- Welcome to the May 20 meeting of the MCCSE board of school trustees. I am not your regular host
- April Hennessey
- I'm the vice president Erin Cooperman. I know the agenda still says April
- Clear that up
- We ask that you please come to order
- Tonight we honor the excellence of MCCSE dedicated employees students and volunteers to make a
- difference in our community
- Miss Harmon
- Thank you
- President Cooper men dr. Winston the board of trustees and community members
- It's my pleasure to share this month's excellent spotlight
- The excellent spotlight is a feature of every regular board of school trustees meeting
- This is a dedicated time to honor the excellence occurring every day through the dedication of MCCSE
- employees students and volunteers
- To make a difference in our school community and foster environments that reflect the mission
- vision and core values
- The May excellent spotlight goes to Bloomington High School North student. I Lou Allen Lou
- I Lou Allen was selected to participate in the molecular medicine in action a symposium that was
- held in February at the
- Herman B. Wells Center for Pediatric Research Cancer Research
- Institute Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis
- 50 students were chosen for more than
- 150 applicants from across Indiana to participate in this program which participants which provides
- participants hands-on experience with the techniques used in modern
- Biomedical research we congratulate I Lou Allen on being chosen for this special opportunity. Thank
- you
- On behalf of the board. Thank you. Ms. Harmon and congratulations to I Lou Allen Lou for being
- recognized tonight
- We also have a special presentation tonight
- Winston
- Thank You vice president
- Last month I shared that students from Bloomington High School South
- Were named one of the ten national finalist teams in the Samsung solve for tomorrow stem
- competition held in Washington, DC
- Today I'm thrilled to announce that this team was one of the three national winners and received a
- prize package valued at
- $100,000 in Samsung technology and classroom supplies. Can we give them a round of applause?
- Additionally this group of talented young women won the rising entrepreneurship award that's worth
- 25,000 additional dollars
- That should get a hand clap
- This team designed it designed a prototype called the storm shield an echo friendly headband
- Specifically created to protect hearing aids from damage during physical activities
- It also senses potential dangers thereby improving accessibility and sports for students who use
- hearing aids this evening
- I invite the team members to come forward to receive the superintendent's sustaining excellence
- award
- I understand that many of them have other end-of-the-year activities tonight and may not be able to
- attend
- But as I call your name if your presence, please come forward
- Audrey Adams
- You
- Danielle Yang Emily Wang
- Nikki bash car
- Isha and Cole Harbaugh
- Sarah Carmona Melendez
- Wing is get another big round of applause for
- Thank you, thank you.
- I think if we were to share a word, I think, beginning from the team, this like, this whole
- experience has been so long, there's been so much hard work and effort in the process,
- but to be such winners and to have this money for our school is really meaningful for us
- to be able to give back to our teachers for everything that they've taught us and for
- encouraging us to continue in the competition, but especially I think the biggest win is
- being able to continue with our product.
- So the $25,000, we are using it to purchase supplies and to do research as well as to
- file our patent, which is a really long process, but we are really excited to use that money
- toward putting our product out to the market and get started with the process.
- So I think, yeah, thanks.
- [applause]
- This is absolutely what excellence and sustaining excellence looks like at MCCSE.
- Thank you ladies, we so appreciate you and we celebrate you on this amazing accomplishment.
- On behalf of the board, thank you Dr. Winston, and congratulations to Dr. Milks, Ms. Parker,
- for those on this team who attended tonight and for those who were unable to attend.
- A tremendous accomplishment, we are very proud of you.
- You would like, you are more than welcome to depart from the meeting, you do not have
- to remain for the rest of the meeting.
- But you can, you are welcome to.
- Only the students can leave.
- We will now receive our quarterly update on the activities of the MCCSE foundation.
- Mrs. Helm.
- Thank you Vice President Kuhlman, members of the school board, and Dr. Winston.
- That was hard to say, I'm used to the Hennessy, sorry about that.
- Alright, so they left before I could say congratulations, but wow, most everybody in this room has
- been through some sort of a higher ed degree and you've had big projects and stuff.
- To do what they did is pretty darn amazing, so yeah, because those competitions are stiff
- and those corporations don't let go of that money easily, so they did a good job.
- Alright, speaking of those types of things, we just finished our scholarships and awards
- for the year.
- This year we were able to award $25,600 that went into mostly seniors that are moving on,
- but there are some undergraduate class awards.
- So those were presented mostly last Thursday night at both North and South.
- The listing is on our website, so I encourage you to go take a look at who some of these
- other amazing students are that are inside of our corporation that are receiving scholarships
- and awards.
- I also, this is not really me, but I just want to do a thank you to Lisa Greathouse.
- She puts together the MCCSC Fund Run.
- I don't know how many people in here are aware of it or go to it or have ever been there.
- The past couple of years she has hooked that on to our mental health endowment, so any
- fundraising that comes through that is going into the mental health endowment.
- And this year they were able to add $1,300 to that, so we're very proud of their work
- for that and we appreciate what they're doing.
- We were also given notice that we have been awarded a literacy grant from Centerpoint Energy
- Foundation.
- At this time in the year we're going to roll that money forward into the fall and it's
- going to be used on some of the Jamie Peebler literacy training that will be happening for
- our faculty.
- So I know a lot of you have probably been through some of that already.
- This is allowing it to continue.
- There's another grant that we also closed in the spring with the City of Bloomington.
- It was a trades grant for $38,000.
- That is in support of the trades industry for construction electrical welding programs
- that are at Hoosier Hills Career Center.
- It was a very different twist on anything that we have done before and basically what
- we try to do with that is to take students who are graduating in those fields that are
- planning to move into the career and when they graduated last Thursday, they received
- tools.
- One of their largest barriers is if they are working for a small business that doesn't
- outfit them with tools, drills, electrical things of that nature, welding helmets, those
- types of things.
- It's a barrier.
- So it's just like not having a car, if you can't get there, you can't work, if you don't
- have a helmet, you can't weld.
- So it was a really different twist for us and I was really proud to work with Andrea
- De La Rosa at the city to make that happen.
- So that was a very, very new and different thing for us.
- Upcoming on how we fund some of this stuff is Golf4Kid.
- That is Monday, June 16th and we have sold out our teams.
- So if you really need a team, call me, I'll try to figure it out, but we have actually
- sold out our teams, so we're very grateful to all the sponsors that have come in this
- year and are fielding teams, as well as this year we also have a lot of individual teams
- that have been put in.
- Our event sponsors I'd like to thank is Medical, CFC and CSO Architects.
- There's a ton of other sponsors, I'm not going to go through the full list of it, you
- can check those out on the website, but those are the primary ones at the highest level.
- Our lunch and golf ball sponsors also at a high level, that's Blades Audio Video and
- Weddle Brothers Construction, so a big thank you to those.
- Now I know a lot of you were there, I saw a lot of you, I did see both of you there.
- Two Saturdays ago, time flies, we did our first duck race festival, okay, if you did
- not come, you missed out, all right, it was a blast.
- Being a bucket truck hoisted over the fountain at Woolery Mill, dropping 3,426 ducks into
- the fountain, yes we counted them all, they all had a number on them, was amazing, it
- was amazing.
- The support that we had for this event to take it out just from people buying ducks,
- so we sold 3,426 ducks, goal for next year is 6,000, we want to double down, okay, that
- brought in about $19,000, and if you don't have any, if you don't know how hard it is
- to sell 3,426 ducks, find Vanessa McCleary and ask her, and you can ask me, because it's
- hard.
- Gaming Commission doesn't make it easy for us to do that because it's all in personal
- interaction, you can't hit the website, buy a duck in your private home, it's all done
- the other way.
- So, a huge thank you to the sponsors on this, Cook Medical, Community Chrysler Dodge G Ram,
- Old National Bank, Harris Services, Blesinger Entertainment, Steve's Rusing, and Cassidy
- Electric.
- And a big shout out to Vanessa McCleary with Kiwanis in South Central Indiana, they were
- a partner with us on this, first time we've ever really partnered with somebody outside
- of the corporation.
- They were selected because they're in our schools already, they do a lot of work at
- a lot of the different schools, so I know a lot of you know them.
- Our winner for that was Dale Jones, so congratulations to Dale, she won the $2,500 with the winning
- duck.
