WEBVTT 00:00:00.130 --> 00:00:07.546 - Welcome to the Henry F. Schricker Library at Edgewood High School. And this is a candidate forum sponsored 00:00:07.546 --> 00:00:14.685 - by the League of Women Voters. My name is Ralph Shaw, and I will be the moderator for the session. And 00:00:14.685 --> 00:00:22.032 - I'm delighted that we have all four candidates for the Richland Bean Blossom Community School Corporation 00:00:22.032 --> 00:00:28.964 - School Board who are here today to answer your questions. And that's really what we're trying to do 00:00:28.964 --> 00:00:29.726 - is to hear 00:00:30.562 --> 00:00:36.723 - Whoever is here and you are representing the whole of the school corporation with your questions. We 00:00:36.723 --> 00:00:43.066 - are glad that the event is being recorded by CATS, Community Access Television Services from the Monroe 00:00:43.066 --> 00:00:49.348 - County Public Library. And so our friends and neighbors will be able to watch what we've asked and how 00:00:49.348 --> 00:00:55.326 - they have responded as they want to make their decisions about for whom to vote for school board. 00:00:55.714 --> 00:01:01.944 - So we have the four candidates and we're going to begin with each of them giving a one minute opening 00:01:01.944 --> 00:01:08.236 - statement about who they are. The first two are from the Bean Blossom District and the second two from 00:01:08.236 --> 00:01:14.588 - the Richland District. So those are the two races, one for each district. So if you're comparing people 00:01:14.588 --> 00:01:20.696 - and deciding where to place your vote, that would be the comparison you'd be making. After that, we 00:01:20.696 --> 00:01:22.590 - will go to questions from you. 00:01:22.690 --> 00:01:29.287 - And we also have some questions that were submitted in advance by people who responded by email. So 00:01:29.287 --> 00:01:35.884 - we'll work sort of back and forth. But the main idea is to get your questions forwarded and brought 00:01:35.884 --> 00:01:42.481 - to the candidates. And yes, if you have a question, it would be wonderful if you could come up here 00:01:42.481 --> 00:01:49.078 - so that people can hear what you have to say. If you'd rather not, Carol Gardner has note cards and 00:01:49.078 --> 00:01:52.574 - pencils if you want to write something down and have 00:01:53.666 --> 00:02:00.030 - If you want to write something legibly and have me read it, I would be glad to do that for you. So however, 00:02:00.030 --> 00:02:05.981 - whatever works best for you in terms of getting your questions onto the floor. So we'll have the one 00:02:05.981 --> 00:02:11.932 - minute opening statements from each of the candidates. Then we'll go to questions. At the end, we'll 00:02:11.932 --> 00:02:17.824 - have a minute for closing statements. Again, one minute. And surprise, they will each have a minute 00:02:17.824 --> 00:02:22.302 - to respond to the questions unless it turns out to be a question that seems 00:02:22.594 --> 00:02:32.414 - require a lot more than one minute to respond. Okay. So we will go ahead and start alphabetically. We'll 00:02:32.414 --> 00:02:41.766 - start on the end with Krista and move down this way. Okay. My name is Krista Curtis. I'm excited to 00:02:41.766 --> 00:02:45.694 - be running for school board. I have three 00:02:45.890 --> 00:02:52.453 - reasons why I'm running for school board. The first is that I really am excited and energized by the 00:02:52.453 --> 00:02:59.080 - things that are happening at Edgewood and definitely want to be a part of making this a great school. 00:02:59.080 --> 00:03:05.838 - Second reason that I'm running is that I am concerned for public education. I think the decisions being 00:03:05.838 --> 00:03:09.022 - made at a state level that are impacting funding 00:03:09.186 --> 00:03:15.781 - are something to be concerned about. And the third reason I'm running is I think that I have some really 00:03:15.781 --> 00:03:22.375 - good experience to help with those challenges. I've been a part of boards. I know what governance means. 00:03:22.375 --> 00:03:29.158 - I've led people through change. I've managed large budgets. And I've had to be involved in complex decision 00:03:29.158 --> 00:03:35.502 - making. And I know what it's like to have to take a lot of input from a lot of stakeholders and work 00:03:35.502 --> 00:03:38.014 - through that to get to a good decision. 00:03:38.210 --> 00:03:46.805 - So those are the three key reasons why I'm running. I'm happy to be here tonight. Perfect. And Jeremiah. 00:03:46.805 --> 00:03:55.154 - Yeah, I'm Jeremiah O'Neill. A few big reasons why I decided to run. Initially, I realized that Krista 00:03:55.154 --> 00:04:03.503 - was running uncontested, so I figured I might as well get in there and make it a choice or an option. 00:04:03.503 --> 00:04:07.678 - And then secondly, I have four kids that have went 00:04:07.810 --> 00:04:13.299 - Ellisville schools here, Edgewood and three of them are special needs and we've had our fair share of 00:04:13.299 --> 00:04:18.734 - problems. And so I don't want to pretend like everything's perfect and I want to make it better. And 00:04:18.734 --> 00:04:24.492 - I think that's really bad. I'll have to say about that. And then that'll just kind of encompass everybody, 00:04:24.492 --> 00:04:30.035 - every other kid too. And if I have to fight for my kids that need special services, then all the other 00:04:30.035 --> 00:04:34.878 - kids need them too. They need somebody to advocate for them and I'll be the guy to do it. 00:04:40.322 --> 00:04:47.634 - My name is Dennis Adams. I am running because I want to use my experience to help with the school and 00:04:47.634 --> 00:04:54.875 - a school I love. I went to Edgewood. All my family went to Edgewood. Kids, grandkids go to Edgewood. 00:04:54.875 --> 00:04:59.678 - I've lived in this area my whole life. I have a long-term business 00:04:59.778 --> 00:05:06.767 - experience. I've worked for the same company my entire career. I also have a lot of experience with 00:05:06.767 --> 00:05:14.035 - the state legislators. I am state president of our trade association and I helped pass our bill in 1987 00:05:14.035 --> 00:05:19.486 - and 15 times we've had to amend that bill and I had to go testify in front of 00:05:19.682 --> 00:05:26.719 - legislators. I've had to meet them one on one and I think I can use that. I'm also involved in the federal 00:05:26.719 --> 00:05:33.295 - side with our trade association. One thing I really want to do is I really want to thank the League 00:05:33.295 --> 00:05:40.201 - of Women Voters. This is such a positive thing to get this information out to the public and have forums 00:05:40.201 --> 00:05:46.843 - like this. I know they've been around for almost a hundred years promoting voting and I think that's 00:05:46.843 --> 00:05:49.342 - just a real, real nice thing they do. 00:05:52.162 --> 00:06:01.848 - Hi, my name is Kelly Scholl, and I am running for school board because I am passionate about public 00:06:01.848 --> 00:06:11.825 - education. I started my career in public education. I taught for about 12 years at high school, mostly 00:06:11.825 --> 00:06:13.278 - physics, and I 00:06:13.538 --> 00:06:22.140 - When I decided to leave the classroom, I went into higher education. I now help faculty at Indiana University 00:06:22.140 --> 00:06:30.116 - with their teaching. So I've spent my entire professional career in education. And I would like to be 00:06:30.116 --> 00:06:36.606 - able to give back to public education at the K-12 level again. One minute is hard. 00:06:37.378 --> 00:06:45.069 - I also want to thank everybody here for coming tonight. It's great to be able to talk to folks and be 00:06:45.069 --> 00:06:52.911 - able to have them hear from all of us and the League of Women Voters for hosting us as well. Thank you. 00:06:52.911 --> 00:06:56.606 - If you have a question, you can raise your hand. 00:06:57.154 --> 00:07:03.987 - start with an icebreaker question, and we'll just sort of go backwards down the road. So starting with 00:07:03.987 --> 00:07:10.688 - Kelly, the question, and you have a minute for response, because it's, what do you think is the most 00:07:10.688 --> 00:07:13.342 - critical issue that RBBCSC faces today? 00:07:14.722 --> 00:07:23.534 - So I think that the most critical issue that our corporation faces is building community, coalition, 00:07:23.534 --> 00:07:32.521 - and being able to have that strong foundation. I work in educational technology. The thing that I know 00:07:32.521 --> 00:07:41.246 - is that everything changes very quickly. The other thing with education is as new elections happen, 00:07:41.474 --> 00:07:49.145 - at the state level, at the federal level, the problems that we're gonna have in public education are 00:07:49.145 --> 00:07:57.424 - dependent upon those folks that are changing in those offices. So the challenges that we face are constantly 00:07:57.424 --> 00:08:05.248 - going to be changing, and so being able to have a background and a solid ground in caring for students 00:08:05.248 --> 00:08:08.286 - and educators is the thing that I think 00:08:08.642 --> 00:08:14.836 - helps me face those problems, but building the coalition, the community across our entire community, 00:08:14.836 --> 00:08:20.968 - where we can listen to everybody, is our most critical issue. Thank you. Gosh, that's hard. I think 00:08:20.968 --> 00:08:27.407 - one of our biggest challenges are budget cutbacks. How the money's being spent, how we're spending money 00:08:27.407 --> 00:08:33.601 - in a school, how much money we're getting from the state, how much less money we're getting from the 00:08:33.601 --> 00:08:35.134 - state in a lot of cases. 00:08:35.266 --> 00:08:41.156 - I'm from a business background. I think that business background, I know how to look at a budget. I 00:08:41.156 --> 00:08:47.046 - guarantee you I would question every line on a budget. I just came back from a board meeting and we 00:08:47.046 --> 00:08:52.994 - went through our budget line by line and determined what shouldn't be there and what should be there 00:08:52.994 --> 00:08:59.002 - and that was something that I bring to the table. Another thing is we're in competition. As a school, 00:08:59.002 --> 00:09:04.126 - we're in competition for teachers, we're in competition for students and we have to be 00:09:04.322 --> 00:09:11.798 - We have to have the best, and competition for teachers. We have to have the best teachers. We have to 00:09:11.798 --> 00:09:19.274 - have the best administrators. We have to want kids to come to our school because of the teachers, the 00:09:19.274 --> 00:09:26.603 - curriculum, and the facilities. The facilities are important because kids can go anywhere now. They 00:09:26.603 --> 00:09:33.566 - can go any school for any reason without even having a reason. So thank you. 60 seconds. Yeah. 00:09:34.018 --> 00:09:40.367 - I think the budget and money is a big part of it, but I think we've got to start right here at home 00:09:40.367 --> 00:09:46.969 - and fix problems here before we worry about going elsewhere for answers. Same as Dennis, it sounds like 00:09:46.969 --> 00:09:53.826 - I do a lot of commercial real estate work, project management, I manage hundreds and hundreds of facilities 00:09:53.826 --> 00:10:00.429 - that probably make this place look very small. We talk about budgets all the time, we talk about return 00:10:00.429 --> 00:10:02.270 - on investment, we talk about 00:10:02.498 --> 00:10:08.299 - where we spend our money and where do we get the most value. Do some of the projects that we have going 00:10:08.299 --> 00:10:13.989 - on around here serve everybody? I'm not sure that they do. I wonder sometimes if maybe money could be 00:10:13.989 --> 00:10:19.678 - spent differently and provide a better free and appropriate education for everybody that attends RBB. 00:10:23.458 --> 00:10:30.008 - Well, I'd have to agree that I think the biggest challenge right now is funding. Dr. Sanders has shared 00:10:30.008 --> 00:10:36.559 - publicly that the school corporation is going to need to find a million dollars to cut in expenses this 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:43.298 - next school year, and that's not a small problem. And you have to do that while still supporting students, 00:10:43.298 --> 00:10:49.911 - because as you said, every student deserves an education. I mean, the law requires this community school 00:10:49.911 --> 00:10:53.438 - corporation to provide every student with an education. 