- lasting impact on our local community. He actively participates in a wide range of North activities,
- including serving as a Cougar leader, contributing to the student athletic board, and representing his
- peers on the student attendance student advisory committee. His positive attitude, strong leadership,
- and genuine enthusiasm have created a ripple effect throughout the school. His energy is not only uplifting
- to fellow students, but also contagious to fans at Cougar Games, where his spirit helps foster a sense
- of unity and pride.
- Rex exemplifies what it means to be a leader, thoughtful, engaged, and committed to make North a better
- place for everyone. We are grateful for his contributions and proud to celebrate his excellence this
- month. Congratulations, Rex.
- We are also proud to recognize Miss Abby Brim, Intermediate Inclusion Teacher at Grandview Elementary,
- as our other recipient of the excellent spotlight for November. Miss Brim is a valued member of our
- inclusion team at Grandview. She welcomes all students into the building with their best interest in
- mind. Miss Brim works tirelessly to ensure that students with a variety of needs are included in a classroom.
- And beyond her own classroom, she actively supports her coworkers by helping put effective supports
- in place so that all students can succeed.
- Her dedication, compassion, and commitment to inclusion make a profound impact on our school community.
- Congratulations, Miss Brim, and thank you for exemplifying excellence every day.
- This is something. On behalf of the board, thank you, Ms. Harmon, and congratulations to both of you,
- Rex Spear and Ms. Brim, tonight. We appreciate all of your efforts in our district, and we're grateful
- for you being here tonight as well. Dr. Winston, I understand you would like to recognize a couple of
- teachers with the Superintendent's Sustaining Excellence Award.
- coming to the rescue. The Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association. I want to give special recognition
- to two Bloomington North foreign language teachers for their honors at the Indiana Foreign Language
- Teachers Association Conference.
- Wang, a world language teacher specifically teaching Chinese at Jackson Creek Middle School and Bloomington
- High School North, was recently honored with the Tom Alsop Distinguished World Language Publication
- Award. This award is intended to recognize an article in a journal, dissertation, book, or research
- work related to the world language discipline. Can we give Ms. Wang a round of applause? In addition,
- Japanese teacher, Nachiko Awake won the 2025 Association of Indiana Teachers of Japanese Rising Star
- Award. And I've been in her classroom too. This award recognizes educators for their contributions to
- Japanese education in Indiana who have been teaching for five years or less. Both of our teachers were
- honored at the IFT LTA conference a few weeks ago. And tonight we would like to recognize them for this
- outstanding achievement.
- her a round of applause as well. Ms. Awaki, would you like to come forward and say a word? You can go
- to that microphone if you'd like to say something. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for inviting me here
- and recognizing my award.
- really thankful to be able to teach my students every day. I love High School North. I also like High
- School South as well, because my sons go there. But yes, Mr. Stark, the principal, is always very supportive.
- And I have been having a really good experience. And I always like to think about
- how I can make my class and language learning fun for my students. And I'm so glad that my effort was
- recognized. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We're going to take a picture with the certificate.
- It is always a nice way to start the meeting with a bunch of excellence awards and congratulations to
- all tonight. We will now receive our quarterly update on the activities of the MCCSE Foundation from
- the Foundation Director, Mrs. Helm. Good evening, President Hennessey, Superintendent Dr. Winston, and
- the rest of the board. And hello. I haven't seen you today either, Tom.
- So if you don't know, our auction closes in two hours. Actually one hour and 51 minutes. So I will be
- scooting after my report because I have to get home and make sure I'm set up in order to close that
- correctly. So I just really want to say a huge thank you. We have over 200 items on it. We have over
- 125 donors this year. Community supporters, individuals who
- who do things, crafts, and different things. So we're very, very appreciative of everyone who has donated
- an item to it. We have some sponsors this year, and we also have a huge bidding community this year.
- So probably the largest bidding community that we have had since we started the auction many years ago.
- I'm not going to say because I think it's 12, but I could be wrong. Our goal is 25,000.
- When I left my computer, it was at 24,642. I know we're a little higher than that because I just got
- pinged that I've been outbid on a couple items. So I know it's a little higher than that. So I feel
- really confident that we're going to hit the 25,000 goal. But we need everybody bidding all the way
- up until 8 PM. And you know what? I love to blow goals. So take me over, people. That's what I would
- love to see. And hopefully, people here have your max bid set so that you're
- system is doing it for you, and you don't have to be there. So again, thank everybody. And I will put
- in a plug. If you get outbid tonight, you can always make a donation. Donations of cash, checks, stock,
- whatever. I take it all. We take it all. So pick up will begin tomorrow at noon.
- If you win, you will get a text and some emails following with those particular pickup times, but we
- will start tomorrow from noon to four and then Thursday and Friday will go from nine to four. So just
- start working on that and we're going to get it all laid out early in the morning. Since I met with
- you guys last, the foundation has received several grants that we have written to community organizations.
- So I want to highlight who those grants are that have come in over the fall and give you a little bit
- of a background on what they're going to do.
- Smithfield Charitable received a grant. We received a grant through them. And what that is doing is
- it is expanding the number of seats of, I never say if it's dibbles or dibbles. Dibbles? Dibbles, okay.
- So we're expanding the number of seats in dibbles, which I've been told is a very needed thing for the
- corporation. So we're happy that we're going to be doing that. We also received a grant from Health
- by Design.
- What that is is safe routes to school, so it's in that space. It is purchasing additional bike racks
- for, I believe, eight schools. It is paying for a pedestrian gate that was much needed at Rogers Benford.
- It is supporting the bike rodeo program, and it is also allowing Lisa Greathouse, who is our manager
- of coordinated school and health,
- to add some additional bike programming in some of our title schools for 913 sports. So if you don't
- know what 913 sports does, Google it and look it up. It's pretty cool. It's a pretty cool programming.
- They're based out of Indianapolis. So we're really excited to be able to have them and add that programming
- in for our students and helping them understand bike safety,
- how bikes can actually be a transportation vehicle. You don't have to drive a car. You can go on a bike.
- So it's that type of thing, encouraging safe routes to school and getting kids to take advantage of
- those opportunities rather than just necessarily getting on a school bus. Bloomington Urban Enterprise,
- we received the emerging workforce grants. And this is for schools that serve a high percentage of students
- who live in the urban enterprise zone. And then finally, I would like to give a little accolades to
- the IU credit union.
- If you're not aware, we've been doing a spirit debit card program with them for about the past four
- years where it allows you to logo your debit card with one of MCCSE's high schools. So all four high
- schools are available that you can get a spirit card that carries that logoing on it. And every time
- they swipe those transactions, the credit union gives back. So we tapped out last year with the maximum
- amount that we could receive from them, which is $15,000.
- And where my board has voted to put that is the past three or four years that we've been doing this
- with the credit union, it's going straight into the foundation's unrestricted endowment. So the goal
- is to do an endowment build or to help us get that endowment up so that sustainability of the foundation
- holds longevity beyond me and anybody else. So if you're into that endowment space, you understand what
- we're talking about. Just to give you a feel for it,
- We have 1,800 active cards. So that's quite a few alumni. And I've been told by the credit union, it's
- not just alumni. Sometimes it's the kids themselves. If their parents allow them to carry a debit card,
- sometimes the kids are carrying them themselves. So it's a great program. If you go to the credit union,
- go get one.