- And I also want to give a big shout out to the students at the Academy of Science and
- Entrepreneurship in Jim Meyer's Architectural and Design class, if you were there you saw
- what they created, it was really really cool, they've already asked to come back, so nothing
- taken from any other STEM groups inside the corporation, but they have it next year, and
- they will be fine tuning what they did to make sure that it grabs a little bit better
- this time around, but it was a learning year all the way around, and I just really thank
- everybody.
- Since there's so many faculty in here, have a great summer, and thank you for everything
- you do to art with our kids and for the corporation and for parents and for people like me, I
- did forget Ms. Antrim, I don't know if she's in here or not because there's a lot of you
- back there, she was our winner on the 500 minute reading challenge, that means her kids
- turned in the most forms at the event, that doesn't happen just without parents and teachers
- encouraging them to do that.
- So the event will take again next year, so encourage your kids to come, it was just a
- lot of fun, and thank you all so much for a great year.
- On behalf of the board, thank you Mrs. Helm, and I can confirm the duck race was really
- fun, the ducks were fine, but the real hit for my kids was the carnival games, so if
- you get an opportunity next year, there are carnival games, definitely check it out, and
- there were lots of volunteers, I really appreciated that too, seeing that.
- We will now proceed to public comment, thank you to all who have signed up and acknowledged
- the guidelines to speak to the board tonight.
- As a reminder, Mrs. Butcher will ring the bell once to signal that you have 30 seconds
- for your comment and five bells to signal that your time has concluded.
- The first person on my list is Jonathan Frey.
- Hi, I'm Jonathan, either way, I'm a reporter over at the Indiana Daily Student, and I understood,
- sorry, I'm a little, I've never spoken at a board meeting before, we recently got word
- of some layoffs that are going to begin to happen in the MCCSC over the course of this
- next year.
- And I just wanted to ask a little bit more if you're at liberty to tell me a little bit
- more about the reason behind that, especially because we just saw a press release saying
- that you got in the referenda over $30 million to support faculty and staff.
- So and I'm sorry to like bring the vibes down from these great achievements that we were
- just talking about, but I was just curious if you could explain a little.
- We don't usually respond during public comment.
- Okay, understood.
- Thank you.
- Is there any other time that I would be able to reach out to somebody and get an answer
- for chance?
- You could email us.
- Okay, understood.
- We, somebody emailed you and we were told it would be discussed tonight, so I apologize.
- Thank you.
- Next on my list is Eric Nolan, I might be pronouncing the first name wrong, the last
- name is Nolan, okay.
- Thank you, Dr. Winston and MCCSC Board of Trustees for listening.
- My name is Eric Nolan, and I speak to you this evening in my role as MCEA board member
- elect.
- A number of people are obviously very concerned with, you know, budget concerns coming up.
- We were already concerned when the two-year strategy to achieve balance was presented,
- and now we're looking at, you know, more dire circumstance when it comes to our budget
- next year.
- We recently, I think it was just made public that a number of positions have been set to
- be laid off already, and none of those are teaching positions, so I really can't speak
- directly to them, except that just as a fellow worker, my heart goes out to people who are
- being laid off because of this.
- Something that keeps coming up, and a number of members have talked to me about, is reporting
- on the two-year strategy specifically regarding administration compensation versus what we
- can find from the Indiana Gateway, where the school corporation reports, you know, employee
- salaries to the state.
- And I myself, just honestly, after school today, I wrapped up grading, just decided
- to pull the data from that and sort it by administrator type, and then further sorted
- that by building-level administrator.
- I noted that on the Indiana Gateway website, it shows that our total for building-level
- administrators in 2022 is, I'm just going to summarize, or abbreviate the numbers a
- little bit, about 5.5 million; in 2023, 5.9 million; and in 2024, 6.1 million.
- For central administration, and this includes both certified and non-certified central
- administration
- positions, in 2022, on the Gateway reports, just over 2 million; in 2023, 2.5 million;
- and in 2024, 3.1 million.
- And so, those totals add up to, you know, administrator salaries being about 7.6 million,
- 8.5 million, and 9.3 million.
- When I look at the graphs regarding, specifically, administrator salary totals on the Two-Year
- Strategy website, I'm seeing much smaller numbers reported; for instance, central administration
- positions are listed in 2022 as 647,982; in 2023, 583,000; and in 2024, 843,000.
- So, there's a difference of, you know, more 2 million and then up to 3.5 million dollars.
- And I don't know how to explain this when people ask me, and I would love some sort
- of explanation for this as we're looking at budget cuts, because it appears that administrative
- salaries have grown substantially in these last three years or so.
- Thank you.
- Next, we have Jenny Nogokuchera.
- Good evening, Vice President Cooperman, School Board of Trustees, and Dr. Winston.
- Thanks for having me here again this evening.
- I am the Monroe County Education Association President, and as such, I represent 558 members,
- all of whom have signed a petition.
- And the petition essentially is asking our school board to adopt a reduction in force
- policy given the current climate that we are living in.
- I have sent drafts to our school board in the hopes that it would become a topic of
- your conversation, because essentially what this boils down to is we are working with
- our administrators.
- We have fantastic conversations and discussions, and we are meeting to that end with clarity
- and transparency.
- However, it's not enough.
- What we're asking is you all as our employers to actually put into place a policy that will
- make it crystal clear who stays and who goes.
- If there is gray area, which there has proven to be in a court case, Elliott v. Madison,
- that's not going to bode well for any of us here in this room.
- So it is the last thing I want to ask for, and yet it is exactly what I'm asking for,
- and that is for all of you to discuss and adopt, hopefully, the draft that I sent you
- yesterday morning, because right now the Indiana code, and I quote, says, "Any of the following
- items may be considered."
- Following that, we have things like content areas, additional content degrees and credit
- hours, performance categories, on and on and on.
- So without clarity and without transparency, it's going to be really difficult for us to
- move forward beyond our good conversations with administrators if there's no policy that
- everyone can follow and everyone knows is happening in a straightforward way.
- So please do us the courtesy of looking at that draft.
- It meets with Indiana code, it is constitutional, so it won't provide any issues.
- And I thank you so much for that consideration, I hope it moves.
- Thank you.
- And last we have Angie Shelton.
- Good evening, thank you Dr. Winston, Ms. Kripperman and the other members of the school board.
- My name is Angie Shelton and I am an elected member of the NCEA board and I'm speaking
- on behalf of NCEA members this evening.
- I have several questions related to the two-year strategic plan that I'm hoping will be addressed
- in the presentation this evening, but well related to that I guess as I learned this
- afternoon right prior to the meeting in the personnel report that 61 support staff positions
- were eliminated today.
- These are primarily lunchroom staff, custodians, and other support staff.
- These are, speaking as anyone who spent time in the school, really important positions.
- Having clean buildings and safe food that can be delivered to our kids in the amount
- of time they have so that they still have time to eat are important things.
- And so as someone who's in the building, I feel for those positions.
- In addition, it doesn't seem like eliminating lowest paid positions is one of the most strategic
- ways to reduce costs, so I have some other ideas about ways that might be more effective.
- One of them would be offering retirement incentives to staff.
- We have a lot of high paid staff, and as you know MCC has pretty, or MCCSC has pretty good
- salaries now, and we have a lot of people who would be willing to retire if used early
- with any kind of incentive.
- And that would also then reduce the highest paid positions while retaining lower paid
- positions and younger teachers whose jobs are more critical probably for their families.
- Not that people closer to retirement aren't, but hopefully if you're close enough you
- can afford to live a decent retirement.
- And that would also not just save more money, but improve morale, and a lot of people in
- the district, and I'm sure the school board as well and administration, this is a difficult
- situation and it's stressful on everyone.
- So giving people options I think would reduce a lot of anxiety.
- And my third comment is just to echo Jenny's request that we have a clear and consistent
- RIF policy.
- By state law, if RIFs are done, and I know MCCSC has said they don't plan to do any
- this year, but by state law they have to be done between May 1st and July 1st.
- And so the next board meeting is the end of June, which should things happen during the
- summer, and I'll just say I know people are afraid that they may lose their jobs, but
- it would be dependent on the school board to approve something that goes through discussion
- with MCCSC and the CDA.
- Thank you.
- We'd like to thank everyone for their comments tonight.
- Now for our consideration is the consent agenda that includes the following.
- Minutes from the hearing and board meeting held on April 22nd.
- Memorandum from the executive session and minutes from the hearing held on April 29th.
- ECA expenditures, annual request for projected overnight out of state field trips for 25-26.
- Financial report, April 2025.
