WEBVTT 00:00:00.066 --> 00:00:07.226 - Good afternoon. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service. I'm Steve Wicks. 00:00:07.226 --> 00:00:14.114 - I'm honored to serve as your president this year. I have lots of guests here today, so welcome. Feel 00:00:14.114 --> 00:00:21.137 - free to get up and get a dessert or get a second helping while I'm speaking. We're glad all of you are 00:00:21.137 --> 00:00:27.070 - here. Please silence your electronic devices. On this day in history, April 7th, 1948, 00:00:27.586 --> 00:00:36.733 - The World Health Organization was formed by the United Nations. Michael Shermus would deliver today's 00:00:36.733 --> 00:00:44.894 - reflection. About a two-parter. The first is that there is a handout on your table that is 00:00:45.250 --> 00:00:51.131 - the Bloomington Rotary Club speaker presentation tips. And if anybody feels the need, they can just 00:00:51.131 --> 00:00:57.129 - jot down ideas that they have about what they like when speakers do things, what they don't like when 00:00:57.129 --> 00:01:03.304 - speakers do things, and any other suggestions you have at all. I'll collect them afterwards. We're going 00:01:03.304 --> 00:01:09.243 - to put it in the roundabout, I hope, and maybe have people who are online also be able to do it just 00:01:09.243 --> 00:01:15.006 - to provide information on what we can tell speakers in terms of what people do and don't like. So 00:01:15.234 --> 00:01:23.238 - As some of you may know, I direct the Bloomington Monroe County Human Rights Commission for some context. 00:01:23.238 --> 00:01:31.392 - So where do you see people caring for each other in our community? That's the question that the Bloomington 00:01:31.392 --> 00:01:37.886 - Monroe County Human Rights Commission asked local students in grades K through 6 for. 00:01:37.986 --> 00:01:52.244 - our annual arts and essay contest, and over 80 students delivered with thoughtful, creative, 00:01:52.244 --> 00:02:03.742 - and compassionate responses. Coming up. Did I pass it? Maybe. There we go. 00:02:08.002 --> 00:02:17.186 - I'm going to advance it because it's not, oh, there we go. There's one. All right. OK. Because it is 00:02:17.186 --> 00:02:21.278 - not clicking, right? All right, there we go. 00:02:21.730 --> 00:02:28.171 - Next slide. Students praised the work of many local organizations. The three winning essays by older 00:02:28.171 --> 00:02:34.739 - students focused on Beacon, Habitat for Humanity, and Mother Hubbard's Cupboard. They also highlighted 00:02:34.739 --> 00:02:41.308 - service-oriented professions, lots of drawings of doctors and firefighters from younger students. They 00:02:41.308 --> 00:02:47.876 - expressed gratitude for friends and family, like in our honorable mention from Thomas, a second grader 00:02:47.876 --> 00:02:49.534 - at Grandview. Next slide. 00:02:50.178 --> 00:02:57.259 - And sometimes we weren't able to quite sure what they meant, but we're glad to know that McDonald's 00:02:57.259 --> 00:03:04.552 - is having such a big impact in Bloomington. Next slide. We really hope that you'll come by and see all 00:03:04.552 --> 00:03:11.774 - of the pieces which are on display at City Hall Atrium from now until April 30th. The farmer's market 00:03:11.774 --> 00:03:15.102 - is a great opportunity to do so. There you go. 00:03:21.570 --> 00:03:29.159 - Thank you, Michael. Randy Saunders will introduce our guests today. Good afternoon. I've got a bunch 00:03:29.159 --> 00:03:37.199 - of guests today, so when I read your name, if you'll just stand if you're able or wave at us or something, 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:45.013 - and we'll acknowledge you. First, from my office, Rod Cates with Scouting America is with us. He's been 00:03:45.013 --> 00:03:49.822 - here before. He told me not to introduce him, but I did anyway. 00:03:50.498 --> 00:03:57.806 - Um, uh, a guest of Dr. Winston's is, uh, Sarah, Sarah morning. Good afternoon. Uh, a guest of Liz Erwin 00:03:57.806 --> 00:04:04.832 - is a Gabby Thomas with Duke Energy. Welcome Gabby. Another guest of Dr. Winston's is Gladys Devane. 00:04:04.832 --> 00:04:12.069 - Gladys. Hey, glad to have you here today. Uh, a guest of Jim Bright's is, uh, Shane Gibson. Shane, are 00:04:12.069 --> 00:04:19.166 - you there in the back? He's Shane. And then, uh, Isabella Fries is a guest of Amy Kindles. Isabella. 00:04:20.898 --> 00:04:29.525 - Uh, Elisar Ally is a guest of Art and Danya. Hi. There we go. And then we've got Danya Jabori. Did I 00:04:29.525 --> 00:04:38.408 - say that right? Was I close? All right. It's a guest of Art. Omich. Sorry about that. Close. All right. 00:04:38.408 --> 00:04:47.035 - All right. I'll get it right next time. All right. And I have a couple of guests of Christopher M.G. 00:04:47.035 --> 00:04:49.854 - with us today, Hannah Hutton and 00:04:49.986 --> 00:04:57.711 - John Skolak over there on the, over there by the line. So welcome. Glad to have y'all here today. Are 00:04:57.711 --> 00:05:05.511 - there any guests online? Hello from Zoom land. I believe that we have a guest who's just entered Frida 00:05:05.511 --> 00:05:13.387 - Cruz. Um, and the rest of us are all Rotarians. All right. Well, welcome Frida and thank you everybody. 00:05:13.387 --> 00:05:14.750 - Thank you, Randy. 00:05:14.978 --> 00:05:23.482 - Also want to mention that we're especially honored that Gladys Devane, our 2022 Rotary Toast winner, 00:05:23.482 --> 00:05:31.648 - is here with us today. Birthdays to celebrate. Club members. Tomorrow, Martha Wales. On the 9th, 00:05:31.648 --> 00:05:39.900 - Gus Chakalas. On the 11th, Martha Foster, Lexi Walters. On the 12th, John Armstrong. On the 13th, 00:05:39.900 --> 00:05:44.446 - Megan Neiss. On the 14th, Sarah Cochran. On the 15th, 00:05:44.834 --> 00:05:52.351 - On the 17th, our club secretary Mark Peterson. On the 19th, Whitney Cordova. We have just a couple of 00:05:52.351 --> 00:06:00.384 - anniversaries. On the 11th, President-elect Sam Udak, three years with the club. And on the 14th, roundabout 00:06:00.384 --> 00:06:07.827 - editor Marilyn Wood, 11 years with the club. Lots of announcements. Not too late to register for the 00:06:07.827 --> 00:06:13.502 - Rotary District Conference, May 8th and 9th at the Galt House in Louisville. 00:06:14.210 --> 00:06:22.034 - Lots of fun things to do Friday evening, lots of educational and networking opportunities available 00:06:22.034 --> 00:06:29.936 - on Saturday. The link will be in the roundabout and it's RotaryAllStars.com. Michelle Cohen is going 00:06:29.936 --> 00:06:37.760 - to come up here and talk a little bit about the club service project coming up here in about a week 00:06:37.760 --> 00:06:42.846 - and a half. Thank you, Steve. I just wanted to let you know that 00:06:43.298 --> 00:06:50.615 - thanks to a grant from the Bloomington Rotary Foundation through the club. The Lake Mineral Water Fund 00:06:50.615 --> 00:06:58.004 - got the ability to plant about 33 or so native trees, and we've got signups on all the tables. The date 00:06:58.004 --> 00:07:05.108 - is April 18th. That is subject to conditions. Right now, it's a little wet, so we shall see. If you 00:07:05.108 --> 00:07:12.638 - cannot make that date, please sign up and just note that, because if we postpone, then I can contact you. 00:07:12.738 --> 00:07:18.698 - It's going to be in the Stillwater Marsh area off of State Road 46. And if you sign up, we'll get you 00:07:18.698 --> 00:07:24.891 - the details on where to park and those sorts of things. The picture here shows the size of trees. They're 00:07:24.891 --> 00:07:30.910 - going to be in about three gallon pots. So they're bigger than a little tiny seedling, but they're not 00:07:30.910 --> 00:07:36.869 - so big that you can't manage it. And I would really appreciate it if you can sign up. We're trying to 00:07:36.869 --> 00:07:41.310 - get about 20 rotarians, get family, friends, that kind of thing. Thank you. 00:07:43.330 --> 00:07:50.330 - Thanks, Michelle. Next quarter, we have plenty of volunteer meeting roles that still need to be filled. 