WEBVTT 00:00:01.218 --> 00:00:06.418 - Welcome to the September meeting of the MCCSC Board of School Trustees. We ask that you please come 00:00:06.418 --> 00:00:11.722 - to order. The first item on our agenda is for the board to hold a lease and additional appropriations 00:00:11.722 --> 00:00:17.234 - hearing in connection with the proposed projects. If you're interested in speaking at the hearing, please 00:00:17.234 --> 00:00:22.486 - make sure that you have completed a comment card and have given the card to Mrs. Butcher. There will 00:00:22.486 --> 00:00:27.686 - be an opportunity for the public to make comments about the lease rental to be paid under the lease 00:00:27.686 --> 00:00:29.662 - and appropriation of bonds, proceeds, 00:00:30.690 --> 00:00:36.291 - of both the lease bonds and the taxable geo bonds. At the hearing, we will ask that each person limit 00:00:36.291 --> 00:00:41.783 - their comments to three minutes and that the topic be limited to the lease rental and appropriation 00:00:41.783 --> 00:00:47.548 - of funds under consideration. There will be an opportunity for additional public comments on the regular 00:00:47.548 --> 00:00:53.040 - agenda items after the hearings. The notices for these hearings were published as legally required. 00:00:53.040 --> 00:00:57.982 - And at this time, I will ask that the bond council explain the purpose of these hearings. 00:00:59.522 --> 00:01:06.327 - So we're here tonight to hold a lease hearing and an additional appropriation hearing. The reason is 00:01:06.327 --> 00:01:13.133 - that under Indiana law, whenever a school corporation intends to enter into a lease with a nonprofit 00:01:13.133 --> 00:01:20.343 - building corporation, we have to hold a hearing to see and confirm that the public thinks the rent payable 00:01:20.343 --> 00:01:23.038 - under the lease is fair and reasonable. 00:01:23.682 --> 00:01:30.470 - The second reason we're here is for an additional appropriation hearing. And as you're familiar with, 00:01:30.470 --> 00:01:37.192 - anytime we issue bonds, we do have to have an appropriation of those bond proceeds. So those are the 00:01:37.192 --> 00:01:43.980 - two reasons that we're here tonight for this hearing. Thank you, Ms. McClellan. The public hearing is 00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:50.702 - now open. However, we do not have any public comments on this particular issue. So I will officially 00:01:50.702 --> 00:01:51.966 - close the hearing. 00:01:52.450 --> 00:02:00.368 - And we will now reopen the regular meeting with a series of resolutions for our consideration. Next 00:02:00.368 --> 00:02:08.445 - for our consideration is resolution 2025-12 authorizing the execution of lease. Do I have a motion to 00:02:08.445 --> 00:02:16.442 - adopt resolution 2025-12 as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross 00:02:16.442 --> 00:02:22.302 - and seconded by Ashley that we adopt the resolution 2025-12 as presented. 00:02:22.882 --> 00:02:30.355 - As I just mentioned is required under Indiana law after a lease hearing we then have to consider and 00:02:30.355 --> 00:02:38.049 - adopt a resolution regarding the execution of that lease and that is what this resolution in your board 00:02:38.049 --> 00:02:44.190 - packet contains. Thank you so much. Do I have any comments from the board on this? 00:02:48.706 --> 00:02:56.978 - All those in favor of the motion to adopt the resolution 2025-12 authorizing execution of lease, please 00:02:56.978 --> 00:03:04.932 - signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. We move to resolution 00:03:04.932 --> 00:03:13.522 - 2025-13, which is additional appropriation of 2025 lease bonds. Do I have a motion to adopt this resolution 00:03:13.522 --> 00:03:17.022 - as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? 00:03:18.498 --> 00:03:24.834 - It has been moved by Ashley and seconded by Tiana that we adopt the resolution as presented. Ms. McClellan. 00:03:24.834 --> 00:03:30.701 - The additional appropriation resolution you have in front of you again relates to the appropriation 00:03:30.701 --> 00:03:36.920 - of those bond proceeds because we didn't expect to have those during the beginning of the year and that's 00:03:36.920 --> 00:03:42.494 - why we adopt a resolution now. Okay, thank you very much. Any comments from the board on this? 00:03:46.146 --> 00:03:54.326 - All those in favor of the motion to adopt the resolution 2025-13, additional appropriation, 2025 lease 00:03:54.326 --> 00:04:02.347 - bonds, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next for 00:04:02.347 --> 00:04:10.368 - our consideration is resolution 2025-14, additional appropriation, 2025 taxable geo bonds. Do I have 00:04:10.368 --> 00:04:14.974 - a motion to adopt this resolution as presented? So moved. 00:04:15.490 --> 00:04:21.927 - Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Tiana that we adopt the resolution 00:04:21.927 --> 00:04:28.427 - as presented, Ms. McClellan. The last resolution you considered was the appropriation of the 2025 lease 00:04:28.427 --> 00:04:34.676 - proceeds. So same thing here for the 2025 taxable GO proceeds. Again, we have to have a hearing and 00:04:34.676 --> 00:04:41.051 - then adopt a resolution regarding that appropriation of those funds. OK. Thank you. Any comments from 00:04:41.051 --> 00:04:42.238 - the board on this? 00:04:44.738 --> 00:04:53.423 - All those in favor then of the motion to adopt the resolution 2025-14, additional appropriation at 2025 00:04:53.423 --> 00:05:02.107 - taxable geo bonds, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. 00:05:02.107 --> 00:05:09.790 - We move on to yet another resolution. I know, this is very fun times here. This is 2025-15. 00:05:09.890 --> 00:05:16.792 - assigning construction bids and contracts to the building corporation once received. Do I have a motion 00:05:16.792 --> 00:05:23.496 - to adopt this resolution as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross 00:05:23.496 --> 00:05:30.133 - and seconded by Ashley that we adopt resolution 2025-15 as presented. Ms. McClellan. The reason for 00:05:30.133 --> 00:05:35.774 - this resolution under consideration tonight is because when we do a lease financing, 00:05:35.874 --> 00:05:42.218 - The building corporation is actually going to own a portion of a building and then lease it back to 00:05:42.218 --> 00:05:48.752 - the school corporation. So this resolution would allow for the buildings that the building corporation 00:05:48.752 --> 00:05:55.287 - owns for the school to assign the contracts you've already entered into for the construction work over 00:05:55.287 --> 00:06:01.694 - to the building corporation. Thank you for that explanation. Do we have any comments from the board? 00:06:04.994 --> 00:06:12.289 - All those in favor of the motion to adopt resolution 2025-15, assigning construction bids and contracts 00:06:12.289 --> 00:06:19.373 - to the building corporation once received, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? 00:06:19.373 --> 00:06:26.387 - The motion carries. We have two more to go, so hang in there. This is 2025-16, authorizing the 10th 00:06:26.387 --> 00:06:31.998 - supplement to master continuing disclosure, undertaking, and issuance of bonds. 00:06:32.130 --> 00:06:39.207 - Sometimes I just feel like I'm saying word salad. Do I have a motion to adopt this as presented? Do 00:06:39.207 --> 00:06:46.355 - I have a second? It has been moved by Ross and seconded by Asia that we adopt the resolution 2025-16 00:06:46.355 --> 00:06:53.574 - as presented. Ms. McClellan. This resolution relates to a master continuing disclosure agreement that 00:06:53.574 --> 00:07:00.792 - we entered into several years ago. In short, the Securities and Exchange Commission anytime you issue 00:07:00.792 --> 00:07:01.854 - bonds requires 00:07:02.018 --> 00:07:10.525 - MCCSC to give updates to the bondholders on how you're doing. This document will document the promise 00:07:10.525 --> 00:07:18.615 - to give bondholders your audit, your form nine, and things like that. But it's a SEC compliance. 00:07:18.615 --> 00:07:26.956 - Thank you. Comments from the board? Okay. All those in favor of the motion to adopt this resolution 00:07:26.956 --> 00:07:31.710 - 2025-16, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? 00:07:32.162 --> 00:07:39.042 - Any abstentions? The motion carries. And just kidding, now we have two left. We had three last time. 00:07:39.042 --> 00:07:45.921 - So we are at 2025-17 authorizing the issuance of one or more series of bond anticipation notes. Do I 00:07:45.921 --> 00:07:52.869 - have a motion to adopt this resolution? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Moved by Ross, seconded 00:07:52.869 --> 00:07:58.046 - by Ashley that we adopt the resolution 2025-17 as presented. Ms. McClellan. 00:07:58.786 --> 00:08:06.112 - This resolution approves sort of what we would call as homeowners a construction loan. A binding anticipation 00:08:06.112 --> 00:08:12.972 - note is the same thing. A construction loan before the bonds are issued. If and when we need one, this 00:08:12.972 --> 00:08:19.699 - resolution would allow us to proceed. Thank you. Comments? Okay. All those in favor of the motion to 00:08:19.699 --> 00:08:26.626 - adopt resolution 2025-17 authorizing the issuance of one or more of a series of bond anticipation notes 00:08:26.626 --> 00:08:28.158 - signify by saying aye. 00:08:28.418 --> 00:08:35.810 - Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. And last in the series of resolutions for our 00:08:35.810 --> 00:08:43.640 - consideration is resolution 2025-18, final bond resolution. Do I have a motion to adopt this as presented? 00:08:43.640 --> 00:08:51.251 - So moved. Do I have a second? It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Asia that we adopt the resolution 00:08:51.251 --> 00:08:53.886 - 2025-18 as presented, Ms. McCullen. 00:08:54.530 --> 00:09:00.853 - This final bond resolution relates to the issuance of the taxable geo bonds. It allows us the ability 00:09:00.853 --> 00:09:07.238 - and set certain maximums with regard to that taxable geo bond. It also in the form of this resolution, 00:09:07.238 --> 00:09:13.499 - which was really long as you all saw, it approves the form of the bond and several other agreements. 00:09:13.499 --> 00:09:18.334 - That's why it's longer than the others. Excellent. Any questions on this one? 00:09:21.634 --> 00:09:29.398 - All those in favor of the motion to adopt the resolution 2025-18, please signify by saying aye. Aye. 00:09:29.398 --> 00:09:37.393 - Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Thank you, Ms. McClellan, for leading us through this 00:09:37.393 --> 00:09:45.157 - process. We will now move on to yet another hearing. I declare the 2026 budget hearing open. Have we 00:09:45.157 --> 00:09:51.614 - received any comment cards for this? None? Okay, great. Mr. Irwin, you may proceed. 00:09:52.226 --> 00:09:58.421 - Okay, well, we'll run you through the 2026 budget again. Not a long list of resolutions again. You're 00:09:58.421 --> 00:10:04.495 - just gonna hear me get my presentation on the budget. So we'll go through that. So if you go to the 00:10:04.495 --> 00:10:10.934 - next slide, which would be the agenda, I'll kind of walk through what it is that we're gonna talk through 00:10:10.934 --> 00:10:17.312 - tonight. Yeah, that's fine. But I'll do it. All right. So first, we'll talk about timeline. I just wanna 00:10:17.312 --> 00:10:22.110 - remind you guys that the timeline that we follow as it relates to the adoption 00:10:22.210 --> 00:10:27.631 - eventually getting to the adoption of the budget. We wanna talk about the comparison of the 2025 budget 00:10:27.631 --> 00:10:32.895 - to the 2026 budget. Talk about the process involved. That's something that I wanted to talk a little 00:10:32.895 --> 00:10:38.472 - bit more about in the process of budget building. Kind of give you a peek, so to speak, behind the curtain 00:10:38.472 --> 00:10:43.788 - of what it is that we're doing or how we're coming up with those numbers. Give you an example of some 00:10:43.788 --> 00:10:48.062 - of the DOGF forms. Again, the DOGF is the Department of Local Government Finance. 00:10:48.898 --> 00:10:55.033 - and then talk about just some of the main takeaways for the 2026 budget that we want you to have. 00:10:55.033 --> 00:11:01.356 - So again, the timeline reminders, when you look just kind of walking through last month at the board 00:11:01.356 --> 00:11:07.616 - meeting, we asked for permission to advertise, which we did receive. We then advertised the budget, 00:11:07.616 --> 00:11:14.064 - the bus replacement plan and the capital projects plan on September 2nd. And then tonight we're having 00:11:14.064 --> 00:11:17.758 - the hearing. In October, we will actually adopt the budget 00:11:18.306 --> 00:11:24.427 - And then in December, it says 1782 notice. 1782 notice is just our budget. So the DOGF, in that time 00:11:24.427 --> 00:11:30.729 - between October and December, is when our DOGF rep will work our budget. And then they will return that 00:11:30.729 --> 00:11:36.911 - back to us in December, which we will then review, make sure that everything looks the way we want it 00:11:36.911 --> 00:11:42.971 - to look, make sure there's not any adjustments we need to make, and then we'll sign off on that and 00:11:42.971 --> 00:11:46.910 - send it back. You saw this slide. Oh, I'm sorry. Saw this slide. 00:11:47.394 --> 00:11:54.337 - turn the mic up on me there for a second. I saw the slide last month of the comparison of the 2026 budget. 00:11:54.337 --> 00:12:00.955 - There's that main takeaway there in the center, which just talks about the overall budget submission. 00:12:00.955 --> 00:12:05.822 - The decrease is about 6.2 million from 2025. Again, in comparison to 2025. 