- Appropriation balance report, April 2025.
- Register of claims, May 2025.
- Payroll register and payroll claims, April 2025.
- Request to declare as surplus and authorized disposal of out-of-date items.
- Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the consent agenda?
- So moved.
- Do I have a second?
- Second.
- It's been moved by Ross and seconded by April that we approve the consent agenda.
- Ashley.
- Sorry.
- Thanks, Ashley.
- It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Ashley that we approve the consent agenda as presented.
- All those in favor of the motion to approve the consent agenda signify by saying aye.
- Aye.
- Against?
- Say no.
- Abstentions?
- Motion carries.
- Next for our consideration are the donations.
- We have received donations of over $2,000.
- Thank you to all our donors.
- Your generosity is appreciated.
- Do I have a motion to accept the donations?
- So moved.
- Do I have a second?
- Second.
- It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Erin that we, Erin Wyatt, that we accept the donations
- as presented.
- All those in favor of the motion to approve the donations signify by saying aye.
- Aye.
- Against?
- Say no.
- Abstentions?
- Motion carried.
- Next for our consideration is the personnel report.
- Do I have a motion to approve the personnel report as presented?
- So moved.
- Do I have a second?
- Second.
- It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Tiana that we approve the personnel report
- as presented.
- Dr. Henderson?
- Thank you Vice President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, and members of the School Board of Trustees.
- This evening I would like to call your attention to the following administrative changes of
- status and retirements.
- We have two administrative changes of status that I'd like to highlight for you this evening.
- The first of which is Kelly Dawson.
- Kelly is transitioning from an assistant principal's position to the principal's position at Rogers
- Elementary School after 14 years of service to the MCCSC.
- Alongside her, Melinda Fields is also transitioning from an assistant principal's position to
- the principal's position at Lakeview Elementary School after 8 years of service to the district.
- So I'd like to offer the opportunity for those individuals to speak to the board.
- Good evening.
- Thank you Vice President Kupferman, Dr. Winston, and the Board of School Trustees.
- I am honored to continue the excellent work at Rogers during this next chapter.
- It feels like a bit of a homecoming for me as I spent the first 9 years of my career
- across the parking lot as a Benford Badger.
- The time I've spent at Rogers a little bit over the course of this year has been, I've
- been touched by the willingness for everyone on the team to lend a hand regardless of the
- scenario or the different students and the high standards for everyone in the building.
- I'm thrilled to join the team in the fall with eyes wide open about what lies ahead and see
- what we can do together for our students.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, congratulations.
- Thank you.
- First I want to extend my deepest thank you to Vice President Cooperman, Dr. Winston and
- the board for this extraordinary honor.
- I'm extremely grateful for the trust and confidence that you've placed in me to take on this
- challenge.
- I also want to express my love and appreciation for my family who unfortunately weren't able
- to be here tonight.
- There's an event at Jackson Creek that they are attending and while they're missed I was
- accompanied by some amazing teachers that I work with from Lakeview.
- When I started there in 2017 I was new to the school and was immediately drawn to their
- love for family and for Lakeview and so I'm so appreciative for them and they continue
- to inspire me for their dedication to education and their passion for professional development.
- I also want to acknowledge the mentors and Summit Elementary for the things that I've
- learned from them in the past several years.
- I got to spend the last three years part-time at Summit and the lessons that I learned along
- the way there will carry me into this next journey and again I'm just so grateful for
- the opportunity and thank you.
- In addition I'd also like to highlight for the board that we have one administrative
- resignation Glenn Hopkins is resigning from his principal's position at University Elementary
- School after seven years of service to the MCCSC.
- Moving on to certified staff retirements Donna Barons-Kincaid a teacher of sixth grade Alps
- at University Elementary School is retiring after 33 years of service to the MCCSC.
- Kelly Holloway a teacher of special education both at Bloomington High School South and
- the Hoosier Hills Career Center has been with the MCCSC for 11 years and is also retiring
- at the conclusion of the school year.
- We have some support staff retirements as well that I'd like to highlight this evening
- Donald Butcher is retiring as a lead skilled maintenance person operating at the service
- building and Mr. Butcher has been serving the MCCSC for 43 years.
- Tina Hill is retiring as a food service supervisor one from Marlin Elementary School and has
- been serving the MCCSC for the last 23 years.
- And finally highlighting Cindy Rogers a corporation bus driver who works at the transportation
- building and has served the MCCSC also for the last 23 years.
- Altogether the retirees presented this evening represent a combined total of 133 years of
- service to our school community.
- On behalf of MCCSC I would like to extend a special thank you to all these individuals
- for their many years of dedicated service and wish them well in their next adventures.
- At this time I request that you please approve the recommendations as presented in your board
- packet in the personnel report.
- Thank you.
- Thank you Dr. Henderson.
- Congratulations to our new principals, to the retirees, to those moving on to new adventures.
- We appreciate your service.
- Do I have any comments from the board?
- Thank you Donna.
- It's not often I get to say that because someone's actually in the room when their retirement
- is brought up, but thank you.
- Thank you for all you've done.
- All those in favor of the motion to approve the personnel report signify by saying aye.
- Aye.
- Against say no.
- Any abstentions?
- Motion carries.
- We will move on to the contracts.
- Do I have a motion to approve the contracts and award two bids as presented?
- So moved.
- Do I have a second?
- Second.
- It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Tiana that we approve the contracts and award
- two bids as presented.
- Mr. Kenney?
- Good evening Vice President Cooperman, Dr. Winston, members of the board.
- There are 13 contracts and two bids to be awarded before you tonight.
- I recommend approval of the contracts and bid awards as presented.
- Thank you.
- Do I have any comments from the board?
- All those in favor of the motion to approve the contracts and award two bids signify by
- saying aye, aye, against say no, any abstentions.
- Motion carried.
- Tonight, Dr. Winston will present the referenda impact report.
- Dr. Winston?
- Thank you Vice President Cooperman.
- It is a pleasure of mine to be able to move forward and to share with everyone an update
- on the impact of the 2022 and the 2023 referenda.
- This is something that we will begin doing on a regular basis so that the community is
- very clear on the promises that were made over the last couple of years and how those
- dollars have been spent and the most important I think aspect is the impact that the referenda
- dollars have had on our children.
- In thinking about supporting excellence in our schools over the course of the 2022 and
- the 2023 referenda, there are four large categories that are addressed within each of those referenda.
- Early learning is the one most recently from the 2023 referenda.
- Teachers and staff, that's from the 2022 referenda primarily.
- Curricular enrichment and student support, which was incorporated into both and student
- school supplies for the 2023.
- Within the course of the last two years and three months, approximately 22.6 million dollars
- of referenda funding has been invested to support our students and our staff.
- When we talk about excellence in our schools, we recognize that we have a strong and long
- tradition of quality instruction, amazing students as you got a chance to see a little
- bit tonight.
- And here are some of the numbers, MCCSE by the numbers that represent some of the ways
- in which we are excellent, ways in which our students and our faculty demonstrate excellence
- each and every day.
- I won't go through and read them, but you can see there, and the one that I think jumps
- out certainly is our graduation rate.
- We're not quite back to where we were pre-pandemic, but we're on the rise in that regard.
- The amount of money that our families are saving for college by the participation of
- students in dual credit and AP courses.
- I particularly like the blue boxes in that when you think about the 289 or 290, it depends
- on which reference you look at, but there are some folks who have indicated that MCCSE
- is the 18th best school corporation in Indiana out of 289.
- Not shabby, not bad, but we think we're even better than that, and we really want to see
- ourselves get into the top 10, so I'm very proud of that number 18 distinction, and then
- also when they talk about districts with the best teachers in Indiana, we've been ranked
- as number 22, and they must not have been inside our classrooms yet, because I would
- put our teachers up against anyone and say that our teachers rank number one out of however
- many schools that are actually in the state of Indiana, and so we think that this is noteworthy,
- we recognize that excellence is everywhere in our schools, in every building, in every
- classroom, and inside of every one of the students that we serve, that we have the fortune
- to serve, so I think that's an important piece just for us to be reminded of.
- For the 2022 referendum, I'd like to start briefly there.
- The 2022 referendum, from January of 2023 through March of 2025, provided $36.881 million
- of money to support our students and our staff in these three areas.
- The teachers and salary staff, $24.6 million, support staff, $9.9 million, and then special
- programs.
- I'm going to talk a little bit more about each of those areas momentarily.