00:07:50.330 --> 00:07:57.262 - You should have received an email from Mandy with the sign-up link. You can also find this link in the 00:07:57.262 --> 00:08:04.127 - roundabout. Our most immediate need is a Zoom host on April 21st. Sally Gaskell stepped up for today, 00:08:04.127 --> 00:08:10.857 - which I appreciate very much. So please see me if you have any interest or go online and sign up on 00:08:10.857 --> 00:08:11.934 - Sign Up Genius. 00:08:12.738 --> 00:08:19.769 - Community Service Committee will meet immediately after today's meeting. Next Rotary Book Group Gathering 00:08:19.769 --> 00:08:26.468 - is on April 15th at 7 p.m. at the home of Judy Schroeder. Please let Judy know if you plan to attend 00:08:26.468 --> 00:08:33.367 - so she can plan accordingly. Club Organizational Member My Sister's Closet hosting an evening with Maya 00:08:33.367 --> 00:08:40.862 - Angelou Dinner Theater on April 10th and 11th. They've planned an elegant event at the Bloomington Country Club. 00:08:41.634 --> 00:08:47.805 - proceeds will benefit the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra and the My Sister's Closet Relocation Fund. 00:08:47.805 --> 00:08:54.036 - For more information, see club members Sandy Keller or Marcy Hibbard, or go to the My Sister's Closet 00:08:54.036 --> 00:09:00.329 - website. You may have noticed I started today's program at 12.02. I plan to continue this in the weeks 00:09:00.329 --> 00:09:06.622 - ahead. I'm hoping we have some of our working members that are slipping in right at noon, want to give 00:09:06.622 --> 00:09:11.326 - those individuals just a couple more minutes to get their food and sit down. 00:09:11.522 --> 00:09:18.135 - So it means that they'll have a little bit more time, and hopefully all of you have more time to socialize, 00:09:18.135 --> 00:09:24.503 - and then two minutes less where you'll be hearing from me. Congratulations to Sally Gaskell and Wendell 00:09:24.503 --> 00:09:30.688 - St. John, both of whom attended all 13 meetings this past quarter. Election season is in full swing. 00:09:30.688 --> 00:09:37.056 - There have already been a number of debates and candidate forums. I saw several club members today with 00:09:37.056 --> 00:09:39.934 - stickers indicating that they'd voted already. 00:09:40.418 --> 00:09:47.942 - Club organizational member the Monroe County branch of the NAACP is co-hosting a virtual forum for the 00:09:47.942 --> 00:09:55.320 - 9th district congressional candidates and that'll be 10 a.m. on April 11th and we'll try to have the 00:09:55.320 --> 00:10:02.771 - link in this week's roundabout. Martha Gutman died on March 26. She was the wife of deceased longtime 00:10:02.771 --> 00:10:08.030 - club member Bob Gutman. Congratulations to club member Kyla Cox-Deckard 00:10:08.290 --> 00:10:20.595 - who is named Executive Director of the IU Center for Rural Engagement, effective April 1st. Well done, 00:10:20.595 --> 00:10:32.900 - Tyler. Tyler, can you go ahead and... March is Rotary Maternal and Child Health Month. I'm sorry, this 00:10:32.900 --> 00:10:36.126 - is April. Thank you, Judy. 00:10:38.018 --> 00:10:45.643 - March was Rotary Water Month. So anyway, we've moved forward, Maternal and Child Health Month. 00:10:45.643 --> 00:10:53.669 - Help wanted. We need additional club members to join the membership committee. And specifically, we 00:10:53.669 --> 00:11:01.695 - need someone or someones to conduct the induction ceremony for new members coming on board. We need 00:11:01.695 --> 00:11:06.270 - some individuals to help review membership applications. 00:11:06.658 --> 00:11:16.085 - and we need some help with orientation. So see me or contact our membership chair, Laurie Garrity, if 00:11:16.085 --> 00:11:25.327 - you're interested. Okay, next week. Do not come here next week. We will not be here. So it's one of 00:11:25.327 --> 00:11:34.846 - the days when the IMU is fully booked with our other events. So our service that day has been replaced 00:11:35.042 --> 00:11:41.467 - by our attendance at the Heading Home Regional Housing Summit to be held at the Monroe County Convention 00:11:41.467 --> 00:11:47.709 - Center, 830 to 5 p.m. on April 14th. There will be no Zoom option next week. So your specifics. Theme 00:11:47.709 --> 00:11:54.317 - of the day is to explore innovative approaches to housing that can be implemented in South Central Indiana. 00:11:54.317 --> 00:12:00.620 - There's a link if you want to learn more about the program. I think there are some flyers on your desk 00:12:00.620 --> 00:12:04.414 - or desk on your tables where you can learn a little bit more. 00:12:05.090 --> 00:12:11.477 - So if you want to join or if you want to register, you can go through a sign-up sheet that Mandy has 00:12:11.477 --> 00:12:18.244 - right there. Do you want to hold that up? So when you leave today, just go ahead and sign up. The deadline 00:12:18.244 --> 00:12:24.568 - is today. Or Mandy has sent a email with a sign-up genius electronic link. So if you sign up to the 00:12:24.568 --> 00:12:30.955 - club, it costs you $15 and includes the program and the lunch. You'll be invoiced for this amount at 00:12:30.955 --> 00:12:34.686 - the end of the quarter like you would for any normal meal. 00:12:35.106 --> 00:12:42.146 - Once you register with the event, then we'll give a firm count to heading home, so you'll be invoiced 00:12:42.146 --> 00:12:49.256 - even if you're unable to attend. You can stay all day, or you can pop in just for lunch or some of the 00:12:49.256 --> 00:12:56.296 - sessions. Lunch starts at 11.45. Thanks to one of our members, our club is a housing advocate sponsor 00:12:56.296 --> 00:13:03.198 - for the event. And the same club member is paying the difference between the $25 event registration 00:13:03.298 --> 00:13:09.978 - and our normal 15-11 lunch cost. And parking should be free behind the convention center. And here's 00:13:09.978 --> 00:13:16.789 - an agenda which you probably can't read. Once again, you can stay all day. But if you want to just pop 00:13:16.789 --> 00:13:23.733 - in for lunch and maybe join in the panel at the end of lunch or stay for the keynote speaker, I've heard 00:13:23.733 --> 00:13:29.950 - from another member that this is a really good keynote speaker. You can go ahead and do that. 00:13:31.618 --> 00:13:38.413 - So I'm going to stop here, and Connie, I'm not going to need your help with this. Does anyone have any 00:13:38.413 --> 00:13:45.143 - questions about next week? Well, good. Please sign up if you're interested, and we'll look forward to 00:13:45.143 --> 00:13:51.872 - seeing as many of you as possible. So here's a reminder that Happy Dollar proceeds in March and April 00:13:51.872 --> 00:13:58.206 - will be given to the Bloomington Rotary Foundation. And we do plan to have Happy Dollars today. 