00:10:53.538 --> 00:11:00.244 - And at the same time, we need to be able to appropriately pay our teachers. So I think that the school 00:11:00.244 --> 00:11:07.016 - board will have to, I think they're already doing it, and I think you're gonna have to continue to look 00:11:07.016 --> 00:11:13.527 - at every penny that gets spent, every project, while at the same time meeting their obligations. So 00:11:13.527 --> 00:11:17.694 - I think related to this, the other big challenge is making sure 00:11:17.794 --> 00:11:26.999 - that our legislators understand the decisions they're making and the impact it's having at a local level. 00:11:26.999 --> 00:11:35.684 - And I'm not sure that they always do. So somehow we have to tell that story. Are there questions or 00:11:35.684 --> 00:11:42.718 - people thinking of questions that you're going to write down to funnel to Carol? 00:11:52.066 --> 00:11:57.318 - So I don't have an infinite number of questions suggested by the public, by the way. So you should, 00:11:57.318 --> 00:12:02.728 - as they used to say in kindergarten, put on your thinking cap and be thinking about the questions that 00:12:02.728 --> 00:12:08.137 - brought you out here tonight. What would you really like to know from these people? They are assembled 00:12:08.137 --> 00:12:13.494 - here. I'm sorry. I do have questions. I thought someone else was coming up here to ask questions. No, 00:12:13.494 --> 00:12:18.799 - if you want to come up here, that would be great, because then Kat's going to be sure to record your 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:19.902 - question. Thank you. 00:12:23.778 --> 00:12:36.341 - So I'm Jeremiah's wife, and we have four kiddos. Three of those kiddos are autistic and have utilized 00:12:36.341 --> 00:12:48.903 - services at RBB. We've had an amazing experience up until this year. That's no secret. So I have some 00:12:48.903 --> 00:12:53.214 - questions specifically for Krista. 00:12:53.346 --> 00:13:00.864 - You posted a September 8th video on Facebook, and it said that a board must ensure district policies 00:13:00.864 --> 00:13:08.456 - actually work. When families have used the complaint process, raise concerns directly with the board, 00:13:08.456 --> 00:13:16.123 - and still lack a documented resolution, what should the board do to verify that administrators address 00:13:16.123 --> 00:13:21.854 - the problem? Yeah, that's a great question. I have thought about this a lot. 00:13:25.186 --> 00:13:32.319 - Did the minute start? As we know, it's not the board's job to run the corporation day to day, right? 00:13:32.319 --> 00:13:39.382 - But I do think we need to listen. I think we need to pay attention to what parents are saying, what 00:13:39.382 --> 00:13:46.444 - teachers are saying, and what students are saying. And so when we hear feedback, I think we need to 00:13:46.444 --> 00:13:54.142 - ask questions. I don't ever think you should just assume policies are working. It's important to go to where 00:13:54.370 --> 00:14:00.577 - things are happening and understand it firsthand. My belief is that because I deal with this sometimes 00:14:00.577 --> 00:14:06.724 - at work and you hear things and you you don't always know if it's a singular situation or if there is 00:14:06.724 --> 00:14:12.750 - a systemic trend and I think one of the things I always try to pay attention to is there's that old 00:14:12.750 --> 00:14:19.017 - adage you know where there's where there's smoke there's fire and the more that you hear something it's 00:14:19.017 --> 00:14:22.814 - very likely that there's a problem that needs to be addressed. 00:14:23.426 --> 00:14:30.031 - And so that's how I would handle it. I would ask questions of the administration. I'd go back to the 00:14:30.031 --> 00:14:36.570 - policies. Are we following the policies? Are they working? If not, then we need to look at revising 00:14:36.570 --> 00:14:43.110 - the policies. I guess my question too is, I mean, if you look at some of the board policies, school 00:14:43.110 --> 00:14:49.322 - board members do have oversight over superintendent and administration. They do have oversight 00:14:49.322 --> 00:14:51.742 - and accountability and transparency. 00:14:52.034 --> 00:14:58.845 - to assure those policies and that those issues are being resolved. So we can't just, to me, I don't 00:14:58.845 --> 00:15:05.861 - want to go on a tangent, but we just can't go back, push parents back to administrators and say, well, 00:15:05.861 --> 00:15:12.672 - you know, we can't do it because we don't do the day-to-day stuff that's on administrators. I think 00:15:12.672 --> 00:15:19.006 - that there are people in the other parts of the room that want to hear what's going on here. 00:15:19.618 --> 00:15:29.793 - Is this mic not- It is recording to cats, but it's not- Okay, I'm so sorry. I'll try to speak louder 00:15:29.793 --> 00:15:39.967 - if that helps. So just as a parent experiencing that, I just think it's important that as a group of 00:15:39.967 --> 00:15:44.702 - parents that approaches a board with an issue, 00:15:44.866 --> 00:15:53.016 - We just don't push them back to administrators and then it just fizzles out and it's gone So I guess 00:15:53.016 --> 00:16:01.084 - my next follow-up question would be What objective evidence would you require before accepting that 00:16:01.084 --> 00:16:09.557 - a serious administrative problem has been resolved? I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm not a school board 00:16:09.557 --> 00:16:14.398 - member yet So I don't exactly know how they do that today I 00:16:14.754 --> 00:16:22.112 - I think that some of it is you just have to ask good questions. And if it's not lining up and it's not 00:16:22.112 --> 00:16:29.327 - making sense, sometimes you have to go with your intuition. But I do agree with you that part of the 00:16:29.327 --> 00:16:36.685 - role of the school board is to hold the superintendent accountable. Well, I can speak as a parent that 00:16:36.685 --> 00:16:42.686 - has come to the board with issues that was promised that this would be looked into. 00:16:42.914 --> 00:16:50.240 - and never heard a single thing back from that. So that was a concern of mine as well. Could we kind 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:58.152 - of broaden the question now and ask the other candidates for your ideas? Yeah. So I have one more question. 00:16:58.152 --> 00:17:05.771 - OK. Just be thinking about the relationship between the school board and the administration. We'll move 00:17:05.771 --> 00:17:11.998 - on. School board and the administration. OK. So my next question would be for Kelly. 00:17:12.642 --> 00:17:20.736 - And my question is, given that your husband is the principal of Edgewood Intermediate, what specific 00:17:20.736 --> 00:17:29.472 - safeguards would you provide to like independent oversight when board decisions could affect his employment, 00:17:29.472 --> 00:17:37.246 - his salary, and staffing, and professional accountability? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that. 00:17:37.826 --> 00:17:44.862 - I really appreciate that because it's not something that has come up and something that I have been 00:17:44.862 --> 00:17:52.320 - able to address publicly so I do appreciate that question. So first I will say that there has not there's 00:17:52.320 --> 00:17:59.356 - not a shortage of or this wouldn't be the first time that there is a school board member that has a 00:17:59.356 --> 00:18:07.166 - relationship with somebody else that works in the school corporation. There was a school board member who wife 00:18:07.778 --> 00:18:14.177 - did work in the corporation and has since retired, and there is a board member whose wife currently 00:18:14.177 --> 00:18:20.640 - works in the school corporation. So it's not unusual. Second, I will share that you can talk with my 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:27.167 - husband at any point in time. We do not always agree. We do not always see eye to eye, and we are not 00:18:27.167 --> 00:18:33.630 - afraid to be in conversation with that. And then finally, I thought about this before running a lot. 00:18:34.434 --> 00:18:43.868 - I would recuse myself from any administrative contract conversation. That is not something that I would 00:18:43.868 --> 00:18:53.393 - want to participate in because I can obviously benefit from that. Okay, I think that's all my questions. 00:18:53.393 --> 00:18:57.022 - Thank you. So when the minute runs out, 00:18:57.186 --> 00:19:03.407 - Please go ahead and finish your sentence. We're not going to come up here with a hook and pull you off 00:19:03.407 --> 00:19:09.810 - the stage or something like that. So the question that came up, the specific question, but more generally 00:19:09.810 --> 00:19:15.911 - about the board and the administration, this is a question from the audience. If the district office 00:19:15.911 --> 00:19:22.072 - doesn't resolve an issue, can the parent go directly to the board to make them aware of the situation 00:19:22.072 --> 00:19:23.582 - and receive some backup? 00:19:24.386 --> 00:19:31.340 - So let's go first to Jeremiah and work around this way. Sure. Yeah, I mean, that's what we did. You 00:19:31.340 --> 00:19:38.433 - feel like you're not getting the support you need at the school level. You could go to a school board 00:19:38.433 --> 00:19:45.039 - meeting. You could air your concerns and your grievances. They should be heard and they should 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:46.430 - be investigated and 00:19:46.594 --> 00:19:54.931 - and more than probably just a fleeting thought, you know, some actual consideration and time and effort 00:19:54.931 --> 00:20:03.509 - put into how that specific concern could be addressed. And then, you know, there's always ways to escalate 00:20:03.509 --> 00:20:11.846 - above and beyond the school district. So there's usually a chain of command when there's an issue where 00:20:11.846 --> 00:20:15.934 - in business. So you have steps where you make your 00:20:16.098 --> 00:20:23.602 - um, feelings known about a situation. But I am open to any time take questions or answer questions that 00:20:23.602 --> 00:20:30.890 - I can if it's something I can deal with or could. I'm I'm like Krista. I don't know. I've never been 00:20:30.890 --> 00:20:36.734 - on the board. I don't know all the rules, but I know that I take calls 24 seven. 