- But overall, $36.8 million is what we received from that 2022 referendum, and it's important
- for the public to know exactly how those dollars have been spent.
- One of the things that I think is important for us to be reminded of, and when we had
- an opportunity to talk with our faculty members and our department members, we talked about
- the fact that while our voters unanimously approved the 2022 referendum, the 2023 Legislature
- put in some tax caps, some limits as to how much money we would actually be able to receive.
- So while you'll see under the graph of 2023 on the left-hand side that our community approved
- $17.3 million and we actually received $17.3 million, and we are appreciative of that.
- For 2024, $17.8 million is what we were expecting to receive, and that's what we actually did
- receive.
- The difference, I think, went into effect that the 2023 legislation was not going to
- go into effect until 2025.
- And so if you look at that, we were anticipating a levy increase of a little over $1 million
- for 2025, which would have allowed us to have $20.2 million from our 2022 referendum, but
- we only received $18.9 million, or we will only, we haven't received it yet.
- We will only receive that this year.
- And so I think it's just important for our taxpayers to understand the implications of
- the decisions that are made at the State House.
- I think our teachers recognize that, and they've made their voices heard loud and clear, and
- we continually encourage everyone to make their voices heard, so it's important to know that
- all of the monies that were committed by our community have not come to the school system.
- For the 2023 referendum, again, we're looking at January 2024 through March 2025.
- The total investment is approximately $8.4 million, and you can see that the bulk of
- those dollars are going towards early learning, but we also see a pretty significant amount
- going towards students' school supplies, and that was a big win for a lot of our families,
- and you'll hear from some of our families a little bit later in terms of how they felt
- about that.
- And then the additional dollars went towards advanced placement, dual credit, and enrollment
- fees where they weren't already spent in other funding sources.
- So I'm going to break down and just talk a little bit more about each of the four areas.
- So I mentioned on the earlier slide that we spent approximately $6.2 million in early learning.
- The thing that's most impressive about that is we've had more than 104 percent increase
- in participation and enrollment in our early learning program, and that's pretty exciting.
- During the first eight or nine weeks of school, we'd already recognized approximately a 73
- percent increase.
- But when you look at our school programs and our community programs, we've more than doubled
- participation, and that is a significant investment in the future of our community.
- And we are eternally grateful for that.
- During this upcoming school year, we're going to utilize these monies as well to expand
- upon our three-year-old program.
- So efforts are underway with Dr. Dowling and his team to make sure that we are well positioned
- to continue to grow.
- Now, we may not be able to grow it as much as we had originally intended because of the
- tax caps, but we certainly want to make every effort to provide access and early access
- to our three-year-olds.
- So when you take that $6.2 million investment and you distribute it across each of these
- categories, you can see how much money has been spent in each of these areas.
- Students benefiting from pre-K more than doubled; I've already spoken to that.
- The second area, teachers certified in early childhood.
- So we spent a lot of time and energy and effort to make sure that we had the highest quality
- teachers certified in early learning and early childhood to be able to provide instruction
- to this population of students.
- And then we also invested monies to provide professional development.
- New curriculum materials were purchased across the board for all of our early learning programs
- and we're very proud to be able to share that those dollars were spent to make sure that
- our students had access to high quality curriculum.
- In addition, we are very, very ecstatic to be able to report that the majority of the
- families that participated received free pre-K, so 68% of our families, their children participated
- free of charge.
- Not $1 did they spend and that is something for our entire community to be proud of and
- thankful for.
- 32% had a reduced rate and I don't think anybody paid the full rate and so we're very ecstatic
- about that and honored to be able to be in a position and to be in a community where
- that level of commitment to our youngest learners is present.
- We are so thankful for the five, six partners, had been five for the longest, the six community
- partners.
- They have been amazing in working alongside us to make sure that we're providing the highest
- quality early learning programs throughout our community and these six partners have been
- by our side helping us to design what the programs need to look like and they are also
- a significant reason why we have such a significant increase in growth in the percentage of
- students
- who are participating.
- And I know you've heard a lot of this information already from Dr. Dowling a couple of months
- ago but it's a significant piece for us to be able to share within our referenda impact
- report.
- I'll give you just a moment to read just a couple of quotes from some of the family members
- who whose children are participating.
- This will help you get a better understanding of why it matters.
- And if you'd like to read more, please go to the website or click on the QR code there
- because there are many, many statements that have not been edited but have come directly
- from the mouths of our families who are so appreciative of the generosity of our community.
- Teachers and staff, that's the second overarching area that I think is important to talk about.
- Approximately $34.5 million from the 2022 referendum has been invested in teachers and staff
- through
- base salary increases as well as hourly rates. If you take that 34.5 million dollar investment
- and you break it out, you will see that 24.6 million dollars went to support our teachers
- and our salary staff. And 9.9 million dollars went to support our support staff. And so
- it's important to know that everyone benefited from this investment from our community.
- A couple of comments shared by our families and our parents regarding the relationships
- that they value with our educators. Curricular enrichment and student support
- Both referenda, the 2022 and the 2023 referenda, supported expansion of different programs
- and supports for college and career readiness. And so I want to just kind of highlight a
- little bit of that and some of the examples of how those dollars were spent. So this in
- 2022 was a 2.3 million dollar investment between the months of January 2023 through March 2025.
- Some of the examples, not necessarily an exhaustive list of examples, inclusive of the performing
- arts, IB programming, which really is the continued certification requirements for IB,
- as well as outdoor education so that our students can continue to participate in some valuable
- programs such as Bradford Woods and Honey Creek Outdoor Education Programs. Just to name a
- few. In addition, in 2023 under the same category, 1.3 million dollars were spent from January
- 2024 to March 2025. College course fees covered and career technical education costs covered.
- Those covered under the career and technical are those supports and services that are not
- covered under a separate funding source. I think it's important to denote that. And the
- student school supplies. This is probably one of the hottest ticket items, and I could
- certainly clearly say that there was a lot of excitement and enthusiasm amongst our teachers
- to be able to standardize the types of materials that every child in every classroom was able
- to see. And you would have thought they were getting the supplies, the excitement that
- I saw and experienced, and it was a lot of fun to see that happen. And I credit our teams
- at the building level for identifying what the supplies were that they felt like their
- students needed. So the referendum covered $912,000. That was the investment for materials
- and school supplies. And to be able to announce that there is no need for any more school
- supply lists was pretty exciting. And so then you can see the itemization that was necessary
- out of the budget office, and I can't even imagine the amount of details that they had
- to manage in terms of keeping track of how many pencils and binders and markers and construction
- paper and crayons and scissors and on and on. I just can't even, I don't want that
- job. I wouldn't want that job to have to keep track of all that. But it's a significant
- investment and it really has mattered so much to our family. And I think we have a quote
- here from a couple of family members just to understand how something maybe small to
- some is so significant to others. Quotes from the families that we serve each and every
- day. I hope it warms your heart as you think about it. So to put everything in context,
- I think it's really important. We run a $187 million operation in this corporation. It's
- pretty significant, $187 million. And Mr. Kinney's going to talk about the distribution
- of those dollars and what that looks like. But when you put the referendum in the context
- of all of that, if you'll see the two yellow highlighted areas, that represents approximately
- 18% of our overall operating budget comes to us from the 2022 and the 2023 referendum.
- I talked a little bit already about past legislation. The 2025 legislative session concluded. And
- there are some significant impacts that are going to hit us, just like they're hitting
- every other school corporation throughout the entire state of Indiana. And the tax caps
- that were passed in 2023 are hitting us now. That's the $1.2 million that we're not going
- to get this year. Senate Enrolled Act 1 is going to reduce our operations fund by approximately
- $17 million. But we are working very closely with our finance team to verify and clarify
- exactly what that dollar amount is going to be. We think it's going to be somewhere between
- $15 million to $17 million. But we want to continue to work with our finance team to
- make sure that we can plan accordingly and how that's going to impact us over the next
- three years. And then, of course, the state budget bill, which everybody's heard about,
- the significant reductions that have happened there across the board. But at the end of
- the day, that's going to give us fewer dollars per student, which then goes into our education
- fund. And we've spent a lot of time talking about our education fund, how that is utilized,
- and the focal point of our two-year strategy has been in addressing the education fund,
- which helps pay for our teachers. But I think it's really important that we all have a better
- understanding of what our overall operating budget is, what the various funds are, how
- those different funds are being spent, and how the legislation here in the state of Indiana
- is impacting those dollars. Our commitment, certainly we recognize and do not take for
- granted the generosity of our community in allocating these dollars to our schools. It's
- important to me, it's important to our collective team, that we will come to you every other
- year, every two years, to share an update similar to this on how we've spent the money,
- what the promises were, what the commitments were, and most importantly, as I said before,
- how has this impacted our children? And so, our students want to tell you a little bit
- of story about how this is impacting them. Our community has supported the Monroe County
- Community School Corporation by voting yes for tax referenda in 2022 and 2023. This
- essential funding is an investment in our students, the future of our community. Over
- the past two years, the referenda have made a real difference for students and families,
- investing approximately $22.6 million each year in four voter approved areas. These four
- areas include early learning, teachers and staff, curricular enrichment and student support,
- and student school supplies. Thanks to the 2023 referendum, one of the biggest wins for
- families has been expanded early learning with free or greatly reduced pre-K tuition.
