Uh but all of these people do and the

134fact that you know we're hearing nothing but good things is a testament to all of you and and your staff. So, thank you very much, Steve, Joel, thanks for coming tonight as well, too. And Dr. Henshaw, I think we we take it for granted. Brian brought up construction, but it feels like we've been a in a per perpetual construction project for the last seven or eight years, because we probably have. And uh, you know, every time I call Dr. Henshaw or I email him and say, "What are you doing?" Well, he says, "Well, I just got out of a conference, a parent teacher conference or something going on in one of the buildings. I just left the chamber meeting and I'm going into this and and uh we take for granted all the different things

135that you have to do that are part of your regular job besides being a person that's managing all these multi-million dollar construction projects that we're adding to our campus. So, um, thank you for definitely leading that and for leading your staff and and making it work and taking all of our phone calls and emails that come at you. Harum scurm, I think, was the term that you used before. So, we appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> All right, that's it, folks. We're wrapped. Thanks for coming.