00:20:37.282 --> 00:20:43.504 - from my employees, from my customers, and I will do it from any citizen or anyone who has a issue if 00:20:43.504 --> 00:20:49.664 - they don't feel like it's being handled through the proper normal channels. And I will address that 00:20:49.664 --> 00:20:56.071 - any time. I'll take emails, calls, texts. I will take that information. But I weigh everything. I weigh 00:20:56.071 --> 00:21:02.046 - both ends. I want to hear everything anyone has to say, and then I'll address it with the proper 00:21:02.466 --> 00:21:10.100 - proper people that hopefully could fix the problem. If it's a legitimate problem, we want it fixed. 00:21:10.100 --> 00:21:17.735 - So. So community members directly communicating with board members. Again, I am not a board member, 00:21:17.735 --> 00:21:25.598 - so I do not know if there are rules about this, but I know that we have all said in it previously that 00:21:26.274 --> 00:21:32.995 - course we want to listen that's the point of us being here we want to serve the community we want to 00:21:32.995 --> 00:21:39.849 - serve public education and so yes I would take I would be happy to listen to anybody that has an issue 00:21:39.849 --> 00:21:46.637 - that hasn't been resolved I know that I myself as a parent have had issues that haven't been resolved 00:21:46.637 --> 00:21:50.430 - and I've had to be the person continually going back and 00:21:50.722 --> 00:21:57.258 - for months asking for what the resolution is and it's not a great feeling and you want answers and I 00:21:57.258 --> 00:22:03.858 - want to help be a person that can find those answers. So the seat that Jeremiah and I are running for 00:22:03.858 --> 00:22:10.393 - was held by Angie Jacobs who's retiring and when I was thinking about running for school board I had 00:22:10.393 --> 00:22:16.670 - a conversation with Angie about like what's this like and one of the things she told me was that 00:22:16.866 --> 00:22:24.201 - Her goal was to always be a safe space for people to provide feedback, whether it was a parent or a 00:22:24.201 --> 00:22:31.903 - student or a teacher, that she created a reputation that people could come to her and give her feedback. 00:22:31.903 --> 00:22:39.678 - And I think that's really, really important. And that's part of the reason I ran, is I wanted to do that. 00:22:39.842 --> 00:22:45.702 - a person that people feel comfortable coming to me and giving me feedback. I don't believe anything 00:22:45.702 --> 00:22:51.972 - is ever perfect. I think there's always room for improvement. And so I think we have to hear it firsthand. 00:22:51.972 --> 00:22:57.949 - So I don't know, as was said, I don't know all the rules for how we're going to manage that. But I do 00:22:57.949 --> 00:23:03.926 - want to be a place where people can come and provide feedback. And I think if you hear, as I said, if 00:23:03.926 --> 00:23:05.918 - you hear feedback multiple times, 00:23:06.082 --> 00:23:13.582 - that likely means there's a big problem that needs to be addressed and then I would want to work with 00:23:13.582 --> 00:23:21.229 - the administration and my hope would be the administration would be open just like I was open that they 00:23:21.229 --> 00:23:28.655 - would be open to that feedback and that the resolution would be clear. Kelly had a specific received 00:23:28.655 --> 00:23:35.934 - a question specifically about conflict of interest and we received an email question that was that 00:23:36.098 --> 00:23:43.032 - that connects with some of the same issues more generally. So what I'd like to do is to start with Krista 00:23:43.032 --> 00:23:49.705 - with this question, and Kelly, yeah, if you feel that you have something more that you want to say on 00:23:49.705 --> 00:23:56.509 - the topic, you can, but we'll just start at that end and work this way. And the question was, are there 00:23:56.509 --> 00:24:03.116 - any board voting or oversight areas where you might have a conflict of interest, and if so, what are 00:24:03.116 --> 00:24:05.406 - those and how would you handle it? 00:24:07.426 --> 00:24:14.623 - I'm not aware of any. I have been attending board meetings over the past few months to try to understand 00:24:14.623 --> 00:24:21.477 - the business of the board a little better. I'm not aware of any. I do work for Cook Medical and the 00:24:21.477 --> 00:24:28.399 - New Life Sciences Training Center that's being built out here. We are looking to partner. My company 00:24:28.399 --> 00:24:35.390 - is looking to partner with them, but otherwise I don't believe that I have any conflicts of interest. 00:24:36.322 --> 00:24:44.646 - So I definitely don't have any relationships with any person on the board, in the school district, with 00:24:44.646 --> 00:24:52.889 - any contractors that do any work at these premises. No, zero issues there. And as far as the nepotism, 00:24:52.889 --> 00:25:01.213 - it's a bigger problem. I call it a problem. It's a problem in my workplace all the time. It causes lots 00:25:01.213 --> 00:25:03.134 - of issues and it's not, 00:25:03.714 --> 00:25:11.639 - Just Andy and Kelly. There's a lot of other issues like that in the school district. So yeah, I mean, 00:25:11.639 --> 00:25:19.563 - I can see that being a problem. So my sister does work in the budgeting office, but she does not have 00:25:19.563 --> 00:25:27.410 - any, she's not supervisor to anyone. She's not involved in any policy issues. If anything came up, I 00:25:27.410 --> 00:25:33.470 - would recuse myself, but I don't believe that is any kind of conflict at all. 00:25:33.634 --> 00:25:40.918 - entering this race with no obligation to anybody. I don't owe anybody anything. I haven't promised anybody 00:25:40.918 --> 00:25:47.930 - anything. So I am open-minded on all subjects that come up. I've been going to the board meeting since 00:25:47.930 --> 00:25:54.738 - I decided to run. I had to miss one just to try to learn. And I didn't know that much about it, but 00:25:54.738 --> 00:25:58.686 - I'm learning a lot. I knew what basically a board did was 00:25:59.394 --> 00:26:07.900 - budgeting issues, policy issues, and hiring the superintendent and making good choices on that for our 00:26:07.900 --> 00:26:16.488 - leadership. And I don't feel like I have a conflict. So my husband does work in the school corporation. 00:26:16.488 --> 00:26:25.159 - And I did already address that. The other conflicts of interest that I would see, I do have two children 00:26:25.159 --> 00:26:28.958 - in the school corporation. They are involved. 00:26:29.314 --> 00:26:38.631 - children. Athletics, extracurriculars, show choir, and sometimes there are budget lines that come across. 00:26:38.631 --> 00:26:47.508 - I see those as for all students, not just for my two students, but I would definitely be open to not 00:26:47.508 --> 00:26:56.472 - participating in those parts of those conversations if that felt unfair. There are five board members 00:26:56.472 --> 00:26:58.494 - for a reason, and so I 00:26:59.010 --> 00:27:08.510 - would be happy to recuse myself from those conversations. But in general, I work in higher end. I deal 00:27:08.510 --> 00:27:11.646 - with lots of big budgets as well. 00:27:12.642 --> 00:27:20.657 - and budgets that are specifically in buckets, similar to what K-12 budgets look like, and that you can 00:27:20.657 --> 00:27:28.439 - only spend money in certain ways. And so I'm very familiar with what that looks like and understand 00:27:28.439 --> 00:27:36.454 - that while approving a budget for maybe a choir event, that that couldn't be spent on teacher salaries 00:27:36.454 --> 00:27:40.734 - and things of that nature. So, sorry, I'm out of time. 00:27:41.602 --> 00:27:48.384 - I will leave it there. I think it's interesting to me to just hear their comments on this question, 00:27:48.384 --> 00:27:55.302 - because it's so clear that the school board has to represent the community. And if you had people who 00:27:55.302 --> 00:28:02.424 - are not of the community trying to make decisions for the community, that's a different kind of problem. 00:28:02.424 --> 00:28:07.646 - So it's definitely a balancing question wherever the problem arises or lies. 00:28:08.450 --> 00:28:17.161 - Another question that came from the audience. Could each, oh, let's see, we will start with Dennis and 00:28:17.161 --> 00:28:25.618 - go this way around the table. Could each candidate discuss how career and technical education could 00:28:25.618 --> 00:28:34.414 - advance in RBB in the next five years? So career and technical education over the next five years, what 00:28:34.414 --> 00:28:36.190 - prospects do we see? 00:28:36.482 --> 00:28:44.330 - big believer in all kids are not going to college. They don't want to go to college. When I was in school, 00:28:44.330 --> 00:28:51.884 - they didn't want to go to college. Having the steps to go into other industries, the last school board 00:28:51.884 --> 00:28:59.292 - meeting talked about a partnership with Eli Lilly to have steps to go from high school to college to 00:28:59.292 --> 00:29:05.086 - them. That is huge. All of the different partnerships they have with the other 00:29:05.506 --> 00:29:12.258 - biosciences companies around here, because there's so many of them, and having those partnerships with 00:29:12.258 --> 00:29:19.207 - kids that will go to college, a lot of them, but then there's the trades. The trades are amazing. There's 00:29:19.207 --> 00:29:25.762 - so many, a plumber can make more than a college graduate now. And having those trades, and whenever 00:29:25.762 --> 00:29:31.006 - we came to the open house that they had, and seeing the audio video over at the 00:29:31.106 --> 00:29:39.242 - over at the elementary or junior high. That was amazing to me on what they're doing and what they're 00:29:39.242 --> 00:29:47.943 - learning in AI and what they're learning in video is to me steps for the kids in every aspect from college, 00:29:47.943 --> 00:29:55.999 - trades, workforce. I think it's all needs to be through the school to develop the kids to what they 00:29:55.999 --> 00:30:00.510 - want to go into. So I believe in education in any form. 00:30:00.642 --> 00:30:08.306 - So if a student wants to graduate and go to higher education, that's great. If they want to graduate, 00:30:08.306 --> 00:30:15.970 - the goal here, the through line is graduate. We want to have all of our students graduate and want to 00:30:15.970 --> 00:30:22.206 - go into trades. There's still education, right? Tradesmanship education is kind of 00:30:22.306 --> 00:30:29.307 - the foundation of education and how we are passing on skills from one to the next. I don't think that 00:30:29.307 --> 00:30:36.239 - any one education is better than another if that's what serves the student and that's what they want 00:30:36.239 --> 00:30:43.377 - to do. So continuing to explore the ideas and possibilities to partner with folks in our community that 00:30:43.377 --> 00:30:47.358 - would be willing to offer trades and technical education. 00:30:47.522 --> 00:30:53.490 - still education and I think education is a benefit no matter what it looks like. That includes service. 