- Um, urine giving is coming up. We are approaching the end of 25. So it is time where people will start
- thinking about their urine giving and tax deductions. So if you are in that space, I hope that you will
- consider making a philanthropic charitable gift to the foundation. I also want to let you know the board,
- um, my board today has approved and we're going to be launching a new giving program. Um, it's going
- to be called Community Partners in Giving and the initiative is to offer local businesses and community members
- and an ability to support our mission while they receive more year-round marketing across our fundraisers.
- Traditionally, what we have done is sponsorships on main events. Sometimes if those sponsorships or
- those types of events don't resonate with a business, then they may choose to not do it. If you're not
- a golfer, you're not gonna sponsor the golf outing. So those types of things, so think of it in that
- space. So this is a way for them to be able to receive
- Different types of recognition through it. A lot of foundations are moving towards this more of a general
- giving approach as opposed to related to a specific event. We still are offering specific sponsorships.
- Those are not going away. But it just gives a broader way to engage in philanthropy and make an ongoing
- impact. So I wanted to let you know. Grant cycles. We closed grant cycle one. And I want to let you
- know we awarded 32 grants totaling $44,000.
- Grant cycle two is open. So please let all faculty know we're shooting it out as much as possible. It
- closes January 31st. So this will be their second opportunity for this year, second and final opportunity.
- We do two grant awards, two grant cycles, and we did change up the timing a little bit this year. So
- if you're looking for a grant, it's open. You can spend a little time over the holidays writing it.
- So it's there. And happy Thanksgiving.
- Thank you so much, Mrs. Helm. We appreciate all the work that the foundation does. And now it's time
- for public comments, but I do think we have any public comments, so we will move right along. We will
- instead consider the consent agenda that includes the following, minutes from the regular board meeting
- held on October 28th, 2025, the ECA expenditures, the overnight and out of state field trips, the financial
- report from October,
- the appropriation balance report from October, the register of claims November 11th, the payroll register
- and payroll claims October, 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? So it
- was moved by Ross and seconded by Asia that we approve the consent agenda as presented. All those in
- favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against?
- Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next for our consideration are the donations. We have received
- over $9,000 of donations. Thank you to all of our donors. Your generosity is, as always, appreciated.
- Do I have a motion to accept the donations? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Moved by Ross and
- seconded by Ashley that we accept the donations as presented. All those in favor of the motion to approve
- signify by saying aye. Aye.
- Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Now for our consideration is the second and final
- reading of the following policy 5111, eligibility of resident and non-resident students. Is there a
- motion to adopt policy 5111 as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ashley
- and seconded by Ross that we adopt the policy 5111
- eligibility of resident and non-resident students as presented Dr. Winston. Thank you. I recommend that
- you approve policy 5111 revisions as presented in your packet. Any comments from the board? Okay, just
- a reminder for me before we vote that this was a policy that we were required to pass and not one that
- the board has sort of written and put on the books just as a reminder.
- So all those in favor of the motion to adopt policy 5111, eligibility of resident and non-resident students
- as presented, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Now
- we move on to collective bargaining and the agreement between MCCSC and the Monroe County Education
- Association. Do I have a motion to approve the collective bargaining agreement as presented? So moved.
- Do I have a second? It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Asia that we approve the collective bargaining
- agreement between MCCSE and MCEA as presented. Dr. Winston. Thank you. I recommend that the board of
- school trustees approve the MCCSE and MCEA bargaining agreement as presented in your packet. Okay. Any
- comments from the board? All right. Moving right along.
- All those in favor of the motion to approve the collective bargaining agreement between MCCSE and MCEA,
- please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? The motion carries. Next for
- our consideration is the personnel report. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel report as presented?
- So moved. Do I have a second? Second.
- Heavy lifting on the side of the table. It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Ashley that we approve
- the personnel report as presented. Dr. Henderson. President Hennessy, Dr. Winston, and members of the
- Board of School Trustees, at this time, I request that you please approve the recommendations as presented
- in your board packet in the personnel report. Thank you, Dr. Henderson. Any comments from the board?
- Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion to approve the personnel report, please signify by saying
- aye. Aye. Any against?
- Any abstentions? The motion carries. We now move on to the contracts. Do I have a motion to approve
- the contracts and the quote as presented? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. It's been moved by Ross
- and seconded by Tiana that we approve the contracts and quote as presented. Mr. Irwin. Yes, all the
- contracts have been reviewed through our normal processes and our staff for your approval, so I recommend
- the contracts as presented.
- Are there any comments from the board on any of these contracts or the quote? Right all those in favor
- of the motion to approve the contracts and quote signify by saying aye Any against any abstentions the
- motion carries? Next is the recommendation to adopt resolution 2025 25 tax anticipation warrant Do I
- have a motion to adopt this anticipation warrant as presented? Do I have a second?
- It's been moved by Ross and seconded by Aaron Wyatt that we adopt the resolution 2025-25 as presented.
- I just remind you that this is the same process that you went through earlier in the year in 2025 program
- so this is for the 2026 program
- The resolution that you're approving does not commit us to going through with the program, but allows
- us to go through with it if we need to. So you're approving us the permission to go and do it, but it
- does not guarantee us to do it. So we'll continue to evaluate that as we work through it. But again,
- you should be aware because it's familiar for a process that you just did earlier this year. All right.
- Thank you. That makes sense. Are there any comments from the board on this tax anticipation warrant?
- All those in favor of the motion to approve resolution 2025-25 tax anticipation warrant signify by saying
- aye. Aye. Any against? Any abstentions? Motion carries. Tonight, we have several updates to be presented.
- The first is the quarterly two-year strategy to sustaining excellence and financial transparency update.
- Dr. Winston. Thank you, President Hennessy.
- Exactly nine months ago, the Board of School Trustees and I announced our two-year strategy to achieve
- fiscal balance. Part of that strategy included our public commitment to provide quarterly updates and
- financial transparency regarding our efforts. The two board priorities that have been established for
- this year include achieving financial balance and to sustain excellence. As a friendly reminder, I'd
- like to just take a few moments to remind everyone of our journey toward achieving balance.
- In July of 2024, a mere few months ago, when I was appointed as an interim superintendent, the board
- of school trustees tasked me with taking a comprehensive look at our corporation finances. As a result
- of that, we contracted with policy analytics to ask them to help us take a deep dive and looking at
- our finances and identifying opportunities for us to streamline operations and identify future fiscal
- liability opportunities. And during the process of that work,
- We came forward in February of this year and announced our two-year strategy. That was in February.
- And then shortly thereafter, SEA 1 was passed by our state legislature, which was at the end of April.
- So I think it's important to note the timing of such. Consistent with our promise to the community,
- however, we have continued to provide quarterly updates on our finances, and we are eager to provide
- you with this update, this third update, nine months into our 24-month strategy this evening.
- So it's my pleasure to be able to turn the microphone over to Mr. Irwin, our Chief Financial Officer,
- and he will provide our quarterly financial transparency report that details the progress that we've
- made to date to reduce expenses, to increase our resource optimization, generate new revenue, and ultimately
- increase our cash reserves. As we shared in February, our first priority is reducing expenses while
- minimizing direct impacts on classroom instruction. Mr. Irwin?
- Thank you, Dr. Winston. Thank you, board. So again, as Dr. Winston said, this is our third quarterly
- update. And so I'm happy to share that with the public. So I think it's a couple of things that I want
- to continue to do as we go through this process, just as we work through the updates quarter by quarter.
