Welcome to the September meeting of the MCCSC Board of School Trustees. We ask that you please come
to order. The first item on our agenda is for the board to hold a lease and additional appropriations
hearing in connection with the proposed projects. If you're interested in speaking at the hearing, please
make sure that you have completed a comment card and have given the card to Mrs. Butcher. There will
be an opportunity for the public to make comments about the lease rental to be paid under the lease
and appropriation of bonds, proceeds,
of both the lease bonds and the taxable geo bonds. At the hearing, we will ask that each person limit
their comments to three minutes and that the topic be limited to the lease rental and appropriation
of funds under consideration. There will be an opportunity for additional public comments on the regular
agenda items after the hearings. The notices for these hearings were published as legally required.
And at this time, I will ask that the bond council explain the purpose of these hearings.
So we're here tonight to hold a lease hearing and an additional appropriation hearing. The reason is
that under Indiana law, whenever a school corporation intends to enter into a lease with a nonprofit
building corporation, we have to hold a hearing to see and confirm that the public thinks the rent payable
under the lease is fair and reasonable.
The second reason we're here is for an additional appropriation hearing. And as you're familiar with,
anytime we issue bonds, we do have to have an appropriation of those bond proceeds. So those are the
two reasons that we're here tonight for this hearing. Thank you, Ms. McClellan. The public hearing is
now open. However, we do not have any public comments on this particular issue. So I will officially
close the hearing.
And we will now reopen the regular meeting with a series of resolutions for our consideration. Next
for our consideration is resolution 2025-12 authorizing the execution of lease. Do I have a motion to
adopt resolution 2025-12 as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross
and seconded by Ashley that we adopt the resolution 2025-12 as presented.
As I just mentioned is required under Indiana law after a lease hearing we then have to consider and
adopt a resolution regarding the execution of that lease and that is what this resolution in your board
packet contains. Thank you so much. Do I have any comments from the board on this?
All those in favor of the motion to adopt the resolution 2025-12 authorizing execution of lease, please
signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. We move to resolution
2025-13, which is additional appropriation of 2025 lease bonds. Do I have a motion to adopt this resolution
as presented? So moved. Do I have a second?
It has been moved by Ashley and seconded by Tiana that we adopt the resolution as presented. Ms. McClellan.
The additional appropriation resolution you have in front of you again relates to the appropriation
of those bond proceeds because we didn't expect to have those during the beginning of the year and that's
why we adopt a resolution now. Okay, thank you very much. Any comments from the board on this?
All those in favor of the motion to adopt the resolution 2025-13, additional appropriation, 2025 lease
bonds, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next for
our consideration is resolution 2025-14, additional appropriation, 2025 taxable geo bonds. Do I have
a motion to adopt this resolution as presented? So moved.
Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Tiana that we adopt the resolution
as presented, Ms. McClellan. The last resolution you considered was the appropriation of the 2025 lease
proceeds. So same thing here for the 2025 taxable GO proceeds. Again, we have to have a hearing and
then adopt a resolution regarding that appropriation of those funds. OK. Thank you. Any comments from
the board on this?
All those in favor then of the motion to adopt the resolution 2025-14, additional appropriation at 2025
taxable geo bonds, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries.
We move on to yet another resolution. I know, this is very fun times here. This is 2025-15.
assigning construction bids and contracts to the building corporation once received. Do I have a motion
to adopt this resolution as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross
and seconded by Ashley that we adopt resolution 2025-15 as presented. Ms. McClellan. The reason for
this resolution under consideration tonight is because when we do a lease financing,
The building corporation is actually going to own a portion of a building and then lease it back to
the school corporation. So this resolution would allow for the buildings that the building corporation
owns for the school to assign the contracts you've already entered into for the construction work over
to the building corporation. Thank you for that explanation. Do we have any comments from the board?
All those in favor of the motion to adopt resolution 2025-15, assigning construction bids and contracts
to the building corporation once received, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions?
The motion carries. We have two more to go, so hang in there. This is 2025-16, authorizing the 10th
supplement to master continuing disclosure, undertaking, and issuance of bonds.
Sometimes I just feel like I'm saying word salad. Do I have a motion to adopt this as presented? Do
I have a second? It has been moved by Ross and seconded by Asia that we adopt the resolution 2025-16
as presented. Ms. McClellan. This resolution relates to a master continuing disclosure agreement that
we entered into several years ago. In short, the Securities and Exchange Commission anytime you issue
bonds requires
MCCSC to give updates to the bondholders on how you're doing. This document will document the promise
to give bondholders your audit, your form nine, and things like that. But it's a SEC compliance.
Thank you. Comments from the board? Okay. All those in favor of the motion to adopt this resolution
2025-16, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against?
Any abstentions? The motion carries. And just kidding, now we have two left. We had three last time.
So we are at 2025-17 authorizing the issuance of one or more series of bond anticipation notes. Do I
have a motion to adopt this resolution? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Moved by Ross, seconded
by Ashley that we adopt the resolution 2025-17 as presented. Ms. McClellan.
This resolution approves sort of what we would call as homeowners a construction loan. A binding anticipation
note is the same thing. A construction loan before the bonds are issued. If and when we need one, this
resolution would allow us to proceed. Thank you. Comments? Okay. All those in favor of the motion to
adopt resolution 2025-17 authorizing the issuance of one or more of a series of bond anticipation notes
signify by saying aye.
Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. And last in the series of resolutions for our
consideration is resolution 2025-18, final bond resolution. Do I have a motion to adopt this as presented?
So moved. Do I have a second? It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Asia that we adopt the resolution
2025-18 as presented, Ms. McCullen.
This final bond resolution relates to the issuance of the taxable geo bonds. It allows us the ability
and set certain maximums with regard to that taxable geo bond. It also in the form of this resolution,
which was really long as you all saw, it approves the form of the bond and several other agreements.
That's why it's longer than the others. Excellent. Any questions on this one?
All those in favor of the motion to adopt the resolution 2025-18, please signify by saying aye. Aye.
Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Thank you, Ms. McClellan, for leading us through this
process. We will now move on to yet another hearing. I declare the 2026 budget hearing open. Have we
received any comment cards for this? None? Okay, great. Mr. Irwin, you may proceed.
Okay, well, we'll run you through the 2026 budget again. Not a long list of resolutions again. You're
just gonna hear me get my presentation on the budget. So we'll go through that. So if you go to the
next slide, which would be the agenda, I'll kind of walk through what it is that we're gonna talk through
tonight. Yeah, that's fine. But I'll do it. All right. So first, we'll talk about timeline. I just wanna
remind you guys that the timeline that we follow as it relates to the adoption
eventually getting to the adoption of the budget. We wanna talk about the comparison of the 2025 budget
to the 2026 budget. Talk about the process involved. That's something that I wanted to talk a little
bit more about in the process of budget building. Kind of give you a peek, so to speak, behind the curtain
of what it is that we're doing or how we're coming up with those numbers. Give you an example of some
of the DOGF forms. Again, the DOGF is the Department of Local Government Finance.
and then talk about just some of the main takeaways for the 2026 budget that we want you to have.
So again, the timeline reminders, when you look just kind of walking through last month at the board
meeting, we asked for permission to advertise, which we did receive. We then advertised the budget,
the bus replacement plan and the capital projects plan on September 2nd. And then tonight we're having
the hearing. In October, we will actually adopt the budget
And then in December, it says 1782 notice. 1782 notice is just our budget. So the DOGF, in that time
between October and December, is when our DOGF rep will work our budget. And then they will return that
back to us in December, which we will then review, make sure that everything looks the way we want it
to look, make sure there's not any adjustments we need to make, and then we'll sign off on that and
send it back. You saw this slide. Oh, I'm sorry. Saw this slide.
turn the mic up on me there for a second. I saw the slide last month of the comparison of the 2026 budget.