00:30:53.490 --> 00:30:59.400 - Folks that want to graduate and go directly into service are getting an education through that service 00:30:59.400 --> 00:31:05.195 - and by serving and possibly getting credits in addition to further education beyond service as well. 00:31:05.195 --> 00:31:11.220 - So I think that it's important that we continue to look for partnerships in ways that we can serve every 00:31:11.220 --> 00:31:15.294 - single student in the education that they want beyond the high school. 00:31:17.794 --> 00:31:25.357 - I should write it down when you ask I'm sorry. How career and technical education could advance in our 00:31:25.357 --> 00:31:32.993 - BB in the next five years okay well first of all I think our BB is already well on its way I mean there 00:31:32.993 --> 00:31:40.777 - are 16 career pathways that are available right now in the high school. And I mentioned the life sciences 00:31:40.777 --> 00:31:43.934 - training center that's being built I think 00:31:44.354 --> 00:31:51.211 - through the Ready Schools initiatives over the last five years, they've done some pretty incredible 00:31:51.211 --> 00:31:58.274 - things. I agree with what everyone said, that every kiddo should be able to follow their path, whether 00:31:58.274 --> 00:32:05.337 - that's trades, that's community college, it's four-year degree, it's the military, they should be able 00:32:05.337 --> 00:32:12.126 - to follow that path. And I really, one of the things that I think is really cool is the focus that 00:32:12.770 --> 00:32:19.301 - RBB has on, they want to make sure that every student leaves with a plan. Dr. Sanders talks about this 00:32:19.301 --> 00:32:25.768 - a lot. They want every student to leave with a plan. So I think we're on our way, but I think there's 00:32:25.768 --> 00:32:32.362 - more that can be done to expand, especially into the trades. Yeah, I mean, that's definitely good stuff 00:32:32.362 --> 00:32:39.146 - for sure. Some kids are going to go to college. We're still going to need lawyers and doctors and dentists 00:32:39.146 --> 00:32:40.414 - and all the things. 00:32:40.834 --> 00:32:46.755 - I think trades, the life sciences, that's super important. I think that that could be expanded on in 00:32:46.755 --> 00:32:53.087 - the offerings. There's lots of different fields and trades. A lot of you have probably seen the statistics. 00:32:53.087 --> 00:32:59.009 - We're losing trades, people. People are retiring quicker than they're coming into the trades. And it 00:32:59.009 --> 00:33:02.878 - won't be long before we don't have the service people to keep our 00:33:03.042 --> 00:33:09.495 - our buildings, our infrastructure operating in the way it does currently without having more young people 00:33:09.495 --> 00:33:15.584 - join the trades. So I'm not saying I would push anybody in the direction suggesting that that's the 00:33:15.584 --> 00:33:21.915 - best fit, but I think it should be a better presented option and accommodate all those different kiddos 00:33:21.915 --> 00:33:26.238 - with something that may appeal to them because one size don't fit all. 00:33:33.730 --> 00:33:41.465 - So another question from the audience and there's still time for you to get yours in. What is one decision, 00:33:41.465 --> 00:33:48.843 - oh, we'll start with Kelly and go around this way. What is one decision the school board has made that 00:33:48.843 --> 00:33:56.148 - you disagree with and why do you disagree? Can I have a minute to think? You can't because I will say 00:33:56.148 --> 00:34:03.454 - we have just been so lucky with using this facility that people from the school stepped up and helped 00:34:03.874 --> 00:34:10.804 - regardless of how well educated they were and advanced degrees or whatever, this space was reconfigured 00:34:10.804 --> 00:34:17.933 - so that it kind of works for our forum. And so thanks to the school corporation for helping us and letting 00:34:17.933 --> 00:34:24.663 - us have this facility for this evening's presentation. I'm really very thankful for that. So anyway, 00:34:24.663 --> 00:34:32.126 - the question was what is one decision the school board has made that you disagree with and why do you disagree? 00:34:35.746 --> 00:34:44.321 - This one's throwing me off a little. I am racking my brain. I think that we're lucky to live in this 00:34:44.321 --> 00:34:52.811 - community, because I cannot think of a single thing. That's not to say the school board hasn't made 00:34:52.811 --> 00:35:01.301 - a decision that I possibly disagree with, but I don't think that it's anything that would be major, 00:35:01.301 --> 00:35:03.678 - a major decision that I can 00:35:03.810 --> 00:35:11.915 - I can think of. I think the board members that are currently serving have done a great job in leading 00:35:11.915 --> 00:35:20.020 - us and leading RBB in partnership with Dr. Sanders and all of the teachers in the corporation. I'd be 00:35:20.020 --> 00:35:28.046 - open to hear if somebody, whoever submitted the question, if they had something they disagreed with, 00:35:28.046 --> 00:35:32.734 - I'd be open to be in conversation to hear more about that. 00:35:33.698 --> 00:35:41.054 - because I honestly can't think of anything, so sorry. So first of all, I don't know that anything in 00:35:41.054 --> 00:35:48.702 - the past, like recent past, I would say that I've disagreed with the decision. I have heard conversation 00:35:48.702 --> 00:35:52.926 - at school board meetings at times where I'm like, I don't 00:35:53.026 --> 00:35:59.567 - agree with that comment, or I would not have handled that that way. So that has happened for me. I'm 00:35:59.567 --> 00:36:06.109 - not going to be specific about that right now. But the thing that came to my mind when you asked the 00:36:06.109 --> 00:36:12.650 - question was actually about my son, because I think that's probably what sticks with us is our kids' 00:36:12.650 --> 00:36:19.386 - experiences. And my son was a COVID kid, and he didn't get to have his graduation. And that was really, 00:36:19.386 --> 00:36:22.430 - really hard. Like while I understood the need, 00:36:22.530 --> 00:36:28.891 - the impact of that those few months on those kids and then to go off into the world and deal with that. 00:36:28.891 --> 00:36:35.253 - I mean, it's going to be something they carry with them forever. We did when he graduated from college, 00:36:35.253 --> 00:36:41.737 - we tried to make sure we celebrated it because it was a big deal to him. And I think we have to recognize 00:36:41.737 --> 00:36:47.914 - that when these kids go through wherever they land after they leave, it is a journey for them and it 00:36:47.914 --> 00:36:49.566 - deserves to be celebrated. 00:36:53.570 --> 00:37:01.110 - I have a couple right off the top of my head from personal experiences. So beginning of this school 00:37:01.110 --> 00:37:08.650 - year was pretty rough for us and our family. And several families had to come together and push for 00:37:08.650 --> 00:37:16.190 - change. And part of that process, we actually tried to push for some more formal policy, especially 00:37:16.190 --> 00:37:21.694 - how it relates to special education safeguards. How are we ensuring that 00:37:21.986 --> 00:37:28.653 - our special needs children, you know, one of ours is nonverbal. He could not come home and tell us how 00:37:28.653 --> 00:37:35.320 - his day went. If he went to recess, if he went to lunch, if he had specials, if he had speech therapy, 00:37:35.320 --> 00:37:42.376 - if he had occupational therapy. So we really feel like a lot of families felt like there should be something 00:37:42.376 --> 00:37:49.108 - better in place to document and keep parents informed about how services are being delivered to school. 00:37:49.108 --> 00:37:50.014 - And that was. 00:37:50.754 --> 00:37:57.468 - delivered to administration and the school board. Didn't really go anywhere. So that's one, and I think 00:37:57.468 --> 00:38:03.923 - it's really worth investigating. And part of that was cameras in special ed classrooms. And Indiana 00:38:03.923 --> 00:38:10.637 - talked about passing the law a year or two ago. It just didn't go through because of funding. My time's 00:38:10.637 --> 00:38:17.221 - up. But I could talk about that for hours. So I have tremendous respect for our school board, for our 00:38:17.221 --> 00:38:20.126 - current school board and past school boards. 00:38:20.610 --> 00:38:26.744 - I do not have an issue where I know of a vote that I disagree with, but I also haven't been following 00:38:26.744 --> 00:38:32.819 - as much until recently as I would in the past. I remember back when I was in school how much respect 00:38:32.819 --> 00:38:39.013 - I had for the school board members then, and I think that continues. The administration I have respect 00:38:39.013 --> 00:38:45.328 - for and the school board. I do have one issue I don't think it's a school board issue that my wife keeps 00:38:45.328 --> 00:38:49.598 - bothering me about is kindergartners only having 20 minutes of recess. 00:38:49.986 --> 00:38:56.537 - because that's an issue that I have had people come to me about. I don't know if that's a school board 00:38:56.537 --> 00:39:03.214 - issue, but that is something that has been, several people have mentioned it to me. And my granddaughter 00:39:03.214 --> 00:39:09.574 - goes to a school in Indianapolis and she's in kindergarten and she has two 15 minute recesses and a 00:39:09.574 --> 00:39:15.934 - 15 minute where they rest, put their head down and rest. So that's the only comment I have on that. 00:39:21.218 --> 00:39:30.101 - Thanks. So this one also came from the public. While teaching experience provides valuable insight into 00:39:30.101 --> 00:39:38.643 - education, school board responsibilities extend beyond the classroom to include policy development, 00:39:38.643 --> 00:39:47.270 - financial oversight, strategic planning, and superintendent accountability. I just realized I didn't 00:39:47.270 --> 00:39:49.662 - say where we were starting. 00:39:51.042 --> 00:39:58.458 - So this one goes first to Krista. Okay, so you've got that huge list of responsibilities. Okay, education, 00:39:58.458 --> 00:40:05.943 - we have responsibilities beyond the classroom to include policy development, financial oversight, strategic 00:40:05.943 --> 00:40:12.874 - planning, and superintendent accountability. What qualifications and experiences do you believe are 00:40:12.874 --> 00:40:16.478 - most important for an effective school board member 00:40:16.674 --> 00:40:23.617 - And how do you distinguish the board's governance responsibilities from the day-to-day responsibilities 00:40:23.617 --> 00:40:30.493 - of educators and administrators? It's a big question. That was a lot. Yeah. Let's make that 90 seconds 00:40:30.493 --> 00:40:31.294 - to respond. 00:40:32.770 --> 00:40:40.053 - What was the last one? OK. The last one was the second part here. It was about the separation of educators. 