00:12:06.370 --> 00:12:12.026 - We've made several adjustments as it relates to staffing and other expenses that are a big part of our 00:12:12.026 --> 00:12:17.846 - budget on a yearly basis. And so it makes sense with all the pieces that we've been talking about through 00:12:17.846 --> 00:12:23.338 - our quarterly updates and regular communications that our overall budget would be down. Again, some 00:12:23.338 --> 00:12:28.829 - of the budgets you see pretty similar. Some of them are a lot different. Again, the operations fund 00:12:28.829 --> 00:12:34.814 - is the one that you see go down the farthest out of all of those. Some of them remain fairly stable as well. 00:12:38.018 --> 00:12:43.197 - This is the piece that I wanted to talk a little bit more to tonight, and it just kind of goes into 00:12:43.197 --> 00:12:48.480 - some of the three key areas. And then I just wanted to drive home some points on. One being that this 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:53.970 - is a data-driven approach. So just like if you were building your own budget at home, your best predictor 00:12:53.970 --> 00:12:59.564 - of your future expenses are your past expenditures, right? So going back, looking at our past expenditures, 00:12:59.564 --> 00:13:05.054 - especially for like the last three years or so, and saying, what have we been spending in this line item? 00:13:05.154 --> 00:13:10.509 - Do we expect that to continue? What have we been receiving as far as revenue goes in that line item? 00:13:10.509 --> 00:13:16.023 - Do we expect that to continue? What are the trends with what's going on as it relates to those expenses 00:13:16.023 --> 00:13:21.431 - or revenue in our current cash flows? And then looking at some of the information that we continue to 00:13:21.431 --> 00:13:25.726 - bring in, whether that's a demographic study or the tax-based study that we did. 00:13:25.986 --> 00:13:31.336 - facility studies, some of these other pieces, we're bringing in that data or that information we need 00:13:31.336 --> 00:13:36.738 - to make really informed decisions about how we're coming up with that number. And so I wanted to drive 00:13:36.738 --> 00:13:42.141 - home that point of just what are we looking at when we're coming up with these numbers and determining 00:13:42.141 --> 00:13:47.438 - what the need is in any given line item across the budget, whether we're talking about the education 00:13:47.438 --> 00:13:52.945 - fund, a referendum fund, the operations fund, and so on. The next piece is just flexibility. When you're 00:13:52.945 --> 00:13:55.358 - rebuilding our budget, we don't want to build 00:13:55.554 --> 00:14:00.868 - the budget, which I see as guardrails, so tight that anytime something changes for us, it causes us 00:14:00.868 --> 00:14:06.235 - to have to come back to you and say, hey, we need to adjust this. We need to adjust that. Just like, 00:14:06.235 --> 00:14:11.869 - again, if I'm building my budget at home and I'm looking through my numbers, I don't want to put a number 00:14:11.869 --> 00:14:17.502 - to a line item in my own budget that I know that if one little thing changes for me, then all of a sudden 00:14:17.502 --> 00:14:23.294 - I need to go back and change that number again. So we try to build those guardrails that allows flexibility. 00:14:23.586 --> 00:14:28.881 - when we build out that number. And then the other part that is really important is just anticipating 00:14:28.881 --> 00:14:34.124 - variables. There's a lot of things that we can't predict or things that are outside of our control. 00:14:34.124 --> 00:14:39.471 - Legislation is a huge variable, right? When we talk about SEA-1 or some of those pieces as it relates 00:14:39.471 --> 00:14:44.766 - to the rules that they put in place, that's something that's outside of our control. Student counts, 00:14:44.766 --> 00:14:49.694 - that's why we talk about why it's important to monitor what we have going on with enrollment. 00:14:50.370 --> 00:14:55.943 - getting those demographic studies and looking at what it is that's going on in our area to make sure 00:14:55.943 --> 00:15:01.461 - that we're making educated decisions about what we expect when that's a huge driver in our revenue. 00:15:01.461 --> 00:15:07.034 - It's our number one revenue source. The other piece is just talking about cost of goods and services 00:15:07.034 --> 00:15:12.938 - or assessed value. Some of those other things, staffing. These are pieces that play a huge role in drivers 00:15:12.938 --> 00:15:16.414 - of whether it's revenue or expenses that we continue to try to 00:15:16.706 --> 00:15:23.225 - to account for and say, what are those trends? What are those things that we know that help us come 00:15:23.225 --> 00:15:30.004 - up with an appropriate number? This is an example of one of the DOGS slides. And I just wanted to point 00:15:30.004 --> 00:15:36.849 - out some simplistic things within this. I know this is a bit of a busy slide, but I just wanted to point 00:15:36.849 --> 00:15:43.693 - some things out, because it's really an 18-month look. We have to tell the DOGF what we expect to happen 00:15:43.693 --> 00:15:44.606 - with revenue. 00:15:44.770 --> 00:15:50.844 - in the last six months of any given year, and we have to tell them what we expect for our expenses to 00:15:50.844 --> 00:15:57.097 - be in the last six months of the year so that they can determine what they think our ending cash balance 00:15:57.097 --> 00:16:03.410 - would be. One of the quirks of the system, though, is that they always assume that you spend every dollar 00:16:03.410 --> 00:16:09.425 - of your budget, every dollar of your appropriation. Even though we know locally that's not our plan, 00:16:09.425 --> 00:16:13.534 - they always, the input in the system is that it spends every dollar. 00:16:13.698 --> 00:16:19.969 - And so later on, when we come back and propose a budget reduction resolution, that will be a connection 00:16:19.969 --> 00:16:25.999 - to that later agenda item that we'll talk about. So again, last six months, they wanna know what do 00:16:25.999 --> 00:16:32.331 - we expect our revenue to be? What do we expect our expenses to be? Where do you expect your cash balance 00:16:32.331 --> 00:16:38.602 - to be at the end of the year? And then that carries over to the next slide where we're gonna say, based 00:16:38.602 --> 00:16:43.486 - on that, what revenue do you expect to get in calendar year? In this case, 2026. 00:16:43.906 --> 00:16:49.556 - What expenses do you expect to have during that year? And then simply there at the bottom to say, what 00:16:49.556 --> 00:16:55.040 - do we expect that cash balance to be? So is this a fundable budget? Is this something that we think 00:16:55.040 --> 00:17:00.635 - that the cash that you have on hand, the revenue that you think that you'll receive, and the expenses 00:17:00.635 --> 00:17:05.736 - that you expect to have, does that allow for you to fund that? So they come to that arrival. 00:17:05.736 --> 00:17:11.276 - And in this case, this is a look at one of the referendum funds, Referendum 2022. And because it's a 00:17:11.276 --> 00:17:12.702 - property tax levied fund, 00:17:13.058 --> 00:17:19.134 - They come down and they'll say, what is the input of AV times the rate that's there? And so what would 00:17:19.134 --> 00:17:25.033 - the rate be in order to fund this budget? We know that what the DLGF does, when I say they're gonna 00:17:25.033 --> 00:17:31.168 - go in and work our budget, they're gonna come into that and they're gonna say, this is what AV actually 00:17:31.168 --> 00:17:37.244 - was. This is your voter approved rate. Here's the amount of revenue that you can actually produce from 00:17:37.244 --> 00:17:42.494 - that. So they'll come in and they'll input those numbers and change some of the revenue. 00:17:42.882 --> 00:17:48.493 - The expenses will pull down and they'll say, hey, this still works. Here's your budget. So I wanted 00:17:48.493 --> 00:17:54.327 - to walk you through that example. I know those are busy slides, but I think that it's important to kind 00:17:54.327 --> 00:18:00.162 - of show you some of those behind the scenes pieces as we work through that process. And then some other 00:18:00.162 --> 00:18:06.222 - quick things. You saw this last month as well. This is a redundancy in this slide. Education and operations 00:18:06.222 --> 00:18:10.654 - fund. Again, budgets are smaller than last year based on conservative revenue. 00:18:10.786 --> 00:18:16.988 - enrollment projections and staffing changes, bus replacement and capital project plans. These are must 00:18:16.988 --> 00:18:23.069 - be done in order to expend operations fund dollars on those possible expenditures. Those are not set 00:18:23.069 --> 00:18:29.512 - in stone plans. Those are plans of things that we think that are likely to happen and that we are planning 00:18:29.512 --> 00:18:31.198 - for that are a possibility. 00:18:32.706 --> 00:18:38.367 - Referendum fund one, we do plan on restoring the original voter approved 18 and a half cent rate. That 00:18:38.367 --> 00:18:44.359 - was something that we were not able to do last year because of the legislation that was in place. Referendum 00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:49.910 - two, continuing on with the voter approved rate of eight and a half cents to support early learning. 00:18:49.910 --> 00:18:55.407 - And then again, for debt service, we had the placeholders in there for the bonds that we're talking 00:18:55.407 --> 00:19:00.958 - about tonight. We know that those are high placeholders. We expect the payback on those to be lower. 00:19:01.666 --> 00:19:08.645 - but again, we set those ceilings to make sure that it's an appropriate amount that we know that will 00:19:08.645 --> 00:19:15.693 - come under. And then a quick note on that is we'll make our last two payments on the pension debt and 00:19:15.693 --> 00:19:22.672 - then that debt will be retired and fall off for us after 2026. And then a couple more slides and I'm 00:19:22.672 --> 00:19:29.374 - almost done here. Budget form four, this is the actual resolution that during October's meeting, 00:19:29.538 --> 00:19:35.468 - that will be signed off to say this is the board signing off and adopting our budget. The top of this 00:19:35.468 --> 00:19:41.282 - form is just that normal. Every information that every school corporation puts with our information 00:19:41.282 --> 00:19:47.328 - at the top with the date of our meeting. And then the bottom again shows those same things that we were 00:19:47.328 --> 00:19:53.258 - showing you last month where the adopted tax levy and the rate, those are the ceiling amounts that we 00:19:53.258 --> 00:19:56.862 - know that will come under and we'll see a very similar budget 00:19:56.994 --> 00:20:02.835 - as what we've seen in years past. So we just set those ceilings and then we'll come down underneath 00:20:02.835 --> 00:20:08.676 - that to make sure that we are setting the appropriate ceiling. I'm definitely gonna need a drink of 00:20:08.676 --> 00:20:14.925 - water after this after eating these french fries here. And then the key takeaways, I had six key takeaways 00:20:14.925 --> 00:20:20.766 - here. Budget equals guardrails. The budget sets the tax levies and rates and spending authority. It 00:20:20.766 --> 00:20:26.782 - does not equal the dollar for dollar of actual revenues and expenses. It's the plan that we're working 00:20:27.202 --> 00:20:34.630 - It is the guardrails. Budget development is built on past actuals, historical trends, possible outcomes. 00:20:34.630 --> 00:20:41.846 - Levy management, it's ongoing oversight of our property tax collection, which the continued community 00:20:41.846 --> 00:20:48.991 - support. We're trying to be conscientious of what the actual request is of the community and what it 00:20:48.991 --> 00:20:54.014 - is that we're doing to meet the needs of our students. And then again, 00:20:54.178 --> 00:21:00.093 - The advertising ceiling, I mentioned that in that prior form, the adoption timeline, we'll adopt next 00:21:00.093 --> 00:21:05.892 - month. And again, 1782 notice or the budget comes in in December, so you'll expect an update around 00:21:05.892 --> 00:21:12.155 - that time. With that, I'll take any questions when I'm done. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Irwin. Any questions 00:21:12.155 --> 00:21:16.446 - from the board on any of this budget information that we've seen tonight? 00:21:25.186 --> 00:21:31.949 - Very thorough. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Well, then this concludes the budget 00:21:31.949 --> 00:21:38.328 - hearing and I will declare it closed. We now move into our regularly scheduled meeting. Tonight, we 00:21:38.328 --> 00:21:44.708 - honor the excellence of MCCSE's dedicated employees, students, and volunteers who make a difference 00:21:44.708 --> 00:21:46.622 - in our community, Ms. Harmon. 00:21:49.474 --> 00:21:55.273 - Thank you, President Hennessey, Dr. Winston, Board of Trustees, and community members. It's my pleasure 00:21:55.273 --> 00:22:01.071 - to share this month's Excellence Spotlight. This is a feature of every regular Board of School Trustees 00:22:01.071 --> 00:22:06.814 - meeting and a dedicated time to honor the excellence occurring every day through the dedication of our 00:22:06.814 --> 00:22:12.724 - employees, students, and volunteers who make a difference in our school community. This month's September 00:22:12.724 --> 00:22:17.854 - Excellence Spotlight goes to Rick Ayers, who has served us very well at all board meetings. 00:22:17.986 --> 00:22:24.262 - He is our MCCSE technician supervisor. We're proud to recognize Rick Ayers as our September Excellence 00:22:24.262 --> 00:22:30.416 - Spotlight honoree. Since joining MCCSE in 1995, Rick has exemplified what it means to be a dedicated 00:22:30.416 --> 00:22:36.570 - and compassionate team member. Rick embodies the full spirit of a helping hand, always willing to go 00:22:36.570 --> 00:22:43.028 - the extra mile. His caring disposition is on display daily as he supports technicians across every school 00:22:43.028 --> 00:22:46.014 - building, offering not only technical expertise, 00:22:46.402 --> 00:22:51.762 - but also an empathetic ear delivered with patience and compassion. Whether the task is large or small, 00:22:51.762 --> 00:22:57.382 - Rick approaches it with a can-do attitude that inspires those around him. Rick's presence and his signature 00:22:57.382 --> 00:23:02.585 - Hawaiian shirts, maybe I should add French fries, will be deeply missed as he prepares to retire at 00:23:02.585 --> 00:23:08.205 - the end of this month. His legacy of service, kindness, and excellence will continue to resonate throughout 00:23:08.205 --> 00:23:13.565 - the school corporation. Please join us in celebrating Rick's outstanding contributions and wishing him 00:23:13.565 --> 00:23:15.230 - all the best in his retirement. 