- The first slide that I'm showing you is the same slide that you've seen many times and that we've shown
- to the public many times. This is the slide that shows
- what it is that the school corporation was facing as of December of 2024 and so as I try to orient you
- to what you're looking at on the slide is the numbers inside of the bar inside of the colors that's
- the fund balance of the respective fund the number at the top or the bottom is the cumulative total
- of those fund balances so the ones that are at the top that are showing there above the zero those are
- places where there was a cumulative total that was a positive fund total
- The ones at the bottom shows a negative. And if you follow the trend all the way out to 2028, you see
- the high-paced decreasing cash balances across the funds. And as it gets all the way out to 2028, as
- much as over $30 million in deficit. So therein lies, it just kind of shows that quick reference point
- of what the school corporation was facing, why the two-year strategy was enacted,
- And then we'll move forward into talking about some of the progress. But I want to continue to level
- set there and say, what was it that we were facing? Just have that starting point and then talk about
- moving forward. The next thing that I want to do for you all is I want to continue to talk about what's
- changed since the last time we talked. This is an ever evolving picture.
- And so I've put seven things on here that reflect some of the big key pieces that I think is important
- for you to know, because the context is important. And so when we look at this, number one says the
- actual revenue and expenses through October 31 of this year. Again, everything leading up through October
- is actualized. Everything after October is projected. So at the end of every month, we're looking at
- our projections and saying, how close is that to actual?
- Does that mean that we need to adjust the projection moving forward because something did or did not
- happen based on the way that we thought it would? And then we work through that process each and every
- month. The next big thing on number two is a certification of our October student count. Student count,
- our ADM, is the number one funding revenue source for the school corporation. So we certified our October
- count at 99.37.
- which was lower than our fall count last year. That was expected. We talked about that for a little
- while now, what the expectation was as our demographics continue to change and shift. What I do want
- to make note of is that's very close to what it is that we expected it to be. And that's a good thing
- for us as it brings some comfort to say, are we in tune with what it is that we are expecting to happen
- in the future?
- And not that that is completely inside of our control, but we're continuing to make plans off of the
- things that we expect to happen and making educated decisions about what that looks like, whether it's
- from the demographic study or the trends that we see happening here locally. The next piece is that
- as I've had more and more time being on board here is to continue to take more focused looks at the
- projections for the remainder of 2025 and all of 2026.
- As you move through the year, you're a little more certain about what's going to happen there towards
- the end of the year. So just continuing to review those things and make sure that what it is that we've
- seen occur, do we expect that to continue? Or was that something that was an anomaly that maybe just
- would have happened during 2025? And so that doesn't affect how it is that we project moving forward.
- And then are those expenses something or revenue that we expect to continue to happen, almost like the
- budgeting process to a degree?
- And then what's a reasonable expectation for what those expenses could look like moving forward?
- Number four, this is an important piece, is just the expected effects of the decisions regarding staff
- pay, benefits, and insurance. So with your approval of the NCA contract tonight, that's one of the pieces.
- We are bargaining with ASME now, and we're working through those plans of what it is that we expect
- to do across all pay groups. So we're doing the best that we possibly can to make sure that we take
- care of our staff
- the benefits that we provide and insurance increases that continue to happen and try to limit the impact
- that it has on our on our staff while not altering the course of achieving financial balance. So that
- is something that we're very much making very in tune decisions with but we are trying to make sure
- to do the best we possibly can by our employees throughout this process. Number five talks about the
- expected effects of
- the SCA-1 legislation. I know last month, Barry Gardner from Policy Analytics gave a very in-tune, in-depth
- review of what the effects were of that legislation on MCCSC. I think he talked a little bit about the
- broader context as well. But again, I've taken that information, which very much affects our cash projections
- and our cash flows, and folded that information into our projections and our analysis. The next piece is just
- to continue to look at the expenses. I think this is important pieces. I talked about an in-tune look
- of 2026, but continuing to say, we've layered in some of the things that we know expense-wise are coming
- at us over the next year, the rest of this year and next year. But then after 2026, the expense projections
- are flatlined after that. Again, measuring if our expenses continue at this pace based on what we expect
- to receive in revenue,
- and how we expect our student council to proceed, where does that leave us? Not just in the next, during
- this two-year strategy, but for many years to come, making sure that we're looking forward into the
- future about what it is that we expect for the school corporation's finances. And then the last one,
- number seven, talks about just the planned input of the taxable general obligation bond. We talked a
- lot about one-time funds last time,
- That is now actualized. We sold those bonds. We've received those bonds in. That allows us to reimburse
- the operations fund for past capital expenditures. And we'll show that what the planned input of those
- one-time dollars are to help us as we work to achieve balance. So with that being said, I want to talk
- about this graph again.
- I try to continue to set it up similar to what it is that we've been looking at because I think it helps
- you orient the slide a little bit faster. But again, talk about some of the key points that I want you
- to take away as you look at these graphs. Again, the numbers inside of the bar, those are the numbers
- for the respective funds. And the numbers at the top, I should probably take a drink of water.
- The numbers at the top represent the cumulative total of those funds over time. We're making progress,
- right? If you think back to the first slide that you saw and where we are now, we made significant progress
- in nine months. Balance is not achieved. We're not there yet. But we're continuing to work in the right
- direction. As you looked at the previous slide, we're bringing in and looking at the right information
- to help us make decisions.
- numbers and the totals are a little less than what you saw last month but again when I talked to you
- last month I talked about how we didn't layer in some of these other things that we knew were gonna
- happen because we were trying to look at without those things accounted for where are we so again one
- of the other pieces that's important and I'm gonna kind of talk through some of these pieces if you
- look at the story that this tells is our referendum fund and
- We see a one-time increase because this coming year, we know that we're able to levy the full voter
- approved rate. But with the effects of SEA 1, it's going to artificially lower that AV and not allow
- those referendums to produce the same amount of money. So the trajectory of those fund balances are
- declining. And once you get past 2028, it doesn't slow down because the AV growth is still getting pulled
- down. When you think about Barry Gardner's report, he talked about the effects of SEA 1 not just
- 26 27 28 but also in 29 and 30 and 31 So that is that is something that we're very much paying attention
- to The operations fund and the red right there. That's the one-time funds The operations fund in yellow
- is separated out because we want to make sure that people see the use of one-time funds that yes They're
- in the operations fund
- but they're providing us that runway to work towards balance so that we're not making some of those
- big shifts that we don't need to make as these curveballs like SEA-1 come at us. It's providing us that
- runway to buoy the balances there and continue to work towards balance and make systematic changes to
- the way that we're doing some of those things, especially in the operations fund. The other thing that's
- important to know is that the red that say in 2025, that $5 million we got for the ED bus rebate,
- is then layered into the yellow moving forward so with that being said without those one-time funds
- we're not in a place of balance we see that the yellow is getting a little bit bigger as we move forward
- we're moving in the right direction again with expenses layered in through 26 and then flatline we're
- making progress but those one-time funds are very essential to us right
- The last thing that I want to talk about and kind of hit on the point here is cash balances as safety
- nets. They're less than optimal. There's some context here that I think is important that allows people
- to maybe connect with the concept.
- Cash balances allow us, just like in our regular funds within our own bank accounts, to say that when
- the next curveball like SEA-1 comes, that's outside of our control, when utility rates go up or that
- car breakdown happens or whatever it is, we know those things happen in our real life, that we have
- the funds on hand to help us navigate the challenges that we experience, whether that's in our own personal
- life or that's us as a school corporation.