00:40:40.053 --> 00:40:46.999 - Yeah. So what qualifications and experiences do you believe are most important for an effective school 00:40:46.999 --> 00:40:54.215 - board member, the qualifications and experience for you? And how do you distinguish the board's governance 00:40:54.215 --> 00:41:01.566 - responsibilities from the day-to-day of educators and administrators? Sure. OK. And I can go over that again 00:41:01.794 --> 00:41:08.364 - for each of you before you jump into it, if that helps. I honestly think the most important thing is 00:41:08.364 --> 00:41:14.868 - that you care. I think that's the most important. I don't think there's anybody sitting up here who 00:41:14.868 --> 00:41:21.438 - doesn't care. Care about school, care about kids, care about teachers. So I think that's number one. 00:41:21.730 --> 00:41:28.864 - I have experience in every area, but superintendent accountability, that's new to me, but I do understand 00:41:28.864 --> 00:41:35.595 - holding people accountable. I do have experience in all of those other areas. I think that that can 00:41:35.595 --> 00:41:42.326 - be valuable, but I don't know that you have to have all of that to be a good school board member. I 00:41:42.326 --> 00:41:49.662 - think that you have to listen. I think you have to have a willingness to learn. There's a lot of regulation, 00:41:49.662 --> 00:41:51.614 - and there's a lot of policy. 00:41:51.714 --> 00:41:58.183 - And I feel like I've been trying to learn, but I've barely scratched the surface. So I know the school 00:41:58.183 --> 00:42:04.777 - board members go through an orientation. And so I think a willingness to listen, a willingness to learn, 00:42:04.777 --> 00:42:11.246 - always putting students and teachers first, I think are the most important things. So this whole issue 00:42:11.246 --> 00:42:17.589 - about governance versus day-to-day is very interesting to me. And I think Nicole asked a really good 00:42:17.589 --> 00:42:20.478 - question related to it. You know, as a board, 00:42:20.610 --> 00:42:27.759 - As a board member, you're told policy governance, not day to day. But it's hard. Because if policy doesn't 00:42:27.759 --> 00:42:34.507 - lead to the right day to day outcomes, you have to understand that. And then you have to go back and 00:42:34.507 --> 00:42:41.389 - revisit policy. So I'm not sure, as a board member, how you can set policy if you don't understand the 00:42:41.389 --> 00:42:48.338 - outcomes of that policy. So it's a question I've wanted to ask board members about to better understand 00:42:48.338 --> 00:42:50.142 - how do they navigate that. 00:42:50.306 --> 00:42:58.122 - because you can't disconnect them. Probably a good thing. Okay, so just to recap for you, Jeremiah. 00:42:58.122 --> 00:43:06.564 - So the responsibilities for the school board members extend beyond classroom to include policy development, 00:43:06.564 --> 00:43:15.006 - financial oversight, strategic planning, and superintendent accountability. So a range of responsibilities. 00:43:15.330 --> 00:43:23.051 - what qualifications and experiences are most important for an effective school board member and how 00:43:23.051 --> 00:43:30.772 - do you distinguish between governance and day-to-day responsibilities? I think the very first thing 00:43:30.772 --> 00:43:37.566 - that I think would be important would be listening. People don't come forth with issues 00:43:38.530 --> 00:43:44.165 - I wouldn't say most of the time if they're not really issues. So I think you have to listen. You have 00:43:44.165 --> 00:43:49.746 - to take what they're saying seriously. You have to look at it through their lens because we all walk 00:43:49.746 --> 00:43:55.381 - different lives. You have no idea what they're going through and you need to empathize and sympathize 00:43:55.381 --> 00:44:01.072 - and listen to what they have to say and try to understand how you can make a change that would benefit 00:44:01.072 --> 00:44:06.873 - not only that person and their child, but maybe every other child in the district. The governance piece, 00:44:06.873 --> 00:44:08.254 - yeah, I mean, obviously, 00:44:08.386 --> 00:44:15.337 - all of us would have a lot to learn. I'd be the first one to say, draw it out with crown so I can understand 00:44:15.337 --> 00:44:21.714 - it. Because I don't know how this works. I'm going to learn. I'm willing to learn. I'm always quick 00:44:21.714 --> 00:44:28.282 - to research and dive into things and try to understand them better and try to pick it apart and figure 00:44:28.282 --> 00:44:34.723 - out how it can be better. So yeah, I mean, I think if I missed any part of that, please let me know. 00:44:34.723 --> 00:44:35.998 - I'm not sure. Yeah. 00:44:41.346 --> 00:44:47.354 - Speaking of experience, I already mentioned that I had a board of directors meeting for another trade 00:44:47.354 --> 00:44:53.362 - association I'm a member of. And it's very similar to a school board. The most important things is we 00:44:53.362 --> 00:44:59.252 - dictate the policy. We go through the budget. But the most important thing is we choose the leader, 00:44:59.252 --> 00:45:05.259 - the president of that organization. In the case of a school board, it's the superintendent. It's very 00:45:05.259 --> 00:45:11.326 - important that you make wise choices with superintendent. I think we have an excellent superintendent. 00:45:11.938 --> 00:45:19.013 - But you have to make those decisions, and you have to have good hires. Once you have good hires, then 00:45:19.013 --> 00:45:26.088 - you let the people do their jobs. You trust the process. And if something goes awry, then you address 00:45:26.088 --> 00:45:33.094 - it. You're always open to that, but you let the process take care of itself to a certain point. So I 00:45:33.094 --> 00:45:40.446 - think that's very important that we do. I wrote some stuff down, so I don't need to recap, but thank you. 00:45:40.610 --> 00:45:49.554 - So I do have experience in education, as I already shared, and I do think that that experience is valuable. 00:45:49.554 --> 00:45:58.084 - Knowing in advance how policies land and what policies mean when they go passed down to the classroom, 00:45:58.084 --> 00:46:03.550 - I think is important having that experience, or at least helpful. 00:46:03.778 --> 00:46:11.980 - As far as the rest of the things, the policy, the financial, the strategic planning, those are all things 00:46:11.980 --> 00:46:19.718 - that I currently have experience with in my current professional career. I am a director of faculty 00:46:19.718 --> 00:46:24.670 - fellow programs at IU, and I manage all of our budget for that. 00:46:24.770 --> 00:46:31.541 - policies for how those programs are implemented when they start and end all of those sorts of things 00:46:31.541 --> 00:46:38.513 - for as far as strategic planning and incorporating new technologies as they come along so we don't have 00:46:38.513 --> 00:46:45.284 - a program for AI we need to create a program for AI we need to create several levels of programs for 00:46:45.284 --> 00:46:52.122 - that so that we have things that we can up skill faculty first and then we can talk about how are you 00:46:52.122 --> 00:46:54.736 - adjusting your curriculum and literacy 00:46:54.736 --> 00:47:05.744 - over those things. Oversight is also something I do not necessarily have experience with for an individual 00:47:05.744 --> 00:47:15.518 - other than the people that I work with but not over an entire school corporation. And then how 00:47:15.810 --> 00:47:22.409 - keeping the things different between the school board and the day-to-day of educators, similar to what 00:47:22.409 --> 00:47:29.136 - Krista said, it's really hard to separate those two things, and also because the policies that the board 00:47:29.136 --> 00:47:35.542 - create do directly impact what happens in the classroom. I know that from experience, and sometimes 00:47:35.542 --> 00:47:42.205 - it can be really great, and sometimes it can make the job harder of educators. But I will also say that 00:47:42.205 --> 00:47:43.102 - it is not the 00:47:43.426 --> 00:47:51.611 - board's job to tell educators what to do or to tell administrators how to do. It is to work through 00:47:51.611 --> 00:47:59.960 - policy to make those day to day things easier for educators and for kids. So it is not our job to run 00:47:59.960 --> 00:48:07.326 - the day to day, tell people how to do the day to day, but to create policies that support 00:48:07.458 --> 00:48:16.484 - the educators and the administrators who are professionals and have degrees to empower them to do the 00:48:16.484 --> 00:48:25.332 - things that they know how to do. Thank you. Big question. So the next one starts with Jeremiah, and 00:48:25.332 --> 00:48:28.606 - this is a question from people here. 00:48:30.242 --> 00:48:37.342 - Do you support banning any books from the school libraries? And if a request to ban a book came to the 00:48:37.342 --> 00:48:44.443 - school board, what steps would you take to make your decision? No books on my list to be banned at the 00:48:44.443 --> 00:48:51.406 - moment. We've got hundreds and hundreds of books at our house, and hours and hours of reading happen 00:48:51.406 --> 00:48:58.575 - every day at our house, and I'm not gonna be the one to tell kids what they can and can't read. I mean, 00:48:58.575 --> 00:48:59.678 - I would look to 00:49:00.290 --> 00:49:07.228 - The board members, if there's overwhelming majority support for something, I mean, convince me. I mean, 00:49:07.228 --> 00:49:13.966 - I'm open all ears. Tell me why you think that we should man a book. If I think it's ridiculous, I'll 00:49:13.966 --> 00:49:20.704 - tell you that. I would be open minded to why and listen to the reason. But I believe in trusting the 00:49:20.704 --> 00:49:27.508 - process of the people who are in charge of determining what books are in the library. I don't know of 00:49:27.508 --> 00:49:30.110 - any issue. I haven't heard any issues. 00:49:30.370 --> 00:49:39.073 - But I believe that the teachers or the librarians or the administrator who oversees it have the kids' 00:49:39.073 --> 00:49:47.861 - best interest in mind. And if there's somebody that proves to me that it's different, I'll look at it. 00:49:47.861 --> 00:49:56.990 - But as of right now, I don't know of anything that's going on right now, so. It's a funny question sitting 00:49:56.990 --> 00:50:00.062 - in a library. I, in general, am not 00:50:00.418 --> 00:50:08.460 - would not be open to or not be an advocate for banning books. Education is or knowledge is power. Education 00:50:08.460 --> 00:50:16.055 - gives power to students. I do think age appropriate books are important. So I'm not going to have the 00:50:16.055 --> 00:50:23.948 - same books in the high school library that I would have in the elementary library. And that is important. 00:50:23.948 --> 00:50:25.214 - But I think that 00:50:25.538 --> 00:50:33.067 - As long as we have age appropriate books in our libraries that in general I'm not gonna be banning books 00:50:33.067 --> 00:50:40.525 - like everyone else. Obviously open to listening and hearing perspectives of the community and listening 00:50:40.525 --> 00:50:47.839 - to anything that might be outrageous. I do agree that if there was something that was outrageous, I'm 00:50:47.839 --> 00:50:54.078 - pretty sure our librarians would be on top of that. I trust them as professionals, so. 00:50:57.602 --> 00:51:04.817 - In general, I would say no. I think that kiddos are gonna go learn things, whether you make it available 00:51:04.817 --> 00:51:11.758 - or not. I'd prefer to have conversations with my kids around tough subjects. So I would say no. I've 00:51:11.758 --> 00:51:18.629 - assumed the question is kind of being asked in the sense of the things that we see happening around 00:51:18.629 --> 00:51:25.982 - the country. So I would say no, I'm not cool with that. I read a lot of books growing up and learned a lot 00:51:26.690 --> 00:51:32.805 - from those books. I agree with age appropriate. That's something I've had to watch with my own daughter. 