00:23:41.986 --> 00:23:46.654 - enough time in the day for us to celebrate you and tell you how much you've meant to everybody. 00:24:36.482 --> 00:24:43.059 - We really do appreciate you so much and for all of your work over the years, for smooth board meetings 00:24:43.059 --> 00:24:49.700 - and congratulations on your retirement. I hope you have some really fun plans or maybe just some really 00:24:49.700 --> 00:24:56.213 - chill plans, but yeah, we really wish you the best on what's next. All right, we now move into public 00:24:56.213 --> 00:25:02.790 - comment. Thank you to those who signed up for this evening. Just a reminder that Ms. Butcher will ring 00:25:02.790 --> 00:25:06.302 - the bell once to signal you have 30 seconds remaining. 00:25:06.402 --> 00:25:15.757 - and five bells to signal that your time has concluded. It looks like we have one speaker tonight, Michael 00:25:15.757 --> 00:25:24.759 - Catterlin. Thank you. So I understand that we are in a budget crisis. Last board meeting, it was said 00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:30.142 - that teacher rifts are on the table. Classroom sizes are up. 00:25:30.882 --> 00:25:36.828 - And there aren't enough support resources such as one on ones to meet the needs of our students and 00:25:36.828 --> 00:25:43.131 - our teachers. As a parent I've received emails that the district doesn't have enough resources to replace 00:25:43.131 --> 00:25:49.197 - the failing student technology. Given all that and as the budget is being built I'd like to know what 00:25:49.197 --> 00:25:55.262 - cuts are being planned at the district admin level so that we are keeping resources in the classroom. 00:25:57.826 --> 00:26:04.245 - The district has added roughly 15 new admins in the last five years while also increasing pay. 00:26:04.245 --> 00:26:11.003 - Last year, admin payroll was over $5 million. So how do you plan to correct for this so that we are 00:26:11.003 --> 00:26:17.963 - prioritizing teacher support and student outcomes? Thank you. Thank you so much for that comment. This 00:26:17.963 --> 00:26:23.166 - is the close of our public comments. That was our only one for this evening. 00:26:23.682 --> 00:26:30.500 - to thank everyone for their comments tonight and we will now proceed to the consent agenda. For our 00:26:30.500 --> 00:26:37.591 - consent agenda tonight, it includes the following minutes from the regular board meeting held on August 00:26:37.591 --> 00:26:44.614 - 26th, memorandum from executive session held on September 9th, overnight and out of state field trips, 00:26:44.614 --> 00:26:50.750 - the financial report from August 2025, the appropriation balance report from August 2025, 00:26:50.914 --> 00:26:57.301 - the register of claims from September 2025, payroll register and payroll claims from August 2025, and 00:26:57.301 --> 00:27:04.064 - the request to declare a surplus and authorized disposal of out-of-date items. Do I have a motion regarding 00:27:04.064 --> 00:27:10.451 - the approval of the consent agenda? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross and 00:27:10.451 --> 00:27:16.775 - seconded by Ashley that we approve the consent agenda as presented. All those in favor of the motion 00:27:16.775 --> 00:27:20.094 - to approve this consent agenda, please say aye. Aye. 00:27:20.258 --> 00:27:27.217 - Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next, we look at our donations, which are over $2,000. 00:27:27.217 --> 00:27:34.044 - We want to thank all of our donors for your generosity. It's appreciated as always. Do I have a motion 00:27:34.044 --> 00:27:40.804 - to accept the donations? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley, seconded by 00:27:40.804 --> 00:27:47.962 - Tiana that we accept the donations as presented. All those in favor of the motion to approve the donations, 00:27:47.962 --> 00:27:49.950 - please signify by saying aye. 00:27:50.210 --> 00:27:57.623 - Any against? Any abstentions? That carries. We now move to our personnel report. Do I have a motion 00:27:57.623 --> 00:28:05.035 - to approve the personnel report as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved 00:28:05.035 --> 00:28:12.670 - by Ashley and seconded by Erin Wyatt that we approve the personnel report as presented. Dr. Henderson. 00:28:13.314 --> 00:28:19.216 - President Hennessey, Dr. Winston, and members of the Board of School Trustees, at this time I request 00:28:19.216 --> 00:28:25.118 - that you please approve the recommendations as presented in the board packet in the personnel report. 00:28:25.118 --> 00:28:30.905 - Okay. Any additional comments on this year, this year, this month's personnel report? No. Okay. All 00:28:30.905 --> 00:28:36.865 - those in favor of the motion to approve this personnel report signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? 00:28:36.865 --> 00:28:39.006 - Any abstentions? The motion carries. 00:28:40.066 --> 00:28:49.214 - We move now to contracts. Do I have a motion to approve the contracts as presented? So moved. Do I have 00:28:49.214 --> 00:28:58.802 - a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Ross that we approve the contracts as presented. 00:28:58.802 --> 00:29:07.774 - Mr. Irwin. Would be the contract with BRCJ for the design and management of moving to North projects. 00:29:08.482 --> 00:29:16.929 - This is something that will be paid for using the 25 lease rental bonds. Thank you. Thank you. Do we 00:29:16.929 --> 00:29:25.627 - have any comments from the board or questions about the contracts? OK. All those in favor of the motion 00:29:25.627 --> 00:29:34.910 - to approve the contract signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next up. 00:29:35.042 --> 00:29:41.835 - is resolution 2025-19 budget reduction. Do I have a motion to adopt 2025-19 as presented? So moved. 00:29:41.835 --> 00:29:48.697 - Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Tiana that we adopt resolution 00:29:48.697 --> 00:29:55.558 - 2025 as presented. Mr. Irwin. Yeah, thank you. So this is the budget reduction resolution that I was 00:29:55.558 --> 00:29:59.838 - talking to you about earlier. This is for the operations fund. 00:30:00.578 --> 00:30:05.440 - So the budget resolution is something that I've pre-worked through with our DLGF rep to make sure that 00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:10.301 - it's acceptable and something that we've done in the past. Again, the assumption in the system is that 00:30:10.301 --> 00:30:15.021 - we will spend every dollar for appropriation and we know that we don't need to do that. So in order 00:30:15.021 --> 00:30:20.072 - to make things work in the forms there in the DLGF, we need to reduce that budget number in the operations 00:30:20.072 --> 00:30:22.526 - fund. Okay, thank you. Any comments from the board? 00:30:26.498 --> 00:30:34.244 - All those in favor of the motion to adopt resolution 2025-19 budget reduction signify by saying aye. 00:30:34.244 --> 00:30:42.220 - Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Tonight we have several informative updates that 00:30:42.220 --> 00:30:47.742 - will be presented. The first is a health and safety report. Ms. Harmon? 00:30:56.610 --> 00:31:04.661 - Thank you President Tennessee, Dr. Winston, and members of the school board for allowing me to come 00:31:04.661 --> 00:31:13.035 - and talk to you this evening about health and safety in MCCSC. I wanted to start this evening with this 00:31:13.035 --> 00:31:21.569 - quote, the kind of statement that we wrote, a vision about how we see student safety, health and physical 00:31:21.569 --> 00:31:26.078 - safety, physical health, and emotional mental health as 00:31:26.370 --> 00:31:32.789 - intertwined and connected. And that is our approach. It's why we're presenting safety and health together 00:31:32.789 --> 00:31:39.086 - tonight, because we see those things as tied in order to truly create a productive learning environment 00:31:39.086 --> 00:31:45.262 - for students. So I'll be joined tonight by Mr. Gilpin, our director of secondary education and school 00:31:45.262 --> 00:31:51.620 - safety as well. So I'm going to start, but I'll hand it off to him as well. In looking at that approach, 00:31:51.620 --> 00:31:53.982 - the integrated approach, we do kind of 00:31:54.306 --> 00:32:00.211 - seek guidance from this model that comes from the Center on Disease Control that's whole school, whole 00:32:00.211 --> 00:32:05.429 - community, whole child. And it focuses on these 10 areas. And you'll see these represented 00:32:05.429 --> 00:32:11.277 - in our presentation tonight as well. And again, that allows us to have this comprehensive approach to 00:32:11.277 --> 00:32:17.297 - thinking about school safety and health for all students. So to begin with that, I'll talk about student 00:32:17.297 --> 00:32:24.062 - physical, mental, and behavioral health and wellness, starting with our physical health and health education program. 00:32:24.546 --> 00:32:30.420 - So we have PE and health curriculum throughout our pre-K through 12th grade in all classes. It probably 00:32:30.420 --> 00:32:36.125 - looks, in some ways, what you would expect in a physical education class or health classroom, but it 00:32:36.125 --> 00:32:42.337 - also covers a gamut of injury prevention, healthy choices, and relationships, and alcohol and drug awareness. 00:32:42.337 --> 00:32:47.986 - We expand that beyond the classroom as well as we think about how our healthy behavior is connected 00:32:47.986 --> 00:32:54.142 - to extracurricular activities and how can we engage families in learning more about healthy choices as well. 00:32:54.242 --> 00:32:59.982 - So you may have participated or know about our Family Fun Run that happens at Grandview, or our Health 00:32:59.982 --> 00:33:05.944 - a Palooza hosted at South where all sorts of community organizations are there sharing really high quality 00:33:05.944 --> 00:33:11.795 - information about health with our community. And we're really grateful to have our IU Health Coordinator 00:33:11.795 --> 00:33:17.702 - of School Health that works directly with our schools, each and every one of them, to think strategically 00:33:17.702 --> 00:33:20.990 - about their health curriculum, our policies, our programs, 00:33:21.122 --> 00:33:27.989 - professional development and seeks resources for us as well as we make sure that we're really offering 00:33:27.989 --> 00:33:34.789 - robust offerings in those areas. Thinking more about physical health, our Child Nutrition Department, 00:33:34.789 --> 00:33:41.523 - you might remember last month we celebrated that they received the USDA Gold Turnip Beat Award. They 00:33:41.523 --> 00:33:48.990 - are the only school district in the state to receive the Gold Award. They served over 10,000 meals this summer. 00:33:49.090 --> 00:33:56.380 - families free to family so that's pretty amazing and it's a highlight of what they do all year for our 00:33:56.380 --> 00:34:03.670 - schools. In addition we think about nutrition education our kids take trips to farms they see how food 00:34:03.670 --> 00:34:11.031 - is produced how it's grown or raised and learn more about food production also our schools have gardens 00:34:11.031 --> 00:34:14.782 - and hydroponic systems and kids are growing food and 00:34:14.946 --> 00:34:20.962 - quite often eating it as well, which is pretty cool. They're very excited when they get to eat the things 00:34:20.962 --> 00:34:26.467 - that they grew. And that's integrated into the curriculum. So it's a science experiment as well. 00:34:26.467 --> 00:34:32.198 - And finally, for nutrition, I'd like to highlight our Backpack Buddies program, which is partnership 00:34:32.198 --> 00:34:38.271 - with the community kitchen and provides bags of food to families who might be experiencing food insecurity 00:34:38.271 --> 00:34:43.038 - over the weekend. When we look at physical health, highlighting our health services 00:34:43.458 --> 00:34:49.244 - We have well-staffed health offices. We were actually able to shift some of our model this year to increase 00:34:49.244 --> 00:34:54.655 - the number of registered nurses we have serving our schools. We went from 11 nurses to 13 registered 00:34:54.655 --> 00:35:00.335 - nurses. Ultimately, this means improved student to RN ratio. Registered nurses are more directly involved 00:35:00.335 --> 00:35:05.799 - with student health. They're more directly involved with supporting licensed practical nurses and the 00:35:05.799 --> 00:35:10.782 - health aides in our offices as well, and overall means higher quality care for our students. 00:35:11.362 --> 00:35:17.521 - All of our buildings are 100% Project Atom Heart Safe, which means they have AED machines in them, people 00:35:17.521 --> 00:35:23.390 - are trained to use them, those kinds of things. And those AED machine cabinets house emergency first 00:35:23.390 --> 00:35:27.806 - aid kits, stoppably kits, and Narcan to ensure that physical safety aspect. 00:35:29.026 --> 00:35:36.203 - Additionally, again, we seek out partnerships and ensure that students have access to wider healthcare 00:35:36.203 --> 00:35:43.520 - as well. So there's opportunities for students to get vaccinations and screenings and dental care onsite 00:35:43.520 --> 00:35:50.767 - when they're at school. Last year, we administered 698 vaccinations, 636 students received dental care, 00:35:50.767 --> 00:35:56.830 - and then we have vision screen and hearing screen, you know, while at specific grades. 