- The pre-K program helped me a lot financially as a single dad to help make ends meet. It's
- truly a lifesaver for parents. In only one year, the number of children attending pre-K
- through MCCSC and partner programs has more than doubled. That means more kids are entering
- kindergarten ready to learn and more parents can pursue work knowing their children are
- in safe, high-quality care. As a single mom working full-time, I was really nervous with
- him going into school. Such a blessing. I haven't had to pay for it. You know, we were
- able, thankfully, to get the help and the assistance. So, you know, normally I would
- have to go and spend a lot of money with the child care and other programs, but with the
- extended day and pre-K, both, the entire day is free. And it's just, it's wonderful.
- Since he had started the pre-K program is around the time I started my new full-time
- job. And I've been able to, you know, make it every day and be consistent with my work
- and just rest assured and feel confident at work that he's safe and, you know, well cared
- for. The referendum, making pre-K free, allowed us to thrive as a family and individual people
- as well. It opened up a lot of possibilities. I was able to finish school, find a career,
- that I love. He was able to make friends and this allowed us to move on with our life,
- continue to grow as a family and individuals. So Max, he wasn't very confident coming into
- that pre-K. He made choices at home, but he didn't really translate to school. So it's
- kind of built his confidence and made him feel more empowered with how he spends his
- time. The pre-K program has really illuminated this other side of him. So he brings home all
- these really brightly colored drawings that he makes every day and they always have smiles
- and rainbows. And before I didn't really know how he felt about things and now he's just
- so happy. In addition to our pre-K program, both referenda have also enhanced our curriculum
- and student support. The 2022 referendum also allowed us to attract and retain highly qualified
- educators. Voters approved raises of $4,500 for teachers and salaried staff. And for support
- staff, a $2.25 hourly raise on top of 1.5% raises. The 2022 referendum also supported
- free student school supplies. The school supply program, the assistance has been amazing.
- Helping me so much just be able to budget as a single mom and to not have to worry about
- that extra expense. So it's been great. Thank you for my school supplies. Thank you to our
- community for supporting referenda to sustain excellence in our schools. Your yes votes
- have truly made an impact on students and families and we are deeply grateful. Thank
- you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Winston. And
- let me add my thank you to the community in a year when those of us who care about public
- education have felt like we've taken a lot of hits. I think that probably includes everyone
- in this room. I know that I find a lot of comfort in the fact that my immediate community
- has shown so much support. All of those things that were in the video are things that our
- community members did, that voters did, that wasn't the board and that means a lot to me.
- So thank you. I have a no crying in school board meetings rule for myself so I'm trying
- to maintain that rule. I'm going to turn it back over to you Dr. Winston. Can you please
- proceed to the two year strategy for sustaining excellence update? Gladly. Earlier this year,
- after several months of reviewing and analyzing corporation finances, we announced the rollout
- of a two year strategy to achieve financial balance. At the time, we identified two specific
- structural issues that were adversely impacting our finances. Declining student enrollment
- and increasing payroll expenses. Following the announcement of our two year strategy,
- I committed to providing a quarterly update to the public to demonstrate our progress.
- Our May 2025 quarterly update includes what will become the cornerstone of each of our
- future quarterly updates. A financial transparency report that will detail the progress of our
- five part financial management plan to increase resource optimization, to generate new revenue,
- and ultimately to increase our cash reserves. Our CFO, Mr. Kinney, has worked tirelessly
- to secure additional revenue opportunities on behalf of our corporation. You will hear
- in this financial transparency report that Mr. Kinney will share, an update on our cost
- savings through natural attrition, cost savings through employee retirements and resignations,
- and all centralized non-classroom cost savings to date. Primarily, these non-classroom cost
- savings will focus on the reduction of centralized services, central office, and services that
- did not have a direct classroom impact. As we shared in February, our first priority
- is increasing operational efficiency while thoughtfully reducing personnel expenses in
- alignment with student enrollment and available revenue resources, all while attempting to
- minimize direct impacts on classroom instruction. So when you talk about excellence in MCCSE,
- we know that we have a long tradition of excellence, excellent students, excellent administrators,
- excellent teachers, excellent educators, and excellent performance in the academics, in
- the arts, in athletics, and numerous other areas. We have consistently demonstrated excellence
- because our commitment to every student, in every classroom, every day. On this slide,
- you see just a few examples of how we consistently demonstrate excellence throughout our community.
- Our focus is meeting the needs of every child that walks through our doors. We continuously
- provide high quality instruction, we are focusing on the academic growth for every child, and
- we do that through amazingly strong community partnerships. Back in February when we announced
- our two year strategy to sustain excellence, we specifically discussed items three and
- four on this slide. Our two year plan encompasses strategies to address these two structural
- factors. As you will recall, for those of you who were present during those presentations,
- our enrollment declined by over 800 students, 833 to be exact, since COVID, which resulted
- in a cumulative loss of revenue to the education fund of approximately $22.4 million, inclusive
- of this current school year. In addition, our annual payroll expenses increased by approximately
- 31% over the three years, which was about $28.6 million. As a friendly reminder, our
- two year plan encompasses strategies to address items number three and number four of the
- structural factor. Tonight, Mr. Kenny and I will highlight our efforts to bring us back
- into financial balance over the next several years. In April of this year, the Indiana
- legislature passed legislation that will adversely impact our ability to operate as we have known
- in the past. Specifically, SCA-1 is projected to cause our corporation to lose approximately
- $15 to $17 million, as I referenced earlier, in property tax revenue. As a result of that,
- our two year strategy will need to be adjusted to account for the known and the unknown
- reductions in state funding. Today, as we begin to share our financial transparency report
- that will become a cornerstone of our future two year strategy quarterly update, that's
- an important piece for us. This financial transparency report will include components
- of our financial management plan that you see highlighted by the arrow here. We will
- also address new avenues for revenue generation that are being thought by Mr. Kinney, resource
- optimization, and building our cash reserves. Mr. Kinney will also provide an update on
- our current cash balance, an essential indicator for assessing and monitoring the fiscal health
- of any organization. He will also highlight some cash balance projections based on our
- current and future efforts that will extend through the year 2028. As you will see, some
- of this work is well underway and putting us on the right path to financial stability.
- But to be clear, we are not there yet, but we are definitely moving in the right direction.
- Just as a friendly reminder, these are the guiding principles that we outlined back in
- February that inform our work, that includes a focus on sustaining educational quality,
- and our commitment to the community. When we talk about and think about our guiding principles
- in action, this is what we are thinking about, and these are some of the actions, the recent
- actions that we have taken. Mr. Kinney and myself and members of our executive team attended
- faculty meetings in every building, talked with every department and staff about what
- the two-year strategy is, what it means, and why it is essential. We reached out to our
- families, employees, and the public to share with us thoughts, ideas, concerns, and suggestions
- for how we can strengthen our strategy. We did that through some online forums. We updated
- our FAQs in response to considerations at this particular website, and myself and my executive
- team have spent a lot of hours, weeks, and months analyzing all viable options that preserve
- educational quality, minimize classroom impact, and are good for kids. Our first priority
- of this particular strategy to achieve balance was through natural nutrition. To date, we
- have identified throughout the corporation of 198 positions that are currently vacant
- as a result of retirements, resignations. 117 of these are already vacant, and the remaining
- numbers will become vacant later this summer. So by August, we anticipate 198 vacancies.