00:51:32.805 --> 00:51:38.920 - She's asked sometimes to read books that I've not let me check this out. Not yet, but we will get there. 00:51:38.920 --> 00:51:45.094 - So I would say generally no, and I would much prefer to have conversations with kids about tough subjects 00:51:45.094 --> 00:51:46.142 - than ignore them. 00:51:55.938 --> 00:52:03.044 - to compliment everybody who has submitted questions so far. Your penmanship has been excellent. Thank 00:52:03.044 --> 00:52:10.150 - you so much. If somebody wants to test my ability and write an illegible question, go ahead. Okay. So 00:52:10.150 --> 00:52:17.813 - this next question starts with Dennis. Four years from now, what does it look like for you to be a successful 00:52:17.813 --> 00:52:24.222 - and effective board member or for you to have been a successful and effective board member? 00:52:24.386 --> 00:52:31.531 - four years from now what it will look like? For our school to be so attractive that no one would want 00:52:31.531 --> 00:52:38.745 - to go to an alternative school or a charter school. They want to come to us because we have the finest 00:52:38.745 --> 00:52:46.590 - facilities, we have the finest teachers, we have students who are graduating and going on for successful lives. 00:52:47.618 --> 00:52:53.905 - And we balance our budget. I'm going to watch the budget. It's very important to me. Taxpayers are the 00:52:53.905 --> 00:53:00.071 - ones voting for us. It's a lot of people don't have kids in school anymore. So they wonder, why am I 00:53:00.071 --> 00:53:06.175 - paying taxes? Well, we want to be stewards of the budget and the money, make sure we're spending it 00:53:06.175 --> 00:53:10.814 - correctly and we're not wasting money and we're not raising people's taxes. 00:53:11.042 --> 00:53:20.010 - And our kids, the 300 kids that are going to the charter schools, are coming back to our school. And 00:53:20.010 --> 00:53:29.599 - we want to give them every reason to by having all the teachers, facilities, and extracurricular activities 00:53:29.599 --> 00:53:33.150 - that make them want to come back to us. 00:53:33.282 --> 00:53:42.812 - four years from now, if I were a board member, what does success look like? I think a school corporation 00:53:42.812 --> 00:53:52.069 - that builds good communication with our community, with our parents, that is open and listening, that 00:53:52.069 --> 00:54:01.054 - is transparent about the direction that they're going in all manners and the gathering feedback on 00:54:01.282 --> 00:54:12.335 - on those directions to make sure that we are headed in a place that our community wants and that keeps 00:54:12.335 --> 00:54:23.388 - kids safe at all levels. I think that we do a really great job with safety right now and I think there 00:54:23.388 --> 00:54:27.358 - is always more things to look at and 00:54:27.490 --> 00:54:35.896 - making sure that that is our highest priorities, that we are communicative and transparent with our 00:54:35.896 --> 00:54:44.554 - community and keeping kids safe. Yeah, the thing that's I think been on my mind in terms of four years 00:54:44.554 --> 00:54:53.296 - from now, what I want to support is I really do like this idea of every student leaving RBB with a plan 00:54:53.296 --> 00:54:56.574 - for the future. I'm not sure if that's 00:54:56.738 --> 00:55:03.148 - measured today, it'd be great if we could measure that. That all this work, starting all the way down 00:55:03.148 --> 00:55:09.558 - in the elementary schools, I mean, they're talking to the kids at the elementary level about careers. 00:55:09.558 --> 00:55:16.031 - I mean, they're talking about teaching them, what do you like to do? Let's try things, see what you're 00:55:16.031 --> 00:55:23.070 - good at. And so that idea of every kid leaving with a plan, whatever that plan may be that is specific to them, 00:55:23.234 --> 00:55:30.217 - I love that idea, and I want to support that. I think there's other things, just like measuring academics, 00:55:30.217 --> 00:55:36.873 - graduation rates. I know they were looking at iLearn scores at the school board meeting last week. So 00:55:36.873 --> 00:55:43.529 - I think there's a lot of data. There's a lot of measurables to look at. And then I think I agree with 00:55:43.529 --> 00:55:49.598 - Dennis around fiscal responsibility. There are like, I think, 38 referendums this next week. 00:55:50.050 --> 00:55:56.918 - school corporations around the state who are trying to make up for the budget losses that they're facing 00:55:56.918 --> 00:56:03.590 - and that's not happening here and I I do think that's because there's been good fiscal responsibility 00:56:03.590 --> 00:56:10.393 - and I know there was you know back in 2018 there was some trouble and it went the wrong way and I think 00:56:10.393 --> 00:56:17.064 - the board and administration have gotten it back on track and I think it's important to keep it there 00:56:17.064 --> 00:56:19.550 - so that's what I would say so kind of 00:56:19.650 --> 00:56:25.624 - Top of my list, you know, I was at a board meeting recently and I'm pretty sure it was the high school 00:56:25.624 --> 00:56:31.831 - and some, you know, a doctor, I believe from IU came in and they were talking about mental health services 00:56:31.831 --> 00:56:37.689 - and counselors and things that it sounds great that they're bringing them in. It sounds perfect, but 00:56:37.689 --> 00:56:43.490 - the numbers, you know, it kind of seemed like it was like, Hey, that's pretty good. But in my mind, 00:56:43.490 --> 00:56:48.478 - I was like that, that many kids are depressed, you know, upset, you know, have, have, 00:56:49.026 --> 00:56:56.031 - I don't know. I just wonder if the environment at school sometimes could be changed to accommodate, 00:56:56.031 --> 00:57:03.457 - be more engaging. Maybe we could help their mental health. Maybe school doesn't have to be such a painful 00:57:03.457 --> 00:57:10.672 - place. Because for a lot of kids, it is. Not everybody comes to school and has a great experience. The 00:57:10.672 --> 00:57:18.238 - student satisfaction piece kind of rolls right into that. And then, you know, yet again, Sped here, I think 00:57:18.914 --> 00:57:24.755 - There'd be a lot of better things going on in SPED. There's a lot of equipment that could be utilized, 00:57:24.755 --> 00:57:30.710 - supplied, had on hand in the classroom. Let them touch it, feel it, see if they like it, see if it works 00:57:30.710 --> 00:57:36.494 - for them. If they don't have it in the classroom, they can't do that. So I think I would do all those 00:57:36.494 --> 00:57:42.279 - things. I feel like that would be an accomplishment in itself. And of course, the financial, physical 00:57:42.279 --> 00:57:47.326 - responsibility is a no-brainer. That has to happen, especially when you're talking about 00:57:47.426 --> 00:57:54.822 - pulling a million dollars out of educational funds and giving it to operational funds. This question 00:57:54.822 --> 00:58:02.292 - goes first to Kelly, and we'll go around the table. So Christa will be second. That's what I meant by 00:58:02.292 --> 00:58:09.834 - around the table. Do you agree with the new cell phone policy, and do you think it is effective in the 00:58:09.834 --> 00:58:14.814 - classroom right now? Are there any improvements that could be made? 00:58:16.962 --> 00:58:29.933 - So- excuse me. So- the cell phone policy is very tied to- the law that was passed at the state- I do 00:58:29.933 --> 00:58:43.160 - appreciate that the school board- allowed students to keep their phones with them- powered off- in and 00:58:43.160 --> 00:58:44.958 - away in their 00:58:45.122 --> 00:58:57.666 - School shootings are something that we all live with in our society, and that's a possibility. In looking 00:58:57.666 --> 00:58:59.678 - at those things, 00:58:59.874 --> 00:59:07.202 - the majority of those have been stopped or ended early because a student had a cell phone and was able 00:59:07.202 --> 00:59:14.388 - to contact somebody. So the fact that students are able to still have their cell phones with them, I 00:59:14.388 --> 00:59:21.717 - think is a really happy way to meet that state law and still allow students to have that device there, 00:59:21.717 --> 00:59:26.270 - that tool there to be able to help them. Okay, I'm out of time. 00:59:30.402 --> 00:59:37.057 - My daughter definitely doesn't agree with it. I heard about that a lot. I'm going to be very interested 00:59:37.057 --> 00:59:43.520 - to see how it works. I feel like in listening to teachers, they're very glad to have the opportunity 00:59:43.520 --> 00:59:50.367 - to have kids focused, and so I'm very interested to see how it works. I do think RBB took a good approach. 00:59:50.367 --> 00:59:56.766 - Some schools are not allowing them to take them to school at all. Can't have them on the bus, and I 00:59:56.766 --> 00:59:59.838 - think RBB tried to strike a nice middle ground. 01:00:00.194 --> 01:00:06.934 - The thing that I worry about is sometimes kids need to get a hold of their parents. And I've got a friend 01:00:06.934 --> 01:00:13.292 - whose son is diabetic and on a monitor, and I know she was very concerned about being able to reach 01:00:13.292 --> 01:00:19.969 - her son. And I know what I heard from the administration was, we're going to be flexible when that needs 01:00:19.969 --> 01:00:25.246 - to happen. And so that's something I think we need to keep an eye on, because if a 01:00:25.538 --> 01:00:31.152 - if a kiddo needs to communicate with a parent and something happens because they didn't then we need 01:00:31.152 --> 01:00:36.710 - to we need to think about being flexible so that that's the one thing that's kind of on my mind and 01:00:36.710 --> 01:00:42.436 - I want to see how it how it plays out. Yeah I'm sure the kids aren't thrilled. I mean yeah electronics 01:00:42.436 --> 01:00:48.216 - can be a problem right. They can get very caught up in them but they also serve a lot of great purposes 01:00:48.216 --> 01:00:53.886 - you know they used to say what 20 years ago you're never gonna have a calculator on you all the time. 01:00:54.370 --> 01:00:59.721 - but everybody in here does right now. But there's lots of other accommodations that could come with 01:00:59.721 --> 01:01:05.340 - a cell phone. A lot of kids might need it for different things. So that obviously needs to be considered 01:01:05.340 --> 01:01:11.013 - and looked at before you just say, no, you can't have it. And then I have talked to a few high schoolers, 01:01:11.013 --> 01:01:16.471 - and they thought it'd be a pretty good idea if the teachers did have their phones out, too. Everybody 01:01:16.471 --> 01:01:18.558 - can be invested in what they're doing. 