There's that main takeaway there in the center, which just talks about the overall budget submission.
The decrease is about 6.2 million from 2025. Again, in comparison to 2025.
We've made several adjustments as it relates to staffing and other expenses that are a big part of our
budget on a yearly basis. And so it makes sense with all the pieces that we've been talking about through
our quarterly updates and regular communications that our overall budget would be down. Again, some
of the budgets you see pretty similar. Some of them are a lot different. Again, the operations fund
is the one that you see go down the farthest out of all of those. Some of them remain fairly stable as well.
This is the piece that I wanted to talk a little bit more to tonight, and it just kind of goes into
some of the three key areas. And then I just wanted to drive home some points on. One being that this
is a data-driven approach. So just like if you were building your own budget at home, your best predictor
of your future expenses are your past expenditures, right? So going back, looking at our past expenditures,
especially for like the last three years or so, and saying, what have we been spending in this line item?
Do we expect that to continue? What have we been receiving as far as revenue goes in that line item?
Do we expect that to continue? What are the trends with what's going on as it relates to those expenses
or revenue in our current cash flows? And then looking at some of the information that we continue to
bring in, whether that's a demographic study or the tax-based study that we did.
facility studies, some of these other pieces, we're bringing in that data or that information we need
to make really informed decisions about how we're coming up with that number. And so I wanted to drive
home that point of just what are we looking at when we're coming up with these numbers and determining
what the need is in any given line item across the budget, whether we're talking about the education
fund, a referendum fund, the operations fund, and so on. The next piece is just flexibility. When you're
rebuilding our budget, we don't want to build
the budget, which I see as guardrails, so tight that anytime something changes for us, it causes us
to have to come back to you and say, hey, we need to adjust this. We need to adjust that. Just like,
again, if I'm building my budget at home and I'm looking through my numbers, I don't want to put a number
to a line item in my own budget that I know that if one little thing changes for me, then all of a sudden
I need to go back and change that number again. So we try to build those guardrails that allows flexibility.
when we build out that number. And then the other part that is really important is just anticipating
variables. There's a lot of things that we can't predict or things that are outside of our control.
Legislation is a huge variable, right? When we talk about SEA-1 or some of those pieces as it relates
to the rules that they put in place, that's something that's outside of our control. Student counts,
that's why we talk about why it's important to monitor what we have going on with enrollment.
getting those demographic studies and looking at what it is that's going on in our area to make sure
that we're making educated decisions about what we expect when that's a huge driver in our revenue.
It's our number one revenue source. The other piece is just talking about cost of goods and services
or assessed value. Some of those other things, staffing. These are pieces that play a huge role in drivers
of whether it's revenue or expenses that we continue to try to
to account for and say, what are those trends? What are those things that we know that help us come
up with an appropriate number? This is an example of one of the DOGS slides. And I just wanted to point
out some simplistic things within this. I know this is a bit of a busy slide, but I just wanted to point
some things out, because it's really an 18-month look. We have to tell the DOGF what we expect to happen
with revenue.
in the last six months of any given year, and we have to tell them what we expect for our expenses to
be in the last six months of the year so that they can determine what they think our ending cash balance
would be. One of the quirks of the system, though, is that they always assume that you spend every dollar
of your budget, every dollar of your appropriation. Even though we know locally that's not our plan,
they always, the input in the system is that it spends every dollar.
And so later on, when we come back and propose a budget reduction resolution, that will be a connection
to that later agenda item that we'll talk about. So again, last six months, they wanna know what do
we expect our revenue to be? What do we expect our expenses to be? Where do you expect your cash balance
to be at the end of the year? And then that carries over to the next slide where we're gonna say, based
on that, what revenue do you expect to get in calendar year? In this case, 2026.
What expenses do you expect to have during that year? And then simply there at the bottom to say, what
do we expect that cash balance to be? So is this a fundable budget? Is this something that we think
that the cash that you have on hand, the revenue that you think that you'll receive, and the expenses
that you expect to have, does that allow for you to fund that? So they come to that arrival.
And in this case, this is a look at one of the referendum funds, Referendum 2022. And because it's a
property tax levied fund,
They come down and they'll say, what is the input of AV times the rate that's there? And so what would
the rate be in order to fund this budget? We know that what the DLGF does, when I say they're gonna
go in and work our budget, they're gonna come into that and they're gonna say, this is what AV actually
was. This is your voter approved rate. Here's the amount of revenue that you can actually produce from
that. So they'll come in and they'll input those numbers and change some of the revenue.
The expenses will pull down and they'll say, hey, this still works. Here's your budget. So I wanted
to walk you through that example. I know those are busy slides, but I think that it's important to kind
of show you some of those behind the scenes pieces as we work through that process. And then some other
quick things. You saw this last month as well. This is a redundancy in this slide. Education and operations
fund. Again, budgets are smaller than last year based on conservative revenue.
enrollment projections and staffing changes, bus replacement and capital project plans. These are must
be done in order to expend operations fund dollars on those possible expenditures. Those are not set
in stone plans. Those are plans of things that we think that are likely to happen and that we are planning
for that are a possibility.
Referendum fund one, we do plan on restoring the original voter approved 18 and a half cent rate. That
was something that we were not able to do last year because of the legislation that was in place. Referendum
two, continuing on with the voter approved rate of eight and a half cents to support early learning.
And then again, for debt service, we had the placeholders in there for the bonds that we're talking
about tonight. We know that those are high placeholders. We expect the payback on those to be lower.
but again, we set those ceilings to make sure that it's an appropriate amount that we know that will
come under. And then a quick note on that is we'll make our last two payments on the pension debt and
then that debt will be retired and fall off for us after 2026. And then a couple more slides and I'm
almost done here. Budget form four, this is the actual resolution that during October's meeting,
that will be signed off to say this is the board signing off and adopting our budget. The top of this
form is just that normal. Every information that every school corporation puts with our information
at the top with the date of our meeting. And then the bottom again shows those same things that we were
showing you last month where the adopted tax levy and the rate, those are the ceiling amounts that we
know that will come under and we'll see a very similar budget
as what we've seen in years past. So we just set those ceilings and then we'll come down underneath
that to make sure that we are setting the appropriate ceiling. I'm definitely gonna need a drink of
water after this after eating these french fries here. And then the key takeaways, I had six key takeaways
here. Budget equals guardrails. The budget sets the tax levies and rates and spending authority. It
does not equal the dollar for dollar of actual revenues and expenses. It's the plan that we're working
It is the guardrails. Budget development is built on past actuals, historical trends, possible outcomes.
Levy management, it's ongoing oversight of our property tax collection, which the continued community
support. We're trying to be conscientious of what the actual request is of the community and what it
is that we're doing to meet the needs of our students. And then again,
The advertising ceiling, I mentioned that in that prior form, the adoption timeline, we'll adopt next
month. And again, 1782 notice or the budget comes in in December, so you'll expect an update around
that time. With that, I'll take any questions when I'm done. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Irwin. Any questions
from the board on any of this budget information that we've seen tonight?
Very thorough. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Well, then this concludes the budget
hearing and I will declare it closed. We now move into our regularly scheduled meeting. Tonight, we
honor the excellence of MCCSE's dedicated employees, students, and volunteers who make a difference
in our community, Ms. Harmon.
Thank you, President Hennessey, Dr. Winston, Board of Trustees, and community members. It's my pleasure
to share this month's Excellence Spotlight. This is a feature of every regular Board of School Trustees
meeting and a dedicated time to honor the excellence occurring every day through the dedication of our
employees, students, and volunteers who make a difference in our school community. This month's September
Excellence Spotlight goes to Rick Ayers, who has served us very well at all board meetings.