- Now, I have to admit that some of those vacancies will be filled. Some of those vacancies include
- building principles, and so we're in the process now of reviewing each and every one
- of those vacancies to determine how many of those 198 will remain vacant. We do not anticipate
- any of them being filled, but that's a body of work that is underway right now. If you'll
- recall from our February and March meetings, we talked about 80 to 100 teachers generally
- resign or retire every year in our corporation, and then we replace every one of those every
- year. Similarly, we see anywhere from 250 to 300 support staff resignations every year,
- and we have historically replaced all of them every year. Times are different now. We cannot
- continue to operate in that manner, and so each and every position has been reviewed
- and is in the process of being examined to make those determinations. Mr. Kenney will
- talk about the potential cost savings that would exist here with that 198 year over year.
- The second area of our two-year strategy is centralized position reduction. This means
- reductions in centralized services, programs, and staff to realize savings as much as possible
- outside of the classroom. Centrally, we have approximately 28.8 FTEs that have vacated
- as a result of natural attrition. We have an additional 53.3 FTEs that are as a result
- of position elimination and position reduction. We are very sensitive to the fact that those
- are individuals' livelihoods, and we don't take that lightly. We recognize also that many
- of those positions were initiated during COVID era, and we feel as if those positions can
- and should be eliminated at this particular point in time. Some of those are in the area
- of health services and custodial services. We have some additional centralized support
- staff positions that have been eliminated as well. There are support staffs from the
- main admin building. There are positions that have been eliminated from transportation,
- from technology, from food service, as well as by building services. All of those areas
- that are not physically housed in a building may impact a building, but they are not in
- the classroom. So in total, we're looking at 83.1 positions that have been identified
- for reduction across multiple departments. These reductions represent a 10% cut to departmental
- spending. While every effort has been made to minimize reductions in our classrooms,
- these centralized reductions will definitely result in operational gaps that will impact
- indirect service delivery and capacity in key areas such as maintenance, technology, custodial,
- functional support, and food services. In addition to the reducing of centralized positions,
- we are also in the process of reviewing centralized non-personnel reductions across the various
- departments. These reductions will reduce supports and services from the central level,
- but we believe it demonstrates our commitment and our effort to direct as many resources
- as possible towards classrooms while being as efficient as we can. The other area that
- we talked about had to do with our enrollment. We believe that we are and will continue to
- be the top school choice in our community. We recognize that when COVID hit, many students
- and families left us. Some moved out of town. Some made other choices. And so it's really
- important to us that we bring our students back, that we get our students back because
- we recognize that the quality of instruction that we deliver here is truly second to none,
- and we want to make sure that we are responsive to the needs of our families. We've surveyed
- family members who have moved on to other school options, and we've heard from them
- that there are a number of options that they would like to see us have available to them,
- and we are responding to that. One example of that responsiveness is our commitment to
- offer some online learning opportunities for our families. So some of our families have
- left to go online, and we want to make sure that we have a responsible and effective and
- efficient, unlike what happened during COVID, online options. And so that's really important
- for us to figure out and make sure that we will have that as an available option for
- our families for the 25-26 school year. So that's just one way in which we are listening
- to our families and trying to be responsive, because we do believe that we have the best
- educators to be able to support our students. And in doing that, we're certainly looking
- at additional partnerships that can assist us with offering that online. So for those
- of the teachers in the room who are getting a little nervous about what that was going
- to look like, don't be nervous, because we are looking at how we might partner to provide
- that support. And as I prepare to close my portion of this presentation, I think it's
- important for you to know that we're going to illustrate our financial story. Only we
- can tell our financial story, and it's essential that we do so effectively, efficiently, accurately.
- We want to do so by thinking about and talking about the past, as well as what our future
- projections hold. While we have, in fact, maintained a stable cash balance with the assistance
- of one-time funds, we will illustrate how we are moving toward a model of true financial
- sustainability through our two-year strategy for financial balance that we shared with
- you back in February. As we shared in February, our two-year financial strategy requires structural
- adjustments. One-time fixes are not going to get us out of this. We must have structural
- fixes, and the structural challenges that are in front of us require us to reduce our footprint
- in terms of our staffing. Reducing structural expenses in our budget, which are primarily
- payroll. We all recognize that 85 percent of all of our expenditures are payroll-related,
- and in order for us to be able to do that, we must align with the financial reality that
- we are facing. A decline in state funding, an enrollment decline, and future projections
- of population and enrollment decline. That is our reality. This presentation will illustrate
- the important structural changes that we are making as we achieve true financial sustainability.
- Our CFO, Mr. John Kinney, will now share our financial transparency report, and he will
- demonstrate the current and projected impact of the structural improvements that are underway
- within our two-year strategy. As I mentioned before, as he provides this financial transparency
- report detailing the progress of our financial management plan to increase resource optimization,
- generate new revenue, and ultimately increase our cash reserves, you will hear in this financial
- transparency report an update on our natural attrition cost savings to employee retirements
- and resignations and all non-classroom cost savings to date. Primarily, these non-classroom
- cost savings will focus on the reduction of the centralized services. And as we shared
- in February, our first priority is reducing expenses while minimizing direct impacts on
- master instruction. Mr. Kenney? Thank you, Dr. Winston. I'd like to begin with a review.
- It was also in the referendum report, but of the overall MCCSC budget. On the following
- slides, you'll see charts with color-coded areas. The upcoming slides, these indicate
- the different funds that make up the majority of MCCSC's total budget. This presentation
- will focus on MCCSC's three largest funds, the education fund at 47% of the budget, the
- operations fund at 24% of the budget, and the referendum 2022 fund at 13% of the budget.
- Each of these funds has specific usage requirements per Indiana code and a little bit of context
- payroll expenses are approximately 85% of MCCSC's overall budget and payroll is primarily
- paid out of the education fund for teachers and operations fund for support staff. While
- these funds include other expenses, payroll is the largest expense. The following three
- graphs show progressive cash balance projections. The first graph, the first slide will show
- projection for the period 2025 through 2028, utilizing data available towards the end of
- December 2024. This projection showed that the corporation had a structural imbalance
- that would lead to a projected cash balance of negative 30,571,973 at the end of calendar
- year 2028. In 2024, the year just completed, we had some one time adjustments of 7.3 million
- that allowed the corporation to maintain a level cash balance. Graph one is a projection
- that shows cash balances over time if the corporation were to make no structural adjustments.
- Outlining this slide for you, it shows cash balances for 2023 and 2024, which are actual
- at this point. And then it shows projected balances from 2025 through 2028. The red area
- is the 7.3 million in 2024. It was highlighted as one time adjustments that helped stabilize
- a structural imbalance that would have had 2024 at approximately $17 million, a decline
- of the 7.3 million had we not had the one time adjustments. This shows the projections
- from 2025 through 2028 show a year over year structural imbalance in the education operations
- and referendum fund 2022 of approximately 14 million on average per year. Graph two begins
- with the graph one assumptions, but updates the graph with actual data for the first quarter
- of 2025, January to March, along with changes for additional information obtained. The first
- bar graph is a repeat of 2024 from the previous slide. And then we have projections from 2025
- through 2028. In this slide, the average annual structural imbalance has been reduced to
- approximately
- 11.8 million from 2024 through 2028. The improvements are due to reduced payroll projections and
- revenue projections based on the spring legislative session. Graph three illustrates the updated
- cash balance projections through 2028 based on our two-year strategy implementation as
- of 5/7/25. At DataSpick, we do a weekly updated report that brings us the vacancies forward
- at that point in time each week. So 5/7 was the Wednesday of the position control report
- that we work off of to provide this data. And that weekly report continues to improve,
- but we utilize that report at a point in time of Wednesday, May 7. It includes natural attrition
- and non-classroom cost savings, which are centralized service position reductions. So
- Graph 3 shows, again, the 2024 information. And then 2025 through 2028 includes those
- updates from vacancies that have already happened or have been processed by the Human Resources
- Department as upcoming either July 1 or the school year, which usually begins in the middle
- of August for teacher and some support staff salaries or hourly. So with the effect of
- natural attrition and support staff resignations and retirements, we are, as of May 7, 2025,
- we have projected annual savings of 7.7 million on an annual basis through attrition and the
- centralized cost savings. When applied to Graph 2's assumption with actual data through
- March 2025 and then applying the natural attrition and other cost savings to those numbers, we
- show that we have much smaller annual projected deficits to the tune where at the end of 2028,
- we see a cash balance in the collective funds of 9.2 million up from 30 million on the first
- graph and 21 million negative on the second graph. So substantial improvement due to natural
- attrition and other cost savings at the central office areas. While this is not a finished
- product, by any means, it does show significant improvement in our cash balances. As a summary
- of the graphs, they are intended to show progress towards the structural imbalance the corporation
- is facing. Those cash balance projections do not include one-time adjustments that have
- been previously discussed. One-time adjustments will be included in future updates as they
- occur. The following is a list of potential one-time adjustments that have been discussed
- over the past six months at a variety of sessions and events. Those include taxable bond revenue,
- EV bus rate income or reimbursement, IRS solar rebates for the 2023 calendar year, IRS solar
- rebates for the 2024 calendar year, and also we have not included SEA-1 estimated property
- tax levy reductions. These potential adjustments are being analyzed with our financial consultants
- to determine their effect on future budgets. Another couple slides I'll hand back to Dr.