00:36:00.322 --> 00:36:05.787 - Beyond the physical health and nutrition of students, we also want to make sure that we're considering 00:36:05.787 --> 00:36:11.094 - their social, emotional, and behavioral health. We're focused on creating safe and welcoming school 00:36:11.094 --> 00:36:16.559 - practices. We've talked about some of these things before in other presentations last year. All of our 00:36:16.559 --> 00:36:21.918 - schools are 100% PBIS, which stands for Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports. And really what 00:36:21.918 --> 00:36:26.110 - that is is a structure for schools to have a system-wide approach to establish 00:36:26.306 --> 00:36:31.911 - that positive student culture. It creates clear expectations. Students know what they're supposed to 00:36:31.911 --> 00:36:37.626 - do. And beyond student behaviors, it's also about adult behaviors as well to cultivate and create that 00:36:37.626 --> 00:36:43.231 - wonderful learning environment for students. Partnered with that is our restorative practices, where 00:36:43.231 --> 00:36:48.891 - when we're responding to conflict in a way that builds strong relationships and focuses on a positive 00:36:48.891 --> 00:36:51.998 - relationship and repairing respect, responsibility, and 00:36:56.418 --> 00:37:02.751 - We want to teach a way to have a safe and welcoming school environment as well. So we use curriculum 00:37:02.751 --> 00:37:09.209 - to do that. We have a K through 12 curriculum that builds skills that manage emotions, solve problems, 00:37:09.209 --> 00:37:15.668 - prevent bullying, are able to teach school and work life success skills that are really useful as they 00:37:15.668 --> 00:37:22.064 - are in our own schools and our own systems. And they go on to college and career as well. And we have 00:37:22.064 --> 00:37:26.014 - zones of regulation, which helps kids recognize their feelings 00:37:26.274 --> 00:37:32.057 - use strategies to deal with them and manage them as well. And finally, of course, we use common sense 00:37:32.057 --> 00:37:37.841 - media to teach digital citizenship that happens at every grade level to teach kids how to responsibly 00:37:37.841 --> 00:37:43.681 - be on the internet and use technology and the impacts that it has. And that has also a component where 00:37:43.681 --> 00:37:49.464 - it offers resources to families who want to continue that conversation at home. We're really proud of 00:37:49.464 --> 00:37:55.134 - our community partnerships. And we couldn't do all the things that we do in this area without them. 00:37:55.522 --> 00:38:02.022 - So I just wanted to highlight some of those here tonight. Centerstone is our community mental health 00:38:02.022 --> 00:38:08.650 - partner. They provide school-based mental health counseling for students in our buildings. I mentioned 00:38:08.650 --> 00:38:15.343 - a little bit about our IU Health School coordinator, but also IU Health and the School of Public Health 00:38:15.343 --> 00:38:21.842 - serves on our health council to help us consider the decisions and the infrastructures we're putting 00:38:21.842 --> 00:38:23.966 - in place. They provide wonderful 00:38:24.354 --> 00:38:30.822 - career exploration opportunities with internships, guest speakers, and job talks and talk to students 00:38:30.822 --> 00:38:37.734 - about the opportunities that are out there for them. And they also partner with our extended day programming 00:38:37.734 --> 00:38:44.139 - with a program called Goal, which is get on board active learning. My own kid has a little pedometer 00:38:44.139 --> 00:38:48.958 - that she got from the Goal program. They're very into counting their steps. 00:38:49.474 --> 00:38:55.450 - Boys and Girls Club and Big Brothers and Big Sisters are really partnered with us in terms of being 00:38:55.450 --> 00:39:01.485 - mentors for our students and offering that services. The Monroe County Youth Service Bureau, we have 00:39:01.485 --> 00:39:07.580 - a specific program called our Truancy Termination Partnership Program, which is focused on looking at 00:39:07.580 --> 00:39:13.795 - root causes of attendance or tardiness and working with schools to identify resources that will support 00:39:13.795 --> 00:39:17.918 - students getting to school and timely and being at school regularly. 00:39:18.114 --> 00:39:24.371 - They also have individual mental health counseling and parenting workshops as well to support families. 00:39:24.371 --> 00:39:30.507 - Middleway House partners with us around what is our healthy relationships curriculum, where they talk 00:39:30.507 --> 00:39:36.704 - to students about and promote safe and healthy relationships, particularly adolescents. And then Girls 00:39:36.704 --> 00:39:42.841 - Incorporated as well. They provide a healthy mind and body education program for many of our students 00:39:42.841 --> 00:39:47.774 - in our schools. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Gilpin. Thank you. 00:39:48.130 --> 00:39:55.854 - Thank you, Ms. Harmon. As you know, as we look at student safety, it closely relates to their physical, 00:39:55.854 --> 00:40:03.430 - emotional, and behavioral health and wellness. So we put an emphasis on students not only being safe, 00:40:03.430 --> 00:40:11.005 - but feeling safe. This year, I had the privilege to be able to take on the role of director of school 00:40:11.005 --> 00:40:16.798 - safety. And in that first step of that role, I dug deep into our own behavior 00:40:17.058 --> 00:40:24.639 - our own safety plan, as well as getting into the national and state guidelines and best practices that 00:40:24.639 --> 00:40:32.072 - are out there. And I found overarching that we were right there. In fact, we were ahead of the curve 00:40:32.072 --> 00:40:39.873 - in most of those places. So I'm pretty excited about the things that we're doing already for our students 00:40:39.873 --> 00:40:43.774 - and our community. One of the first things that I've 00:40:44.066 --> 00:40:50.791 - came across that we are doing is this path partner alliance for safer schools and you see this little 00:40:50.791 --> 00:40:57.384 - square there looking from the outside in where we look at the district wide plan and the facilities 00:40:57.384 --> 00:41:04.175 - and things that we're doing all the way into the classroom and this is a examination of best practices 00:41:04.175 --> 00:41:10.901 - for schools and school safety. We actually use this to help inform our safety plans and our SROs will 00:41:10.901 --> 00:41:13.406 - go through this audit using this plan 00:41:13.570 --> 00:41:19.254 - to audit our schools. They do this every summer. And then at the end of that time, they meet with our 00:41:19.254 --> 00:41:24.826 - building principals to be able to go over this and have a discussion about the things that they are 00:41:24.826 --> 00:41:30.509 - doing well and maybe some things they might need to address. But most of the time, what we're finding 00:41:30.509 --> 00:41:36.193 - is we're right there in having the things that need to be in place. So as we look at the national and 00:41:36.193 --> 00:41:41.820 - state guidelines and policies and things that we're doing, I want to really focus on three different 00:41:41.820 --> 00:41:43.102 - areas that we at MCCSE 00:41:43.202 --> 00:41:50.265 - are really excelling it. And one of the first areas that we want to talk about is our continuous school 00:41:50.265 --> 00:41:57.193 - monitoring. Every school has a school-based safety team that regularly monitors the school safety and 00:41:57.193 --> 00:42:04.188 - our safety plan. They have at least one person on the team who is a certified state school specialist. 00:42:04.188 --> 00:42:11.455 - We have an anonymous reporting site that is 24-7 that are on all of our students' iPads, on their devices, 00:42:11.455 --> 00:42:12.542 - and can be also 00:42:12.834 --> 00:42:19.669 - access through the internet and it's monitored 24-7. We have some local partnerships and specifically 00:42:19.669 --> 00:42:26.572 - I want to speak about our Monroe County Safety Commission. This is a commission that brings in all the 00:42:26.572 --> 00:42:33.407 - schools in Monroe County. We sit down with police, fire, and many other agencies to talk about safety 00:42:33.407 --> 00:42:36.222 - for all of our students in Monroe County. 00:42:37.826 --> 00:42:44.264 - As we go on, a couple other areas that we excel in is preparing and training our staff and those people 00:42:44.264 --> 00:42:50.702 - who are working with our students. We have school resource officers, which I think are awesome, getting 00:42:50.702 --> 00:42:56.954 - to know them really well this year, the things that they do, as well as our security guard. And as I 00:42:56.954 --> 00:43:03.144 - mentioned, every school having a trained safety specialist. We also have plans that we look through 00:43:03.144 --> 00:43:07.230 - on a regular basis and they make sure our staff know these plans. 00:43:07.490 --> 00:43:13.194 - They go through the drills, the regular drills, the fire drill, the tornado drill, those kind of things. 00:43:13.194 --> 00:43:18.627 - I don't know about you, we had the nuclear bomb drill when I was in the 80s. No, you hit underneath 00:43:18.627 --> 00:43:24.169 - that desk. It somehow must have been special. I don't know what it was about that desk. It's going to 00:43:24.169 --> 00:43:29.656 - save us. But anyways, we have those safety drills that we continually do. And also, I mentioned this 00:43:29.656 --> 00:43:35.306 - already, but every building has a certified safety trainer. They are trained through the Indiana School 00:43:35.306 --> 00:43:36.990 - of Safety Specialists Academy. 00:43:37.090 --> 00:43:44.078 - In there, that academy focuses on national and state recognized best practices. And we receive all kinds 00:43:44.078 --> 00:43:50.801 - of resources and ideas of what we need to do to bring back to MCCSC. Finally, as we go through this, 00:43:50.801 --> 00:43:57.656 - one of the things that I notice over and over again when they talk about best practices and prevention 00:43:57.656 --> 00:44:04.312 - and mitigation is the restriction to building access. And we've been doing this for quite some time 00:44:04.312 --> 00:44:05.310 - here in MCCSC. 00:44:05.602 --> 00:44:12.826 - All of our exterior doors are locked. You can only get into a building through one entryway, which is 00:44:12.826 --> 00:44:19.908 - monitored by either security guard or administrative assistant. The classroom doors are all locked. 00:44:19.908 --> 00:44:27.132 - And every employee has an ID badge. In the past, an ID badge was often given to us through the people 00:44:27.132 --> 00:44:28.478 - who took pictures. 00:44:28.738 --> 00:44:34.344 - But now it has a little more weight to it because that's how you get into your building. So now all 00:44:34.344 --> 00:44:40.230 - of our staff are carrying around their badge. So you can recognize that they are staff in this building. 00:44:40.230 --> 00:44:45.836 - If you're not a staff, then they have visited our office and they scan their state ID and give us a 00:44:45.836 --> 00:44:51.554 - quick criminal background check. And then we print off a little picture with their name on it. And so 00:44:51.554 --> 00:44:55.422 - every student staff member ought to see that on one of our visitors. 00:44:55.906 --> 00:45:01.265 - A student or a staff member does not see somebody with a badge or a visor. They make sure that we are 00:45:01.265 --> 00:45:06.518 - aware of that and we address that person in the building. In addition, in the last couple of years, 00:45:06.518 --> 00:45:11.929 - we've added a smart pass. This is a way to be able to, you may recall when you were in school that you 00:45:11.929 --> 00:45:17.340 - had, a teacher might write a pass for you to go someplace or they had this, you know, the chalk eraser 00:45:17.340 --> 00:45:22.646 - that you had to take with you to go to the bathroom or your locker or something like that. Well, now 00:45:22.646 --> 00:45:24.958 - it's digital. You sign out on a digital app 00:45:25.090 --> 00:45:31.969 - And then one of the benefits of this is if there were to be an emergency or we needed to get a hold 00:45:31.969 --> 00:45:38.986 - of a student, we would know exactly where they're at in the building. So we have a lot of things that 00:45:38.986 --> 00:45:46.002 - are put in place at MCCSC that are above what even the National State have often recognized as things 00:45:46.002 --> 00:45:53.157 - to do. We're very concerned about our students' well-being, their health, their physical and behavioral 00:45:53.157 --> 00:45:53.982 - well-being. 00:45:54.658 --> 00:46:03.113 - We put a lot of things in place, and we know that school safety is a thing that really emphasizes that 00:46:03.113 --> 00:46:11.650 - aspect of it. So the combination of those things are essential to what we do here at MCCSE. Do you have 00:46:11.650 --> 00:46:19.941 - any questions for us? I do. While you're up there, Mr. Gochris, I'll start with you. Does our safety 00:46:19.941 --> 00:46:22.814 - plan include a plan for addressing 00:46:22.978 --> 00:46:30.180 - a disease outbreak, especially if it were a novel disease or a disease we haven't seen in a while like 00:46:30.180 --> 00:46:37.173 - measles? Yes. I don't think it's down to that specific of, you know, hey, but we have, it's amazing 00:46:37.173 --> 00:46:44.375 - what's all the way down into our plans from, you know, what happens if there's a flood to an outbreak, 00:46:44.375 --> 00:46:48.990 - terrorist attack. I mean, we have it all in that plan. Thank you. 00:46:50.914 --> 00:46:58.309 - Is the SmartPass only utilized at the secondary level or? That's correct. OK. Any other questions? I 00:46:58.309 --> 00:47:06.143 - have some more, but I'm happy to add. Go ahead. Ask away. I also want to say, Ms. Harmon, I really enjoyed 00:47:06.143 --> 00:47:13.757 - that presentation. Big fan of the whole CHOI Outhold School community model. And I'm happy to hear that 00:47:13.757 --> 00:47:19.614 - we've added more nurses. I'm also a big fan of the IU-coordinated school health 00:47:19.714 --> 00:47:25.977 - program, and Healthapalooza. Healthapalooza is amazing. If you haven't been to it, you should definitely 00:47:25.977 --> 00:47:32.061 - check it out. I think it's an amazing resource, and I really appreciate the amount of time people put 00:47:32.061 --> 00:47:38.145 - into putting that together. And these questions might be too granular, so forgive me. Erin might know 00:47:38.145 --> 00:47:44.528 - the answer to this, too. I know that it was recently announced that IU Health is going to stop contracting 00:47:44.528 --> 00:47:49.598 - with the Monroe County Health Department for some services they previously provided. 