He is our MCCSE technician supervisor. We're proud to recognize Rick Ayers as our September Excellence
Spotlight honoree. Since joining MCCSE in 1995, Rick has exemplified what it means to be a dedicated
and compassionate team member. Rick embodies the full spirit of a helping hand, always willing to go
the extra mile. His caring disposition is on display daily as he supports technicians across every school
building, offering not only technical expertise,
but also an empathetic ear delivered with patience and compassion. Whether the task is large or small,
Rick approaches it with a can-do attitude that inspires those around him. Rick's presence and his signature
Hawaiian shirts, maybe I should add French fries, will be deeply missed as he prepares to retire at
the end of this month. His legacy of service, kindness, and excellence will continue to resonate throughout
the school corporation. Please join us in celebrating Rick's outstanding contributions and wishing him
all the best in his retirement.
enough time in the day for us to celebrate you and tell you how much you've meant to everybody.
We really do appreciate you so much and for all of your work over the years, for smooth board meetings
and congratulations on your retirement. I hope you have some really fun plans or maybe just some really
chill plans, but yeah, we really wish you the best on what's next. All right, we now move into public
comment. Thank you to those who signed up for this evening. Just a reminder that Ms. Butcher will ring
the bell once to signal you have 30 seconds remaining.
and five bells to signal that your time has concluded. It looks like we have one speaker tonight, Michael
Catterlin. Thank you. So I understand that we are in a budget crisis. Last board meeting, it was said
that teacher rifts are on the table. Classroom sizes are up.
And there aren't enough support resources such as one on ones to meet the needs of our students and
our teachers. As a parent I've received emails that the district doesn't have enough resources to replace
the failing student technology. Given all that and as the budget is being built I'd like to know what
cuts are being planned at the district admin level so that we are keeping resources in the classroom.
The district has added roughly 15 new admins in the last five years while also increasing pay.
Last year, admin payroll was over $5 million. So how do you plan to correct for this so that we are
prioritizing teacher support and student outcomes? Thank you. Thank you so much for that comment. This
is the close of our public comments. That was our only one for this evening.
to thank everyone for their comments tonight and we will now proceed to the consent agenda. For our
consent agenda tonight, it includes the following minutes from the regular board meeting held on August
26th, memorandum from executive session held on September 9th, overnight and out of state field trips,
the financial report from August 2025, the appropriation balance report from August 2025,
the register of claims from September 2025, payroll register and payroll claims from August 2025, and
the request to declare a surplus and authorized disposal of out-of-date items. Do I have a motion regarding
the approval of the consent agenda? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross and
seconded by Ashley that we approve the consent agenda as presented. All those in favor of the motion
to approve this consent agenda, please say aye. Aye.
Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next, we look at our donations, which are over $2,000.
We want to thank all of our donors for your generosity. It's appreciated as always. Do I have a motion
to accept the donations? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley, seconded by
Tiana that we accept the donations as presented. All those in favor of the motion to approve the donations,
please signify by saying aye.
Any against? Any abstentions? That carries. We now move to our personnel report. Do I have a motion
to approve the personnel report as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved
by Ashley and seconded by Erin Wyatt that we approve the personnel report as presented. Dr. Henderson.
President Hennessey, Dr. Winston, and members of the Board of School Trustees, at this time I request
that you please approve the recommendations as presented in the board packet in the personnel report.
Okay. Any additional comments on this year, this year, this month's personnel report? No. Okay. All
those in favor of the motion to approve this personnel report signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against?
Any abstentions? The motion carries.
We move now to contracts. Do I have a motion to approve the contracts as presented? So moved. Do I have
a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Ross that we approve the contracts as presented.
Mr. Irwin. Would be the contract with BRCJ for the design and management of moving to North projects.
This is something that will be paid for using the 25 lease rental bonds. Thank you. Thank you. Do we
have any comments from the board or questions about the contracts? OK. All those in favor of the motion
to approve the contract signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next up.
is resolution 2025-19 budget reduction. Do I have a motion to adopt 2025-19 as presented? So moved.
Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley and seconded by Tiana that we adopt resolution
2025 as presented. Mr. Irwin. Yeah, thank you. So this is the budget reduction resolution that I was
talking to you about earlier. This is for the operations fund.
So the budget resolution is something that I've pre-worked through with our DLGF rep to make sure that
it's acceptable and something that we've done in the past. Again, the assumption in the system is that
we will spend every dollar for appropriation and we know that we don't need to do that. So in order
to make things work in the forms there in the DLGF, we need to reduce that budget number in the operations
fund. Okay, thank you. Any comments from the board?
All those in favor of the motion to adopt resolution 2025-19 budget reduction signify by saying aye.
Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Tonight we have several informative updates that
will be presented. The first is a health and safety report. Ms. Harmon?
Thank you President Tennessee, Dr. Winston, and members of the school board for allowing me to come
and talk to you this evening about health and safety in MCCSC. I wanted to start this evening with this
quote, the kind of statement that we wrote, a vision about how we see student safety, health and physical
safety, physical health, and emotional mental health as
intertwined and connected. And that is our approach. It's why we're presenting safety and health together
tonight, because we see those things as tied in order to truly create a productive learning environment
for students. So I'll be joined tonight by Mr. Gilpin, our director of secondary education and school
safety as well. So I'm going to start, but I'll hand it off to him as well. In looking at that approach,
the integrated approach, we do kind of
seek guidance from this model that comes from the Center on Disease Control that's whole school, whole
community, whole child. And it focuses on these 10 areas. And you'll see these represented
in our presentation tonight as well. And again, that allows us to have this comprehensive approach to
thinking about school safety and health for all students. So to begin with that, I'll talk about student
physical, mental, and behavioral health and wellness, starting with our physical health and health education program.
So we have PE and health curriculum throughout our pre-K through 12th grade in all classes. It probably
looks, in some ways, what you would expect in a physical education class or health classroom, but it
also covers a gamut of injury prevention, healthy choices, and relationships, and alcohol and drug awareness.
We expand that beyond the classroom as well as we think about how our healthy behavior is connected
to extracurricular activities and how can we engage families in learning more about healthy choices as well.
So you may have participated or know about our Family Fun Run that happens at Grandview, or our Health
a Palooza hosted at South where all sorts of community organizations are there sharing really high quality
information about health with our community. And we're really grateful to have our IU Health Coordinator
of School Health that works directly with our schools, each and every one of them, to think strategically
about their health curriculum, our policies, our programs,
professional development and seeks resources for us as well as we make sure that we're really offering
robust offerings in those areas. Thinking more about physical health, our Child Nutrition Department,
you might remember last month we celebrated that they received the USDA Gold Turnip Beat Award. They
are the only school district in the state to receive the Gold Award. They served over 10,000 meals this summer.
families free to family so that's pretty amazing and it's a highlight of what they do all year for our
schools. In addition we think about nutrition education our kids take trips to farms they see how food
is produced how it's grown or raised and learn more about food production also our schools have gardens
and hydroponic systems and kids are growing food and
quite often eating it as well, which is pretty cool. They're very excited when they get to eat the things
that they grew. And that's integrated into the curriculum. So it's a science experiment as well.
And finally, for nutrition, I'd like to highlight our Backpack Buddies program, which is partnership
with the community kitchen and provides bags of food to families who might be experiencing food insecurity
over the weekend. When we look at physical health, highlighting our health services
We have well-staffed health offices. We were actually able to shift some of our model this year to increase
the number of registered nurses we have serving our schools. We went from 11 nurses to 13 registered
nurses. Ultimately, this means improved student to RN ratio. Registered nurses are more directly involved
with student health. They're more directly involved with supporting licensed practical nurses and the
health aides in our offices as well, and overall means higher quality care for our students.
All of our buildings are 100% Project Atom Heart Safe, which means they have AED machines in them, people
are trained to use them, those kinds of things. And those AED machine cabinets house emergency first
aid kits, stoppably kits, and Narcan to ensure that physical safety aspect.