00:14:00.898 --> 00:14:20.260 - And we have a short rotary video. We're having technical problems again this week, so we may not have 00:14:20.260 --> 00:14:29.182 - audio. Isn't quite the same without the audio. 00:14:44.898 --> 00:14:53.908 - So the theme was vaccines are important. If children live to be five years old, they have their odds 00:14:53.908 --> 00:15:02.919 - of surviving to adulthood are twice as good. So Rotary is very supportive of vaccines. And now we're 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:12.286 - ready for happy dollars. Is anyone happy about anything today? Raise your hand and Connie will find you. 00:15:23.362 --> 00:15:33.173 - OK, so I had 20 happy dollars because we just bought an electric vehicle. So I was inspired by Dave 00:15:33.173 --> 00:15:43.670 - Meyer. I was thinking about it already. And we had pretty good timing because I probably saved $20 already 00:15:43.670 --> 00:15:52.990 - on gas. Michelle, is that a pledge that all your future gas savings will be going to the club? 00:15:56.034 --> 00:16:05.891 - Okay. Here's some happy dollars. I'm almost 78 years old. And I saw that men lived to about 79, 80, 00:16:05.891 --> 00:16:16.734 - maybe women lived to 83, 84, 85. So I'm thinking if I start transitioning right now, just maybe, that's fine. 00:16:24.322 --> 00:16:34.047 - We're happy you're very much alive. That's that's a hard one to follow. So. I have twins who are freshmen, 00:16:34.047 --> 00:16:43.500 - one of my alma mater, Michigan, and one here at my place of employment and a place that holds obviously 00:16:43.500 --> 00:16:52.862 - a very special place in my heart, Indiana. And so this has been an amazing year with Indiana football. 00:16:53.442 --> 00:17:09.005 - And then last night being with my kids at the national championship game. So I am very happy and happy 00:17:09.005 --> 00:17:19.582 - to contribute, um, 20 bucks for the rotary foundation. So I go ahead. 00:17:21.730 --> 00:17:29.562 - Hi, I'm happy because yesterday I received a handwritten card in the mail from Martha Wales. If you 00:17:29.562 --> 00:17:37.785 - don't know, Martha Wales is our club's letter writer when someone has a health issue. So the great thing 00:17:37.785 --> 00:17:45.852 - about Martha's letter is that she's also a comedian, and I laughed out loud when I read it on my front 00:17:45.852 --> 00:17:50.238 - porch. Martha, thank you, and happy birthday this week. 00:17:53.890 --> 00:18:04.286 - Okay, I am happy. I'm happy for Amina and Jawed from the Mohammadi family that I was able to help them 00:18:04.286 --> 00:18:14.380 - get a small refund on their taxes. So, I'm happy about that. I'm happy that doing Amina's brother's 00:18:14.380 --> 00:18:19.326 - taxes, that Shamsul, or Shams for short, did his 00:18:19.426 --> 00:18:27.752 - Helped him with his taxes yesterday. So I'm happy to be done with that But sadly he was not happy with 00:18:27.752 --> 00:18:35.916 - the results I've learned through this process I learned a lot about what it means to be a gig worker 00:18:35.916 --> 00:18:44.000 - and what it means at tax time the complexity and and how you have to Well normally pay a lot at the 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:48.446 - end. So anyway, there's that We have time for one more 00:18:49.378 --> 00:18:55.861 - I like to go. I'm happy for a beginning and also for an end. We have actually officially closed out 00:18:55.861 --> 00:19:02.473 - worldwide automotive services, our business, and it is now in fully in Paul's hands. But the new part 00:19:02.473 --> 00:19:09.021 - is I'd always wanted more children and I was too old by the time it was time for a third one. But my 00:19:09.021 --> 00:19:15.763 - second daughter took care of that and I'm going to have a new daughter in law on the 19th. So I've been 00:19:15.763 --> 00:19:19.134 - spending the last two months planning a wedding. So 00:19:19.458 --> 00:19:27.586 - Happy dollars for a beginning and an end, and we're kind of happy about both of them. Steve, can we 00:19:27.586 --> 00:19:36.283 - get Lori Garrity? She has a quick one. Lori, do you have one quickly? Yeah, 20 happy dollars. Last summer, 00:19:36.283 --> 00:19:44.655 - my husband was diagnosed with cancer. He's now officially in remission, and we spent a month in Hawaii 00:19:44.655 --> 00:19:48.638 - celebrating our 25th anniversary. Thank you all. 00:19:49.122 --> 00:20:03.032 - Liz Irwin will introduce today's speaker. Well, good afternoon, everyone. It is my pleasure. Thank you. 00:20:03.032 --> 00:20:15.070 - It is my pleasure to introduce today's speaker, fellow Rotarian, Dr. Markay Winston. This 00:20:15.266 --> 00:20:21.750 - This topic is really important to everyone in this room, I know, but it's also very timely right now 00:20:21.750 --> 00:20:28.235 - as we are seeing an attack on public education. And I know we have such a gem in this community with 00:20:28.235 --> 00:20:35.040 - MCCSC, so I'm sure we will all be very, very happy to hear from Dr. Winston. We also know that supporting 00:20:35.040 --> 00:20:41.525 - education is a priority area of focus for Rotary International, and our club has a long tradition of 00:20:41.525 --> 00:20:44.414 - support for education here in our community. 00:20:44.834 --> 00:20:52.350 - And of course, our club founded Teachers' Warehouse and continues to be very involved with that organization. 00:20:52.350 --> 00:20:58.842 - Here in Monroe County, we are fortunate to have MCCSE and the leadership of Superintendent Dr. 00:20:58.842 --> 00:21:06.085 - Mark K. Winston. And today we will hear directly from Dr. Winston as she shares her perspective on strong 00:21:06.085 --> 00:21:13.191 - schools, strong community, and strong future. Dr. Mark K. Winston was appointed Superintendent of MCCSE 00:21:13.191 --> 00:21:14.558 - in January of 2025. 00:21:14.818 --> 00:21:21.639 - Dr. Winston is a career educator and has served at the executive level for the past two decades. She 00:21:21.639 --> 00:21:28.864 - has a track record of successfully leading and executing large-scale strategic initiatives. Her leadership 00:21:28.864 --> 00:21:35.685 - has prioritized two-way communications, strengthened the corporation's financial stability, elevated 00:21:35.685 --> 00:21:43.046 - student success, and fostered meaningful connections throughout the community. Through transparent budgeting 00:21:43.046 --> 00:21:44.734 - and careful stewardship, 00:21:44.994 --> 00:21:52.407 - Dr. Winston is leading MCCSE toward financial balance while protecting educational quality. She has 00:21:52.407 --> 00:21:59.968 - increased financial transparency through a new online portal and continues to honor the corporation's 00:21:59.968 --> 00:22:07.752 - referendum promises. Under her leadership, referendum funds have expanded student access to high quality 00:22:07.752 --> 00:22:14.942 - programs, more than doubled family access to preschool and pre-K, waived AP and CTE course fees, 00:22:15.426 --> 00:22:21.243 - and ensured families no longer need to purchase school supplies. She has also strengthened 00:22:21.243 --> 00:22:27.827 - MCCSE communications through regular digital updates and accessible community forums. For Dr. Winston, 00:22:27.827 --> 00:22:34.795 - achieving financial balance is essential to sustaining the high quality programs, supports and opportunities 00:22:34.795 --> 00:22:41.826 - that help every student thrive. Students are at the center of every decision she makes and student excellence 00:22:41.826 --> 00:22:45.214 - is the driving force behind each strategic priority. 