- And so that's important that we continue to put those to an optimal level, because I think what's deceiving
- is if you look at 2024's numbers, you might say, well, is 2024 what we're trying to get to?
- And it's not. That's a be able to say, what's the context of how does this year, 2025, compare to where
- we were last year? But we're trying to make sure that we have the right amount of expenditures as it
- relates to
- the percentage of our spend to say, do we have the right amount of cash on hand to cover that as it
- relates to that type of SEA one effect or that car breakdown, so to speak. So it's just that making
- sure that we have the right safety nets in place. And I think the other piece that's important is the
- in and out of cashflow, right? We always wanna make sure we have the right amount of cash in our bank,
- whether it's us individually or as a school corporation that we can handle the inflow and outflow of
- dollars. Gotta pay these bills.
- Our tax levy funds like the operations fund and the referendum fund, the vast majority of their revenue
- comes in two times a year. So you're going six months without revenue into that fund. You've got to
- be able to sustain that through that period. And so we need to make sure that we continue to keep our
- cash balance in a place that allows the school corporation to continue up with that ebb and flow of
- our expenses. And just again, another piece of context, the education fund.
- some of the expenses in an individual month could be as high as over a little over $9 million in one
- month. So when you look at the numbers right now of the total fund balance at the end of the year being
- less than that, that provides you a little bit of context about what it is that we're looking at and
- why we continue to say that that's not sufficient and why we need to continue to move that in a more
- optimal level. So I think that those are three points that I want to continue to show
- its progress. We're nine months in to a two year strategy and this will continue to be an ever evolving
- process and good practice moving forward that we continue to monitor the ebbs and flows of the things
- that continue to happen in relation to public schools and our funding and our expenditures and all the
- other things that we're talking about. But in terms of the two year strategy, significant progress has
- been made, but we're not there yet.
- One more thing that I want to connect to, because I know Dr. Winston mentioned this earlier, and we
- talked about it last month about SCA 1 in depth, is just to continue to hit home a little bit about
- what the expected effects are of this legislation on us as a school corporation. And I tried to break
- it down into a more simplistic view, because the information that Barry gave us last month,
- it was a lot. There's a lot there. It's very complex. There's a lot of moving parts.
- So just trying to tie some of this together is the first part of the top is kind of the overarching
- umbrella and the pieces underneath it are just some of the tidbits of information that help kind of
- break that out and maybe help people see what it is that we're trying to navigate and how it's affecting
- us locally. So the estimated cumulative total over 26 through 31 is over $30 million of less revenue
- than what we were expecting prior to the legislation.
- When you look at that in itself, the breakdown of that, just starting next year in 2026, it's a $2 million
- annual loss to debt service and operations. And as depending as what the legislature does in this short
- session, like Barry talked about, if they legislate this to where it all goes to operations, it all
- goes to operations. It's a $2 million loss straight to operations right off the top. The next point is,
- that starting in 2028, we're required to start sharing operations dollars with charter schools. So again,
- another hit to the operations fund. We hear us continue to talk about these pieces. And as that continues
- to escalate in the way that they phase it in, it's at an additional cost of $1.8 million per year by
- 2031. And then again, we talked about the referendums. When those voter approval referendums happen,
- there was not SEA one in mind. And so the voter approved rate can only produce what the rate says. So
- if it's 18 and a half cents, like referendum one is 18 and a half cents, if AV continues to go down,
- that 18 and a half cents multiplied by a smaller number is gonna keep giving you a smaller outcome.
- And that's gonna continue to happen as they continue to push down AV over the life of this bill.
- And so it's important to see that again over then at some point that's three to $4 million annually
- less that those referendums are going to produce. And as we continue to make good on the money that
- the community has supported us in, we'll continue to use it for the same reasons that we told the community
- we were going to use it. We'll use it as intended. But that's a challenge that we have to continue to
- talk about and overcome over time is how it's affecting the referendums.
- So I just wanted to kind of break that down a little bit and put it in a more succinct, kind of digestible
- manner as it relates to the projected effects of SEA-1 on MCCSE directly. A lot of schools are going
- to be getting out and talking about this, and I think we've been a leader in getting out with our community
- and saying, here's what we think is going to happen. And more and more schools are getting out and talking
- about that. I think Dr. Winston is going to touch on that here in a little bit.
- We want to continue to make sure that we're trying to do a good job of one being transparent, but telling
- our story and helping people understand what it is that we're trying to navigate. Thank you, Mr. Erwin.
- This is so very important and we hope that this is helpful for everyone. Our commitment continues to
- be to make sure that we are as transparent as possible and that we continue to educate and inform ourselves
- and educate our community as well. In spite of,
- all of the challenges that are ahead of us financially with SCA-1 and the enrollment challenges that
- schools across the state and throughout the country are experiencing, sustaining excellence is still
- at the forefront of every decision that we make. And yet, when you look here on this slide, you see
- just a few highlights of some headlines from across the state that demonstrate that it's not just an
- MCCSE thing.
- Several months ago, when we began talking about this, some of the dialogue in our community was, is
- it just MCCSC? And we said, no. I know Mr. Irwin and I have been in a number of CFO and superintendent
- meetings where we've been engaged in conversations around, have you begun to talk to your community?
- And some of the responses were, no, not yet. We're still trying to figure it out. And so yes, we have
- been ahead of the curve because we really wanted to make sure
- that we were crystal clear on what the potential impacts are, and now we know what the actual impacts
- are going to be. But as we look at these headlines, we are seeing and hearing more and more about the
- numerous examples of budget cuts and staffing cuts across all forms of government. SCA 1 is impacting
- everyone everywhere. In many ways, we've talked about being ahead of the curve because we knew that
- these potential impacts were coming.
- In spite of the headwinds that we are facing at this moment in time, we are prepared in responding and
- continuing to focus on the quality instruction, the quality supports that we have each and every day.
- We are committed to making sure that we are feeding our children nutritious and healthy meals. We're
- gonna continue to maintain clean and safe facilities. We're gonna continue to transport our children.
- The quality of instruction in our classrooms and the support services
- that our children deserve and our community expects are going to continue. It may look different. In
- all likelihood, it's going to look different. It will have to look different because we will have fewer
- dollars to do what we're accustomed to doing, but we're not going to not deliver on those promises.
- So as we move forward, nine months into our 24-month strategy, there are three clear directions that
- we are focusing on.
- We're going to continue to pay very close attention to SEA 1 and all of the federal challenges and impacts
- that are forthcoming. We don't know what all the challenges are going to be at the federal level, and
- not necessarily all of them at the state level as well. Locally, there are demographic shifts that are
- occurring within our community, and we've been hearing about them from local demographers. We want to
- pay close attention, and we want to be good partners and good stewards within our community.
- to make sure that we are working collaboratively and closely together. We continue to look for cost
- efficiencies. Are there some opportunities where we can save dollars, redirect some of those dollars
- back into the classroom because of some of the savings that we're able to identify? We want to make
- sure that the decisions that we're continuing to make are educationally sound decisions, that they're
- good for children, that they are showing that we are fiscally responsible stewards of
- the public monies and that they are sustainable. We've got to be able to do things that are sustainable.
- And then ultimately establishing appropriate staffing. You heard from Dr. Henderson last month where
- he provided a very excellent overview of how we go about making staffing decisions. We want to make
- sure that every staffing decision that we make is directly in alignment with student enrollment and
- the revenue sources that we have available to us. In closing,
- One of the things that I'm happy to share with you this evening is that we will be unveiling a financial
- portal for MCCSE dollars in January. It's a new resource that we're working on now. It's not complete.