Additionally, again, we seek out partnerships and ensure that students have access to wider healthcare
as well. So there's opportunities for students to get vaccinations and screenings and dental care onsite
when they're at school. Last year, we administered 698 vaccinations, 636 students received dental care,
and then we have vision screen and hearing screen, you know, while at specific grades.
Beyond the physical health and nutrition of students, we also want to make sure that we're considering
their social, emotional, and behavioral health. We're focused on creating safe and welcoming school
practices. We've talked about some of these things before in other presentations last year. All of our
schools are 100% PBIS, which stands for Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports. And really what
that is is a structure for schools to have a system-wide approach to establish
that positive student culture. It creates clear expectations. Students know what they're supposed to
do. And beyond student behaviors, it's also about adult behaviors as well to cultivate and create that
wonderful learning environment for students. Partnered with that is our restorative practices, where
when we're responding to conflict in a way that builds strong relationships and focuses on a positive
relationship and repairing respect, responsibility, and
We want to teach a way to have a safe and welcoming school environment as well. So we use curriculum
to do that. We have a K through 12 curriculum that builds skills that manage emotions, solve problems,
prevent bullying, are able to teach school and work life success skills that are really useful as they
are in our own schools and our own systems. And they go on to college and career as well. And we have
zones of regulation, which helps kids recognize their feelings
use strategies to deal with them and manage them as well. And finally, of course, we use common sense
media to teach digital citizenship that happens at every grade level to teach kids how to responsibly
be on the internet and use technology and the impacts that it has. And that has also a component where
it offers resources to families who want to continue that conversation at home. We're really proud of
our community partnerships. And we couldn't do all the things that we do in this area without them.
So I just wanted to highlight some of those here tonight. Centerstone is our community mental health
partner. They provide school-based mental health counseling for students in our buildings. I mentioned
a little bit about our IU Health School coordinator, but also IU Health and the School of Public Health
serves on our health council to help us consider the decisions and the infrastructures we're putting
in place. They provide wonderful
career exploration opportunities with internships, guest speakers, and job talks and talk to students
about the opportunities that are out there for them. And they also partner with our extended day programming
with a program called Goal, which is get on board active learning. My own kid has a little pedometer
that she got from the Goal program. They're very into counting their steps.
Boys and Girls Club and Big Brothers and Big Sisters are really partnered with us in terms of being
mentors for our students and offering that services. The Monroe County Youth Service Bureau, we have
a specific program called our Truancy Termination Partnership Program, which is focused on looking at
root causes of attendance or tardiness and working with schools to identify resources that will support
students getting to school and timely and being at school regularly.
They also have individual mental health counseling and parenting workshops as well to support families.
Middleway House partners with us around what is our healthy relationships curriculum, where they talk
to students about and promote safe and healthy relationships, particularly adolescents. And then Girls
Incorporated as well. They provide a healthy mind and body education program for many of our students
in our schools. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Gilpin. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Harmon. As you know, as we look at student safety, it closely relates to their physical,
emotional, and behavioral health and wellness. So we put an emphasis on students not only being safe,
but feeling safe. This year, I had the privilege to be able to take on the role of director of school
safety. And in that first step of that role, I dug deep into our own behavior
our own safety plan, as well as getting into the national and state guidelines and best practices that
are out there. And I found overarching that we were right there. In fact, we were ahead of the curve
in most of those places. So I'm pretty excited about the things that we're doing already for our students
and our community. One of the first things that I've
came across that we are doing is this path partner alliance for safer schools and you see this little
square there looking from the outside in where we look at the district wide plan and the facilities
and things that we're doing all the way into the classroom and this is a examination of best practices
for schools and school safety. We actually use this to help inform our safety plans and our SROs will
go through this audit using this plan
to audit our schools. They do this every summer. And then at the end of that time, they meet with our
building principals to be able to go over this and have a discussion about the things that they are
doing well and maybe some things they might need to address. But most of the time, what we're finding
is we're right there in having the things that need to be in place. So as we look at the national and
state guidelines and policies and things that we're doing, I want to really focus on three different
areas that we at MCCSE
are really excelling it. And one of the first areas that we want to talk about is our continuous school
monitoring. Every school has a school-based safety team that regularly monitors the school safety and
our safety plan. They have at least one person on the team who is a certified state school specialist.
We have an anonymous reporting site that is 24-7 that are on all of our students' iPads, on their devices,
and can be also
access through the internet and it's monitored 24-7. We have some local partnerships and specifically
I want to speak about our Monroe County Safety Commission. This is a commission that brings in all the
schools in Monroe County. We sit down with police, fire, and many other agencies to talk about safety
for all of our students in Monroe County.
As we go on, a couple other areas that we excel in is preparing and training our staff and those people
who are working with our students. We have school resource officers, which I think are awesome, getting
to know them really well this year, the things that they do, as well as our security guard. And as I
mentioned, every school having a trained safety specialist. We also have plans that we look through
on a regular basis and they make sure our staff know these plans.
They go through the drills, the regular drills, the fire drill, the tornado drill, those kind of things.
I don't know about you, we had the nuclear bomb drill when I was in the 80s. No, you hit underneath
that desk. It somehow must have been special. I don't know what it was about that desk. It's going to
save us. But anyways, we have those safety drills that we continually do. And also, I mentioned this
already, but every building has a certified safety trainer. They are trained through the Indiana School
of Safety Specialists Academy.
In there, that academy focuses on national and state recognized best practices. And we receive all kinds
of resources and ideas of what we need to do to bring back to MCCSC. Finally, as we go through this,
one of the things that I notice over and over again when they talk about best practices and prevention
and mitigation is the restriction to building access. And we've been doing this for quite some time
here in MCCSC.
All of our exterior doors are locked. You can only get into a building through one entryway, which is
monitored by either security guard or administrative assistant. The classroom doors are all locked.
And every employee has an ID badge. In the past, an ID badge was often given to us through the people
who took pictures.
But now it has a little more weight to it because that's how you get into your building. So now all
of our staff are carrying around their badge. So you can recognize that they are staff in this building.
If you're not a staff, then they have visited our office and they scan their state ID and give us a
quick criminal background check. And then we print off a little picture with their name on it. And so
every student staff member ought to see that on one of our visitors.
A student or a staff member does not see somebody with a badge or a visor. They make sure that we are
aware of that and we address that person in the building. In addition, in the last couple of years,
we've added a smart pass. This is a way to be able to, you may recall when you were in school that you
had, a teacher might write a pass for you to go someplace or they had this, you know, the chalk eraser
that you had to take with you to go to the bathroom or your locker or something like that. Well, now
it's digital. You sign out on a digital app
And then one of the benefits of this is if there were to be an emergency or we needed to get a hold
of a student, we would know exactly where they're at in the building. So we have a lot of things that
are put in place at MCCSC that are above what even the National State have often recognized as things
to do. We're very concerned about our students' well-being, their health, their physical and behavioral
well-being.
We put a lot of things in place, and we know that school safety is a thing that really emphasizes that
aspect of it. So the combination of those things are essential to what we do here at MCCSE. Do you have
any questions for us? I do. While you're up there, Mr. Gochris, I'll start with you. Does our safety
plan include a plan for addressing
a disease outbreak, especially if it were a novel disease or a disease we haven't seen in a while like
measles? Yes. I don't think it's down to that specific of, you know, hey, but we have, it's amazing
what's all the way down into our plans from, you know, what happens if there's a flood to an outbreak,
terrorist attack. I mean, we have it all in that plan. Thank you.