00:47:49.762 --> 00:47:55.609 - Do you know if that's gonna hinder our ability to offer things like vaccine clinics? I think we don't 00:47:55.609 --> 00:48:01.513 - have specifics on that, but I think that we still have a strong partnership with IU Health through our 00:48:01.513 --> 00:48:07.245 - coordinated school health, and so we're in discussion with her to ensure that a lot of those things 00:48:07.245 --> 00:48:10.398 - would try to not be disrupted. I'm happy to hear that. 00:48:10.818 --> 00:48:17.335 - And I know that there were some changes in the legislature around sexual and reproductive health curriculum. 00:48:17.335 --> 00:48:23.433 - Did we have to make any changes to our curriculum as a result of that legislation? No, the only thing 00:48:23.433 --> 00:48:29.411 - that we had to change was how we have always informed parents and provided them with if they wanted 00:48:29.411 --> 00:48:33.118 - to review the curriculum provided with them a way to do that. 00:48:33.250 --> 00:48:40.595 - The legislation requires that we publish that on the website. And so now that's there, it's just a different 00:48:40.595 --> 00:48:47.401 - way for them to access it. That was really the only change we had to make. Actually, one correction, 00:48:47.401 --> 00:48:54.544 - there are two specific videos that we added as well that was in there as well around reproductive health. 00:48:54.544 --> 00:48:58.654 - Thank you. That's it for me. That's it. Any other questions? 00:49:01.666 --> 00:49:08.233 - All right, thank you very much for your time. Our next presentation is on school attendance. 00:49:08.233 --> 00:49:15.435 - Back to Ms. Harmon. Thank you again. I'm excited to come and speak to you about attendance. So really 00:49:15.435 --> 00:49:22.002 - just want to highlight why attendance matters, right? Every single day counts for a student. 00:49:22.002 --> 00:49:29.063 - We want them to, we want to build learning, confidence, and connection. We can do that when they're 00:49:29.063 --> 00:49:30.334 - in our buildings. 00:49:30.754 --> 00:49:36.356 - We know that students who attend regularly are more likely to read proficiency by third grade, stay 00:49:36.356 --> 00:49:42.183 - on track in middle school, and graduate on time. And we want that success. And sometimes we think like, 00:49:42.183 --> 00:49:48.177 - oh, I think there might be some misconceptions about it's just one day or something like that. But missing 00:49:48.177 --> 00:49:53.836 - just two days a month is 10% of the school year. And that 10% is 18 or more days. Our school year is 00:49:53.836 --> 00:49:59.326 - 180 days. So that hits that definition of chronic absence. And we see it as a significant impact. 00:49:59.490 --> 00:50:04.947 - Really then the question is, what do we do? What do we have in place to support positive attendance? 00:50:04.947 --> 00:50:10.890 - To start, our attendance policy defines a student's attendance when they're physically there or participating 00:50:10.890 --> 00:50:16.455 - in a school educational program. As a school, we commit to making sure we have good attendance records 00:50:16.455 --> 00:50:21.965 - so that both us and families can make sure that they stay on top of that, that students have a chance 00:50:21.965 --> 00:50:23.262 - to make up missed work. 00:50:23.618 --> 00:50:31.088 - If they are absent, investigate why they're absent, offer to help, and share those policies with families 00:50:31.088 --> 00:50:38.275 - as well. Of course, there are times when students need to be absent for very good reason. Here on the 00:50:38.275 --> 00:50:45.463 - right, it's listing out what our policy says are excused reasons. Illness, recovering from accidents, 00:50:45.463 --> 00:50:52.862 - college visits, those kinds of things are all excused. In addition, I mentioned our partnership with the 00:50:53.474 --> 00:50:58.747 - Youth Services Bureau around truancy prevention, again, that helps us to focus on looking at these root 00:50:58.747 --> 00:51:03.817 - causes of poor attendance. We know that understanding why students are absent is that first step in 00:51:03.817 --> 00:51:09.090 - ensuring they can come to school and in providing supports to help that. So if there are health-related 00:51:09.090 --> 00:51:14.312 - challenges, ensuring that they have good access to health care, if there's transportation is an issue, 00:51:14.312 --> 00:51:18.622 - we can connect with them with our department and make sure that those are happening. 00:51:19.010 --> 00:51:25.458 - school avoidance that focuses on earlier in the other presentation talking about a positive school culture 00:51:25.458 --> 00:51:31.605 - that's encouraging kids to come to school, giving them skills to deal with social challenges, helping 00:51:31.605 --> 00:51:38.174 - them manage their emotions and their anxiety, those kinds of things so they can be there and they can learn. 00:51:38.338 --> 00:51:43.557 - things in place to support that good attendance as well. I've already started to mention them, that 00:51:43.557 --> 00:51:48.827 - positive school culture, focusing on relationships and relationship building, understanding what the 00:51:48.827 --> 00:51:54.098 - causes are, reaching out early when we see those patterns emerge and becoming partners with families 00:51:54.098 --> 00:51:59.786 - and students. Our schools have staff focused on attendance and trying to solve those barriers with families. 00:51:59.786 --> 00:52:04.222 - I mentioned our truancy termination partnership program again, and again, we're just 00:52:04.738 --> 00:52:09.754 - really looking at what are those wraparound supports that we might need to help students feel ready 00:52:09.754 --> 00:52:14.921 - to come to school and prepared to learn. Thinking about what families can do to ensure, really we want 00:52:14.921 --> 00:52:19.937 - to emphasize that families need to communicate the reason for every absence. So again, we can stand 00:52:19.937 --> 00:52:25.204 - top of it, we can put things in place if they are needed to, you know, helping their child get to school 00:52:25.204 --> 00:52:30.220 - on time, scheduling appointments outside of school time when possible, and letting us know if there 00:52:30.220 --> 00:52:33.982 - are barriers, because quite often we have resources that can help support. 00:52:37.346 --> 00:52:44.107 - There was recent changes to Indiana Tenants Law. There's SEA 282, which was put in place last school 00:52:44.107 --> 00:52:51.002 - year, and then 482 this school year. Really the difference between 282 and 482 is the grade bands. 282 00:52:51.002 --> 00:52:58.098 - focused in elementary, and 482 extends that into the secondary schools. And it puts this policy in place. 00:52:58.098 --> 00:53:04.859 - It is designed to support students and families early and get help and support in place. And so what 00:53:04.859 --> 00:53:05.662 - it does is, 00:53:06.114 --> 00:53:12.474 - If a student has five unexcused absences in a 10-week period, and I want to just emphasize the unexcused 00:53:12.474 --> 00:53:18.531 - here. So earlier when I talked about excused absences, they're ill, they have a college visit, they 00:53:18.531 --> 00:53:24.831 - have a doctor's appointment, those things don't count. These are when they are unexcused absences. Once 00:53:24.831 --> 00:53:31.131 - they hit five, the school notifies the parents of writing, implements truancy prevention, whatever that 00:53:31.131 --> 00:53:34.462 - might look like, and has to hold an attendance meeting 00:53:34.562 --> 00:53:41.483 - within 10 school days of that absence. The parents or guardians must be in attendance at that meeting. 00:53:41.483 --> 00:53:48.537 - And then at that meeting, a plan is created with families to improve attendance. Here's what we're gonna 00:53:48.537 --> 00:53:55.256 - put in place, transportation was it, whatever it might be, right? And then after that, if a student 00:53:55.256 --> 00:54:00.094 - has 10 unexcused absence, that hits the definition of habitual truancy. 00:54:00.674 --> 00:54:07.266 - the school must provide written notice to the family and requires us to notify the prosecutor's office. 00:54:07.266 --> 00:54:13.731 - So that is a new part that's in law as well. When we're thinking about what does that attendance plan 00:54:13.731 --> 00:54:20.576 - look like, so after that five unexcused absences the plan's created, it would identify any help or services 00:54:20.576 --> 00:54:27.104 - the student needs, what behaviors are expected, put clear expectations for both the student and family 00:54:27.104 --> 00:54:30.590 - if that applies. What happens if things don't improve? 00:54:30.722 --> 00:54:37.876 - So if there would be disciplinary steps, we would obviously clarify what the law required us to do as 00:54:37.876 --> 00:54:44.960 - well. Whether the parent will be involved in the extra support. These plans may last up to 45 school 00:54:44.960 --> 00:54:51.973 - days. They don't necessarily do that, but they cannot last beyond 45 school days. They would need a 00:54:51.973 --> 00:54:59.337 - new plan. They would be saying it was not effective. Really just in summation, right, we know that every 00:54:59.337 --> 00:55:00.670 - single day counts. 00:55:00.770 --> 00:55:06.345 - families, individuals to ask questions, share, partner with us, let us know what's going on so we can 00:55:06.345 --> 00:55:11.866 - support it. We know that those small changes make a big difference to put it in support services and 00:55:11.866 --> 00:55:17.332 - that's just gonna help our students be successful engaging in school. I have to give a shout out to 00:55:17.332 --> 00:55:22.799 - attendanceworks.org. We take a lot of resources from them. They are tremendous and you'll see their 00:55:22.799 --> 00:55:28.702 - things reflected in the things that we do around attendance in schools. Thank you very much. Any questions? 00:55:28.802 --> 00:55:36.729 - The change to having to report after 10 days, that was made, was that made in the last legislative session? 00:55:36.729 --> 00:55:44.215 - That was in 482, it was this year. That was not in place last year. Interesting. But the notification 00:55:44.215 --> 00:55:51.555 - and the meeting and the attendance plan was all in previous legislation. Right, totally. But so you 00:55:51.555 --> 00:55:56.766 - have to report to the prosecutor's office? And as a follow up to that, 00:55:57.730 --> 00:56:07.489 - Unexcused versus excused absence, is that a state defined or is it, so instance, a kid's sick, parent 00:56:07.489 --> 00:56:17.057 - calls the child in sick, but doesn't go to the doctor. Is that still considered an excused absence? 00:56:17.057 --> 00:56:27.486 - Yes. OK. After, yeah. There is, after a certain point in time, it would be recorded to our attendance policy 00:56:27.714 --> 00:56:35.592 - you would be required to provide a doctor's note, but it would be after a certain number. A number of 00:56:35.592 --> 00:56:43.548 - days out? Yeah. But not a cumulative, so if they're sick in June? Right, not a cumulative. OK. I think 00:56:43.548 --> 00:56:51.658 - there's a lot of public confusion on this piece, particularly. I've seen a lot of things on social media 00:56:51.658 --> 00:56:55.134 - with regards to the new law that was put in. 00:56:55.426 --> 00:57:02.869 - I think a lot of people now feel like they have to have a doctor's note no matter what or it's considered 00:57:02.869 --> 00:57:09.961 - unexcused. So I'm glad we're having this conversation because I have seen it repeatedly where people 00:57:09.961 --> 00:57:17.124 - have been upset by that, don't even know it's a thing, didn't even know it was a thing the year prior 00:57:17.124 --> 00:57:24.286 - with the changes. So I was going to ask that question myself. And I think some of the verbiage in our 00:57:24.994 --> 00:57:31.857 - that we send to families is somewhat vague on that and can kind of insinuate it the other way. I will 00:57:31.857 --> 00:57:38.720 - check the, we did modify the letter this year with new legislation. So I'll double check to make sure 00:57:38.720 --> 00:57:45.583 - that if some of it is vague, that if it is, or referring to last year's letter or this year's letter, 00:57:45.583 --> 00:57:52.446 - but we'll make sure we look at that. And one of the reasons for an excused absence was section seven, 00:57:52.898 --> 00:58:00.364 - article something what what is that just related to special education services 505 or four yeah okay 00:58:00.364 --> 00:58:07.904 - um i knew that it had to be reported i guess i didn't realize it was to the prosecutor's office prior 00:58:07.904 --> 00:58:15.296 - to last year and you may not know but maybe you do what was the reporting structure and who like at 00:58:15.296 --> 00:58:20.766 - what point would it get reported and to whom same um if i understand your 00:58:21.122 --> 00:58:27.912 - Question I mean prior to last year even in years before Chronic absences and the schools got to reach 00:58:27.912 --> 00:58:34.570 - out and notify parents right and do a lot of the attendance plan kind of thing is formalized and so 00:58:34.570 --> 00:58:41.293 - So that would be happening schools are monitoring that it would get Reported it could it would still 00:58:41.293 --> 00:58:48.350 - have been if there were issues with truancy Really at that level. I think you're still working with local 00:58:49.954 --> 00:58:57.945 - services to notify them. I was pretty sure that when it was first introduced two years ago, the prosecutor 00:58:57.945 --> 00:59:05.563 - was involved at that moment. If you had so many absences, it would go there and then the prosecutor's 00:59:05.563 --> 00:59:13.704 - office would have the choice to do something about it or not. Right. But I think there was more flexibility. 00:59:13.704 --> 00:59:17.438 - You weren't required. You weren't required. Yeah. 00:59:19.298 --> 00:59:25.373 - So it does seem like a conscious choice to pursue it as a crime instead of going through children's 00:59:25.373 --> 00:59:31.630 - services. Yeah, that to me is like the sort of biggest or most egregious thing. And I do. It does seem 00:59:31.630 --> 00:59:37.766 - interesting to me that it coincides with a lot of the other legislation happening, especially around 00:59:37.766 --> 00:59:44.327 - marginalized populations. And anyway, I was just curious. So just a point of curiosity. Any other questions 00:59:44.327 --> 00:59:48.094 - about school attendance? I have one more. I was just curious. 