- But our intention is to inform you, to educate you, and to make sure that you are at the forefront of
- all the dollars that we have from our budget to how we're spending those dollars. So we want it to be
- clear. We want it to be straightforward. We want it to be understandable.
- so that you can see how much care we are taking with each and every dollar and how that impacts each
- and every student. You're gonna see school finance information 101. And to be clear, school finance
- is not an easy topic. It's very complex and it's very complicated. And the changes that have been made
- recently have made it even more complicated. We're gonna do our very best job to demystify some aspects of that.
- We want to continue to make sure that you know how the referenda dollars are being spent. We released
- our referenda impact report several months ago. We want to make sure that we continue to have
- that information available to you. And you'll continue to see updates on how we're moving forward with
- our two-year strategy. Our focus is on every dollar, every student, every day. So I encourage you to
- take a look at this portal once we unveil this in a couple of months.
- But we want to hear your suggestions, your thoughts, your ideas on how can we better educate and better
- inform you. What questions do you need us to answer? What else do you want to know about the finances
- of your school corporation? With that, I will conclude our report and say thank you. Our one year report
- will be prepared and presented at the February board meeting. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Winston.
- And I think next we have an update on the work of the Redistricting Commission. Yes, Dr. Dowling, would
- you and Dr. Garman-McClain come forward? We are having a joint presentation this evening to give you
- a little bit more of an update on the work that's being done and how that's informing the report that
- will be forthcoming in the very near future. Dr. Dowling? Thank you, Dr. Wilson.
- members of the Board of School Trustees. Thank you for this opportunity to provide an update on the
- redistricting study. I'll start by going to our project charter because we know it defines the scope
- of our work. Our project purpose is to study redistricting as a mechanism to balance socioeconomic status
- within schools while considering cost effectiveness of current and redistricted models. Then our project
- charter we have our goals and metrics which include our
- desire to gain a better understanding of considerations to achieve improved socioeconomic status balance,
- to gain better understanding of factors that inform cost effectiveness, as well as review and focus
- on understanding the impacts on students and families, as well as some other important goals and metrics.
- Looking at our timeline from the very beginning of our process, our board resolution from February of 2024
- led us to November of 2024 when President Smith from Business Information Services, our demographer,
- presented 14 scenarios. In December of 2024, the board identified two priorities for redistricting which
- are highlighted here. They are to balance socioeconomic status and to study that as well as to study
- cost effectiveness. In March of 2025, our redistricting study commission was formed with our project
- charter being something that we began our very first
- commission meeting within April of 2025. We've been meeting since then, since April, and we are of course
- now in November. The commission's work has included discussion, a focus of research, which will be really
- the heart of our presentation tonight. Dr. Blaine, Dr. Garmin-McClain will be talking about that. We've
- been studying scenarios, including we've actually studied over 43 scenarios at this point. And we've
- worked with the community and our commission to get to choose some top considerations to help guide our
- missions work, those are highlighted here. Those top considerations directly from public input include
- capacity, resource allocation and class sizes, minimizing student reassignment, transportation
- and neighborhood or community schools concept. Those have been the top considerations along with the
- bar priorities which have been the focal points for our study. Tonight's presentation topics, we will
- focus on research process and
- That's what Dr. Garvin-McClain will be talking about along with some research examples to really highlight
- how research and best practices has been such an integral part of our commission's work. He will also
- talk about the limitations of research study that we've had in our commission. And I will conclude by
- talking about some cost effectiveness considerations. At this time, I'll turn it over to him. All right,
- Dr. Winston, President of the NC members of the board, I got my script here because this
- some dense stuff, but since the beginning of the redistricting study process, we've engaged in this
- process that's rooted in research and a continuously evolving evaluative and refining process that we've
- engaged the commission around. And so we've identified relevant peer-reviewed research articles that
- are based on either the board priorities, balancing socioeconomic status or cost effectiveness, and
- commission feedback and input that has been provided by commission members along the way.
- We've reviewed a variety of research platforms or methods, including book chapters, professional reports,
- and policy briefs. But we've really anchored our work in peer-reviewed articles. And so we ensure that
- we're establishing a strong rigor and methodology so that our evidence that we're using to guide the
- work is really sound. And so to make sure that the research doesn't just stay on the paper,
- The commission leadership has provided commission members with a thorough review of this research. So
- each synopsis has been presented at a commission meeting. And so those include the citations, the research
- questions, aims, methodology, and key findings. So we've intentionally just reported directly what the
- research has stated in order to not make assumptions that the inferences of the research that it might
- not have made.
- so that we make sure that we're rooting ourselves in evidence, not assumptions. And on the previous
- slide, these synopses have been made publicly available on MCCSE redistricting website, and there's
- a QR code for that. So that can be found, and that shows a level of connection and transparency so that
- we make sure that the community that isn't part of the commission also is engaging in the research that
- we're also engaging in.
- And so this slide just provides a brief snapshot of the research topics that have been explored when
- those conversations take place during the commission meetings. Each topic represents a phase in our
- learning process highlighted in that circular process that we've established at the beginning of the
- commission. And it's helped the commission build a strong foundation of evidence that connects data,
- community values, and the local context. By grounding our work in this research, we ensure
- that a decision-making is not only informed by local realities, but aligned
- with what the evidence is known to promote an effective process. So research highlight A, so the first
- study that the commission reviewed was a systematic review by Castro and colleagues centered on three
- guiding questions. What rationales are most commonly used to drive school rezoning decisions? What strategies
- or methods are employed to carry out those rationales? And then what are the outcomes that emerge?
- And across the collection of studies, the 39 research articles that were extracted from the literature
- between 2007 and 2020, several consistent themes emerged. The most successful rezoning efforts are grounded
- in clearly articulated priorities that remain consistent throughout. When school corporations establish
- these priorities early and communicate them transparently, the resulting plans are far more likely to
- be successful.
- In addition, the research emphasizes the importance of setting clear non-negotiables, those parameters
- that define what must be preserved or achieved regardless of competing pressures. And the study also
- highlights the critical role of measurable criteria. Establishing explicit metrics or parameters are
- better to evaluate plans objectively. And finally, the research underscores the
- influence of parents and community members, and even calls them policy agents in these processes.
- As such, the commission's involvement isn't preferable. It's been central for our work. And so, Castor
- and colleagues found that when school corporations engaged the community early and transparently and
- authentically, they did not only improve the quality of their plans, but also build public trust around
- the final decision. So the second article tonight that we'll be reviewing is
- from 2012 and it's around balancing socioeconomic status. This examined a unique naturally occurring
- randomization of students living in Section 8 housing and either the housing that they were moved into
- was either in low or high income elementary school zones. And so what makes this particularly powerful
- of a study is it measured student achievement over seven years.
- and it allowed the researchers to observe the long-term academic impacts on socioeconomic integration.
- And so what they found was that students significantly outperformed their low-income peers who remained
- in high-poverty schools in both reading and math, and the achievement gap between students from low-income
- backgrounds and their high-income peers was reduced by nearly half, which can be seen in this example
- graph here for mathematics achievement.
- But the findings also revealed an important nuance. The benefits, as you see, are not immediate, and
- they are gradual over time. But you also see there's other graphs in there that show that when students
- are attending schools with high concentrations of poverty, the more the poverty levels increase, the
- outcomes taper off, which may come as no surprise.