Is the SmartPass only utilized at the secondary level or? That's correct. OK. Any other questions? I
have some more, but I'm happy to add. Go ahead. Ask away. I also want to say, Ms. Harmon, I really enjoyed
that presentation. Big fan of the whole CHOI Outhold School community model. And I'm happy to hear that
we've added more nurses. I'm also a big fan of the IU-coordinated school health
program, and Healthapalooza. Healthapalooza is amazing. If you haven't been to it, you should definitely
check it out. I think it's an amazing resource, and I really appreciate the amount of time people put
into putting that together. And these questions might be too granular, so forgive me. Erin might know
the answer to this, too. I know that it was recently announced that IU Health is going to stop contracting
with the Monroe County Health Department for some services they previously provided.
Do you know if that's gonna hinder our ability to offer things like vaccine clinics? I think we don't
have specifics on that, but I think that we still have a strong partnership with IU Health through our
coordinated school health, and so we're in discussion with her to ensure that a lot of those things
would try to not be disrupted. I'm happy to hear that.
And I know that there were some changes in the legislature around sexual and reproductive health curriculum.
Did we have to make any changes to our curriculum as a result of that legislation? No, the only thing
that we had to change was how we have always informed parents and provided them with if they wanted
to review the curriculum provided with them a way to do that.
The legislation requires that we publish that on the website. And so now that's there, it's just a different
way for them to access it. That was really the only change we had to make. Actually, one correction,
there are two specific videos that we added as well that was in there as well around reproductive health.
Thank you. That's it for me. That's it. Any other questions?
All right, thank you very much for your time. Our next presentation is on school attendance.
Back to Ms. Harmon. Thank you again. I'm excited to come and speak to you about attendance. So really
just want to highlight why attendance matters, right? Every single day counts for a student.
We want them to, we want to build learning, confidence, and connection. We can do that when they're
in our buildings.
We know that students who attend regularly are more likely to read proficiency by third grade, stay
on track in middle school, and graduate on time. And we want that success. And sometimes we think like,
oh, I think there might be some misconceptions about it's just one day or something like that. But missing
just two days a month is 10% of the school year. And that 10% is 18 or more days. Our school year is
180 days. So that hits that definition of chronic absence. And we see it as a significant impact.
Really then the question is, what do we do? What do we have in place to support positive attendance?
To start, our attendance policy defines a student's attendance when they're physically there or participating
in a school educational program. As a school, we commit to making sure we have good attendance records
so that both us and families can make sure that they stay on top of that, that students have a chance
to make up missed work.
If they are absent, investigate why they're absent, offer to help, and share those policies with families
as well. Of course, there are times when students need to be absent for very good reason. Here on the
right, it's listing out what our policy says are excused reasons. Illness, recovering from accidents,
college visits, those kinds of things are all excused. In addition, I mentioned our partnership with the
Youth Services Bureau around truancy prevention, again, that helps us to focus on looking at these root
causes of poor attendance. We know that understanding why students are absent is that first step in
ensuring they can come to school and in providing supports to help that. So if there are health-related
challenges, ensuring that they have good access to health care, if there's transportation is an issue,
we can connect with them with our department and make sure that those are happening.
school avoidance that focuses on earlier in the other presentation talking about a positive school culture
that's encouraging kids to come to school, giving them skills to deal with social challenges, helping
them manage their emotions and their anxiety, those kinds of things so they can be there and they can learn.
things in place to support that good attendance as well. I've already started to mention them, that
positive school culture, focusing on relationships and relationship building, understanding what the
causes are, reaching out early when we see those patterns emerge and becoming partners with families
and students. Our schools have staff focused on attendance and trying to solve those barriers with families.
I mentioned our truancy termination partnership program again, and again, we're just
really looking at what are those wraparound supports that we might need to help students feel ready
to come to school and prepared to learn. Thinking about what families can do to ensure, really we want
to emphasize that families need to communicate the reason for every absence. So again, we can stand
top of it, we can put things in place if they are needed to, you know, helping their child get to school
on time, scheduling appointments outside of school time when possible, and letting us know if there
are barriers, because quite often we have resources that can help support.
There was recent changes to Indiana Tenants Law. There's SEA 282, which was put in place last school
year, and then 482 this school year. Really the difference between 282 and 482 is the grade bands. 282
focused in elementary, and 482 extends that into the secondary schools. And it puts this policy in place.
It is designed to support students and families early and get help and support in place. And so what
it does is,
If a student has five unexcused absences in a 10-week period, and I want to just emphasize the unexcused
here. So earlier when I talked about excused absences, they're ill, they have a college visit, they
have a doctor's appointment, those things don't count. These are when they are unexcused absences. Once
they hit five, the school notifies the parents of writing, implements truancy prevention, whatever that
might look like, and has to hold an attendance meeting
within 10 school days of that absence. The parents or guardians must be in attendance at that meeting.
And then at that meeting, a plan is created with families to improve attendance. Here's what we're gonna
put in place, transportation was it, whatever it might be, right? And then after that, if a student
has 10 unexcused absence, that hits the definition of habitual truancy.
the school must provide written notice to the family and requires us to notify the prosecutor's office.
So that is a new part that's in law as well. When we're thinking about what does that attendance plan
look like, so after that five unexcused absences the plan's created, it would identify any help or services
the student needs, what behaviors are expected, put clear expectations for both the student and family
if that applies. What happens if things don't improve?
So if there would be disciplinary steps, we would obviously clarify what the law required us to do as
well. Whether the parent will be involved in the extra support. These plans may last up to 45 school
days. They don't necessarily do that, but they cannot last beyond 45 school days. They would need a
new plan. They would be saying it was not effective. Really just in summation, right, we know that every
single day counts.
families, individuals to ask questions, share, partner with us, let us know what's going on so we can
support it. We know that those small changes make a big difference to put it in support services and
that's just gonna help our students be successful engaging in school. I have to give a shout out to
attendanceworks.org. We take a lot of resources from them. They are tremendous and you'll see their
things reflected in the things that we do around attendance in schools. Thank you very much. Any questions?
The change to having to report after 10 days, that was made, was that made in the last legislative session?
That was in 482, it was this year. That was not in place last year. Interesting. But the notification
and the meeting and the attendance plan was all in previous legislation. Right, totally. But so you
have to report to the prosecutor's office? And as a follow up to that,
Unexcused versus excused absence, is that a state defined or is it, so instance, a kid's sick, parent
calls the child in sick, but doesn't go to the doctor. Is that still considered an excused absence?
Yes. OK. After, yeah. There is, after a certain point in time, it would be recorded to our attendance policy
you would be required to provide a doctor's note, but it would be after a certain number. A number of
days out? Yeah. But not a cumulative, so if they're sick in June? Right, not a cumulative. OK. I think
there's a lot of public confusion on this piece, particularly. I've seen a lot of things on social media
with regards to the new law that was put in.
I think a lot of people now feel like they have to have a doctor's note no matter what or it's considered
unexcused. So I'm glad we're having this conversation because I have seen it repeatedly where people
have been upset by that, don't even know it's a thing, didn't even know it was a thing the year prior
with the changes. So I was going to ask that question myself. And I think some of the verbiage in our
that we send to families is somewhat vague on that and can kind of insinuate it the other way. I will
check the, we did modify the letter this year with new legislation. So I'll double check to make sure
that if some of it is vague, that if it is, or referring to last year's letter or this year's letter,
but we'll make sure we look at that. And one of the reasons for an excused absence was section seven,
article something what what is that just related to special education services 505 or four yeah okay
um i knew that it had to be reported i guess i didn't realize it was to the prosecutor's office prior
to last year and you may not know but maybe you do what was the reporting structure and who like at
what point would it get reported and to whom same um if i understand your
Question I mean prior to last year even in years before Chronic absences and the schools got to reach
out and notify parents right and do a lot of the attendance plan kind of thing is formalized and so
So that would be happening schools are monitoring that it would get Reported it could it would still
have been if there were issues with truancy Really at that level. I think you're still working with local
services to notify them. I was pretty sure that when it was first introduced two years ago, the prosecutor
was involved at that moment. If you had so many absences, it would go there and then the prosecutor's
office would have the choice to do something about it or not. Right. But I think there was more flexibility.