- Winsome, but I'm available for any questions either at this time or at the conclusion of
- this presentation. Mr. Kenney, I know we've talked about this before. Is there an update
- on our bus rebate? Yes. There are strong rumblings at the federal level that the rebates
- are moving and at Monroe County as well, although when we would receive that money is not really
- clear at the moment, but I have been reached out to for some additional information and
- have been told by our consultants that when they reach out like that, it's with the intent
- of providing the funding in the not too distant future, but I can't guarantee that at all.
- Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Kenney? Thank you. So as in conclusion, as we wrap
- up here, there are a few main takeaways that Mr. Kenney and I have talked about in terms
- of what does this mean for our fiscal future. The main takeaways are certainly declining
- student enrollment. We recognize that we've had a pretty significant decline. It seems
- to be tapering off a little bit, but the demographic report that we received back in November
- suggests
- that we will continue to have a decline over the next 10 years. State funding. Well, need
- I say more about that? And we are monitoring that very closely and working with our consultants
- to make sure that we have the latest, most up-to-date information about what the implications
- and the impact may potentially be for us. So we're not confused in that regard. And
- certainly the increasing payroll expenses have required us to make the structural changes
- that are currently underway. Nobody looks forward to making the kinds of changes that
- we must make in order to be relevant, quite frankly. Natural attrition is working for
- us. There are some who said to us, natural attrition will never work. We beg to differ.
- We are beginning to see some good progress in that regard. We are not posting any type
- of mission accomplished sign because we are far from there. But it's encouraging where
- we can save monies outside of the classroom. That's a priority for us. We are not taking
- that lightly. And then we also recognize that while one-time influx of cash is helpful and
- beneficial, that's not going to get at the structural challenges that face us. And so
- while we haven't realized our full financial sustainability, we are moving forward. So
- some of our action steps are to continue to move forward with our current structural changes
- to close the financial gap between our declining student enrollment and our increasing payroll.
- That means reducing the number of people that are on our payroll, as painful as that is.
- And continuing to examine operational efficiencies corporation-wide. We have looked at every
- single position, all 1,998.3 positions that exist within this corporation, to determine
- what's the right number. You know, how many folks are necessary to do the various jobs
- that are required in our organization. And that's a very uncomfortable and a difficult
- conversation to have. And yet we believe that these efforts demonstrate the corporations
- and this administration's commitment to making difficult, strategic, and student-centered
- decisions with a focus on all decisions being made with as much transparency as possible,
- with integrity, and our community's values at the center.
- That concludes our report with just a friendly nod back to the guiding principles that are
- front and center every day that we walk into our offices and make the tough choices and
- decisions that are necessary to maintain our fiscal viability in the future. Thank you.
- Are there any questions or comments from the board? Dr. Winston, as always, you can decline
- to answer this, but I know in the last two public comments, I think, the last two months
- of public comments, we've had people raise the issue of administrative salaries, and I
- appreciate that we've started, that the cuts we've made so far have been to central office,
- and we may not need to make additional cuts, but I wondered if you would want to take the
- opportunity to address concerns about administrative salaries and cuts, especially in light of
- the public comments we've heard recently. So in terms of administrative salaries, it's
- something that we're very sensitive to and paying very close attention to. There's been
- a consistent history as to how items regarding staffing is reported through Gateway, and
- so the reporting mechanisms that have been in place for the last several years haven't
- changed, and so we're continuing to follow in that regard. There are certain positions
- that are required in running an organization such as ours, and so I can't speak to the
- discrepancies that someone might be referring to, but I can say that every administrative
- position that exists in the corporation, whether it's centralized out of central offices or
- whether it is at the building level, is under review and consideration, and we recognize
- that there may well be some additional changes. We've had some reductions in central office
- administrative positions. We anticipate that there may well be more, but we also anticipate
- some building level reductions as well at the administrative level based upon the significant
- decline in enrollment, and so everything is on the table at this moment in time for consideration,
- and so we're not going to be overstaffed in any area. We're going to make sure that the
- staff that we have aligns to the students that we serve, and importantly, it aligns
- to the revenue that we have. We cannot keep staff on the payroll that we cannot afford
- to pay. That's a disservice to our community, and that would not make us a good steward
- of the finances that we've been entrusted with.
- Thank you. I appreciate that, and let me say, again, I know I appreciate the sensitivity
- with which you addressed this. I think people noted in public comment that we wish we didn't
- have to make any cuts, and it's not an easy thing to do. I sympathize with those who have
- gotten noticed recently, and as you said, we don't want to make light of that. Thank you.
- Thank you, Dr. Winston. Thank you, Mr. Kenney. Next, we will have an update on the Redistricting
- Study Commission, Dr. Dowling.
- Thank you, Dr. Winston, Vice President Cooperman, and members of the Board of School Trustees.
- Thank you for this opportunity to provide an update on the Redistricting Study Commission.
- This is the May update. As always, I'd like to highlight our project charter. It really
- defines the scope of our study. I won't go into detail because I've shared this before,
- but just a reminder that our project charter includes the purpose of our project, our goals
- and metrics, as well as our expected deliverables.
- Tonight, I really want to highlight our guiding practices for the Redistricting Study Commission.
- This graphic here really highlights the circular nature of our work. We want to really make
- sure that we're using research and best practices, including a review of those. We've shared
- articles with the Redistricting Study Commission. We've discussed those articles. We've shared
- a synopsis of other important topics related to redistricting.
- We use data, both from those articles as well as localized data, share that with the commission
- as they ask us for information about topics related to the running of our schools. We've
- shared that data with them as part of the engage, evaluate and refine process, and then
- that continues to let us know what articles, what topics they'd like to learn more about
- as we continue our work.
- This slide really just highlights the practices I've already highlighted. I do want to take
- a moment to highlight the web page we have for redistricting. I would encourage those
- to look at it if they have not had a chance yet. It's mccsc.edu/redistricting. On there
- we have a timeline of redistricting in our school corporation. We have a frequently asked
- questions section, and as well as we have this slide deck and all the articles we've
- shared with the redistricting commission that we've discussed.
- Moving forward, I'd like to really highlight the work we're focused on right now, which
- is commission considerations. We sent a survey out to the community. We had 333 responses,
- and this survey asked community members to share what considerations or what factors
- we really should focus on in our focus of the commission. We also included the notes
- from the World Cafe from our first commission meeting. We had 333 responses from community
- members. These numbers add up to more than 333 because of course community members often
- fit in more than one category. This highlights the number of parents and guardians we had,
- the number of former parents, guardians, school employees, community members, and alumni. We
- took those results of that survey along with the notes from the World Cafe and we put it
- through using some qualitative data analysis using in vivo to code for us what is the community
- telling us is the most important factor we should evaluate boundary maps which is really
- the focus of part of our study. What should we focus on? What should we create a rubric
- on to help us evaluate these boundary maps? So putting these survey results from the community,
- we put them through this qualitative data analysis approach and these were the results.