01:01:22.562 --> 01:01:29.047 - So I like the cell phone policy, but what I'm really interested in is hearing the feedback from the 01:01:29.047 --> 01:01:35.531 - teachers and the students. It's such a new policy that at probably one of the school board meetings 01:01:35.531 --> 01:01:42.016 - coming up, they'll have more of a report on the feedback. And I'm kind of waiting to hear more what 01:01:42.016 --> 01:01:48.501 - they have to say. But overall, I think the policy's good because they do still have the phones, but 01:01:48.501 --> 01:01:51.678 - they're not on. So they're not distracting them. 01:01:51.842 --> 01:01:59.169 - They're following state guidelines. State mandated it. You have to follow it. There are unintended 01:01:59.169 --> 01:02:06.718 - consequences to most new changes and stuff. And I'd like to hear what the unintended consequences are 01:02:06.718 --> 01:02:14.415 - at this point. But I've not heard any yet. Looking at you, Krista. We're going to sit there and go down 01:02:14.415 --> 01:02:21.150 - the table. I think we're getting it now. OK. Don't worry. We'll change it at the very end. 01:02:21.922 --> 01:02:29.226 - What are your thoughts on the growing population in Ellitsville and how that affects facilities, particular 01:02:29.226 --> 01:02:36.124 - classroom size, so the growing population of the town? Yeah, this is a big topic, especially now that 01:02:36.124 --> 01:02:43.090 - we're looking at things like reorganization on the ballot next week. I have had this conversation with 01:02:43.090 --> 01:02:48.094 - Dr. Sanders many, many times because I've been involved in some community 01:02:48.514 --> 01:02:54.997 - initiatives where people have come to me with concerns that they're very worried about growth and can 01:02:54.997 --> 01:03:01.352 - the school accommodate growth. I think the good news is there's a lot of land here that is owned by 01:03:01.352 --> 01:03:07.708 - the school and I think there is room for growth. I think at this point we're okay. But I think, and 01:03:07.708 --> 01:03:14.127 - if you look at enrollment, it's been pretty steady. Even though the town has grown, the enrollment I 01:03:14.127 --> 01:03:16.542 - think has been around 2,600 students. 01:03:16.994 --> 01:03:23.256 - give or take 25 or so for a number of years. So yes, the town is growing, but the school's been pretty 01:03:23.256 --> 01:03:29.336 - steady. So right now I think we're okay, but I think it's something that we have to watch. And I do 01:03:29.336 --> 01:03:35.537 - think a thriving school is important to a thriving community. And so we don't wanna find ourselves in 01:03:35.537 --> 01:03:41.921 - a situation where we can't serve our community. So it's something we're gonna have to continue to watch, 01:03:41.921 --> 01:03:42.590 - I believe. 01:03:46.562 --> 01:03:53.877 - I know there's been a lot of debate about that. I've seen that. I'm not sure I'm gonna go too far into 01:03:53.877 --> 01:04:01.335 - that realm. But I think what I do know is that especially the intermediate school and the primary school 01:04:01.335 --> 01:04:08.508 - are already very near capacity. So I would be curious what the plan is to provide space to have more 01:04:08.508 --> 01:04:13.054 - kids go to those schools. Maybe we do have ground to build more 01:04:14.082 --> 01:04:19.784 - more uh you know facilities it looks like there's a lot of that going on around here but i i would be 01:04:19.784 --> 01:04:25.487 - worried that uh you know what that would look like and you know what the plan is to make sure that we 01:04:25.487 --> 01:04:31.469 - can house all those children so i had some concerns with it 20 years ago when they built in new elementary 01:04:31.469 --> 01:04:37.227 - schools because my daughter was in the first class she was one of them that had the silver shovel that 01:04:37.227 --> 01:04:40.190 - broke the ground for it and i thought is this enough 01:04:40.546 --> 01:04:46.973 - classrooms for our future, and then this area has exploded. It hasn't exploded with children at this 01:04:46.973 --> 01:04:53.400 - point, but I don't think the growth has stopped over here. From what I understand, there's even more 01:04:53.400 --> 01:04:59.763 - housing developments that are planned in the future. My concern has been a lot with the junior high 01:04:59.763 --> 01:05:06.127 - as much as any because of the size. It's more landlocked. It's a little smaller. I was in the first 01:05:06.127 --> 01:05:08.990 - sixth grade class in the junior high, and so 01:05:09.314 --> 01:05:15.312 - It's basically the same size as it was then. And now they are expanding it now. But I have some concerns. 01:05:15.312 --> 01:05:21.197 - But I think we're going to have to take a really hard look at the projected students 10 years, 20 years 01:05:21.197 --> 01:05:26.913 - from now. And this area has grown so much that are we going to be able to accommodate them with what 01:05:26.913 --> 01:05:32.571 - we have? And where are we going to go in the future? One thought I heard, a rumor at one time, they 01:05:32.571 --> 01:05:37.438 - thought about another elementary over more towards Bloomington for our school system. 01:05:37.666 --> 01:05:44.735 - I don't think anything ever happened with it, but it was something that was thought about many years 01:05:44.735 --> 01:05:51.734 - ago even then. I think that we're really lucky to have a growing community. I know there's a lot of 01:05:51.734 --> 01:05:52.574 - communities 01:05:52.738 --> 01:06:01.273 - that and school corporations that are shrinking and losing students and losing students means that we're 01:06:01.273 --> 01:06:09.401 - losing funding and losing funding means that we have to continue to make cuts. So I think a growing 01:06:09.401 --> 01:06:17.774 - population is a positive thing and that that we have found a way that the I say we as in the community 01:06:17.774 --> 01:06:19.806 - but the school board has 01:06:20.002 --> 01:06:27.547 - And school corporation has found a way to accommodate that growing population accommodate all of the 01:06:27.547 --> 01:06:34.494 - families that are moving in welcoming families making this a welcoming place to live and to. 01:06:34.594 --> 01:06:40.768 - have a high standard of education that people want to come here. I know when we moved here 12 years 01:06:40.768 --> 01:06:47.127 - ago we had a choice of where we were going to choose to put our kids in school. This was before Andrew 01:06:47.127 --> 01:06:53.610 - worked in the school corporation and we chose RBB because of the school corporation it is. So it doesn't 01:06:53.610 --> 01:06:59.846 - surprise me that we have a growing population and as we have handled it through the years I think we 01:06:59.846 --> 01:07:02.686 - will continue to be able to handle it. Sorry. 01:07:04.418 --> 01:07:11.668 - Why does my time feel shorter than everybody else's? Okay. This next question kind of connects with 01:07:11.668 --> 01:07:19.135 - the one that we just heard. And we'll go first to Jeremiah. Public school officials say they recognize 01:07:19.135 --> 01:07:26.675 - that school choice is a reality in Indiana. That means it's not enough to offer high quality education. 01:07:26.675 --> 01:07:34.142 - They also have to tell the public about it, which requires resources for marketing and communications. 01:07:34.786 --> 01:07:42.015 - So the thought about school choice and the consequences for RBB. I can understand the consequences, 01:07:42.015 --> 01:07:49.316 - right? The less students, the less funding. I kind of feel like choice is important, though. I mean, 01:07:49.316 --> 01:07:56.039 - you don't know everybody's story. You don't know how the child operates in that facility and 01:07:56.039 --> 01:08:03.774 - that environment. I wouldn't want to be the one to tell them, sorry, you're struggling. You're stuck here. 01:08:04.034 --> 01:08:12.493 - I think choice is important. So, I agree choice is important because we don't have a choice. It's state 01:08:12.493 --> 01:08:20.626 - requires it and money goes with the child and that's okay. There are reasons parents choose to have 01:08:20.626 --> 01:08:28.922 - their children go different places. Lots of reasons. We want to give them reasons to come back to us. 01:08:28.922 --> 01:08:32.094 - We have 300 kids now that aren't here. 01:08:32.898 --> 01:08:39.500 - and a half, three million dollars out of our budget. We want them to want to come here. We don't want 01:08:39.500 --> 01:08:46.037 - to force them to come here. Parents have reasons. They want a smaller classroom. They have all kinds 01:08:46.037 --> 01:08:52.574 - of reasons. They didn't have a good experience at the school, but we want them to come back to us. I 01:08:52.574 --> 01:08:55.486 - think it's just a matter of having the right 01:08:55.778 --> 01:09:02.321 - situation for them. We provide a lot of things that our other schools don't provide. We have more a 01:09:02.321 --> 01:09:08.864 - wider curriculum. We have the extracurriculars at this school are amazing. We have an amazing band. 01:09:08.864 --> 01:09:15.472 - We have amazing show choir. We have amazing clubs. We have amazing the arts that we have everything. 01:09:15.472 --> 01:09:21.950 - Give them a reason to come to me. And we also provide transportation. That's where our competitors 01:09:22.370 --> 01:09:30.573 - And I call them competitors because I'm a business person, but they are competitors. We have that over 01:09:30.573 --> 01:09:38.538 - them because we provide that. Every child in the state of Indiana is allowed and by law gets a free 01:09:38.538 --> 01:09:44.830 - public education, and we will provide the best we can to them because of that. 01:09:45.058 --> 01:09:52.564 - So I'm going to start by saying 60 seconds is not enough for this. I have more information on my campaign 01:09:52.564 --> 01:09:59.221 - website. I have a handout over on the table there if you're interested in reading my thoughts 01:09:59.221 --> 01:10:06.444 - more thoroughly. I believe students and families should have a choice, very much so. I do not believe 01:10:06.444 --> 01:10:13.597 - that public dollars should be going to schools that do not have public accountability. And that's my 01:10:13.597 --> 01:10:14.942 - bottom line there. 01:10:15.810 --> 01:10:22.400 - do think that we have a story to tell. We are competitors with the other schools, the charter schools 01:10:22.400 --> 01:10:28.990 - and the private schools. The problem with being a competitor with those schools is that we don't play 01:10:28.990 --> 01:10:35.580 - by the same rules. We aren't measured in the same way. They don't have to have the same requirements. 01:10:35.580 --> 01:10:39.134 - And it's not the same level playing field. And I think 01:10:39.298 --> 01:10:46.352 - as far as telling the story, we need to tell all of our successes. Yes, absolutely. And we also need 01:10:46.352 --> 01:10:53.405 - to inform them about how these schools are different. And that is an important part. I will go ahead 01:10:53.405 --> 01:10:55.710 - and say, I think Krista would be 01:10:55.842 --> 01:11:02.504 - an amazing person to be on the school board because she is a vice president of marketing and communication, 01:11:02.504 --> 01:11:08.673 - and I think that would be a valuable asset to have on our school board because I think that that is 01:11:08.673 --> 01:11:15.089 - something that we can improve upon. That's not a skill that I have, and I think that it would be a huge 01:11:15.089 --> 01:11:21.566 - asset. I agree with what everyone has said. I don't think there's one educational environment that works 01:11:21.566 --> 01:11:22.430 - for everyone. 01:11:22.690 --> 01:11:30.142 - I do agree with choice, but I think we also have to recognize that the amount of choice that is being 01:11:30.142 --> 01:11:37.449 - given today is fragmenting the dollars. And so we are providing choice, but we aren't providing the 01:11:37.449 --> 01:11:44.828 - funding to cover all those choices. I don't love the thought of public dollars also going to private 01:11:44.828 --> 01:11:51.550 - school tuition through vouchers. And so I think if the state wants to provide choice, okay. 01:11:51.938 --> 01:11:58.400 - then fund everything if that's the way that you want to do it. So that's how I feel about that. Resources 01:11:58.400 --> 01:12:04.680 - for marketing comms. Well, RBB has already been creative about this because the students are doing it. 01:12:04.680 --> 01:12:11.081 - And so if you go over to the innovation lab over here, you're going to see podcasting, video production. 