You weren't required. You weren't required. Yeah.
So it does seem like a conscious choice to pursue it as a crime instead of going through children's
services. Yeah, that to me is like the sort of biggest or most egregious thing. And I do. It does seem
interesting to me that it coincides with a lot of the other legislation happening, especially around
marginalized populations. And anyway, I was just curious. So just a point of curiosity. Any other questions
about school attendance? I have one more. I was just curious.
Any conversation has occurred. I know we're still early in the school year with this piece, but foreseeing
this being any issue for our schools in terms of monitoring it in this new way, more burden. So I think
really a lot of that plan that was done last year when
282 required a certain kind of level of notification around unexcused absences. And it's where we really
were able to leverage parent square, which allows us, it actually, we again, for a long, we've sent
attendance letters for a long time, right? We've notified, we've done this. And in the past, it had
been pretty cumbersome, right? It was about writing a report, it was about printing letters, it was
stumping envelopes, it was doing all of these things.
Parent Square has really allowed us to automate a lot of that and actually make it more effective and
efficient. We set up a template, we've trained individuals to do it. It's still a task to do, of course,
but I think it's better communication, it's more immediate, and there have been some good outcomes in
terms of last year around conversations, around intervening and getting those attendance plans in place,
for sure. I do wanna also mention that some of the information from the attendance came directly from
presentations that our schools created for family, for back to school nights that they wanted to go
over. So I looked at, I reviewed those as well to kind of think about what would be most relevant to
present here tonight as well. Cool. I mean, the benefit of parent square too is that parents can get
it in language as well. So if, you know, previously they would have gotten a letter emailed to them
or mailed to them and it was just in English,
they now have the option to translate that. So I guess that's an added benefit, I suppose, of ParentSquare.
So yeah, thank you very much. Anyone else? OK, then on to our last presentation, which is an update
on technology. Ms. Harmon, you're up again. This one actually starts with Mr. Cope first, but then I'll
be on the second.
Hello. There we are. Good evening. Thank you, Board President Hennessy. And thank you, Dr. Winston and
members of the board for allowing me to speak with you tonight. My name is Andy Cope, and I am the Director
of Technology for MCCSC. I know many of you, but to those that I don't, hello. I am also here tonight.
as a parent of MCCSE students. I know I look incredibly young, but I'm actually the parent of an MCCSE
grad as well as a seventh grader. So I'm here speaking as a parent as well. I'll be addressing
the information services department. As the director of information technology, I oversee that department.
And so I'll be speaking to security data tools and support.
And then I'll be handing off the presentation to Alexis Harmon, who will talk about the enhancement
of teaching and learning via technology. So as a parent, I know that security is at the forefront of
our minds. When we say goodbye to our students every single day and they head out the door, we want
to make sure that our babies are safe. So I'd like to start out by talking about security and data.
On your students' devices, we do have endpoint protection. On staff devices as well, endpoint protection
protects devices from viruses and malware. So you can be certain that when their device comes back home
that it is safe and free from malware and viruses. We also have a security operations center, otherwise
known as a SOC, which enables us to have the remote monitoring of security events.
When you think about all the different accounts that your student has, we would get notifications if
there is any funny business out there on the internet. We will be notified by our security operations
center. We also engage in email filtering to safeguard against phishing and impersonation attacks. We
have a vendor specifically for that. This is a layer in between our
our internet and those who would do us harm via phishing and scams of that nature. We have a secure
wired and wireless network in our schools, which allows you to travel throughout our buildings and be
connected to the internet anywhere you go. We have a industry standard firewall to protect our network.
We also have battery backups to minimize the impact of a single outage, whether that be a power outage
or an internet outage.
Our network is throughout the entire corporation. We make all efforts to make sure that a single outage
doesn't impact the entire corporation. We also do a great deal to safeguard student digital activity
via content filtering. We do follow federal and state laws such as FERPA,
APA, SEPA, and PPRA. When we filter content, we have a centralized appliance that does filter traffic
based on categories. So if your students go to a specific website that isn't categorized at all, they
would just get a block page. And that's because legally, we have to filter this content. We also,
I mean, we're interested in making sure that they make the right choices and that they're only going
to educational sites. So you can see here in the list here
they would be able to go to a news site, for example, or a politics site, or an investment site, but
not a dating site or a gambling site, right? So we filter by category in this way. It also allows us
to customize, you know, if a teacher comes to us and says, hey, I wanna use this website, you know,
in my class and it's blocked, we're able to, you know, through a help desk ticket, go in and make those
changes. We also filter by grade. So our younger students have more restrictions than our older students.
Our high schoolers get to explore a little bit more, do more research, and so it's scalable, basically,
by student age and grade. Moving on to the next slide. Change. Somebody got to see about that.
Up next, I'm talking about managing and protecting our student data. And that all starts in our student
information system, Skyward. That's where we ensure accurate student and family information. That's
the basis for timely family communication. Families can go in at any time and do Skyward family access
and actually update email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers. That's also where our state reporting
information is housed, our academic records, and we have real-time role-based secure access for students
and teachers within Skyward, and then also out in our learning applications that are fed by Skyward.
We only share essential data to our application vendors. We make sure that we're not sharing any information to
vendors that would do marketing to our students or families or anything like that. Let's talk about
our technology tools. We have a wide array of technology tools in the corporation to ensure access and
connectivity for teachers and students. We are a one-to-one district, which means typically one device
per student for K-12. Our K-6 students use iPads and utilize touch screen typing.
and our middle school students use iPads with a keyboard case, so they can take that iPad home and type
on a keyboard, allowing them to do longer form essays and things of that nature. Our high school students
have Windows laptops, and that's so that they can experience a different platform. During their time
with us, they get to use Windows rather than Mac the entire time. We also have a robust wireless network
in every building, as I mentioned before. So no matter where you are, you can be connected.
We have screen sharing technology for flexible integrative teaching practices and assistive technology
for individualized student supports for our students with IEPs and 504s. Our technology tools across
the corporation, applications that we have for students, families, teachers, and staff. You might have
wondered when your student brings home a device, what are all these apps on here? How do these apps get here?
Don't worry, we do have a rigorous process for identifying and reviewing learning applications in partnership
with the curriculum and instruction department. So we review every application to make sure that it
abides by our privacy policies and that we're being fiscally responsible when we're purchasing additional
applications. And we also just want to make sure that the applications are pedagogically sound. So if
you see an application on your student's device, it's because it was either
register and curriculum adoption, or it was approved by the IS department and the curriculum department
on demand. We also provide grade-level content from a variety of textbook platforms and learning
applications. As you can see in the right, sort of my cloud of applications there. We also have essential
communication tools such as ParentSquare, which was previously mentioned, and our enrollment and registration
and report cards all happen in Skyward.
We try to be very coordinated in our support. We have support out in our buildings, but we also have
centralized support. We do that in our help desk ticketing system. We use Zendesk in this corporation.
This allows us to centralize support requests and support requests to appropriate IS staff. So that
means if you're sitting at home and you have a technology issue, you do have the option of putting in
a help desk ticket
And the nice thing is you don't have to know who to contact. You can just put in a ticket and then we
will route your request to an available expert. Building techs and computer coordinators are on hand
in school buildings for onsite support, but support can be quickly escalated to the corporation level
as needed. Oh, and sorry, go back one slide there. At any time you can click on the question mark icon
on our website, that little help button.
And that does open up a window to put in a ticket. Just closing out here, these are our ticket supports
by the numbers. As of September 12th, we have solved 27,082 help desk tickets over the past year. An
equally important number is 51,321. That's the number of support articles that have been viewed. Overall,
our goal is to provide so much helpful information, you don't have to ever put in a ticket at all.