00:22:45.698 --> 00:22:52.558 - strengthening health and safety, accelerating learning for everybody's children, expanding early learning, 00:22:52.558 --> 00:22:59.097 - ensuring state-of-the-art facilities, and strengthening fiscal and operational health. Please help me 00:22:59.097 --> 00:23:02.302 - welcome MCC SC Superintendent Dr. Markay Winston. 00:23:15.842 --> 00:23:23.477 - Oh, I got tired just listening to that. I'm like, wow, I thought I was kind of busy. Thank you, Liz, 00:23:23.477 --> 00:23:31.037 - for those very kind remarks and such a generous introduction. Appreciate it. Fellow Rotarians, it's 00:23:31.037 --> 00:23:39.126 - a pleasure to be here today. The last time I was here speaking in front of you, I was here in the capacity 00:23:39.126 --> 00:23:41.470 - of the interim superintendent. 00:23:41.634 --> 00:23:48.273 - As Liz shared, in January of 25, I was appointed as the superintendent. What a difference a few months 00:23:48.273 --> 00:23:54.720 - makes, right? So I was about a six month stint as interim, and I guess they thought I was doing all 00:23:54.720 --> 00:24:01.552 - right. So they've given me more responsibilities. So today, I really just want to highlight a few things. 00:24:01.552 --> 00:24:07.934 - The title of my remarks have to do with strong schools, strong communities, and our strong future. 00:24:09.442 --> 00:24:17.011 - Yes, public education is at a crossroads in so many different ways today. The funding for public schools 00:24:17.011 --> 00:24:24.365 - is different and much lower than it's ever been in the last couple of decades. Across the country, we 00:24:24.365 --> 00:24:31.646 - see declining enrollment in public schools, along with that declining revenue. And we also recognize 00:24:31.646 --> 00:24:38.206 - that birth rates across the country are also impacting that. So there are a lot of factors 00:24:38.434 --> 00:24:45.098 - that are causing the crossroads that make it a little bit more challenging, but nonetheless satisfying 00:24:45.098 --> 00:24:51.956 - to be able to stick to our priorities, which are excellent instruction, excellent outcomes, and excellent 00:24:51.956 --> 00:24:58.750 - kinds of experiences for our children. So today I'm going to talk about three key things. Strong student 00:24:58.750 --> 00:25:05.414 - opportunities, strong student outcomes, and strong fiscal stewardship. I think it's important that the 00:25:05.414 --> 00:25:07.614 - combination of those three things 00:25:07.842 --> 00:25:14.906 - strengthens us in having a strong community. So let me start by just talking about the children that 00:25:14.906 --> 00:25:22.250 - we serve. It's most important for you to know we serve everyone. We serve every child that walks through 00:25:22.250 --> 00:25:29.524 - our doors and our priorities have to do with providing the highest quality of education for everybody's 00:25:29.524 --> 00:25:33.790 - children. We serve 10,000 children pre-K through 12th grade. 00:25:35.714 --> 00:25:42.284 - Approximately 40% of our students are on free or reduced lunch. We have students that represent over 00:25:42.284 --> 00:25:49.048 - 80 countries and speak over 90 different languages in our schools. That's pretty massive if you stopped 00:25:49.048 --> 00:25:55.813 - just for five seconds and think about the magnitude. Our English language learner population represents 00:25:55.813 --> 00:26:02.383 - a growing percentage, almost 12% of our students as well. Excuse me, 4% of our students as well. And 00:26:02.383 --> 00:26:05.310 - so I want you to understand the diversity of 00:26:05.506 --> 00:26:12.949 - who we serve, and the various needs that they bring forward. In terms of the services that we provide, 00:26:12.949 --> 00:26:20.608 - we have 23 schools. We have five STEM-certified schools. We have a performing arts academy, project-based 00:26:20.608 --> 00:26:28.051 - learning school, early college-certified high school, a state-of-the-art career center. We offer three 00:26:28.051 --> 00:26:33.470 - IB programs, working on a fourth. Over 300-plus extracurricular offerings. 00:26:33.602 --> 00:26:40.787 - and we continue to increase our college and career pathway opportunities. No small feat. We offer everything 00:26:40.787 --> 00:26:47.907 - for every child and we want to continue to grow that. In terms of our student experiences, world languages, 00:26:47.907 --> 00:26:54.828 - we offer a number of world languages. I've mentioned already our IB International Baccalaureate schools. 00:26:54.828 --> 00:26:59.838 - We have expanded our dual language immersion program from Summit Elementary 00:27:00.130 --> 00:27:05.532 - through bachelor middle school, and this is our second year offering that program at South High School. 00:27:05.532 --> 00:27:10.831 - I know that when our children who had been at Summit matriculated through middle school and into high 00:27:10.831 --> 00:27:16.285 - school, some of the conversations were like, well, they're pretty fluent already. What else are we going 00:27:16.285 --> 00:27:21.531 - to teach them in high school? That's the strength of the program that we offer at Summit Elementary. 00:27:21.531 --> 00:27:26.622 - And outdoor education continues to be a cornerstone of the educational experiences that we offer. 00:27:28.642 --> 00:27:35.126 - No one offers the variety and the diversity of extracurricular opportunities. We believe very strongly 00:27:35.126 --> 00:27:41.673 - that every child should have an opportunity to be engaged in those things that are of interest to them. 00:27:41.673 --> 00:27:47.968 - And we strongly would like to see every child select and have that kind of additional connection to 00:27:47.968 --> 00:27:54.327 - the school. STEAM education is very rich within our schools. We have several STEM certified schools. 00:27:54.327 --> 00:27:57.726 - We have robotics, maker spaces, project lead the way. 00:27:58.018 --> 00:28:04.049 - It would go without saying that we have one of the strongest visual and performing arts programs in 00:28:04.049 --> 00:28:10.622 - our schools and we want to continue to grow and expand upon that. I think there are additional opportunities 00:28:10.622 --> 00:28:16.773 - there that are of benefit for our students. And I've already mentioned our college and career pathway 00:28:16.773 --> 00:28:22.804 - opportunities. The people who support our children are second to none in so many different ways. We 00:28:22.804 --> 00:28:24.734 - are the fifth largest employer. 00:28:24.930 --> 00:28:33.316 - In our county, in our community, we employ over 1,700 adults in our schools, anywhere from teachers 00:28:33.316 --> 00:28:41.032 - to instructional assistants to bus drivers to custodians to librarians. I mean, you name it 00:28:41.032 --> 00:28:49.837 - to administrators. We offer so many different areas to nurses, nursing assistants. The number of schools 00:28:49.837 --> 00:28:54.366 - that we maintain, 53 schools covering over 500 acres. 00:28:54.562 --> 00:29:01.934 - of land throughout our community. Almost 60% of our teachers have a master's or a PhD. Did you hear 00:29:01.934 --> 00:29:09.453 - what I said? Almost 60% of our teachers have a master's or a PhD. Our kids in our schools are getting 00:29:09.453 --> 00:29:16.751 - the best that education can offer. We serve over a million meals every year. Over a million meals. 