01:12:11.081 --> 01:12:16.446 - There's journalism. My daughter right now is serving as a marketing intern, and they're 01:12:16.578 --> 01:12:24.570 - working to tell the stories of the school and the other students. I think they're doing a great job. 01:12:24.570 --> 01:12:32.561 - It's a great learning experience. But I do think we've got to go broader than our local community to 01:12:32.561 --> 01:12:40.790 - tell the story just for the reasons that I said. Thank you. I have a question. Sorry. Can I ask it from 01:12:40.790 --> 01:12:45.854 - here? Is that OK? OK. OK. Use your outdoor voice. Sure, I will. 01:12:46.082 --> 01:12:55.608 - a brand new educator looking to find a teaching job and I could look for one here at RBB or I could 01:12:55.608 --> 01:13:05.325 - go 15 minutes to the east and make 10 to 30,000 more or 45 minutes to the north and make 10 to 20,000 01:13:05.325 --> 01:13:15.614 - more. What would you say to convince me that it's worth it to be an amazing brand new educator here at RBB? 01:13:17.186 --> 01:13:24.647 - Dennis, you're up next. So I don't know the facts. I don't know how much the other schools are paying. 01:13:24.647 --> 01:13:31.891 - And I don't know if that information is accurate or not accurate. That doesn't matter. What matters 01:13:31.891 --> 01:13:39.642 - is the quality of life in this community, that people live here, the atmosphere. When you have a business, 01:13:39.642 --> 01:13:44.350 - you have a culture. And you want the culture of the school to be 01:13:44.610 --> 01:13:51.383 - in a way that makes people want to be here and want to come here and want to teach here. It's that you 01:13:51.383 --> 01:13:57.959 - have support from your supervisors. You have support from your school board and your community. And 01:13:57.959 --> 01:14:04.534 - you have that. And sometimes, yes, people do go wherever the highest paycheck is. And I don't blame 01:14:04.534 --> 01:14:11.242 - them if they want to do that. But some people want the quality of life. And people work in businesses 01:14:11.242 --> 01:14:14.398 - for long periods of time because of the quality 01:14:14.498 --> 01:14:22.444 - that's in that atmosphere and the culture of that atmosphere. We work as a company, my company, we have 01:14:22.444 --> 01:14:30.237 - people that have been with us 30, 40 years because of our culture, how we help people, how we address 01:14:30.237 --> 01:14:37.342 - issues, and how we address anything that comes up, we're there for them and to support them. 01:14:40.418 --> 01:14:48.015 - So you're a brand new educator, and you can make money other places. If you're a brand new educator, 01:14:48.015 --> 01:14:55.386 - making money other places to pay off your student loans is probably the best financial situation. 01:14:55.386 --> 01:15:02.456 - That said, I've worked in places where I did get paid more, and I didn't have as much support 01:15:02.456 --> 01:15:07.646 - from administration. I didn't have the colleagues that we have here. 01:15:09.090 --> 01:15:14.798 - You're all sitting here listening to two people run for each seat. How lucky are we in this community 01:15:14.798 --> 01:15:20.450 - that we have multiple people who want to serve on the school board? That's amazing. People here care 01:15:20.450 --> 01:15:26.269 - about education. They care about our educators. They care about our students. I've been in places where 01:15:26.269 --> 01:15:32.257 - the number one priority is athletics. And while we care about athletics, it's not the number one priority. 01:15:32.257 --> 01:15:36.510 - Kids are our number one priority, and you're going to be supported in that. 01:15:38.850 --> 01:15:44.831 - So funny she started where I was gonna start was my first question would be do you have loans? Because 01:15:44.831 --> 01:15:50.811 - I I've been there and you know got to make a living So really you're talking about recruitment, right? 01:15:50.811 --> 01:15:56.850 - How do we recruit the best? Educators to RBB and I think I would hope that it's some of the same things 01:15:56.850 --> 01:16:02.715 - that I'm hearing. I don't know that for sure right now I don't know how they recruit teachers, but I 01:16:02.715 --> 01:16:03.934 - would hope that it's 01:16:04.066 --> 01:16:10.854 - It's a great community to live in. There's a great culture here at the school. I would also hope that 01:16:10.854 --> 01:16:17.576 - you can grow and develop here. That you can do new things and that you're always challenged and that 01:16:17.576 --> 01:16:24.297 - your salary does grow as you grow as an individual. That would be my hope for you in coming here and 01:16:24.297 --> 01:16:31.086 - I would hope that you would know that you would be deeply appreciated. We should be able to make more 01:16:31.086 --> 01:16:32.350 - here. I think that 01:16:32.514 --> 01:16:40.054 - All the teachers should make a lot more. I couldn't, in my mind, think of a more important job that 01:16:40.054 --> 01:16:47.895 - anybody could have. So I don't really get why. I've asked for financial documentation from the district 01:16:47.895 --> 01:16:55.511 - via an APRA request, and I never got it. So I couldn't really dig into the whole story and where the 01:16:55.511 --> 01:17:00.638 - money goes and why we can't pay teachers more. Athletics are great. 01:17:02.146 --> 01:17:08.441 - very nice looking fields out there. Sometimes you've got to think about where you spend your money and 01:17:08.441 --> 01:17:14.614 - is it the best use of the money? I'm not saying it's not great for those fields to be out there, but 01:17:14.614 --> 01:17:20.971 - I bet there's probably some funds that would have been freed up if it wouldn't have been spent on that. 01:17:20.971 --> 01:17:27.266 - Thank you. That is about as much time as we have. We wanted to ask our panelists to give their closing 01:17:27.266 --> 01:17:30.750 - statements so they each have one, and we're going to go. 01:17:31.010 --> 01:17:37.289 - That direction starting with Kelly and move down the line to Krista at the last. So one minute for your 01:17:37.289 --> 01:17:43.326 - closing statement. I just again want to thank everybody for coming tonight. I really appreciate it. 01:17:44.898 --> 01:17:51.400 - appreciate that we all of my fellow people who are running for coming and for sharing their thoughts. 01:17:51.400 --> 01:17:58.157 - I don't think you necessarily have an easy choice. I'm really excited that again we have multiple people. 01:17:58.157 --> 01:18:04.787 - I'm glad as a voter myself that we have multiple people that we get to choose to be on our school board 01:18:04.787 --> 01:18:09.950 - and that want to serve on our school board. There are in the Bloomington schools 01:18:10.114 --> 01:18:17.958 - One person running, they are uncontested for all of their seats. There is no choice for the public on 01:18:17.958 --> 01:18:26.109 - who serves there. So thank you all for coming tonight and for listening to us, for asking your questions. 01:18:26.109 --> 01:18:33.798 - And good luck with your voting. So what I want to say is I love this school. I went to school here. 01:18:33.798 --> 01:18:37.182 - Everybody in my family went to school here. 01:18:37.346 --> 01:18:44.621 - I love this school. I've worked here and volunteered since I've been out of school. I love this town. 01:18:44.621 --> 01:18:52.039 - I've never lived anywhere but this area my entire life, and I've never had any dreams of going anywhere 01:18:52.039 --> 01:18:57.246 - else. I think a school is the center of a community this size. It's what 01:18:57.634 --> 01:19:05.240 - how we're labeled while people know Ellsville because of Edgewood and because of our school systems. 01:19:05.240 --> 01:19:12.846 - I want to do everything I can to help with my experience, bring that to the board to help the school 01:19:12.846 --> 01:19:20.377 - continue to thrive and go into the future, far into the future. So thank you all for being here and 01:19:20.377 --> 01:19:25.950 - that's about all. I do want to thank you all for coming. I appreciate it. 01:19:26.370 --> 01:19:32.308 - Good luck voting and I'm gonna actually opt for the remaining time I have to be in silence to advocate 01:19:32.308 --> 01:19:35.998 - for all the nonverbal students that go to this school district. 01:20:32.130 --> 01:20:38.530 - It's hard to follow. Yes, I appreciate everyone asking questions. I've seen people, Dennis and I were 01:20:38.530 --> 01:20:45.180 - talking before that I've seen people saying, hey, I don't know where people stand on issues. So sometimes 01:20:45.180 --> 01:20:51.454 - it's hard to know what's specific on people's minds. So it's very helpful that you are here tonight 01:20:51.454 --> 01:20:57.979 - and that you ask questions. So I do appreciate that. The more I learn about this, the more I am excited 01:20:57.979 --> 01:20:59.422 - about the possibility. 01:20:59.554 --> 01:21:06.918 - of serving on school board. I agree nothing's perfect, and I think there are a lot of challenges. At 01:21:06.918 --> 01:21:14.792 - the same time, every school board meeting that I've gone to over the past few months, I've heard incredible 01:21:14.792 --> 01:21:22.521 - stories about teachers, about educators, and about outcomes with kids. And to be able to impact something 01:21:22.521 --> 01:21:29.374 - like that is something that I'm excited about. If it doesn't happen and I don't get the seat, 01:21:29.538 --> 01:21:37.005 - I think everyone up here cares about the school and cares about education. So I don't think we'll lose 01:21:37.005 --> 01:21:44.544 - as a community. And I do agree that this community thrives when the school thrives. And we have so much 01:21:44.544 --> 01:21:51.865 - pride in this school. So I just want the best for it. So thank you. I have a couple of things to say 01:21:51.865 --> 01:21:58.462 - to conclude. So on behalf of the League of Women Voters, we're pleased to have this forum. 01:21:58.626 --> 01:22:05.721 - We have an online voter guide, and there's a bookmark in the back that you can pick up. It's vote411.org. 01:22:05.721 --> 01:22:12.482 - The League of Women Voters asks every candidate for a specific office the same set of questions, and 01:22:12.482 --> 01:22:19.443 - then you can compare their answers. So it's an online voter guide. And that is back there. There's also 01:22:19.443 --> 01:22:25.534 - a reminder that early voting has started. It continues until noon on Monday, November 2nd. 01:22:26.178 --> 01:22:32.632 - and then election day is Tuesday, November 3rd. So I hope that you will all take the opportunity to 01:22:32.632 --> 01:22:39.150 - exercise your voice and vote. Want to thank Katz very much for recording this important forum and it 01:22:39.150 --> 01:22:46.056 - will be shared soon with your friends and colleagues who will also be facing these tough decisions because 01:22:46.056 --> 01:22:52.510 - what a fantastic group of candidates. Please join me in thanking them for a wonderful presentation.