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.