00:29:16.751 --> 00:29:22.206 - I mean, I don't think there's a single restaurant in town that does that. 00:29:22.978 --> 00:29:31.308 - And let me talk about our fleet, our transportation fleet. We have over 166 buses. Probably about 60 00:29:31.308 --> 00:29:40.051 - of them are EV vehicles. We've been growing that over the last few years. And our 166 buses travel almost 00:29:40.051 --> 00:29:48.546 - 8,000 miles a day. I think that our transportation system mirrors a lot that you see in larger cities. 00:29:48.546 --> 00:29:52.670 - So I think it's important for folks to understand 00:29:52.770 --> 00:30:00.318 - the magnitude of what we do each and every day. And then, of course, in terms of facilities, over 2.5 00:30:00.318 --> 00:30:08.236 - million square feet are maintained each and every day on behalf of our folks. And so all of that certainly 00:30:08.236 --> 00:30:15.932 - contributes to us being the fifth largest employer in our community, and we're very proud of that fact. 00:30:15.932 --> 00:30:19.262 - The people who support our children, we have 00:30:19.426 --> 00:30:27.073 - teachers who win awards. We have teachers who publish books. We had one of our science teachers at South 00:30:27.073 --> 00:30:34.355 - High School, Dr. Kirsten Milks. One, she was just named the Woman of the Year a few weeks ago. Two, 00:30:34.355 --> 00:30:40.254 - she published a textbook on how to teach science appropriately, and she did that 00:30:40.418 --> 00:30:47.397 - you know, in her spare time back in December. And then prior to that, she had several of her students 00:30:47.397 --> 00:30:54.649 - win some national awards that I'm gonna talk about momentarily. So that's just one example of one teacher 00:30:54.649 --> 00:31:01.833 - significantly contributing to the benefit of our students. We've had our teachers who've also won awards 00:31:01.833 --> 00:31:08.606 - in terms of quality teaching and learning. And we also had our Principal of the Year for Region 9. 00:31:08.706 --> 00:31:14.375 - Mr. Matt Starks is the principal at Bloomington North High School. And then you also see several of 00:31:14.375 --> 00:31:20.272 - our teachers who were acknowledged and celebrated. And so it's so exciting to stand before you and just 00:31:20.272 --> 00:31:25.941 - talk about all of the wonderful individuals, the work that is done on behalf of our children. And I 00:31:25.941 --> 00:31:31.610 - could probably spend the rest of my 14 minutes speaking exactly about what they do. But let me talk 00:31:31.610 --> 00:31:37.790 - about the kinds of outcomes that these adults are generating on behalf of our children. When you think about 00:31:38.946 --> 00:31:46.111 - Where we stand in the state, we meet or exceed and generally exceed every other metric across the state 00:31:46.111 --> 00:31:53.345 - in terms of being above the state average. And we're not satisfied. 95% graduation rate, we think that's 00:31:53.345 --> 00:32:00.304 - excellent, but we're still focusing on that other 5%. What do we need to do differently to make sure 00:32:00.304 --> 00:32:07.262 - that they're getting their needs met? 86% post-secondary employment and enrollment. Our iREAD scores 00:32:07.262 --> 00:32:08.158 - are amazing. 00:32:08.322 --> 00:32:14.655 - I read as a test that's given to third graders, but two years ago they began giving it to second graders. 00:32:14.655 --> 00:32:20.629 - And so more than 50% of our second graders passed the third grade reading test in second grade. And 00:32:20.629 --> 00:32:25.886 - so we're very, very excited about that. And quite frankly, we want to get that to 100%. 00:32:26.274 --> 00:32:31.678 - So that way they don't even have to take the third grade tests in third grade because they will have 00:32:31.678 --> 00:32:37.135 - already passed that. And we're making great strides in that regard. And so you continue to see great, 00:32:37.135 --> 00:32:42.592 - great outcomes for our children. But let me talk a little bit more about what the benefit of our most 00:32:42.592 --> 00:32:47.995 - recent 2023 referendum has done for the children in our community. Our pre-K students, our four year 00:32:47.995 --> 00:32:53.345 - olds, preparing for kindergarten. When they enrolled with us in the fall of 2024, approximately 19% 00:32:53.345 --> 00:32:55.806 - of them were actually ready for kindergarten. 00:32:56.354 --> 00:33:03.793 - By the time they left us, 83% of them were kindergarten ready. That's a significant improvement. And 00:33:03.793 --> 00:33:07.550 - as we look at this year, 14% of our pre-K students 00:33:07.682 --> 00:33:13.436 - came to us in the fall of 2025, ready for kindergarten. And we'll be assessing them in the next few 00:33:13.436 --> 00:33:19.708 - weeks to see how many of them are actually ready. But more importantly than the test scores is the testimony 00:33:19.708 --> 00:33:25.692 - that we hear from our teachers in kindergarten. They speak very, very clearly and very eloquently about 00:33:25.692 --> 00:33:31.504 - their ability to teach our children because they come with such a degree of readiness. That's not by 00:33:31.504 --> 00:33:36.510 - chance. That's because of the commitment of our community to invest in early learning. 00:33:37.442 --> 00:33:43.903 - Locally, our student robotics team has gone to the world championships. Now that doesn't happen in every 00:33:43.903 --> 00:33:50.118 - community across the state of Indiana or across the country. The world championships in robotics, we 00:33:50.118 --> 00:33:56.518 - continue to invest in robotics and STEAM education. And we see students from South, North, the Academy, 00:33:56.518 --> 00:34:00.702 - Tri-North Middle School, Bachelor, and Jackson Creek participating. 00:34:03.138 --> 00:34:10.140 - additional student success. I was talking about Dr. Milks a moment ago. These are her students, and 00:34:10.140 --> 00:34:17.563 - her students won the national Samsung STEM competition. That resulted in $125,000. $125,000. What schools 00:34:17.563 --> 00:34:24.635 - do you know that are bringing in that kind of revenue to support science education? And so they came 00:34:24.635 --> 00:34:26.526 - up with something that was 00:34:26.658 --> 00:34:33.640 - just unbelievable and amazing. Storm Shield, it's a headband that you can wear and it's specifically 00:34:33.640 --> 00:34:40.692 - targeted for individuals who might have hearing loss to still be able to participate without worrying 00:34:40.692 --> 00:34:47.605 - about water and things like that and sweat impacting their ability to hear. I think the other thing 00:34:47.605 --> 00:34:54.587 - that's important that I recently learned is you may not have known, but their prototype Storm Shield 00:34:54.587 --> 00:34:55.486 - was featured 00:34:55.650 --> 00:35:04.510 - at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Can I get an amen? Amen. Amen. That's what the children in our schools 00:35:04.510 --> 00:35:14.079 - are doing every day. These are just a few examples of the accomplishments that are happening. Two students, 00:35:14.079 --> 00:35:18.686 - again, I hate to say it, but it's Dr. Milk's class, 00:35:18.882 --> 00:35:25.141 - Two students won the Congressional App Challenge for District 9, and this was where they created an 00:35:25.141 --> 00:35:26.142 - internship app. 00:35:26.242 --> 00:35:31.599 - where students can identify the kinds of experiences that they're having based upon community-based 00:35:31.599 --> 00:35:36.956 - internship and apprenticeship opportunities within our community. We're ecstatic about that because 00:35:36.956 --> 00:35:42.420 - as we look at the new high school diploma requirements, I see a direct one-to-one correlation between 00:35:42.420 --> 00:35:47.937 - the things that we're already working on within our community to give our students more of these kinds 00:35:47.937 --> 00:35:52.062 - of opportunities and experiences. I'm not gonna ask for an amen on that one. 00:35:53.346 --> 00:36:00.045 - and additional student success. About three or four weeks ago, one of our high school seniors, I'm kind 00:36:00.045 --> 00:36:06.680 - of watching my time, one of our high school seniors won the Indiana High School Press Association 2026 00:36:06.680 --> 00:36:13.701 - Journalists of the Year Award. Kelton O'Connell has been working with the B Square, and he's been publishing 00:36:13.701 --> 00:36:20.335 - articles throughout town, throughout the school system. And I have to tell you, about a year or so ago 00:36:20.335 --> 00:36:22.654 - when I first became superintendent, 00:36:22.786 --> 00:36:28.578 - He asked if he could do a podcast with me. And I said, Kelton, I've never done a podcast. I don't know 00:36:28.578 --> 00:36:34.427 - what that's about. And he says, well, neither have I, Dr. Winston, but will you try it? And I was like, 00:36:34.427 --> 00:36:40.219 - oh my, I have to tell you, those are the hardest questions I've ever been asked. Um, and he's not even 00:36:40.219 --> 00:36:46.237 - an official graduated journalist yet. And so, but I have, I also have to say that it was quite a pleasure. 00:36:46.237 --> 00:36:50.398 - And as a result of Kelton's influence, I'm going to start my own podcast. 00:36:52.418 --> 00:37:00.167 - Amen. Oh, I got another amen. Okay. Our outstanding leaders of tomorrow, the city's commission on the 00:37:00.167 --> 00:37:08.067 - status of black males celebrated Maya Coleman and Michael and Marty. Um, Maya is a senior at North High 00:37:08.067 --> 00:37:15.968 - School and uh, Michael is a senior at South High School and both of them were celebrated last this past 00:37:15.968 --> 00:37:20.830 - February. So we're very excited. Both of them have amazing, uh, 00:37:21.058 --> 00:37:26.790 - futures ahead of them in terms of what they want to focus on. So those are just a few examples of the 00:37:26.790 --> 00:37:32.578 - kinds of students and the outcomes that we're producing. But let me talk to you momentarily about what 00:37:32.578 --> 00:37:37.805 - it means to have strong fiscal stewardship, what that looks like and why it's important, and 00:37:37.805 --> 00:37:40.446 - most importantly, why it should matter to you. 00:37:42.530 --> 00:37:48.071 - In public education, we have two main funding sources. We have state tuition support, which is generated 00:37:48.071 --> 00:37:53.507 - based upon the number of children that are enrolled in your schools. So if you have a lot of students, 00:37:53.507 --> 00:37:58.837 - you get more money. If you have fewer students, you get less money. And local property taxes. That's 00:37:58.837 --> 00:38:04.325 - when we come to the voters and say what we would like to utilize the dollars for and voters either vote 00:38:04.325 --> 00:38:06.014 - that up or they vote that down. 00:38:07.202 --> 00:38:12.367 - Pretty straightforward. There are five buckets. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on school finance 00:38:12.367 --> 00:38:17.532 - because it's very complex, complicated, and often misunderstood. But I do think it's important for you 00:38:17.532 --> 00:38:22.897 - to know that there are five key funding sources. The education fund is the source of funding that provides 00:38:22.897 --> 00:38:27.962 - dollars for us to hire teachers and individuals in the building that support instruction. That comes 00:38:27.962 --> 00:38:31.422 - based as a result of the number of students enrolled in your school. 00:38:31.714 --> 00:38:37.366 - The operations fund, the referendum fund, the debt service fund, those dollars come to us from property 00:38:37.366 --> 00:38:42.909 - taxes. And as you know, there have been changes to the state of Indiana's property tax reform. And so 00:38:42.909 --> 00:38:47.963 - those changes certainly have a direct impact on what's happening in our city government, our 00:38:47.963 --> 00:38:51.550 - local government, but more significantly even within our schools. 00:38:53.538 --> 00:38:59.719 - We have $179 million operating budget. Sounds like a lot of money until you think about all the supports, 00:38:59.719 --> 00:39:05.550 - the services, and the number of employees that are on our books. But it's important for you to know 00:39:05.550 --> 00:39:11.615 - that you too can go to our website and look at how we spend the money. You can look to see every dollar 00:39:11.615 --> 00:39:12.606 - that we receive. 00:39:12.738 --> 00:39:18.186 - You can look to see how we spend every dollar that we receive, but more importantly I would ask you 00:39:18.186 --> 00:39:24.180 - to look at the impact and I would ask you to look at the outcomes for children to understand the significance 00:39:24.180 --> 00:39:29.955 - of the dollars that we receive and the kinds of citizens that we're trying to produce. Terms of achieving 00:39:29.955 --> 00:39:35.512 - financial balance. That has been my number one priority since taking over this position. That was the 00:39:35.512 --> 00:39:39.326 - number one thing that the board directed me to focus my attention on. 00:39:40.354 --> 00:39:46.557 - Walking into this role, we had structural imbalance, and I needed to focus on that. The first thing 00:39:46.557 --> 00:39:52.885 - that we did was to align our staffing levels to the number of children that we had in our schools. At 00:39:52.885 --> 00:39:59.089 - one point in time, we had approximately 11,000 children. Right now, we're at 9,832. Yeah, I do know 00:39:59.089 --> 00:40:05.540 - the exact number. On any given day of the week, I'm gonna tell you what the number is. But our staffing 00:40:05.540 --> 00:40:08.766 - levels hadn't changed to align with our enrollment. 00:40:08.898 --> 00:40:14.304 - So that's one of the things that we've worked on. I'm very proud of that fact. We've prioritized 00:40:14.304 --> 00:40:19.877 - non-classroom efficiencies. In other words, where can I make reductions outside of the classroom to 00:40:19.877 --> 00:40:25.840 - the degree possible so that it doesn't impact children as much? We had several positions that were created 00:40:25.840 --> 00:40:31.692 - during the early days of COVID that were still on the books when I took over this role. It was essential 00:40:31.692 --> 00:40:37.822 - for us to make an assessment as to whether or not we still needed those positions. In many cases, we did not. 00:40:37.954 --> 00:40:43.690 - And we needed to really think about class size ratios. We had room to increase our class sizes, but 00:40:43.690 --> 00:40:49.542 - we didn't increase them significantly. We only increased them by maybe one or two students across the 00:40:49.542 --> 00:40:55.336 - board. And ultimately, that resulted in the elimination of several positions, a couple hundred to be 00:40:55.336 --> 00:41:01.302 - perfectly honest