- I'll first start on the left hand side to really highlight these are the 10 that came
- out of the analysis. These were the 10 themes which now we're calling considerations or
- factors. These are the things that the community was telling us were the most important things
- for us to focus on in our study and evaluation of boundary maps. On the right hand side you
- can see their average rank. Let me explain that. We asked the commission members to take
- these 10 themes that came out of our data analysis and rank them from 1 to 10 with 1
- being the most significant of the 10 down to 10 to the one that they thought was the
- least significant of the 10. This is the average score of those commission members with the
- lower score showing the higher priority from our commission members. So you can see the
- lowest score we had was 3.71. That's the one that our commission members felt like was
- the most important consideration. We had talked with our commission members about using these
- 5, the top 5 considerations to really help drive our work. We've been guided by the board's
- priorities for this commission since the beginning and I'll highlight those again. That's
- balancing socioeconomic status and cost effectiveness. Now taking the 5 that had the
- highest rank from the previous slide, these are the considerations that we brought to
- the commission in our last meeting and our focus of that meeting was sharing the results
- of the survey but then also working with them to create definitions or operational definitions
- of our consideration because those operational definitions allowed us to create a rubric
- which we will use at our next meeting which I'll talk about in a further slide. One thing
- I want to highlight which has been a very frequent topic since our very first commission
- meeting really culminating into further discussion in our last meeting is input from our commission
- members whether it's in our group discussions, our small group discussions or it's just
- information set to me is given the current financial landscape should cost effectiveness
- be the top priority of the commission. Given the frequency that commission members have
- brought it up I thought it was important to bring that to the community tonight. Looking
- forward to next steps now that we've defined our considerations we will use those defined
- considerations to create a rubric. We worked with our leadership team today to take the
- commission's input and create that rubric. We're still finalizing it but we have a great
- draft of it today. Our next meeting on the May 28th will be to take that rubric and evaluate
- boundary maps those that are previously shared by our demographer Preston Smith from business
- information services as well as some internal maps that we're drafting as well just so we
- have a full expanse of maps for review by our commission. And that concludes my presentation.
- Are there any comments or questions from the board? I guess I would, in response to what
- you were stating, I do think that balance of socioeconomic status and costs in financial
- management should be co-equal priorities for the commission. That's my personal opinion.
- So I think that if we were to sort of rephrase or restate the purpose for the socioeconomic
- balance, I think, again, I can only speak for myself, but from my perspective, the reason
- we were interested in socioeconomic balance was to protect our priority populations. And
- I think there could be an argument made. I'm not at liberty to change the priorities of
- the board, but I think an argument could be made that cost-effectiveness and protecting
- our priority populations are entwined now, because to protect our priority populations,
- we have to maintain the financial stability of the corporation. So I think, again, Ross,
- I don't think that we can realign those priorities tonight, but I would welcome feedback from
- other board members on that topic. I think that that has become more nuanced, certainly.
- Dr. Dowling, are there other things that the board can do to help the work that you're
- doing on the commission? That discussion was helpful. Like I said, this has been a frequent
- point for the commission, so I appreciate the discussion. Any clarity about, you know, like
- Dr. Dowling? We will now receive the last legislative update of this legislative session
- from board member Prani. Good evening. As Vice President, almost said President, see
- I'm doing it too, Vice President Cooberman said this is the last legislative update.
- It's mostly doom and gloom, and hopefully Dr. Winston has something in her board report
- that will lift us up before we leave here. So, we have the SEA-1, which is the property
- tax relief, which is going to reduce property tax dollars for school corporations quite
- significantly.
- It's going to be about $740 million decrease over the next three years for our school corporations
- in our state. As Dr. Winston alluded earlier, that's somewhere between $15 and $17 million
- lost for us in property tax revenue. Then we have SEA-287, which is the school board
- matters and that's in regards to having a school board candidate declare their political
- party affiliation. So, they are now required to, one, either do that, either declare as
- an independent, or two, that the candidate elects not to disclose their party affiliation.
- The third one is the state budget is going to do a number of things to impact public
- education. I'm sure most of the folks in this room have been following pretty closely
- with that. It rolls $160 million curricular materials appropriations into the foundation.
- It repeals and replaces the teacher appreciation grant program. It will also be requiring school
- corporations to increase their minimum teacher pay to $45,000 beginning in the 25-26 school
- year. We already exceed that requirement with our salary at $57,750. Throughout this year's
- session, we have worked diligently to make sure that you're informed about what's happening
- at the State House and we've encouraged you to make your voices heard. The pieces of legislation
- that have been voted into law are going to significantly impact our ability to serve
- our students. And even though this session is over, that doesn't mean it's over. So
- you still need to reach out to your legislators and continue to tell them why you are for
- or against something that has passed. It's crucial. I know it may feel like it's falling
- on deaf ears, but we have to do that. And that concludes my comments.
- I don't know if it says to say thank you, but thank you. We're member of Pirani.
- I appreciate that hard task, especially for what it is. Do any other board members have
- comments or reports that you would like to share? And finally, Dr. Winston, do you have
- any additional information you'd like to share with us tonight?
- I'll try to make it sound uplifting. Please. No, we have some good news to share as well.
- Our summer programs will begin on Monday, June 2nd, and we are very excited to offer
- our students numerous learning opportunities throughout our summer program. Our students
- have been contacted with details regarding the specifics of the program for which they
- are registered. Earlier, I mentioned MCCSE Online. Due to the frequency of requests from
- students and families and inquiries from our building administrators, I am pleased to announce
- that we will be expanding our online learning opportunities for the 25-26 school year for
- kindergarten through 12th grade. Look for more information in the coming weeks.
- ISBA Exemplary Governance Awards. I am very excited and thrilled to have been at a training
- for ISBA recently with board member Erege when it was announced that our school board
- was being recognized. I'd like to commend the MCCSE Board of School Trustees for being
- awarded the Exemplary Governance Award by the Indiana School Boards Association for
- the calendar year 2024. This recognition reflects their exceptional commitment to student success
- and professional learning. Additionally, Aaron Wyatt and Ross Grimes were each honored with
- individual Exemplary Governance Awards. Congratulations to all. It is truly an honor to celebrate
- these achievements. Senior sendoff. It is a long time tradition, maybe not that long,
- of annual senior sendoff and it took place on May 15th. This event allows our graduating
- seniors to visit their former elementary schools where they are celebrated and honored by students
- and staff. It's a very heartwarming tribute that touches everyone involved and I hope
- you've had a chance to see all of the amazing and glorious pictures that have been posted
- to our website. Congratulations to our seniors. Graduation ceremonies. We are excited to celebrate
- the class of 2025 in the coming weeks. Well, next week. Bloomington Graduation School Commencement
- will be on Thursday, May 29th. The Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship will be on
- Friday, May 30th and North and South High Schools will be held on Saturday, May 31st.
- We are honored to award approximately 890 students from our high schools and our adult
- education program. Congratulations to the class of 2025.
- Last day of school for 2425. Here's let me see. How many days do we have left? Oh yeah.
- Two days left. That's Thursday, May 22nd. Teachers are like, you really don't know?
- Oh honey please, I do. I know. End of the year. As we close this chapter on the 2425
- school year, we want to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who helped make this
- year truly remarkable. To our students, your energy, resilience and commitment to learning
- continue to inspire us. Whether you were showcasing your talents in music, art, theater, cheering
- each other on at the homecoming game or participating in service learning projects across the
- district,
- we represent an MCCSE with pride and excellence. To our parents and guardians, thank you for
- your unwavering support and confidence in our ability to better your students. From
- helping with homework to attending countless events, your involvement made a lasting impact
- on your children and our school community. To our dedicated teachers and staff, your
- passion for education and your tireless efforts to nurture, challenge and support our students
- have not gone unnoticed. You make MCCSE more than just a school district. You make it a
- community. You make it a family. You make it a home. This year, we celebrated achievements
- in academics and athletics. Our school musicals, science fairs, reading challenges and others
- were filled with joy, creativity and teamwork. Each of these moments reminds us that our
- success comes from the strength of our entire community working together. As we head into
- the summer, I wish everyone rest, renewal and plenty of time with family and friends.
- And regarding the most recent weather situation here with the tornado of the other day, our
- hearts continue to be with those families who were affected by our recent tornado. We
- want to ensure that our families, that support is available. If you are in need of any additional
- assistance, please reach out and contact 211.org. You may also reach out to your school's social
- worker for help in navigating community services. For more information about student support
- available at MCCSE, please visit our student services webpage. Please don't hesitate to
- connect. Each and every day since this happened, I have heard of countless stories of community,
- family, friends, neighbors stepping up in unimaginable ways to lend a hand, to offer
- support, a meal, encouragement. And so that's just the beauty of MCCSE and Bloomington. That's
- who we are. That's what we do. And family matters. And so I just thank everyone for
- your show of support for all of the families who've been impacted by the tornado. Thank
- you very much. That concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Winston. The next regularly scheduled
- board meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 24th, 2025. We are adjourned.
- (upbeat orchestral music)
- ("Pomp and Circumstance")