- And additionally, another article that we included about balancing socioeconomic status was Armour and
- Colleagues from 2018, which was a large scale quantitative study, the relationship between school level
- SES and student achievement. And it's notable for its methodological rigor. So they used three statistical
- models, increasing the rigor of each model as they went. And they found that as the rigor increased,
- the school SES effects
- were lessened for a student achievement. So it's an important counterpoint to the previous study on
- socioeconomic integration. And it just allows us to, the commission, to remind us of the importance
- of examining both sides of the evidence, recognizing that while some research highlights meaningful
- student gains from socioeconomic balance, others emphasize the complexity of this and the inability
- to disentangle structural and instructional factors.
- So research highlight D, which is a research around financial impact of school closures. In 2019, this
- study analyzed 12 years worth of data from Ohio Public Schools, which addressed two key questions. Do
- school districts save operating expenditures by closing schools? And then which expenditure category
- bears the brunt of operating expenditures cuts? And by analyzing district-level data before and after
- closure events, there were measurable meaningful costs, savings associated with school closures. The
- figure to the right there shows that on average districts that closed one or more schools reduced their
- total operating expenditures per pupil following the closing event. And some of that was immediate,
- some of it was in the future, two, three, four years down the road as you can see there.
- The findings also suggest that these costs were not uniform across all categories, and that it was mostly
- non-classroom expenditures that had the most savings, such as maintenance, transportation, and administrative
- costs. For the commission, the study contributed valuable data-driven insights into the fiscal dimension
- of redistricting, helping to conceptualize discussions of cost effectiveness during our meetings. And
- the last article is
- from 2021 about student reassignment and transportation, which examined the effects of large-scale student
- reassignment efforts in Wake County, North Carolina public schools between 1999 and 2010, which is a
- period for this school district that was marked by significant efforts to balance enrollment and maintain
- socioeconomic diversity across their schools.
- Analyses found that in the initial year following reassignment, there was no measurable effect on student
- academic performance. However, in the years that followed, students had been reassigned began to show
- modest but positive gains in achievement, suggesting that the benefits of the reassignment took time
- to manifest. The study also found evidence that reassignment did not increase absenteeism or suspension
- rates for those students either. These findings can be observed there for math achievement in the top
- left graph.
- the top right for reading chronic absenteeism and suspensions as well. And not in the graph, not in
- the graphs to the right, but it also showed that the research found that student reassignment did not
- result in students exiting Wake County public schools, but instead there was a high percentage of students
- that attended their reassigned school. And so for that,
- That concludes my review of the research that the Redistricting Study Commission has engaged with to
- date. I'll pass it back to Dr. Dalino. Thank you so much. So at this point, I wanted to just talk about
- the data that informed our study. The data we started with was, of course, we had the percentage of
- free-induced lunch students at our schools. We had median distance from students' utilization rates,
- both from our demographer, but really from our own calculations based on communication and work with
- our principals.
- We had projected student enrollments. And our commission recognized that that data was really helpful.
- But based on input from our commission, we recognized that we need more data to best inform ourselves
- about redistricting and cost effectiveness in our district. So in response to commission input, we were
- able to bring in more data. We had Dr. Baten, who was my co-presenter last month. With his support and
- his help in his creation of the dashboard, we were able to bring in Monroe County parcel data and US
- Census data through the American Community Survey.
- I'd just like to spend a moment to talk about our parameters of our study and research, including what's
- within the scope of our study. Our registering scenarios were based on student residence and attendance
- zones. Because it was a study, we based on projected enrollment within attendance zones. By that, I
- mean we didn't factor in students, transfer students. Wherever students were, their zone of attendance
- was, that's what we based our studies work on. That allowed us to not get into too much complexity beyond
- that would be able to limit our insights from our study. We have studied a sample of all possible, we
- have studied a sample of all possible redistricting scenarios. I mentioned earlier, we studied 43 scenarios.
- There are many, many more scenarios that we could have studied, but due to the commission's work, we
- wanted to focus on what insights could we get about redistricting and cost effectiveness through those
- studies, but we also recognize there's many scenarios that we were not able to study.
- We studied all scenarios to a neutral lens with the data that we had available and finally recognize
- and we appreciate greatly appreciate the insights we've gotten from our 92 commission members. But I
- think it's important for us to acknowledge that 92 commission members, although it's a large commission,
- they cannot fully capture all the opinions or perspectives of community members. Some factors that were
- not included in our, in our study rejecting scenarios, things that were outside the scope of our project
- charter included.
- building ages and conditions, student enrollment of specific populations, such as special education,
- English language learners, transfer students, special programming, such as ALPS, I already talked about
- special education, or staffing allocations. All those things were outside the scope of the charter.
- In what way does the registering study impact the two-year strategy to achieve financial balances has
- been a question from commission members, so I wanted to just highlight that here this evening.
- One of the two board's priorities, which of course our board knows, was to study cost effectiveness.
- That is how cost effectiveness had been a focal point of the study, is to gain insight and to study
- it to see what understandings we can get about how it's impacted in redistricting. As outlined in our
- project charter, factors that impact cost effectiveness will be included in our registering study report,
- and I'll talk about the timeline for that a little bit later in a future slide.
- And full and comprehensive cost analysis of redistricting scenarios presented in the study are outside
- the scope of the project charter. For example, we're able to study the average cost of an elementary
- building in our corporation. We're able to, Dr. Garment-McLean talked about some understanding we can
- get from research articles about some insights we can gain about the impact of redistricting on cost
- effectiveness. But we were not able to analyze the exact cost savings of each specific scenario that
- is beyond the scope of the charter.
- Again, our focus of our mission is to gain general understanding, insights we can about redistricting
- along with cost effectiveness. Looking at next steps, we've spent, as I mentioned, we looked at 43 scenarios
- at the elementary level. Now we want to give our complete attention to looking at things at the secondary
- level. We'll be looking at scenarios focused at the middle and high school level. Those will be the
- next round of researching scenarios that we will be studying to gain insight.
- Commission leaders will be, we will be working on writing our report. And we've already started some
- preliminary work, but of course we have lots to write about and what all the insights that we've gained
- from working with the commission since March and April. We anticipate sharing and having that report
- for the board sometime in the spring of 2026. Just again, to highlight what some, the key components
- of that report will look like. It will be the insights we've learned. It will focus on what we've learned about
- Redistricting and cost effectiveness through our examination of redistricting scenarios and their impacts.
- It will include insights that we've gained about factors that impact cost effectiveness, and it'll include
- a corporation-wide analysis of building use and capacity. Thank you, and at this time, we would be happy
- to take any questions. Thank you, Dr. Dowling. Thank you, Dr. McLean. Are there any questions or comments
- from the board?
- As you approach the middle and high school conversation, and this is something I've brought up in the
- past, is there any consideration of talking about moving sixth grade to the middle school? So far, it's
- been considered outside the scope of the project charter. So of course, our work is guided by the board's
- input and work. But as outlined in our project charter, that has been considered outside of the charter
- so far. But we will of course do.
- all our work based on the board guidance and Dr. Winston's guidance. Okay, and then this question's
- for Dr. Garman-McLean. You had the two studies that kind of had really competing decisions about the
- value of moving socioeconomic status and balancing it. Did they find any correlation between schools
- with a lower SES status and high turnover rate in the staffing?
- That was not something part of either of those two studies. We did examine one article, which can be
- found in one of the synopses online. We examined, because the commission members had asked a very similar
- question, so we examined research related to staff turnover, staff attrition in high poverty schools.