with you, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. It was essential in right sizing 00:41:01.302 --> 00:41:07.038 - the corporation and addressing the structural imbalance in order for us to be able to have a strong 00:41:07.138 --> 00:41:13.290 - fiscal future to be perfectly honest. Our MCCSE financial dashboard wanted you to be able to know how 00:41:13.290 --> 00:41:19.622 - every dollar is being used to serve every student each and every day. You can go and look at our website 00:41:19.622 --> 00:41:25.653 - and you can understand exactly where the dollars are going. You will also see information about how 00:41:25.653 --> 00:41:31.805 - we are financing our capital projects. The title of our capital projects is Designing and Building to 00:41:31.805 --> 00:41:34.398 - Sustain Excellence. It's about bond funded 00:41:34.658 --> 00:41:41.786 - projects to make sure that we are maintaining quality facilities and classrooms and fields and athletic 00:41:41.786 --> 00:41:48.639 - and the arts so that our students have the same types of experiences that students and other school 00:41:48.639 --> 00:41:55.630 - corporations do. As I prepare to close, I just want to highlight a few additional things. I mentioned 00:41:55.630 --> 00:42:00.222 - the 23 referendum. We currently are operating under two referenda. 00:42:00.418 --> 00:42:07.131 - We had a 2022 referenda that was focusing on salaries and wages for teachers and support staff. And 00:42:07.131 --> 00:42:13.978 - our 2023 referenda was focusing on early childhood, school supplies, access to college courses at the 00:42:13.978 --> 00:42:21.229 - cost of our community. There are four key areas, early learning, teaching and staff, curricular enrichment, 00:42:21.229 --> 00:42:28.009 - and student school supplies. I'm very pleased to share with you that we have held and our commitment 00:42:28.009 --> 00:42:29.150 - to our community 00:42:29.410 --> 00:42:35.645 - because of the very generosity of making sure that these dollars were available to our children. A couple 00:42:35.645 --> 00:42:41.645 - of highlights talked about early learning. We have more than doubled what we're doing in terms of the 00:42:41.645 --> 00:42:47.821 - number of children that have access to early learning and why that matters so much in Indiana. The state 00:42:47.821 --> 00:42:50.174 - of Indiana has reduced on my way pre-k. 00:42:50.370 --> 00:42:56.443 - dollars. They've reduced CCDF dollars and there are school superintendents across the state of Indiana 00:42:56.443 --> 00:43:02.398 - that are closing early childhood programs because they no longer have the dollars. Our community and 00:43:02.398 --> 00:43:07.646 - our commitment to early learning is profound. I'm not in the same position as some of my 00:43:07.778 --> 00:43:13.729 - peer superintendents in closing our programs. If we didn't have our current referenda from 2023, we 00:43:13.729 --> 00:43:19.799 - would be in a very different position. I'd be having very different remarks to with you today. School 00:43:19.799 --> 00:43:25.810 - supplies families no longer buy our school supply by school supplies. The school corporation manages 00:43:25.810 --> 00:43:31.582 - that and we try to get very good pricing in making those purchases. I've talked about the fourth 00:43:31.682 --> 00:43:38.233 - $4,500 base pay increase that was provided in 2022 across the board for all employees. Our support staff 00:43:38.233 --> 00:43:44.597 - also received an hourly raise and a 1.5% raise that went into effect. Raises benefited every employee 00:43:44.597 --> 00:43:50.462 - group throughout our corporation. Curricular enrichment and student support, performing arts, 00:43:50.594 --> 00:43:56.774 - IB, outdoor education, continuing, college course fees are covered by the school corporation. Career 00:43:56.774 --> 00:44:02.892 - and technical education costs are covered by the school corporation. And on your tables, you'll see 00:44:02.892 --> 00:44:09.316 - a couple pieces of information. We released our first ever referendum impact report. This report details 00:44:09.316 --> 00:44:15.618 - exactly how much money is being generated as a result of the 2022 and the 2023 referendum. And it also 00:44:15.618 --> 00:44:20.574 - shows you where those dollars are going. The most important piece of that report 00:44:21.186 --> 00:44:29.116 - that should be of interest to you is how is it impacting our children? How is it impacting our children? 00:44:29.116 --> 00:44:36.820 - Talked about the fact that more than 500 children in three and four year olds are having access. 100% 00:44:36.820 --> 00:44:44.524 - of our four year olds attend for free and the majority of our three year olds attend for free. At the 00:44:44.524 --> 00:44:47.998 - end of the day, the stronger our schools are, 00:44:48.130 --> 00:44:54.054 - the stronger our community is going to be. And we are not confused about the connection there. And so 00:44:54.054 --> 00:45:00.036 - we're continuing to think about and focus on strong schools, strong community, bringing together folks 00:45:00.036 --> 00:45:06.250 - from across many walks of life to help talk with us around what does our new normal look like? The funding 00:45:06.250 --> 00:45:12.174 - challenges in public education today are unlike they've ever been before. We have fewer dollars to do 00:45:12.174 --> 00:45:16.414 - more things. And we're going to continue to focus on what we need to do. 00:45:16.642 --> 00:45:23.678 - I need to have folks from our community speaking and giving their voice as to how do we prioritize our 00:45:23.678 --> 00:45:30.510 - new normal. Financial discipline is part of the focus of what we're doing. Sustaining excellence is 00:45:30.510 --> 00:45:37.888 - non-negotiable. We will continue to provide excellence instruction. We will provide excellent opportunities 00:45:37.888 --> 00:45:44.446 - and we will provide excellent experiences. It may look different, but we will absolutely do so. 00:45:47.906 --> 00:45:53.861 - If you are interested in learning more about MCCSC, I encourage you to go to any of these three websites. 00:45:53.861 --> 00:45:59.592 - We have our own news website, our Every Dollar, Every Student financial portal tells you anything you 00:45:59.592 --> 00:46:05.491 - want to know about our finances, even as it relates to our latest audit report. And then our bond funded 00:46:05.491 --> 00:46:11.166 - building and renovation. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today. And I will also say 00:46:11.166 --> 00:46:16.222 - I've left a couple of these on the table for you as well. Our first ever MCCSC newspaper. 00:46:16.354 --> 00:46:25.748 - And so I'm happy to close, and if there are any questions, I'm happy to entertain them. Thank you. So 00:46:25.748 --> 00:46:35.418 - this is more of a comment. When you were talking about all the wonderful achievements, I felt like there 00:46:35.418 --> 00:46:43.614 - was a part that I wanted to emphasize too, which is kids in special education. So I feel 00:46:43.938 --> 00:46:49.490 - Sorry, I think MCCSE has done a great job with special education. And I want to highlight that, that 00:46:49.490 --> 00:46:55.097 - those kids aren't necessarily winning awards, but. But they are. We're doing a lot of great things on 00:46:55.097 --> 00:47:00.650 - behalf of our students with disabilities. No doubt about that. And, you know, it's it's frequently I 00:47:00.650 --> 00:47:06.147 - hear from families who have specifically moved to our community because they want to have access to 00:47:06.147 --> 00:47:10.270 - the special education supports and services that we provide. So thank you. 00:47:12.098 --> 00:47:18.926 - I'm very impressed. And in this club, we're able to brag about our children and grandchildren. My grandson 00:47:18.926 --> 00:47:25.564 - was recently selected as an outstanding member of the child's school. And he went to a program at South 00:47:25.564 --> 00:47:32.073 - High School, which you engineered, in which you had musical groups and other people being recognized. 