We just continue to try to find ways to be transparent and provide the best information that we can
for students, staff, faculty, and families. And with that, I will turn the presentation over to our
assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and assessment, Alexis Harmon, to talk about enhancing
teaching and learning. Thank you so much. New technology. I appreciate it.
It's really nice to be able to come after that so you can see the comprehensive technology department
that we have that really does allow us to enhance teaching and learning and use it in that way. So just
to start off with, I wanted to highlight this prime case of students as innovators, what we hope technology
will do for all of our students. You might remember last year we celebrated these students who created
a product called Storm Shield.
They is assistive technology for increasing how students can engage in sports, particularly students
who are experiencing deafness. And they know much more about it than I do. But this is the kind of thing
we'd like to see, technology enabling students to problem solve real world, create solutions. And so
we just wanted to highlight that this. But here's what we need to put in place in order for that to
happen, right?
We need a learning environment that transforms student learning through technology, and it enhances
how teachers teach and how students learn. We think about that in three ways, building future-ready
skills, enhancing access, and increasing engagement. So when we look at it in that way, we think about
those future-ready schools, we see technology as a tool for helping us develop critical thinking, digital
literacy, and problem solving, right? Students
have so much access to information with internet, with technology. So it's our job to make sure that
they can analyze that information, make sure that it's verifiable, that it's correct, that they can
use it in a way that's useful for them, that they have the tools. You saw the listing of apps, right?
There are all of these tools out there as well. Do we know how to use them responsibly? How to still
show our own learning and knowledge by doing that?
We want them to be able to use technology to design, prototype, and test. And we see that as done with
such excellence with Storm Shield, who, again, were at the edge end of their career. That's years of
education coming up. So also, we think the use of technology is going to prepare students to be in the
workforce and in college, right? It's developing them to be collaborative and agile. And that's what
employers are saying that's need. That's what's going to be expected with them at college.
We regularly also survey graduates to say, how did we prepare you for life after high school? And that
technology piece was a big part of that, knowing the tools that are available, being able to use it
to demonstrate their knowledge and their skills, and having access to laptops, to both having experienced
an Apple environment and a Microsoft environment, and knowing how to navigate those two and use them
productively in the classroom. So that's been really important to their development as well.
Also, technology is key for collaboration and communication, as we all know as we use them. So we want
students to be able to communicate across modalities. Literacy is no longer just written, right? It's
also visual, it's also digital, and it comes through in those ways. And we want them to be able to use
those various tech tools. I just like this picture. I just want to show an example of students using
coding blocks to sequence steps and debug simple programs. Sometimes when we say technology in the classroom,
We imagine kids behind a screen. But this is technology in the classroom, right? These are students
together, collaboratively talking about it. That little BeBot, that's what it's called. It's basically
a tool that they code. I actually had a similar toy when I was five, and it had these buttons. Maybe
some of you had it, too. But that's essentially what this does, too. They teach it to do. They program
it to do something. They will be given an instruction to go to a certain location. And it works.
or it doesn't, and they debug it and try it again. So it's teaching logic, problem solving as well.
Great skills for math. Enhancing access to learn. Again, also, technology reduces barriers, right? We
can standardize access to textbooks, to resources, to tools, to the internet. It's protected. It's a
safe way to access it, of course, through the work of our IAS department.
It gives them multiple ways they can demonstrate what they know and the way that fits them best. They
have different tools to use. If they want to record themselves speaking, if they want to do digital
design, if they want to code, any of these things. When I was a student and I had a question that came
up in class, my parent had to take me to the library, I had to know how to look through the card catalog,
all of these things.
kids have a question now, it's immediate that they could get an answer. And again, so our goal as teachers
is to teach them how to do that and know that when they get the answer, it's the right answer, and then
how to use that information. It's not just about having it. So also, technology has given us real strength
in differentiation and inclusion. President Hennessy, you mentioned parent square's ability to translate.
Those kinds of accessibility tools are throughout as well, speech to text translation.
text magnification screen readers. I don't know that we're utilizing in the classroom yet, but I was
just reading an article about how now with AirPods, it can automatically translate as somebody speaks
to them. Wow, right? So the kinds of connections and accessibility that people can have. And we're able
to personalize, right? We have programs where teachers can input information about a student and give
them some personalized learning. Right there, they can do some kind of independently.
It's not everything, it's enhancement, right? So it's about enhancing what we have. And we do see increased
engagement, right? We have interactive tools, active participation. Kids are highly engaged by them.
We can simulate real world problems and we do and you can see some students over here to the side in
a virtual simulation. And again, yeah, there's a screen, but they're also sitting there working with
their hands, talking to each other.
It's not zoning out. That's not what technology in the classroom looks like. We want that classroom
learning to connect with authentic problem solving. And again, technology frequently lets us kind of
simulate an environment in a pretty authentic way. Students see relevance, which increases motivation.
They can enable creation. And it moves them from consumers to producers of knowledge and solutions.
It's pretty exciting.
I think just to finish off, we don't want to see technology as an add-on or a replacement. We want it
to transform how students learn, how teachers teach, how we prepare graduates for college careers and
life, and to be in the society that's heavily integrated into technology. So our role as educators is
to ensure that they have access to these opportunities, and we're teaching them to be critical thinkers
as they use it. Thank you so much. Are there any questions? Thank you. I do have a question, actually,
and I'm just curious.
What have we started to do or how have we started to think about AI in a classroom? So, and Andy, if
you want to type it, I mean, we have had lots of professional conversations amongst ourselves. We have,
we talk to our colleagues in different school corporations to kind of just keep in mind. You cannot
go to a professional development opportunity these days without that being a topic and something you
can explore.
We have used it minimally in the classroom, but we've allowed really teachers implementation to be able
to kind of explore AI and think about it. So we have through a grant with a DOE access to a program
called Magic School AI, which is a learning platform that uses AI, but it allows you as a teacher to
create really
focus lessons so that you're kind of teaching them how to use AI as they may also be using AI to also
demonstrate, you know, a standard or skill in your subject area. It can help teachers themselves with
creating lesson plans. And so we're excited about that. It's very new for us and we're exploring it.
Very interesting. You're right. You can't go anywhere really these days without someone asking the question
or having a conversation. And, you know, I work in the corporate space and even organizations, they
come to us all the time. They're like, well,
We need AI. And I'm like, OK, well, let's talk about what are you trying to solve for? Because they're
just like, I don't know. My boss told me we need to have a product with AI. So there are just these
sort of asks and questions out there. I have this friend who teaches at the Kelly School of Business,
and she's a brilliant educator. And one of the things that she's having her class do this semester is to
I mean, she's really teaching critical thinking skills, but also management skills and other things
like that. So she has all of her students essentially writing a really detailed scope of work and hiring
an AI assistant. So they are essentially writing this detailed scope of work for what they need the
assistant to do. And then they have several checkpoints where they have to write performance reviews
for that AI bot and all of these other things. And it's really teaching them to like,
be critical about what it is they need the AI tool to do and then evaluating whether or not it's doing
it well. And I just think there are the ethical questions about AI in general and how it's probably
gonna eat up all our water supplies, but whatever. Aside from that, right? There are the really interesting
things that it can potentially do, and I'm also not sure that we're going to get away from it anytime
soon. So just, I was at the ISBA conference and
some of the districts were saying they have really hard policies on AI and what they allow their district
to do or not to do with it and we haven't done that or talked about that yet. I just think you know
it's an interesting something to begin maybe thinking about but yeah. I would agree I think when our
teachers are thinking about it it's a really interesting opportunity
to teach kids, like, metacognition. How are you thinking about thinking? And we know when kids are able
to do that, that it's going to empower them in their learning. And so I think there's certainly opportunity
right in reaching it. Any other questions or comments? No, thank you. Thank you. I definitely think,
I mean, working at IU and get some of the students to come from our district, we definitely prepare
our students well how to use technology. And I work in a tech school, so it's really good.