- So that was something we examined, but not in light of student outcomes. I just wondered if there was
- a correlation
- Neither of those studies found examine that correlation, but there may be research out there that we
- could continue to review. Other questions? Dr. Dowling, you mentioned to study or actually, I'm not
- sure who mentioned this. There were studies that you meant that
- between the two of you, you mentioned that talked about the cost savings of closing schools and then
- also that there wasn't significant loss after rezoning, loss in student attendance. Do you know if those
- studies controlled for the socioeconomic status of those schools or if either of them were in states
- that had voucher programs?
- So with those two studies, I think the dates by which data is extracted from are early 2000s. And so
- the school choice climate was different. And so in Wake County, that was something that the commission
- members had talked about extensively about this research and that it's a different climate around school
- choice around the country.
- Well, I can't speak to North Carolina's or Ohio's, because that's where the cost of effectiveness study
- was taking place. One could assume that outcomes may be different if those studies were replicated in
- today's climate around education and school choice, but I can't speak to what that would mean for the
- outcomes. Thank you. That's a good question. Any other questions or comments about
- what we've heard tonight. I did have one question for Mr. Irwin. When it comes to the potential consolidation
- of federal grants to education that our state is trying to do, is that going to help or hinder us further?
- I don't have a good answer for you on that right now. That's probably going to be something that will
- take some time to
- and trying to look through the weeds of what it is that would look like. The property was purchased
- in 2022 for potential future use for the school corporation. The land consists of eight acres with six
- usable acres due to a flood area in the back of the property. It exists of about 77,000 plus square feet
- of mixed space and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. It is centrally located within
- the MCCSC district and current configuration shows that it has 170 plus parking spaces on the property.
- There's variety in the design of that property that includes office space, storage, loading docks, as
- well as what one would describe as large span areas, meaning that there are no columns
- in the floor plan area, so the roof spans a large distance, pre-open space, so to speak. As I mentioned,
- there was no written formal plan for this administration to reference when we began our tenure. But
- the previous superintendent did have some considerations that really could be categorized within operational
- efficiencies and services.
- And so the list here is not meant to be exhaustive by any means, but to provide the board with a brief
- list of some of the previous considerations for how this space may be utilized that were discussed but
- never formalized in a plan. So those include operational efficiencies that would include large group
- training and meeting space, warehouse for materials, equipment storage, additional bus parking, office space,
- That might involve the relocation of departments to a more central location, more easily accessible
- by parents. Services that were discussed were a dedicated boardroom. A welcome center for families that
- might also include a centralized enrollment point.
- and some support services that most directly support students and families potentially being centrally
- located. So there was kind of a one-stop shop for a family who was moving to Bloomington, enrolling
- in MCCSE schools. They could go to that welcome center and have access to multiple departments all in
- one location that are currently spread throughout the corporation. Currently, we are utilizing the property
- for material and equipment storage
- as well as additional bus parking. At this stage, we need to formally examine its usefulness to the
- school corporation to inform decision making for the property's future. It's unlikely that we would
- have another chance to acquire a centrally located property that would provide us with another equivalent
- opportunity to address future needs at the board's direction.
- As we plan for the future, there are a number of decision-making considerations that really need to
- be analyzed. Those include opportunities to make this unique space meet the needs of our community and
- our school corporation, the potential relocation of existing departments that we've already mentioned,
- the ability to centralize support for our families and our students, and to improve service delivery,
- while also giving consideration to
- our fiscal health as an organization, and what are the long-term benefits of that space to us? As the
- board enters into a brief introductory and conceptual conversation about the potential uses of this
- property, here are a few possible consideration points. Again, this is not meant to be an exhaustive
- list, but that might guide the board's conversation. What was the original purchase intent?
- What are the possible future uses? What are the board's priorities and the school corporation's needs
- to achieve those priorities? Costs and savings and implications of potentially selling the property.
- So with that, this concludes my presentation of a brief overview of the statistics or data around the
- Harold Times property. So thank you for the opportunity and I'll leave those potential points up on the board
- for your reference as you have your conversation this evening. Thank you Dr. Henderson. Yeah this is
- great I know that we have had this property for a while now and there were some existing as Dr. Henderson
- sort of went through considerations nothing ever formalized but you know it is across from south and
- from the administration building and so when that building was purchased I think there were some potential
- future use cases
- And I know that we're at a very different moment right now where we are, you know, really thinking about
- potential costs, potential savings, and just sort of really looking through every single thing that
- we can in the district to identify what is going to be beneficial to us in the long run and what we might
- relinquish or cease to do or whatever else it is. So I just want to open this up briefly. We're not
- making any decisions tonight. We're simply having a brief discussion about how we proceed from this
- moment about this decision. So we're really thinking about how we want to make a decision and less about
- making the decision at this moment. So I'll just open it up for board comments or questions, things
- that people might want to
- know or say at this moment based on what we just heard? My biggest wonder, which I brought up before,
- I can't remember in this space or not, is just the environmental impacts having that study done on that
- location to know with it being a facility that used ink and that there might still be some there. If
- that has an impact for us,
- whether we did something with it, whether we sold it, how that impacts. So that's a big question that
- I have. My question, I remember our previous CFO, he talked about what the benefits or the pros and
- cons of keeping it or selling it. He just made a brief comment. So Matt, what would be the savings be?
- How would it impact us financially?
- I think it really just depends on what goes along with that. I mean, if we're going to invest dollars
- to renovate it, obviously that affects future abilities of the debt service fund as it relates to where
- those dollars would possibly be reallocated to different projects or needs across the corporation. Also,
- if we're going to do that project, how does that affect other buildings that we have other departments
- in? And do we need to continue to have those buildings?
- So I think it really just depends on what the board's desire is for the use and what that comes along
- with. If it comes along with just adding that into the into the fold along with everything else that
- we currently have, yes, that will increase expenditures. So I think that it has to really just depends
- on what all comes along with it and what all is in those plans as it relates to staffing and all those
- pieces that are ongoing past just
- capital expenditures that fund some of our projects in our buildings anyway and so that's the piece
- past it to say we you renovate a building and you do something like that to it but what are the ongoing
- commitments and costs that it has along with it to operate it the maintenance the staffing required
- all those pieces that need to be considered as it relates to the impact that it has on the school corporation
- so it's a very broad and maybe very broad answer to your question
- But I think it really just depends on all the surrounding context and circumstances based on the decision
- that's made. I think one of the key things to keep in mind is Dr. Anderson mentioned it's a very unique
- property. It's very, there aren't a lot of them that exist. The structure of the building has some huge
- as he said it's got a lot of open space without columns that can be done for warehousing that type of
- thing that finding those spaces within the central area of our school district is pretty hard to find
- and the ability of things that could be consolidated there and the other thing that we'd have to consider
- is what will we do with what is currently that building is currently being used for so those are things
- to consider as well
- questions or comments? I think there there's some things that I would probably add to this
- list of considerations or or add nuance to. One of them would be what Ross mentioned which is the way
- that we're currently using this property and what the cost would be of finding a replacement for that
- for those uses. A big question for me is the final assessed value of the property or what we could actually
- sell it for.
- And then probably the biggest question for me is the public perception of the property. That's something
- that I know that we have gotten some negative feedback about from the public and we do have to pass
- a referendum in either 2026 or 2028. So I think that, I hope I understand school finance pretty well,
- better than most.