00:47:32.073 --> 00:47:35.902 - Can you tell me your vision for that and how it worked out? 00:47:36.162 --> 00:47:41.675 - Absolutely. So it's the Superintendent's Student Excellence Awards is what you're referring to. And 00:47:41.675 --> 00:47:46.967 - it's something that we started about a year or so ago to really celebrate and honor the amazing 00:47:46.967 --> 00:47:52.591 - accomplishments of our children from every walk of life, from every area that you can imagine. We had 00:47:52.591 --> 00:47:55.678 - well over 100 students who were celebrated and honored. 00:47:55.906 --> 00:48:01.602 - back in February of this year. And so first of all, kudos and congratulations to your grandchild for 00:48:01.602 --> 00:48:07.298 - that. But we want to be able to make sure that our students know that we see them, we hear them, and 00:48:07.298 --> 00:48:12.937 - we celebrate them. And the vision for that really is to continue to do so, to continue to make sure 00:48:12.937 --> 00:48:18.689 - that we are bringing to the forefront the amazing accomplishments of the children that we serve every 00:48:18.689 --> 00:48:23.934 - day and the children that we get to serve. It's a privilege to be in these roles. Thank you. 00:48:25.666 --> 00:48:31.662 - Hey, Dr. Winston, my friend, how are you? Very good, thank you. I have a comment and a question. 00:48:31.662 --> 00:48:37.906 - First of all, you'll get some questions today, but if it wasn't for you and your administration that 00:48:37.906 --> 00:48:44.458 - have had so many different committees and reaching out to the community and just working in a transparent 00:48:44.458 --> 00:48:51.196 - manner, you'd have five times the questions today. So I think you all have done a real good job on educating 00:48:51.196 --> 00:48:53.854 - the community and involving us. Thank you. 00:48:58.178 --> 00:49:06.291 - Now, my question. In lieu of the forecast for declining enrollment, you mentioned having over 500 acres 00:49:06.291 --> 00:49:14.326 - of property, and I'm sure some of that includes brick and mortar schools, actually. What has been some 00:49:14.326 --> 00:49:22.674 - of the discussions with regard to those buildings? And also, if there's a forecast for down or a decrease, 00:49:22.674 --> 00:49:25.950 - do you foresee an increase in the future? 00:49:26.402 --> 00:49:32.618 - it seems to me if we get rid of schools now and then it gets back up what would we do then 00:49:32.618 --> 00:49:39.450 - so just interesting to hear your thoughts on that oh i've got some thoughts how much time do i have 00:49:39.450 --> 00:49:46.281 - so one of the things that we embarked upon in march of 2025 was a redistricting study commission we 00:49:46.281 --> 00:49:49.150 - asked for community members and 92 people 00:49:49.314 --> 00:49:55.463 - signed up to be a part of that commission. And the focus of that work was really to study and to look 00:49:55.463 --> 00:50:01.673 - at our enrollment. The fact that our enrollment has been declining, we were at a high of almost 11,000 00:50:01.673 --> 00:50:07.822 - students the year before COVID. And you heard me say we're under 10,000 K through 12 students now. 23 00:50:07.822 --> 00:50:11.198 - buildings is a lot of buildings covering a lot of area. 00:50:11.362 --> 00:50:17.542 - to serve the number of children that we have. And so some hard choices are going to have to be made 00:50:17.542 --> 00:50:24.340 - going into the future in terms of should we continue to have that many buildings? What might that potentially 00:50:24.340 --> 00:50:30.706 - look like? So no decision has been made at this moment in time. I'm also about to embark on a facility 00:50:30.706 --> 00:50:36.886 - study. I'll be putting out an RFP in the very near future to hire some folks to help us take a look 00:50:36.886 --> 00:50:39.358 - at the number of buildings that we have 00:50:39.490 --> 00:50:46.256 - both school buildings as well as office buildings and other facilities throughout the school corporation. 00:50:46.256 --> 00:50:52.895 - So it's a difficult thing to say, but it's a difficult thing to kind of predict because the demographer 00:50:52.895 --> 00:50:59.597 - that did a study on us in the fall of 24 predicted that we're going to continue to lose children because 00:50:59.597 --> 00:51:05.214 - of the population in this community and economic factors that are contributing to that. 00:51:06.146 --> 00:51:12.669 - as well as the fact that there are just fewer children being born. So we will have to make 00:51:12.669 --> 00:51:19.981 - some determinations as to should we continue to have and maintain 23 buildings. That is a significant 00:51:19.981 --> 00:51:27.364 - expenditure, so I would anticipate some very tough decisions in the next several months regarding what 00:51:27.364 --> 00:51:34.174 - does that look like over the next five to 10 years. Does that answer your question? Nor did I. 00:51:39.202 --> 00:51:48.436 - Thank you everyone for your time and attention and your support of our schools. Dr. Winston, thank you 00:51:48.436 --> 00:51:57.670 - very much for your leadership of our wonderful community resource. Nice to know we're producing future 00:51:57.670 --> 00:52:05.918 - world-class journalists, scientists, community leaders, so a lot to be proud of. We all do. 00:52:06.722 --> 00:52:14.469 - In honor of your talk, a donation will be made this quarter to Wheeler Mission. I'd like to thank today's 00:52:14.469 --> 00:52:21.997 - volunteers, Winston Schindel, Randy Saunders, Liz Erwin, Sally Gaskell, Michael Shermas, Marilyn Wood, 00:52:21.997 --> 00:52:29.306 - Konnish Kalas, Dave Meyer. Also like to recognize our staff, Mandy Stewart and Tyler Martin Nichols 00:52:29.306 --> 00:52:36.030 - who are really hustling today. Our next regular meeting will be in two weeks on April 21st. 00:52:36.354 --> 00:52:43.702 - will be here in the Georgian Room. Jill Bolte-Taylor will speak to us about Whole Brain Living. Please 00:52:43.702 --> 00:52:50.836 - join us. And don't forget, do not come here next week. No Zoom program, no regular meeting. You can 00:52:50.836 --> 00:52:58.113 - still sign up today if you want to participate at our club activity at Heading Home at the Convention 00:52:58.113 --> 00:53:05.247 - Center. Mandy has a hard copy sign up sheet, and you should have received an email with the Sign Up 00:53:05.247 --> 00:53:06.174 - Genius link. 00:53:07.618 --> 00:53:16.244 - Tyler, if you could go ahead and put up the graphic for the four-way test, and please stand if you're 00:53:16.244 --> 00:53:24.871 - able. Of the things we think, say or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? 00:53:24.871 --> 00:53:33.497 - Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned? 00:53:33.497 --> 00:53:35.358 - And fifth, is it fun?