00:59:48.450 --> 00:59:59.956 - Any conversation has occurred. I know we're still early in the school year with this piece, but foreseeing 00:59:59.956 --> 01:00:11.140 - this being any issue for our schools in terms of monitoring it in this new way, more burden. So I think 01:00:11.140 --> 01:00:17.054 - really a lot of that plan that was done last year when 01:00:17.154 --> 01:00:23.573 - 282 required a certain kind of level of notification around unexcused absences. And it's where we really 01:00:23.573 --> 01:00:29.686 - were able to leverage parent square, which allows us, it actually, we again, for a long, we've sent 01:00:29.686 --> 01:00:35.800 - attendance letters for a long time, right? We've notified, we've done this. And in the past, it had 01:00:35.800 --> 01:00:41.913 - been pretty cumbersome, right? It was about writing a report, it was about printing letters, it was 01:00:41.913 --> 01:00:45.214 - stumping envelopes, it was doing all of these things. 01:00:45.634 --> 01:00:51.377 - Parent Square has really allowed us to automate a lot of that and actually make it more effective and 01:00:51.377 --> 01:00:57.289 - efficient. We set up a template, we've trained individuals to do it. It's still a task to do, of course, 01:00:57.289 --> 01:01:03.031 - but I think it's better communication, it's more immediate, and there have been some good outcomes in 01:01:03.031 --> 01:01:08.943 - terms of last year around conversations, around intervening and getting those attendance plans in place, 01:01:08.943 --> 01:01:14.686 - for sure. I do wanna also mention that some of the information from the attendance came directly from 01:01:15.138 --> 01:01:20.751 - presentations that our schools created for family, for back to school nights that they wanted to go 01:01:20.751 --> 01:01:26.421 - over. So I looked at, I reviewed those as well to kind of think about what would be most relevant to 01:01:26.421 --> 01:01:32.090 - present here tonight as well. Cool. I mean, the benefit of parent square too is that parents can get 01:01:32.090 --> 01:01:37.704 - it in language as well. So if, you know, previously they would have gotten a letter emailed to them 01:01:37.704 --> 01:01:40.286 - or mailed to them and it was just in English, 01:01:40.386 --> 01:01:46.679 - they now have the option to translate that. So I guess that's an added benefit, I suppose, of ParentSquare. 01:01:46.679 --> 01:01:52.505 - So yeah, thank you very much. Anyone else? OK, then on to our last presentation, which is an update 01:01:52.505 --> 01:01:58.565 - on technology. Ms. Harmon, you're up again. This one actually starts with Mr. Cope first, but then I'll 01:01:58.565 --> 01:01:59.614 - be on the second. 01:02:20.002 --> 01:02:28.703 - Hello. There we are. Good evening. Thank you, Board President Hennessy. And thank you, Dr. Winston and 01:02:28.703 --> 01:02:37.825 - members of the board for allowing me to speak with you tonight. My name is Andy Cope, and I am the Director 01:02:37.825 --> 01:02:46.526 - of Technology for MCCSC. I know many of you, but to those that I don't, hello. I am also here tonight. 01:02:47.042 --> 01:02:55.294 - as a parent of MCCSE students. I know I look incredibly young, but I'm actually the parent of an MCCSE 01:02:55.294 --> 01:03:02.906 - grad as well as a seventh grader. So I'm here speaking as a parent as well. I'll be addressing 01:03:02.906 --> 01:03:11.479 - the information services department. As the director of information technology, I oversee that department. 01:03:11.479 --> 01:03:16.286 - And so I'll be speaking to security data tools and support. 01:03:16.738 --> 01:03:23.257 - And then I'll be handing off the presentation to Alexis Harmon, who will talk about the enhancement 01:03:23.257 --> 01:03:29.841 - of teaching and learning via technology. So as a parent, I know that security is at the forefront of 01:03:29.841 --> 01:03:36.359 - our minds. When we say goodbye to our students every single day and they head out the door, we want 01:03:36.359 --> 01:03:42.878 - to make sure that our babies are safe. So I'd like to start out by talking about security and data. 01:03:43.554 --> 01:03:51.240 - On your students' devices, we do have endpoint protection. On staff devices as well, endpoint protection 01:03:51.240 --> 01:03:58.853 - protects devices from viruses and malware. So you can be certain that when their device comes back home 01:03:58.853 --> 01:04:06.466 - that it is safe and free from malware and viruses. We also have a security operations center, otherwise 01:04:06.466 --> 01:04:12.542 - known as a SOC, which enables us to have the remote monitoring of security events. 01:04:12.994 --> 01:04:20.791 - When you think about all the different accounts that your student has, we would get notifications if 01:04:20.791 --> 01:04:28.666 - there is any funny business out there on the internet. We will be notified by our security operations 01:04:28.666 --> 01:04:36.540 - center. We also engage in email filtering to safeguard against phishing and impersonation attacks. We 01:04:36.540 --> 01:04:41.790 - have a vendor specifically for that. This is a layer in between our 01:04:42.082 --> 01:04:48.948 - our internet and those who would do us harm via phishing and scams of that nature. We have a secure 01:04:48.948 --> 01:04:55.951 - wired and wireless network in our schools, which allows you to travel throughout our buildings and be 01:04:55.951 --> 01:05:03.091 - connected to the internet anywhere you go. We have a industry standard firewall to protect our network. 01:05:03.091 --> 01:05:10.163 - We also have battery backups to minimize the impact of a single outage, whether that be a power outage 01:05:10.163 --> 01:05:11.742 - or an internet outage. 01:05:12.066 --> 01:05:23.110 - Our network is throughout the entire corporation. We make all efforts to make sure that a single outage 01:05:23.110 --> 01:05:33.836 - doesn't impact the entire corporation. We also do a great deal to safeguard student digital activity 01:05:33.836 --> 01:05:41.694 - via content filtering. We do follow federal and state laws such as FERPA, 01:05:41.794 --> 01:05:48.349 - APA, SEPA, and PPRA. When we filter content, we have a centralized appliance that does filter traffic 01:05:48.349 --> 01:05:54.905 - based on categories. So if your students go to a specific website that isn't categorized at all, they 01:05:54.905 --> 01:06:01.203 - would just get a block page. And that's because legally, we have to filter this content. We also, 01:06:01.203 --> 01:06:07.694 - I mean, we're interested in making sure that they make the right choices and that they're only going 01:06:07.694 --> 01:06:11.486 - to educational sites. So you can see here in the list here 01:06:11.586 --> 01:06:17.071 - they would be able to go to a news site, for example, or a politics site, or an investment site, but 01:06:17.071 --> 01:06:22.556 - not a dating site or a gambling site, right? So we filter by category in this way. It also allows us 01:06:22.556 --> 01:06:27.986 - to customize, you know, if a teacher comes to us and says, hey, I wanna use this website, you know, 01:06:27.986 --> 01:06:33.634 - in my class and it's blocked, we're able to, you know, through a help desk ticket, go in and make those 01:06:33.634 --> 01:06:39.390 - changes. We also filter by grade. So our younger students have more restrictions than our older students. 01:06:39.586 --> 01:06:53.130 - Our high schoolers get to explore a little bit more, do more research, and so it's scalable, basically, 01:06:53.130 --> 01:07:05.502 - by student age and grade. Moving on to the next slide. Change. Somebody got to see about that. 01:07:08.514 --> 01:07:15.943 - Up next, I'm talking about managing and protecting our student data. And that all starts in our student 01:07:15.943 --> 01:07:23.087 - information system, Skyward. That's where we ensure accurate student and family information. That's 01:07:23.087 --> 01:07:30.444 - the basis for timely family communication. Families can go in at any time and do Skyward family access 01:07:30.444 --> 01:07:38.302 - and actually update email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers. That's also where our state reporting 01:07:38.498 --> 01:07:47.277 - information is housed, our academic records, and we have real-time role-based secure access for students 01:07:47.277 --> 01:07:55.722 - and teachers within Skyward, and then also out in our learning applications that are fed by Skyward. 01:07:55.722 --> 01:08:05.086 - We only share essential data to our application vendors. We make sure that we're not sharing any information to 01:08:05.186 --> 01:08:12.443 - vendors that would do marketing to our students or families or anything like that. Let's talk about 01:08:12.443 --> 01:08:19.917 - our technology tools. We have a wide array of technology tools in the corporation to ensure access and 01:08:19.917 --> 01:08:27.392 - connectivity for teachers and students. We are a one-to-one district, which means typically one device 01:08:27.392 --> 01:08:33.342 - per student for K-12. Our K-6 students use iPads and utilize touch screen typing. 01:08:34.210 --> 01:08:39.987 - and our middle school students use iPads with a keyboard case, so they can take that iPad home and type 01:08:39.987 --> 01:08:45.876 - on a keyboard, allowing them to do longer form essays and things of that nature. Our high school students 01:08:45.876 --> 01:08:51.486 - have Windows laptops, and that's so that they can experience a different platform. During their time 01:08:51.486 --> 01:08:57.319 - with us, they get to use Windows rather than Mac the entire time. We also have a robust wireless network 01:08:57.319 --> 01:09:02.430 - in every building, as I mentioned before. So no matter where you are, you can be connected. 01:09:03.074 --> 01:09:10.337 - We have screen sharing technology for flexible integrative teaching practices and assistive technology 01:09:10.337 --> 01:09:17.459 - for individualized student supports for our students with IEPs and 504s. Our technology tools across 01:09:17.459 --> 01:09:24.722 - the corporation, applications that we have for students, families, teachers, and staff. You might have 01:09:24.722 --> 01:09:32.478 - wondered when your student brings home a device, what are all these apps on here? How do these apps get here? 01:09:32.674 --> 01:09:38.958 - Don't worry, we do have a rigorous process for identifying and reviewing learning applications in partnership 01:09:38.958 --> 01:09:44.670 - with the curriculum and instruction department. So we review every application to make sure that it 01:09:44.670 --> 01:09:50.726 - abides by our privacy policies and that we're being fiscally responsible when we're purchasing additional 01:09:50.726 --> 01:09:56.552 - applications. And we also just want to make sure that the applications are pedagogically sound. So if 01:09:56.552 --> 01:10:00.894 - you see an application on your student's device, it's because it was either 01:10:01.058 --> 01:10:07.291 - register and curriculum adoption, or it was approved by the IS department and the curriculum department 01:10:07.291 --> 01:10:13.104 - on demand. We also provide grade-level content from a variety of textbook platforms and learning 01:10:13.104 --> 01:10:19.457 - applications. As you can see in the right, sort of my cloud of applications there. We also have essential 01:10:19.457 --> 01:10:26.049 - communication tools such as ParentSquare, which was previously mentioned, and our enrollment and registration 01:10:26.049 --> 01:10:28.446 - and report cards all happen in Skyward. 01:10:30.594 --> 01:10:37.270 - We try to be very coordinated in our support. We have support out in our buildings, but we also have 01:10:37.270 --> 01:10:44.078 - centralized support. We do that in our help desk ticketing system. We use Zendesk in this corporation. 01:10:44.078 --> 01:10:50.688 - This allows us to centralize support requests and support requests to appropriate IS staff. So that 01:10:50.688 --> 01:10:57.430 - means if you're sitting at home and you have a technology issue, you do have the option of putting in 01:10:57.430 --> 01:10:58.686 - a help desk ticket 01:10:59.170 --> 01:11:05.712 - And the nice thing is you don't have to know who to contact. You can just put in a ticket and then we 01:11:05.712 --> 01:11:12.189 - will route your request to an available expert. Building techs and computer coordinators are on hand 01:11:12.189 --> 01:11:18.731 - in school buildings for onsite support, but support can be quickly escalated to the corporation level 01:11:18.731 --> 01:11:25.337 - as needed. Oh, and sorry, go back one slide there. At any time you can click on the question mark icon 01:11:25.337 --> 01:11:27.966 - on our website, that little help button. 01:11:28.130 --> 01:11:35.589 - And that does open up a window to put in a ticket. Just closing out here, these are our ticket supports 01:11:35.589 --> 01:11:42.832 - by the numbers. As of September 12th, we have solved 27,082 help desk tickets over the past year. An 01:11:42.832 --> 01:11:50.434 - equally important number is 51,321. That's the number of support articles that have been viewed. Overall, 01:11:50.434 --> 01:11:57.534 - our goal is to provide so much helpful information, you don't have to ever put in a ticket at all. 01:11:57.730 --> 01:12:04.499 - We just continue to try to find ways to be transparent and provide the best information that we can 01:12:04.499 --> 01:12:11.267 - for students, staff, faculty, and families. And with that, I will turn the presentation over to our 01:12:11.267 --> 01:12:18.442 - assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and assessment, Alexis Harmon, to talk about enhancing 01:12:18.442 --> 01:12:23.518 - teaching and learning. Thank you so much. New technology. I appreciate it. 01:12:23.874 --> 01:12:30.671 - It's really nice to be able to come after that so you can see the comprehensive technology department 01:12:30.671 --> 01:12:37.601 - that we have that really does allow us to enhance teaching and learning and use it in that way. So just 01:12:37.601 --> 01:12:44.797 - to start off with, I wanted to highlight this prime case of students as innovators, what we hope technology 01:12:44.797 --> 01:12:51.660 - will do for all of our students. You might remember last year we celebrated these students who created 01:12:51.660 --> 01:12:53.726 - a product called Storm Shield. 