- So I kind of understand how we can move money from one bucket to the next, but whether that's true or
- not, I'm still worried about the way that the public perceives that if we end up doing a big renovation
- or even just keeping the property. So that's probably my biggest concern. Yeah, and I appreciate that,
- Erin. I think, one, a couple of things. So for those listening,
- and wondering, well, what are we using it for right now? Because you've said that. I think a couple
- of people have said it. Right now, it's primarily storage space for us. It's overflow space, and it's
- bus parking. It's essentially an overflow space. And so you're right that those things would have to
- move somewhere. Now, whether they can be moved into existing buildings, or we'd have to find storage
- space of some sort, we don't know that stuff needs to be examined. And then, yes, there is the cost
- of that. Because the cost of maintaining the building
- as it is in this very moment is not extraordinarily high though we know that there are probably some
- things that need to happen like the roof needs to be done and HVAC system needs to be updated so there
- will be costs affiliated with if we decided to keep the building and not do any massive repair or renovation
- to it there would still be costs to maintain and not keep the building. I also just want to say that
- you know from a a dollar's perspective the building I think we bought for
- just under three million or right around three million. And I think people have, I think when you don't
- live in this world or don't look at school finance, like $3 million seems like a lot of dollars, but
- in the scope of our budget, $3 million, while it is a lot of money, it is also not a lot of money. It
- is a fraction of our expenses in any given payroll period even.
- I mean, so it isn't going to do anything extraordinary or grand in the big scheme of things. And so
- I think that there's just some sort of understanding that needs to be had about what those dollars are
- and what they can actually do in a system like this. And the other thing that I would say is that I
- think that
- it would be both interesting and important for us to perhaps get community feedback as we proceed. And
- so as we think about how we proceed in this decision, I think one of the things that we'd like to do
- is to ask Dr. Winston and her team to perhaps put together a community forum so that we can just receive
- information from the public on this building, but also perhaps do a little bit of education at the start
- of that to help them understand what the building is,
- Basically, a little bit of what Dr. Henderson just did tonight, right? And helping them understand the
- realities of that, again, a little bit from the school finance perspective, a little bit from why the
- building was bought, what it's capable of doing for us or not doing, right? So Dr. Winston, would you
- be willing to do that for us? I would. So my understanding is that you would like me and my team to
- organize some sort of a community forum
- or some mechanism by which we would gather feedback, impressions, perspectives from members of our faculty,
- members of our community, and our families. Yes, that would be great. Yeah, we can certainly do that.
- Yeah, I think an open conversation where people can sort of receive information, give feedback, feelings,
- thoughts. Educational as well. Yes, I think that would be ideal. What would be the time frame that the
- board would like me to do something like that within? I would say Q1.
- I mean, we are towards the end of Q4. I mean, we're almost, and we've got holiday upon holiday coming
- up of all sorts. By the end of Q1, we would have that information. I would think. OK. We'll get working
- on that. Does that feel OK? I mean, we're not voting. We're just I don't know. I'm asking our administrative
- team and our superintendent if that feels pressured or not.
- And so I mean, we're talking about full transparency here. So I want to make sure that we're not putting
- a timeline on you all. That is also. Let me do this. Let me get with my team. So I'm interpreting that
- to mean by the end of March to have convened some sort of a form or mechanism by which we gather feedback
- and input, whether it's in person or some other some other format. And so between now and the end of
- March, I do think that that
- could be potentially reasonable, but I would like to take a look at that in the context of all of the
- other priorities that are currently on our plate. I appreciate that, Ashley. I really do. And I don't
- want to push back on it, because I always want to give you all the time that you need. However, I am
- also aware of the timing in which we would have to announce whether or not we're going to run a referendum.
- And I want to be aware and cognizant of
- being fully transparent about potentially upcoming projects or not in light of that. So I do think that
- March would be ideal by the end of March, that we had all of the information we needed to move forward
- with both transparent and ethical decision making regarding whatever the future finance situation looks
- like in referendums. Thank you. That's very helpful to receive that clarification.
- I can't clarify as a single person. That would be my comment. The collective clarification.
- I have a question. I mean, being still new on this board, so asking the community for a form when you
- present, spend $3 million on a building that we didn't have a plan for, how are you going to present
- it? What's the plan? Well, we do have some plans. Potential plans. Potential plans, right?
- There were considerations when the building was bought, but those were held by the previous superintendent.
- And so as things shift and administration shift, plans also shift, right? And so we just want to sort
- of be aware of the fact that we're at a different moment with different potential use cases, or maybe
- some of the same. But we also had CSO architects, I think, at some point.
- I think the pieces of that could probably be shown as just, sometimes people need to have a visual of
- what they're even talking about. And so potentially, I don't know, I want to leave that up
- to the administration to sort of decide what they will use in that presentation.
- I do think some points of education to just say, you know, here are the things that could potentially
- be used for if we decided to run a capital project. We're not saying yes or no, but just like,
- if we did, we could run a capital project and it could be these things in this building, right? And
- at least give the community a chance to imagine, like, is this something that would be valuable to our
- community if we centralized our services, if we had a health clinic here, if we, you know,
- and to sort of weigh in because I don't think that they have ever really heard fully what that building
- was for. And as a result, the conversations that arise in a vacuum of information are speculation, right?
- All kinds of speculation. So I think this is the opportunity for us to do what likely should have been
- done a long time ago. So to be clear, the directive from the collective board is for me and my team,
- to conduct some sort of a forum where we would inform and educate the public about the potential uses
- of the current HT building and solicit their perception, their feedback, their impressions and opinions
- about said use. And to do so no later than the end of March of 2026. Am I understanding the direction?
- the directive. Can you remind me when we need to make a decision about the 2026 referendum by? No later
- than May of 2026. I assume when you mentioned in the community that would also include staff because
- I think yes staff could definitely have some could see benefits of for instance the health center yes
- Thank you for the direction from the collective board. Thank you so much. Any other last comments before
- we close this discussion and move on? OK, then we will move on to comments or reports, committee reports
- from the board. Does anyone have anything to share?
- Hold on, I have something to share. I finally had a committee meeting, so I would like to share.
- Please do. We had the high ability committee meeting last night. Just last night. There's some great
- things that they're doing. I'm learning. They were excited about our numbers have increased with our
- students who are in free and reduced lunch, so that was great. A lot of numbers increased. I don't have
- the graphics, but they're doing some great work and I'm happy to join that committee.
- I love that. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. All right. Anybody else with a committee report? OK.
- Then Dr. Winston, finally, do you have any additional information? Just a couple of brief updates. I
- want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. There is no school next week. As of this coming Friday,
- our students will be out and our staff will be out for a whole week. And we wish everyone a wonderful holiday.
- And I do also want to acknowledge that we've had some amazing fall sport accomplishments for the 25-26
- season. Definitely want to congratulate both Bloomington High School North and Bloomington High School
- South football teams for making it to the sectional championship game. And we want to wish Bloomington
- High School South well as they move on to semi-state this coming Friday against New Palestine.
- our girls golf, our boys tennis team, and I don't know if anybody saw the newspaper today where they
- identified 16 female wrestlers and 10 of them are from MCCSE. So I just want to acknowledge that our
- students continue to excel in cross country, girls, boys, golf, soccer, so on and so forth. That concludes
- my report.
- Thank you, Dr. Winston for the update on all the sports balls. We love them. And our next regularly
- scheduled board meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 16th, 2025. We are adjourned.