So thank you. Thank you.
All right, well, thank you both for your presentations this evening. We are moving along. I guess this
is time for comments and committee reports. So any board members have anything you'd like to share?
I guess I will say that a few of the board members did go to the ISBA, the Indiana School Board Association
Conference last week.
You know, it's an annual conference that's held, I think, almost all schools in Indiana, public schools
are part of ISBA. And, you know, I think it's one of the few times that boards have official sort of
professional development. I think it's really important as often as we can sort of attend events like
that to sort of, one, see what other districts in the state are doing.
And two, to just be in a space where you get to learn about the issues on the table from a board perspective
because I think that there aren't very many spaces for boards like that. I was the official delegate
this year for ISBA and essentially the, you know, so each district can appoint a delegate and the delegate votes
on a variety of issues, anything from budget to what the new legislative priorities will be for the
ISBA. So the ISBA works very closely with the legislature to try and influence the sort of legislation
that might be on the table that affects or impacts public schools. And so sometimes you can't change
the legislation, but you might be able to
work in such a way with a legislator to have them add or remove or edit or adopt something slightly
different, right? And so being able to sort of have a hand in determining what those priorities will
be, I think is important. Any time that we can sort of have any influence in that space, I think it's
a good thing. And then, you know, as the president, I went to the president's breakfast
And I did say, only in education do things start at 7 a.m. Never in the corporate world would you get
people in a room at 7 a.m. Because in education, they're used to having teachers and educators who start
really early. This president's breakfast started at 7 a.m. And I went and it was really interesting
to be in a room with board presidents from all over the state
who are dealing to varying degrees with the same issues that we're dealing with and to hear how they
are working their way through them completely at a loss or just sort of hearing districts being in that
struggle alongside us in many ways and being able to really sort of direct a lot of that energy and
attention toward how will we as
presidents as districts begin to sort of speak to our legislators and for our districts, you know, anything
and topics on the table, anything from the sort of tag money or the grants to having to cut, you know,
district cuts that they're having. Many districts are having to cut programming. It's just
really dire across the state, especially when you get into districts that are very small. So I think
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
reassuring, but sort of like just knowing you're in the, I don't really like the in the trenches metaphor,
but that you are sort of in the trenches with other people, I think is good.
Um, so lots of work on the table to be done. A lot of things that are outside of our control. But,
you know, I did hear several times, like, well, what if every single district agreed to do blank? What
would they do? Right. And it's a curious question. Like, if you could get every district to agree on
a course of action in resistance to the legislation, what would happen?
I think there are power in numbers, right? And so just being able to be in the room and have some of
those conversations I think was really valuable. Anybody else who was at the conference, anything you
gleaned, you learned, you discovered or appreciated about that? I have a question for those that were
able to make it. And maybe it was more for where you were in April, but did they give any foreshadowing
on expectations for the next legislative session?
and what we might be seeing as potential bills? It was more about where the ISBA anticipated sort of
needing to put pressure or, you know, where it's a short session, so I think it's going to run mid-January
through mid-March, but we know that they can cram a lot in in those
short three months, right? To say short is, I think, sometimes misleading. So just, you know, I think
accounting for some of the things that were on the table last year, thinking some of those bills might
come back around. So I don't know. You know, I guess we'll see. It would be nice to not play defense.
It would be nice. But they want us to play defense, right? They're not going to show their hand too
early, because then people would be able to prepare earlier. Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. Any other
questions or comments? One thing I did hear is that one of the sessions I attended was about planning
for capital projects. It's nice to see that we're
ahead of the curve and planning ahead rather than having to be reactionary because a lot of districts
are in that situation. Yes, we did hear there are lots of districts in the state who have never run
a referendum or have run them and failed and are in this sort of situation now of having to decide if
they should and when they should and how. And so, you know, I'm always grateful to our community that
by whatever margin, we have referendum that have passed. And I think we're lucky in that sense. And
as we're planning for these capital projects too, all of those wonderful resolutions we went through
earlier in the meeting. Yes. Doing that planning ahead has been very important. Yes. And that one session
was about capital projects sooner rather than later, trying to get them ahead of some of the potential
legislation that
other? I can't even think of the name but the school is on Valley the Patriots that it was good to go
to a session and hear how the students were I mean running a business at the school and it was cool
to have a conversation to compare the coffee shop that we have I like one of sessions where you can
still talk about the cool things your district's doing too and take something from it so that was really
good to hear what the students were doing another session is learning how to be a good board member
And a lot of things that they implemented is like things that we're doing as a board. We could always
do better, but at least we get along really well. Because some boards do not get along. I learned that.
And I'm like, whoa. But it was really good to hear that and how supportive. It was good being there
with Markay because some superintendents were there along too. So that's telling as well. So it was
good. I learned a lot from the vendors in the session.
You don't have to talk, but if you want to. No, it was a really good experience. Obviously, it was my
first ISPA conference. And I learned a lot. I also felt it was a great team building experience and
getting to know some of the fellow board members a little better. And I kind of stayed on the track
that was community engagement based. And I did learn a lot.
Yeah I mean it is interesting because I did see there are so many things in those presentations that
we're already doing right and I do just want to note that our district and I don't say this to like
just sort of to our horn not recognize that there are always things that we can do differently or better
but I think this district really is ahead of the game in many ways whether it is from the school safety
plan to the communications to
know the way that the district has made some concerted efforts to engage the community and students
in you know the fact that we have a 92 person redistricting committee is not i mean it's an anomaly
that is not something that happens in very many places um and it doesn't mean that we can't continue
to look at what we're doing and think about how to do it better right we can always there's always room
for improvement
I was like that terrible teacher who rarely gave out a hundred because I was like, isn't there always
something we can do like a little better? Like you can get a 99. I don't know. Maybe it's terrible.
Sorry. Anyway. Yeah. So I think I'm really grateful to the work that the people in the district and
our administrators and teachers and staff members and every single person from top to bottom, including
our janitorial staff, like every single level of
employees are doing like the very best at what they do and I'm just appreciative of that. All right
if no other comments we will finally move to superintendent comments and reports. Do you have any additional
information for us? Just a couple of items I want to just take a quick moment to celebrate and give
a shout out to one of our students. At Bloomington North we have a student Fiona O'Connor
who placed fifth in the state at the Special Olympics Golf Tournament. And I just want to acknowledge
her principal in the back. And I just want to congratulate Fiona on her spectacular finish. If we could
give her just a round of applause. That's just amazing. And I was so excited to learn about that from
Mr. Stark. In addition, at North,
We have Catherine Edmonds, who's a teacher there. And she was recently selected as a Place Nobel Educator
of Distinction by the National Society of High School Scholars. Ms. Edmonds was nominated by one of
her students for outstanding dedication and commitment to excellence in the profession. And just want
to say congratulations to Ms. Edmonds on this most excellent honor. So if we could also just celebrate
her momentarily.
I don't think either of them are here tonight, but thank you so much for sharing that. And then just
two additional items. The Success School is a part of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
The event connects businesses and local schools and introduces students to potential career options.
And we're so appreciative of this partnership. Yesterday, North High School, seems like it's about North
tonight. North High School hosted the Success School
career intern and employment fair for students. And then on Thursday of this week, South will be the
same and they will host the career fair. So we're very excited and we are so appreciative of the support
that we get consistently throughout the school year from the chamber. And I just wanted to acknowledge
that. And then my final comment is just a friendly reminder for those of you for whom this may not be
on your radar, but fall break is around the corner.
And that would be on October 16th and 17th. And I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that
the schools and offices will be closed on fall break and that we all take the time to enjoy this time
away from our busy work lives and celebrate it and relax a little bit. So just in a few short weeks,
fall break. That concludes my remarks. Excellent. All right.
Well, the next regularly scheduled board meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 28th, 2025, and we
are adjourned.