01:12:53.826 --> 01:13:00.197 - They is assistive technology for increasing how students can engage in sports, particularly students 01:13:00.197 --> 01:13:06.821 - who are experiencing deafness. And they know much more about it than I do. But this is the kind of thing 01:13:06.821 --> 01:13:13.192 - we'd like to see, technology enabling students to problem solve real world, create solutions. And so 01:13:13.192 --> 01:13:19.500 - we just wanted to highlight that this. But here's what we need to put in place in order for that to 01:13:19.500 --> 01:13:20.446 - happen, right? 01:13:20.930 --> 01:13:27.055 - We need a learning environment that transforms student learning through technology, and it enhances 01:13:27.055 --> 01:13:33.181 - how teachers teach and how students learn. We think about that in three ways, building future-ready 01:13:33.181 --> 01:13:39.490 - skills, enhancing access, and increasing engagement. So when we look at it in that way, we think about 01:13:39.490 --> 01:13:45.983 - those future-ready schools, we see technology as a tool for helping us develop critical thinking, digital 01:13:45.983 --> 01:13:48.862 - literacy, and problem solving, right? Students 01:13:49.410 --> 01:13:55.205 - have so much access to information with internet, with technology. So it's our job to make sure that 01:13:55.205 --> 01:14:00.943 - they can analyze that information, make sure that it's verifiable, that it's correct, that they can 01:14:00.943 --> 01:14:06.796 - use it in a way that's useful for them, that they have the tools. You saw the listing of apps, right? 01:14:06.796 --> 01:14:12.592 - There are all of these tools out there as well. Do we know how to use them responsibly? How to still 01:14:12.592 --> 01:14:15.518 - show our own learning and knowledge by doing that? 01:14:15.618 --> 01:14:21.549 - We want them to be able to use technology to design, prototype, and test. And we see that as done with 01:14:21.549 --> 01:14:27.364 - such excellence with Storm Shield, who, again, were at the edge end of their career. That's years of 01:14:27.364 --> 01:14:33.295 - education coming up. So also, we think the use of technology is going to prepare students to be in the 01:14:33.295 --> 01:14:39.110 - workforce and in college, right? It's developing them to be collaborative and agile. And that's what 01:14:39.110 --> 01:14:44.350 - employers are saying that's need. That's what's going to be expected with them at college. 01:14:44.802 --> 01:14:50.876 - We regularly also survey graduates to say, how did we prepare you for life after high school? And that 01:14:50.876 --> 01:14:56.772 - technology piece was a big part of that, knowing the tools that are available, being able to use it 01:14:56.772 --> 01:15:03.023 - to demonstrate their knowledge and their skills, and having access to laptops, to both having experienced 01:15:03.023 --> 01:15:08.978 - an Apple environment and a Microsoft environment, and knowing how to navigate those two and use them 01:15:08.978 --> 01:15:14.462 - productively in the classroom. So that's been really important to their development as well. 01:15:15.106 --> 01:15:20.821 - Also, technology is key for collaboration and communication, as we all know as we use them. So we want 01:15:20.821 --> 01:15:26.480 - students to be able to communicate across modalities. Literacy is no longer just written, right? It's 01:15:26.480 --> 01:15:32.195 - also visual, it's also digital, and it comes through in those ways. And we want them to be able to use 01:15:32.195 --> 01:15:37.799 - those various tech tools. I just like this picture. I just want to show an example of students using 01:15:37.799 --> 01:15:43.902 - coding blocks to sequence steps and debug simple programs. Sometimes when we say technology in the classroom, 01:15:44.226 --> 01:15:49.908 - We imagine kids behind a screen. But this is technology in the classroom, right? These are students 01:15:49.908 --> 01:15:55.760 - together, collaboratively talking about it. That little BeBot, that's what it's called. It's basically 01:15:55.760 --> 01:16:01.499 - a tool that they code. I actually had a similar toy when I was five, and it had these buttons. Maybe 01:16:01.499 --> 01:16:07.351 - some of you had it, too. But that's essentially what this does, too. They teach it to do. They program 01:16:07.351 --> 01:16:12.862 - it to do something. They will be given an instruction to go to a certain location. And it works. 01:16:12.962 --> 01:16:19.650 - or it doesn't, and they debug it and try it again. So it's teaching logic, problem solving as well. 01:16:19.650 --> 01:16:26.471 - Great skills for math. Enhancing access to learn. Again, also, technology reduces barriers, right? We 01:16:26.471 --> 01:16:33.225 - can standardize access to textbooks, to resources, to tools, to the internet. It's protected. It's a 01:16:33.225 --> 01:16:38.174 - safe way to access it, of course, through the work of our IAS department. 01:16:38.402 --> 01:16:45.284 - It gives them multiple ways they can demonstrate what they know and the way that fits them best. They 01:16:45.284 --> 01:16:52.031 - have different tools to use. If they want to record themselves speaking, if they want to do digital 01:16:52.031 --> 01:16:58.981 - design, if they want to code, any of these things. When I was a student and I had a question that came 01:16:58.981 --> 01:17:06.133 - up in class, my parent had to take me to the library, I had to know how to look through the card catalog, 01:17:06.133 --> 01:17:07.550 - all of these things. 01:17:07.810 --> 01:17:13.860 - kids have a question now, it's immediate that they could get an answer. And again, so our goal as teachers 01:17:13.860 --> 01:17:19.740 - is to teach them how to do that and know that when they get the answer, it's the right answer, and then 01:17:19.740 --> 01:17:25.790 - how to use that information. It's not just about having it. So also, technology has given us real strength 01:17:25.790 --> 01:17:31.783 - in differentiation and inclusion. President Hennessy, you mentioned parent square's ability to translate. 01:17:31.783 --> 01:17:36.702 - Those kinds of accessibility tools are throughout as well, speech to text translation. 01:17:37.026 --> 01:17:42.888 - text magnification screen readers. I don't know that we're utilizing in the classroom yet, but I was 01:17:42.888 --> 01:17:48.809 - just reading an article about how now with AirPods, it can automatically translate as somebody speaks 01:17:48.809 --> 01:17:54.846 - to them. Wow, right? So the kinds of connections and accessibility that people can have. And we're able 01:17:54.846 --> 01:18:00.766 - to personalize, right? We have programs where teachers can input information about a student and give 01:18:00.766 --> 01:18:05.758 - them some personalized learning. Right there, they can do some kind of independently. 01:18:05.890 --> 01:18:12.515 - It's not everything, it's enhancement, right? So it's about enhancing what we have. And we do see increased 01:18:12.515 --> 01:18:18.711 - engagement, right? We have interactive tools, active participation. Kids are highly engaged by them. 01:18:18.711 --> 01:18:24.906 - We can simulate real world problems and we do and you can see some students over here to the side in 01:18:24.906 --> 01:18:31.102 - a virtual simulation. And again, yeah, there's a screen, but they're also sitting there working with 01:18:31.102 --> 01:18:33.310 - their hands, talking to each other. 01:18:33.698 --> 01:18:39.519 - It's not zoning out. That's not what technology in the classroom looks like. We want that classroom 01:18:39.519 --> 01:18:45.398 - learning to connect with authentic problem solving. And again, technology frequently lets us kind of 01:18:45.398 --> 01:18:51.393 - simulate an environment in a pretty authentic way. Students see relevance, which increases motivation. 01:18:51.393 --> 01:18:57.213 - They can enable creation. And it moves them from consumers to producers of knowledge and solutions. 01:18:57.213 --> 01:18:58.494 - It's pretty exciting. 01:19:00.258 --> 01:19:05.974 - I think just to finish off, we don't want to see technology as an add-on or a replacement. We want it 01:19:05.974 --> 01:19:11.690 - to transform how students learn, how teachers teach, how we prepare graduates for college careers and 01:19:11.690 --> 01:19:17.405 - life, and to be in the society that's heavily integrated into technology. So our role as educators is 01:19:17.405 --> 01:19:23.233 - to ensure that they have access to these opportunities, and we're teaching them to be critical thinkers 01:19:23.233 --> 01:19:29.005 - as they use it. Thank you so much. Are there any questions? Thank you. I do have a question, actually, 01:19:29.005 --> 01:19:30.238 - and I'm just curious. 01:19:30.850 --> 01:19:36.519 - What have we started to do or how have we started to think about AI in a classroom? So, and Andy, if 01:19:36.519 --> 01:19:42.355 - you want to type it, I mean, we have had lots of professional conversations amongst ourselves. We have, 01:19:42.355 --> 01:19:47.968 - we talk to our colleagues in different school corporations to kind of just keep in mind. You cannot 01:19:47.968 --> 01:19:53.636 - go to a professional development opportunity these days without that being a topic and something you 01:19:53.636 --> 01:19:54.366 - can explore. 01:19:54.626 --> 01:20:01.479 - We have used it minimally in the classroom, but we've allowed really teachers implementation to be able 01:20:01.479 --> 01:20:08.068 - to kind of explore AI and think about it. So we have through a grant with a DOE access to a program 01:20:08.068 --> 01:20:14.723 - called Magic School AI, which is a learning platform that uses AI, but it allows you as a teacher to 01:20:14.723 --> 01:20:15.646 - create really 01:20:16.482 --> 01:20:21.810 - focus lessons so that you're kind of teaching them how to use AI as they may also be using AI to also 01:20:21.810 --> 01:20:27.138 - demonstrate, you know, a standard or skill in your subject area. It can help teachers themselves with 01:20:27.138 --> 01:20:32.414 - creating lesson plans. And so we're excited about that. It's very new for us and we're exploring it. 01:20:32.414 --> 01:20:38.056 - Very interesting. You're right. You can't go anywhere really these days without someone asking the question 01:20:38.056 --> 01:20:43.279 - or having a conversation. And, you know, I work in the corporate space and even organizations, they 01:20:43.279 --> 01:20:45.630 - come to us all the time. They're like, well, 01:20:45.826 --> 01:20:51.734 - We need AI. And I'm like, OK, well, let's talk about what are you trying to solve for? Because they're 01:20:51.734 --> 01:20:57.469 - just like, I don't know. My boss told me we need to have a product with AI. So there are just these 01:20:57.469 --> 01:21:03.320 - sort of asks and questions out there. I have this friend who teaches at the Kelly School of Business, 01:21:03.320 --> 01:21:09.342 - and she's a brilliant educator. And one of the things that she's having her class do this semester is to 01:21:09.634 --> 01:21:14.986 - I mean, she's really teaching critical thinking skills, but also management skills and other things 01:21:14.986 --> 01:21:20.606 - like that. So she has all of her students essentially writing a really detailed scope of work and hiring 01:21:20.606 --> 01:21:25.958 - an AI assistant. So they are essentially writing this detailed scope of work for what they need the 01:21:25.958 --> 01:21:31.363 - assistant to do. And then they have several checkpoints where they have to write performance reviews 01:21:31.363 --> 01:21:35.966 - for that AI bot and all of these other things. And it's really teaching them to like, 01:21:36.386 --> 01:21:42.655 - be critical about what it is they need the AI tool to do and then evaluating whether or not it's doing 01:21:42.655 --> 01:21:48.742 - it well. And I just think there are the ethical questions about AI in general and how it's probably 01:21:48.742 --> 01:21:55.316 - gonna eat up all our water supplies, but whatever. Aside from that, right? There are the really interesting 01:21:55.316 --> 01:22:01.524 - things that it can potentially do, and I'm also not sure that we're going to get away from it anytime 01:22:01.524 --> 01:22:04.446 - soon. So just, I was at the ISBA conference and 01:22:04.546 --> 01:22:10.355 - some of the districts were saying they have really hard policies on AI and what they allow their district 01:22:10.355 --> 01:22:15.834 - to do or not to do with it and we haven't done that or talked about that yet. I just think you know 01:22:15.834 --> 01:22:21.369 - it's an interesting something to begin maybe thinking about but yeah. I would agree I think when our 01:22:21.369 --> 01:22:25.150 - teachers are thinking about it it's a really interesting opportunity 01:22:25.250 --> 01:22:30.855 - to teach kids, like, metacognition. How are you thinking about thinking? And we know when kids are able 01:22:30.855 --> 01:22:36.675 - to do that, that it's going to empower them in their learning. And so I think there's certainly opportunity 01:22:36.675 --> 01:22:42.118 - right in reaching it. Any other questions or comments? No, thank you. Thank you. I definitely think, 01:22:42.118 --> 01:22:47.507 - I mean, working at IU and get some of the students to come from our district, we definitely prepare 01:22:47.507 --> 01:22:52.411 - our students well how to use technology. And I work in a tech school, so it's really good. 01:22:52.411 --> 01:22:53.758 - So thank you. Thank you. 01:22:55.522 --> 01:23:04.577 - All right, well, thank you both for your presentations this evening. We are moving along. I guess this 01:23:04.577 --> 01:23:13.369 - is time for comments and committee reports. So any board members have anything you'd like to share? 01:23:13.369 --> 01:23:22.864 - I guess I will say that a few of the board members did go to the ISBA, the Indiana School Board Association 01:23:22.864 --> 01:23:24.798 - Conference last week. 01:23:25.346 --> 01:23:33.436 - You know, it's an annual conference that's held, I think, almost all schools in Indiana, public schools 01:23:33.436 --> 01:23:41.293 - are part of ISBA. And, you know, I think it's one of the few times that boards have official sort of 01:23:41.293 --> 01:23:49.227 - professional development. I think it's really important as often as we can sort of attend events like 01:23:49.227 --> 01:23:54.750 - that to sort of, one, see what other districts in the state are doing. 01:23:54.978 --> 01:24:02.989 - And two, to just be in a space where you get to learn about the issues on the table from a board perspective 01:24:02.989 --> 01:24:10.413 - because I think that there aren't very many spaces for boards like that. I was the official delegate 01:24:10.413 --> 01:24:18.718 - this year for ISBA and essentially the, you know, so each district can appoint a delegate and the delegate votes 01:24:19.138 --> 01:24:26.434 - on a variety of issues, anything from budget to what the new legislative priorities will be for the 01:24:26.434 --> 01:24:33.949 - ISBA. So the ISBA works very closely with the legislature to try and influence the sort of legislation 01:24:33.949 --> 01:24:41.318 - that might be on the table that affects or impacts public schools. And so sometimes you can't change 01:24:41.318 --> 01:24:44.382 - the legislation, but you might be able to 01:24:45.506 --> 01:24:52.944 - work in such a way with a legislator to have them add or remove or edit or adopt something slightly 01:24:52.944 --> 01:25:00.457 - different, right? And so being able to sort of have a hand in determining what those priorities will 01:25:00.457 --> 01:25:08.044 - be, I think is important. Any time that we can sort of have any influence in that space, I think it's 01:25:08.044 --> 01:25:14.590 - a good thing. And then, you know, as the president, I went to the president's breakfast 01:25:14.850 --> 01:25:22.536 - And I did say, only in education do things start at 7 a.m. Never in the corporate world would you get 01:25:22.536 --> 01:25:30.447 - people in a room at 7 a.m. Because in education, they're used to having teachers and educators who start 01:25:30.447 --> 01:25:37.982 - really early. This president's breakfast started at 7 a.m. And I went and it was really interesting 01:25:37.982 --> 01:25:42.654 - to be in a room with board presidents from all over the state 01:25:43.074 --> 01:25:51.685 - who are dealing to varying degrees with the same issues that we're dealing with and to hear how they 01:25:51.685 --> 01:26:00.552 - are working their way through them completely at a loss or just sort of hearing districts being in that 01:26:00.552 --> 01:26:09.078 - struggle alongside us in many ways and being able to really sort of direct a lot of that energy and 01:26:09.078 --> 01:26:11.806 - attention toward how will we as 01:26:12.002 --> 01:26:21.773 - presidents as districts begin to sort of speak to our legislators and for our districts, you know, anything 01:26:21.773 --> 01:26:31.093 - and topics on the table, anything from the sort of tag money or the grants to having to cut, you know, 01:26:31.093 --> 01:26:39.326 - district cuts that they're having. Many districts are having to cut programming. It's just 01:26:39.618 --> 01:26:47.070 - really dire across the state, especially when you get into districts that are very small. So I think 01:26:47.070 --> 01:26:54.743 - it was a good thing for us to be able to be there and to just hear what's going on. And also not really 01:26:54.743 --> 01:27:02.637 - reassuring, but sort of like just knowing you're in the, I don't really like the in the trenches metaphor, 01:27:02.637 --> 01:27:08.318 - but that you are sort of in the trenches with other people, I think is good. 01:27:09.314 --> 01:27:16.629 - Um, so lots of work on the table to be done. A lot of things that are outside of our control. But, 01:27:16.629 --> 01:27:24.239 - you know, I did hear several times, like, well, what if every single district agreed to do blank? What 01:27:24.239 --> 01:27:31.702 - would they do? Right. And it's a curious question. Like, if you could get every district to agree on 01:27:31.702 --> 01:27:37.022 - a course of action in resistance to the legislation, what would happen? 01:27:37.282 --> 01:27:43.597 - I think there are power in numbers, right? And so just being able to be in the room and have some of 01:27:43.597 --> 01:27:49.975 - those conversations I think was really valuable. Anybody else who was at the conference, anything you 01:27:49.975 --> 01:27:56.353 - gleaned, you learned, you discovered or appreciated about that? I have a question for those that were 01:27:56.353 --> 01:28:02.856 - able to make it. And maybe it was more for where you were in April, but did they give any foreshadowing 01:28:02.856 --> 01:28:05.982 - on expectations for the next legislative session? 01:28:06.306 --> 01:28:15.942 - and what we might be seeing as potential bills? It was more about where the ISBA anticipated sort of 01:28:15.942 --> 01:28:26.150 - needing to put pressure or, you know, where it's a short session, so I think it's going to run mid-January 01:28:26.150 --> 01:28:32.638 - through mid-March, but we know that they can cram a lot in in those 01:28:32.770 --> 01:28:42.337 - short three months, right? To say short is, I think, sometimes misleading. So just, you know, I think 01:28:42.337 --> 01:28:51.999 - accounting for some of the things that were on the table last year, thinking some of those bills might 01:28:51.999 --> 01:29:01.566 - come back around. So I don't know. You know, I guess we'll see. It would be nice to not play defense. 01:29:02.242 --> 01:29:10.508 - It would be nice. But they want us to play defense, right? They're not going to show their hand too 01:29:10.508 --> 01:29:18.857 - early, because then people would be able to prepare earlier. Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. Any other 01:29:18.857 --> 01:29:27.289 - questions or comments? One thing I did hear is that one of the sessions I attended was about planning 01:29:27.289 --> 01:29:31.422 - for capital projects. It's nice to see that we're 01:29:32.194 --> 01:29:39.412 - ahead of the curve and planning ahead rather than having to be reactionary because a lot of districts 01:29:39.412 --> 01:29:46.489 - are in that situation. Yes, we did hear there are lots of districts in the state who have never run 01:29:46.489 --> 01:29:53.708 - a referendum or have run them and failed and are in this sort of situation now of having to decide if 01:29:53.708 --> 01:30:00.926 - they should and when they should and how. And so, you know, I'm always grateful to our community that 01:30:01.890 --> 01:30:08.192 - by whatever margin, we have referendum that have passed. And I think we're lucky in that sense. And 01:30:08.192 --> 01:30:14.556 - as we're planning for these capital projects too, all of those wonderful resolutions we went through 01:30:14.556 --> 01:30:21.236 - earlier in the meeting. Yes. Doing that planning ahead has been very important. Yes. And that one session 01:30:21.236 --> 01:30:27.727 - was about capital projects sooner rather than later, trying to get them ahead of some of the potential 01:30:27.727 --> 01:30:28.798 - legislation that 01:30:31.746 --> 01:30:37.681 - other? I can't even think of the name but the school is on Valley the Patriots that it was good to go 01:30:37.681 --> 01:30:43.499 - to a session and hear how the students were I mean running a business at the school and it was cool 01:30:43.499 --> 01:30:49.318 - to have a conversation to compare the coffee shop that we have I like one of sessions where you can 01:30:49.318 --> 01:30:55.427 - still talk about the cool things your district's doing too and take something from it so that was really 01:30:55.427 --> 01:31:01.246 - good to hear what the students were doing another session is learning how to be a good board member 01:31:01.346 --> 01:31:07.130 - And a lot of things that they implemented is like things that we're doing as a board. We could always 01:31:07.130 --> 01:31:13.027 - do better, but at least we get along really well. Because some boards do not get along. I learned that. 01:31:13.027 --> 01:31:18.697 - And I'm like, whoa. But it was really good to hear that and how supportive. It was good being there 01:31:18.697 --> 01:31:24.367 - with Markay because some superintendents were there along too. So that's telling as well. So it was 01:31:24.367 --> 01:31:27.486 - good. I learned a lot from the vendors in the session. 01:31:30.978 --> 01:31:39.380 - You don't have to talk, but if you want to. No, it was a really good experience. Obviously, it was my 01:31:39.380 --> 01:31:47.618 - first ISPA conference. And I learned a lot. I also felt it was a great team building experience and 01:31:47.618 --> 01:31:55.855 - getting to know some of the fellow board members a little better. And I kind of stayed on the track 01:31:55.855 --> 01:32:00.798 - that was community engagement based. And I did learn a lot. 01:32:01.026 --> 01:32:07.217 - Yeah I mean it is interesting because I did see there are so many things in those presentations that 01:32:07.217 --> 01:32:13.347 - we're already doing right and I do just want to note that our district and I don't say this to like 01:32:13.347 --> 01:32:19.784 - just sort of to our horn not recognize that there are always things that we can do differently or better 01:32:19.784 --> 01:32:26.159 - but I think this district really is ahead of the game in many ways whether it is from the school safety 01:32:26.159 --> 01:32:27.998 - plan to the communications to 01:32:28.162 --> 01:32:34.242 - know the way that the district has made some concerted efforts to engage the community and students 01:32:34.242 --> 01:32:40.322 - in you know the fact that we have a 92 person redistricting committee is not i mean it's an anomaly 01:32:40.322 --> 01:32:46.462 - that is not something that happens in very many places um and it doesn't mean that we can't continue 01:32:46.462 --> 01:32:52.785 - to look at what we're doing and think about how to do it better right we can always there's always room 01:32:52.785 --> 01:32:53.758 - for improvement 01:32:53.890 --> 01:33:00.575 - I was like that terrible teacher who rarely gave out a hundred because I was like, isn't there always 01:33:00.575 --> 01:33:07.129 - something we can do like a little better? Like you can get a 99. I don't know. Maybe it's terrible. 01:33:07.129 --> 01:33:13.683 - Sorry. Anyway. Yeah. So I think I'm really grateful to the work that the people in the district and 01:33:13.683 --> 01:33:20.499 - our administrators and teachers and staff members and every single person from top to bottom, including 01:33:20.499 --> 01:33:23.710 - our janitorial staff, like every single level of 01:33:24.770 --> 01:33:31.329 - employees are doing like the very best at what they do and I'm just appreciative of that. All right 01:33:31.329 --> 01:33:38.479 - if no other comments we will finally move to superintendent comments and reports. Do you have any additional 01:33:38.479 --> 01:33:45.039 - information for us? Just a couple of items I want to just take a quick moment to celebrate and give 01:33:45.039 --> 01:33:50.942 - a shout out to one of our students. At Bloomington North we have a student Fiona O'Connor 01:33:51.106 --> 01:33:58.568 - who placed fifth in the state at the Special Olympics Golf Tournament. And I just want to acknowledge 01:33:58.568 --> 01:34:06.177 - her principal in the back. And I just want to congratulate Fiona on her spectacular finish. If we could 01:34:06.177 --> 01:34:13.639 - give her just a round of applause. That's just amazing. And I was so excited to learn about that from 01:34:13.639 --> 01:34:16.126 - Mr. Stark. In addition, at North, 01:34:16.386 --> 01:34:22.995 - We have Catherine Edmonds, who's a teacher there. And she was recently selected as a Place Nobel Educator 01:34:22.995 --> 01:34:29.229 - of Distinction by the National Society of High School Scholars. Ms. Edmonds was nominated by one of 01:34:29.229 --> 01:34:35.589 - her students for outstanding dedication and commitment to excellence in the profession. And just want 01:34:35.589 --> 01:34:42.010 - to say congratulations to Ms. Edmonds on this most excellent honor. So if we could also just celebrate 01:34:42.010 --> 01:34:43.070 - her momentarily. 01:34:46.754 --> 01:34:53.004 - I don't think either of them are here tonight, but thank you so much for sharing that. And then just 01:34:53.004 --> 01:34:59.811 - two additional items. The Success School is a part of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce Foundation. 01:34:59.811 --> 01:35:06.061 - The event connects businesses and local schools and introduces students to potential career options. 01:35:06.061 --> 01:35:12.558 - And we're so appreciative of this partnership. Yesterday, North High School, seems like it's about North 01:35:12.558 --> 01:35:15.838 - tonight. North High School hosted the Success School 01:35:16.002 --> 01:35:21.795 - career intern and employment fair for students. And then on Thursday of this week, South will be the 01:35:21.795 --> 01:35:27.817 - same and they will host the career fair. So we're very excited and we are so appreciative of the support 01:35:27.817 --> 01:35:33.725 - that we get consistently throughout the school year from the chamber. And I just wanted to acknowledge 01:35:33.725 --> 01:35:39.575 - that. And then my final comment is just a friendly reminder for those of you for whom this may not be 01:35:39.575 --> 01:35:42.558 - on your radar, but fall break is around the corner. 01:35:42.690 --> 01:35:49.441 - And that would be on October 16th and 17th. And I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that 01:35:49.441 --> 01:35:56.326 - the schools and offices will be closed on fall break and that we all take the time to enjoy this time 01:35:56.326 --> 01:36:03.144 - away from our busy work lives and celebrate it and relax a little bit. So just in a few short weeks, 01:36:03.144 --> 01:36:07.262 - fall break. That concludes my remarks. Excellent. All right. 01:36:07.362 --> 01:36:13.210 - Well, the next regularly scheduled board meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 28th, 2025, and we 01:36:13.210 --> 01:36:14.078 - are adjourned.